Pentax O-FC1 Solutions

derekkite · 03-01-2014, 10:28 AM - **1 Like**

A thread to collect all the tips and solutions people have found.

What the O-FC1 Flucard is:

FLUCARD FOR PENTAX O-FC1 | RICOH IMAGING

A wifi device that connects your K-3 to a supported remote device. It allows:

Real time live view with focus peaking.
Zoom in 8x to view the live view image. Zooms into the selected focus point.
Adjust exposure; shutter speed, aperture, iso and exposure compensation. Green button to set exposure.
Select focus points by touching the screen.
Trigger exposure either by touching the screen or the exposure button.
Trigger a PDAF exposure, non Live View. Will focus and expose if the body settings are correct.
Show thumbnails of all the images on the Flucard.
Allow you to view and download individual images in JPEG format.
In PDAF mode the camera body is responsive.

What it won't allow:

Raw. It works only with JPG files written to the Flucard. See K-3 settings below.
Continuous shooting. In both Live View and PDAF mode, it takes a shot and gets the thumbnail before allowing a second shot.
Delayed shutter or any of the other drive modes such as mirror lock up, interval shooting, multiple exposures, bracketing.
Automatic upload of photos to a folder.
In Live View mode the camera body is almost totally unresponsive.

WIFI:

When the card is inserted or turned on, it boots itself and initializes the wifi functionality. It will beep quietly to indicate readiness. The Wireless Memory Card menu in Tool 3 is greyed out until the card is initialized and ready to go.

A device that runs either the Safari web browser (Apple products) or Chrome browser(Android phones, laptops etc.) is required. An older Samsung tab running the non Chrome browser doesn't work. Other browsers may work or work partially.

The card acts as a wireless access point; it emits the ESSID FLUCARD_for_PENTAX. Take your Iphone, tablet or android device, in your device wireless setup, select the access point, and enter the password '12345678'. Hit connect, and it should negotiate and establish a connection.

Open your browser, and in the address bar type in http://192.168.1.1 , or http://pentax . It should open the session with the Flucard. It will prompt the first time for changes in the setup. Change the name of the wireless connection, and the password if you like. It defaults to channel 6, which may be busy with other devices. Select another channel, this has been the source of issues for some people. Turn the K-3 power off and on, reconnect and you should be ready to go.

Operation:

Touch the LV button to turn on Live View. Point the body at something, touch the point you want to focus on, touch the shutter button and enjoy the sweet shutter sound from the body. There will be a delay until a thumbnail of the photo you just took shows up. Touch it and it will get the photo after a delay and allow you to view it. It won't zoom unfortunately. Touch and hold the image, and you will be prompted to save it.

The exposure settings will not update sometimes. The green button helps. Change the mode on the body and it will show up on the remote device.

K-3 Settings:

Some settings will prevent the Flucard from controlling and displaying live view.

Drive mode: Set to Single Frame Shooting. If this is not set you will see an error message.

Menu:Camera:3:Live View:Composition Adjust set to off. (Parry)

Menu:C:3:AF with Remote Control set to On so PDAF focus works. (Panoguy)

Menu:Camera:1:Memory Card Options I have mine set to RAW[1] JPG[2], which writes JPG files to the Flucard.
Menu:Camera:1:Image Capture Settings I have it set to RAW+ with the JPG quality L.

Remote Device Quirks:

I will add details here as they become apparent. Most of the WIFI problems originate from the remote device.

Android based Phones:

Android Based Tablets:

IPhone:

IPad

Laptops:

There are two viewing modes, landscape and portrait. In landscape mode it shows a shutter button and a switch. With a laptop screen that is wider than tall, it will show this mode. To show portrait mode, resize the window so that it is taller than wide. This will allow access to all the control buttons.

Last edited by derekkite; 03-02-2014 at 11:01 AM.

DeadJohn · 03-01-2014, 11:08 AM

Thanks for posting this.

Originally posted by derekkite

What it won't allow: Delayed shutter or any of the other drive modes.

The 2-second timer or mirror lockup can't be used with the flucard?

lister6520 · 03-01-2014, 11:59 AM

Originally posted by derekkite

Touch it and it will get the photo after a delay and allow you to view it. It won't zoom unfortunately.

Does it mean you cannot zoom in LV to focus accurately or that you cannot zoom the thumbnail of the image just shot?

I hope it is not the former as that would negate most of its usefulness for me.

derekkite · 03-01-2014, 12:40 PM

Originally posted by lister6520

Does it mean you cannot zoom in LV to focus accurately or that you cannot zoom the thumbnail of the image just shot?

