User guide
Everything Capture Companion does, and how.
A quiet watchdog for tethered Capture One shoots. It lives in your menu bar, watches the things that go wrong on set, and tells you the second one of them slips. This guide walks the whole app. Click anything with a dot to open it.
Quick start
Up and running in three steps.
Open it once
Launch Capture Companion. It sits in the menu bar as a small dot, green when the rig is healthy. Click the dot any time to open the dashboard.
Tether as normal
Start a tethered session in Capture One, wired or over Wi-Fi. Capture Companion reads Capture One, so there is nothing to connect and nothing changes in your workflow.
Pin and forget it
Drag the dashboard header to pin it over Capture One, even in fullscreen, and it stays put across opens. Now get on with the shoot. It speaks up only when something needs you.
The HUD
The dashboard, part by part.
This is a guide to what each part of the heads up display means. Tap a numbered dot to read it.
Canon R5 IITETHERED
Click any part of the window
This is the dashboard, running. Click a row to learn it, or take the guided tour below. Watch the ISO flick and correct, the signal draw, and the menu bar dot change.
The watchers
What it watches while you shoot.
Capture Companion runs a set of watchers. Any of them can raise the alarm, with a sound you choose. Pick one and watch exactly what it does on set.
Tether disconnect alarm
A floating card and a sound the instant Capture One loses the camera, visible even over Capture One in fullscreen. It watches for the camera to come back and turns green when it does. Wired or Wi-Fi.
Camera clock check
Catch a wrong clock before frame one.
A camera clock drifts, or sits an hour out after the clocks change, and every file lands stamped with the wrong time. Capture Companion measures the offset between your camera and your Mac and flags it before you shoot. Try a scenario.
The Edge Rail
As much, or as little, as you want.
The dashboard comes in sizes. Keep the full HUD when you want every number, drop to the Edge Rail when you want the rig out of the way, or the Beacon when you want almost nothing. Switch it here and watch it morph over your shoot.
Full HUD. Every value at once: shutter, f, ISO, signal and disk, pinned to the corner, over Capture One even in fullscreen.
Tools and setup
The rest of the kit.
Tether Doctor+
One button checks the whole chain, signal, channel, router, internet and Capture One, and tells you in plain English what is wrong and how to fix it. It runs a passive read, never an active scan that could drop your tether.
Rig Check and router pairing+
Audits a GL.iNet or OpenWRT router and tells you, in plain English, what to change for a rock solid tether. If the router is not paired yet, type the password and press Pair now, or follow the four step Terminal path. The password is never stored.
Network Setup helper+
Plain English guidance to get the tether Wi-Fi right, off 2.4 GHz and away from radar prone channels. It never scans, so it can never drop your link.
Multi camera profiles+
Switch between bodies and the drift references configure themselves for the camera that is actually plugged in, so a Canon over Wi-Fi and a Fujifilm over USB each keep their own settings.
Silent Mode+
One click, or ⌃⌥⌘S, mutes every alert sound across the app, for when video is rolling and a beep would ruin the take.
Session summary+
A plain text proof of work at the end of the shoot, time on watch, drops caught, surprises, with a copy button so you can hand it straight to a client or a producer.
Shortcuts and gestures
Hands on the shoot.
| ⌃⌥⌘S | Silent Mode. Mute every alert sound across the app. |
| Drag the header | Pin the dashboard over Capture One and remember the spot. |
| Click the pin | Unpin the dashboard. |
| Click an event line | Open the full text of a history event. |
| Click the menu bar dot | Open or close the dashboard. Green is healthy, amber means a watcher needs you. |
| ⌘V | Paste works in every field, including the licence and router password. |
Help
If something is not right.
The HUD will not move+
Drag the header, not the body. The first few times you open it the header says so. Once you drag it, it stays where you put it.
The Signal Watch is off+
That is by design on a wired tether, there is no Wi-Fi link to watch. The signal tools come on for a wireless rig.
It is not reading my router+
The live signal and router checks need a GL.iNet or OpenWRT router, paired once. Everything else, the tether, the disk, drift, the alarm and the clock check, works with any setup.
Updates+
Capture Companion updates itself. When a new version ships it offers it in the app. It is a notarised direct download and runs entirely on your Mac.
Still stuck, or want to ask before you buy? Email support.