I hope it is not the former as that would negate most of its usefulness for me.

You can zoom in live view. Not when viewing the jpeg.

---------- Post added 03-01-14 at 11:43 AM ----------

Originally posted by DeadJohn

Thanks for posting this.

The 2-second timer or mirror lockup can't be used with the flucard?

No. In live view the mirror is up, and when a shot is taken the mirror stays up, shutter is closed, then the exposure occurs. Same as mirror up.

Delay doesn't work. Presumably you aren't touching it anyways.

**jerryleejr** · 03-01-2014, 01:31 PM

Ok my question is, since the K3 has two card slots do both cards have to be the same capacity? Or can you setup to transfer from 1-2 to device basically keeping your card space freed up?

JJ

DeadJohn · 03-01-2014, 01:40 PM

I was asking about mirror lockup ability thinking of astrophotgraphy: mount camera on telescope, take 16 5-minute exposures, stack later. Keeping the mirror locked between exposures reduces vibration.

Hmm, that leads to another question: does the FLU app work in bulb mode and does it include an intervalometer?

derekkite · 03-01-2014, 02:15 PM

Originally posted by DeadJohn

I was asking about mirror lockup ability thinking of astrophotgraphy: mount camera on telescope, take 16 5-minute exposures, stack later. Keeping the mirror locked between exposures reduces vibration.

Hmm, that leads to another question: does the FLU app work in bulb mode and does it include an intervalometer?

No. It is pretty basic.

As for mirror up, I took the lens off and looked. In live view the mirror is up and the shutter mechanism is pulled out of the way. When you take a shot, the shutter mechanism slides in front of the sensor, then the curtains slide across for the exposure.

Mirror up mode the mirror is lifted, the shutter in place, so the only source of vibration is the curtains during exposure.

In practice how much vibration does moving the shutter frame into place generate?

**unkipunki** · 03-01-2014, 04:41 PM

Originally posted by DeadJohn

I was asking about mirror lockup ability thinking of astrophotgraphy: mount camera on telescope, take 16 5-minute exposures, stack later. Keeping the mirror locked between exposures reduces vibration.

Hmm, that leads to another question: does the FLU app work in bulb mode and does it include an intervalometer?

Good question!

Originally posted by derekkite

No. It is pretty basic.

As for mirror up, I took the lens off and looked. In live view the mirror is up and the shutter mechanism is pulled out of the way. When you take a shot, the shutter mechanism slides in front of the sensor, then the curtains slide across for the exposure.

Mirror up mode the mirror is lifted, the shutter in place, so the only source of vibration is the curtains during exposure.

In practice how much vibration does moving the shutter frame into place generate?

This is also my conclusion. Why are no modes other than single shot supported? I really hope that Mirror Up, Continuous shooting, Exposure Bracketing, Multi-exposure, and Interval Composite become available in a firmware upgrade soon. I can't see why these things shouldn't be possible. I can stomach no immediate review of out put, but no capability to use relatively simply initiated functionality of the camera the card is design for is disappointing .

**jbinpg** · 03-01-2014, 07:51 PM - **1 Like**

I do lots of astro work with my DA*300. Shooting without MLU leads to shutter bounce visible in the frame. MLU and waiting a few seconds before shutter release leads to no bounce visible at all. My number one wish for the next firmware update is for MLU in interval mode. Would make reeling off a stack of astro frames much less labour intensive.

Jack

derekkite · 03-02-2014, 11:05 AM

Originally posted by jbinpg

I do lots of astro work with my DA*300. Shooting without MLU leads to shutter bounce visible in the frame. MLU and waiting a few seconds before shutter release leads to no bounce visible at all. My number one wish for the next firmware update is for MLU in interval mode. Would make reeling off a stack of astro frames much less labour intensive.

Jack

Have you tried live view shooting, whether it produces visible bounce? The mirror is up, but the shutter frame slides into place before exposing. There may be some vibration from that.

The thing seems eminently hackable. I wouldn't be surprised to see apps show up that do what you want.

**jbinpg** · 03-02-2014, 12:30 PM

I use Live View for focus only. In fact, it is a must to zoom in at least 10X to check focus before starting a session. I have not tried Live View with the K-3 since MLU is the tried and true way to avoid any induced vibration. I did try it with the K-5 and it produced noticeable bounce in the frame so I have avoided it. I will try next session, though, to see if the K-3 has improved this.

Jack

Barry Pearson · 03-03-2014, 01:42 AM

Originally posted by derekkite

A thread to collect all the tips and solutions people have found.

WIFI:

A device that runs either the Safari web browser (Apple products) or Chrome browser(Android phones, laptops etc.) is required. An older Samsung tab running the non Chrome browser doesn't work. Other browsers may work or work partially.

I've used Firefox successfully. Although I got some timeouts, I don't know if this was because of Firefox or something else.

---------- Post added 3rd Mar 2014 at 08:46 AM ----------

Originally posted by jerryleejr

Ok my question is, since the K3 has two card slots do both cards have to be the same capacity? Or can you setup to transfer from 1-2 to device basically keeping your card space freed up?

JJ

I've used my K-3 with a 32GB Sandisk Extreme Pro in slot 1 and the Flucard in slot 2, with DNGs going to slot 1 and JPEGs (small and low quality) going to slot 2. This is a useful mode for some purposes.

(For me, the main purpose of the Flucard is while shooting - viewing and reviewing. I don't need the DNGs until later, and can download and process those in the normal way).

K-3-lover · 03-03-2014, 02:22 AM - **1 Like**

Originally posted by Barry Pearson

I've used my K-3 with a 32GB Sandisk Extreme Pro in slot 1 and the Flucard in slot 2, with DNGs going to slot 1 and JPEGs (small and low quality) going to slot 2. This is a useful mode for some purposes.

(For me, the main purpose of the Flucard is while shooting - viewing and reviewing. I don't need the DNGs until later, and can download and process those in the normal way).

I think that this is a typical use case that Pentax intended, when a customer uses K-3 with Flucard.

**grahamcoad** · 03-03-2014, 05:31 AM - **1 Like**

The Pentax Flucards are on sale now in the UK, and SRS Microsystems currently have the best price at £99, and some have been posted out already.

At present they work with WiFi equipped computers and devices that have Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome or Apple Safari browsers installed, which effectively ruled out Windows 8 smartphones.

Mozilla's Firefox for Windows 8 is being released for download on 18th March, hopefully there will be a version for windows phone to follow?

Graham, Cornwall.

**unkipunki** · 03-03-2014, 06:05 AM

Originally posted by grahamcoad

The good news for any Windows smartphone user is that Mozilla's Firefox for Windows Phone browser is being released for download on 18th March so the flucard should be able to function

Oh well, I just stumped up for an ipad mini 2 retina display as I couldn't find any reference to anything that works for the flucard coming for Windows Phone . I guess it's nice to have an ipad mini anyway, but maybe I can return it to save a few quid.

03-01-2014, 10:28 AM - 1 Like	#1
derekkite Pentaxian Join Date: Sep 2011 Location: Nelson B.C. Posts: 3,782	Pentax O-FC1 Solutions A thread to collect all the tips and solutions people have found. What the O-FC1 Flucard is: FLUCARD FOR PENTAX O-FC1 \| RICOH IMAGING A wifi device that connects your K-3 to a supported remote device. It allows: Real time live view with focus peaking. Zoom in 8x to view the live view image. Zooms into the selected focus point. Adjust exposure; shutter speed, aperture, iso and exposure compensation. Green button to set exposure. Select focus points by touching the screen. Trigger exposure either by touching the screen or the exposure button. Trigger a PDAF exposure, non Live View. Will focus and expose if the body settings are correct. Show thumbnails of all the images on the Flucard. Allow you to view and download individual images in JPEG format. In PDAF mode the camera body is responsive. What it won't allow: Raw. It works only with JPG files written to the Flucard. See K-3 settings below. Continuous shooting. In both Live View and PDAF mode, it takes a shot and gets the thumbnail before allowing a second shot. Delayed shutter or any of the other drive modes such as mirror lock up, interval shooting, multiple exposures, bracketing. Automatic upload of photos to a folder. In Live View mode the camera body is almost totally unresponsive. WIFI: When the card is inserted or turned on, it boots itself and initializes the wifi functionality. It will beep quietly to indicate readiness. The Wireless Memory Card menu in Tool 3 is greyed out until the card is initialized and ready to go. A device that runs either the Safari web browser (Apple products) or Chrome browser(Android phones, laptops etc.) is required. An older Samsung tab running the non Chrome browser doesn't work. Other browsers may work or work partially. The card acts as a wireless access point; it emits the ESSID FLUCARD_for_PENTAX. Take your Iphone, tablet or android device, in your device wireless setup, select the access point, and enter the password '12345678'. Hit connect, and it should negotiate and establish a connection. Open your browser, and in the address bar type in http://192.168.1.1 , or http://pentax . It should open the session with the Flucard. It will prompt the first time for changes in the setup. Change the name of the wireless connection, and the password if you like. It defaults to channel 6, which may be busy with other devices. Select another channel, this has been the source of issues for some people. Turn the K-3 power off and on, reconnect and you should be ready to go. Operation: Touch the LV button to turn on Live View. Point the body at something, touch the point you want to focus on, touch the shutter button and enjoy the sweet shutter sound from the body. There will be a delay until a thumbnail of the photo you just took shows up. Touch it and it will get the photo after a delay and allow you to view it. It won't zoom unfortunately. Touch and hold the image, and you will be prompted to save it. The exposure settings will not update sometimes. The green button helps. Change the mode on the body and it will show up on the remote device. K-3 Settings: Some settings will prevent the Flucard from controlling and displaying live view. Drive mode: Set to Single Frame Shooting. If this is not set you will see an error message. Menu:Camera:3:Live View:Composition Adjust set to off. (Parry) Menu:C:3:AF with Remote Control set to On so PDAF focus works. (Panoguy) Menu:Camera:1:Memory Card Options I have mine set to RAW[1] JPG[2], which writes JPG files to the Flucard. Menu:Camera:1:Image Capture Settings I have it set to RAW+ with the JPG quality L. Remote Device Quirks: I will add details here as they become apparent. Most of the WIFI problems originate from the remote device. Android based Phones: Android Based Tablets: IPhone: IPad Laptops: There are two viewing modes, landscape and portrait. In landscape mode it shows a shutter button and a switch. With a laptop screen that is wider than tall, it will show this mode. To show portrait mode, resize the window so that it is taller than wide. This will allow access to all the control buttons. Last edited by derekkite; 03-02-2014 at 11:01 AM.

03-03-2014, 02:22 AM - 1 Like	#13
K-3-lover Junior Member Join Date: Feb 2014 Posts: 47	Originally posted by Barry Pearson I've used my K-3 with a 32GB Sandisk Extreme Pro in slot 1 and the Flucard in slot 2, with DNGs going to slot 1 and JPEGs (small and low quality) going to slot 2. This is a useful mode for some purposes. (For me, the main purpose of the Flucard is while shooting - viewing and reviewing. I don't need the DNGs until later, and can download and process those in the normal way). I think that this is a typical use case that Pentax intended, when a customer uses K-3 with Flucard. Last edited by K-3-lover; 03-03-2014 at 05:51 AM.

03-03-2014, 05:31 AM - 1 Like	#14
grahamcoad Loyal Site Supporter Join Date: Nov 2009 Location: West Cornwall Photos: Gallery \| Albums Posts: 128	The Pentax Flucards are on sale now in the UK, and SRS Microsystems currently have the best price at £99, and some have been posted out already. At present they work with WiFi equipped computers and devices that have Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome or Apple Safari browsers installed, which effectively ruled out Windows 8 smartphones. Mozilla's Firefox for Windows 8 is being released for download on 18th March, hopefully there will be a version for windows phone to follow? Graham, Cornwall. Last edited by grahamcoad; 03-03-2014 at 10:41 AM. Reason: possible inacurate information edited out.

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03-01-2014, 11:08 AM	#2
DeadJohn Pentaxian Join Date: Jan 2011 Location: New York Posts: 4,834	Thanks for posting this. Originally posted by derekkite What it won't allow: Delayed shutter or any of the other drive modes. The 2-second timer or mirror lockup can't be used with the flucard?

03-01-2014, 11:59 AM	#3
lister6520 Veteran Member Join Date: May 2012 Posts: 733	Originally posted by derekkite Touch it and it will get the photo after a delay and allow you to view it. It won't zoom unfortunately. Does it mean you cannot zoom in LV to focus accurately or that you cannot zoom the thumbnail of the image just shot? I hope it is not the former as that would negate most of its usefulness for me.

03-01-2014, 12:40 PM	#4
derekkite Pentaxian Join Date: Sep 2011 Location: Nelson B.C. Posts: 3,782 Original Poster	Originally posted by lister6520 Does it mean you cannot zoom in LV to focus accurately or that you cannot zoom the thumbnail of the image just shot? I hope it is not the former as that would negate most of its usefulness for me. You can zoom in live view. Not when viewing the jpeg. ---------- Post added 03-01-14 at 11:43 AM ---------- Originally posted by DeadJohn Thanks for posting this. The 2-second timer or mirror lockup can't be used with the flucard? No. In live view the mirror is up, and when a shot is taken the mirror stays up, shutter is closed, then the exposure occurs. Same as mirror up. Delay doesn't work. Presumably you aren't touching it anyways.

03-01-2014, 01:31 PM	#5
jerryleejr Loyal Site Supporter Join Date: Aug 2011 Location: TN Posts: 774	Ok my question is, since the K3 has two card slots do both cards have to be the same capacity? Or can you setup to transfer from 1-2 to device basically keeping your card space freed up? JJ

03-01-2014, 01:40 PM	#6
DeadJohn Pentaxian Join Date: Jan 2011 Location: New York Posts: 4,834	I was asking about mirror lockup ability thinking of astrophotgraphy: mount camera on telescope, take 16 5-minute exposures, stack later. Keeping the mirror locked between exposures reduces vibration. Hmm, that leads to another question: does the FLU app work in bulb mode and does it include an intervalometer?

03-01-2014, 02:15 PM	#7
derekkite Pentaxian Join Date: Sep 2011 Location: Nelson B.C. Posts: 3,782 Original Poster	Originally posted by DeadJohn I was asking about mirror lockup ability thinking of astrophotgraphy: mount camera on telescope, take 16 5-minute exposures, stack later. Keeping the mirror locked between exposures reduces vibration. Hmm, that leads to another question: does the FLU app work in bulb mode and does it include an intervalometer? No. It is pretty basic. As for mirror up, I took the lens off and looked. In live view the mirror is up and the shutter mechanism is pulled out of the way. When you take a shot, the shutter mechanism slides in front of the sensor, then the curtains slide across for the exposure. Mirror up mode the mirror is lifted, the shutter in place, so the only source of vibration is the curtains during exposure. In practice how much vibration does moving the shutter frame into place generate?

03-01-2014, 04:41 PM	#8
unkipunki Site Supporter Join Date: Dec 2012 Location: South Lochaweside, Argyll Photos: Gallery Posts: 615	Originally posted by DeadJohn I was asking about mirror lockup ability thinking of astrophotgraphy: mount camera on telescope, take 16 5-minute exposures, stack later. Keeping the mirror locked between exposures reduces vibration. Hmm, that leads to another question: does the FLU app work in bulb mode and does it include an intervalometer? Good question! Originally posted by derekkite No. It is pretty basic. As for mirror up, I took the lens off and looked. In live view the mirror is up and the shutter mechanism is pulled out of the way. When you take a shot, the shutter mechanism slides in front of the sensor, then the curtains slide across for the exposure. Mirror up mode the mirror is lifted, the shutter in place, so the only source of vibration is the curtains during exposure. In practice how much vibration does moving the shutter frame into place generate? This is also my conclusion. Why are no modes other than single shot supported? I really hope that Mirror Up, Continuous shooting, Exposure Bracketing, Multi-exposure, and Interval Composite become available in a firmware upgrade soon. I can't see why these things shouldn't be possible. I can stomach no immediate review of out put, but no capability to use relatively simply initiated functionality of the camera the card is design for is disappointing .

03-01-2014, 07:51 PM - 1 Like	#9
jbinpg Site Supporter Join Date: Mar 2008 Location: Prince George, BC Photos: Gallery \| Albums Posts: 3,546	I do lots of astro work with my DA*300. Shooting without MLU leads to shutter bounce visible in the frame. MLU and waiting a few seconds before shutter release leads to no bounce visible at all. My number one wish for the next firmware update is for MLU in interval mode. Would make reeling off a stack of astro frames much less labour intensive. Jack

03-02-2014, 11:05 AM	#10
derekkite Pentaxian Join Date: Sep 2011 Location: Nelson B.C. Posts: 3,782 Original Poster	Originally posted by jbinpg I do lots of astro work with my DA*300. Shooting without MLU leads to shutter bounce visible in the frame. MLU and waiting a few seconds before shutter release leads to no bounce visible at all. My number one wish for the next firmware update is for MLU in interval mode. Would make reeling off a stack of astro frames much less labour intensive. Jack Have you tried live view shooting, whether it produces visible bounce? The mirror is up, but the shutter frame slides into place before exposing. There may be some vibration from that. The thing seems eminently hackable. I wouldn't be surprised to see apps show up that do what you want.

03-02-2014, 12:30 PM	#11
jbinpg Site Supporter Join Date: Mar 2008 Location: Prince George, BC Photos: Gallery \| Albums Posts: 3,546	I use Live View for focus only. In fact, it is a must to zoom in at least 10X to check focus before starting a session. I have not tried Live View with the K-3 since MLU is the tried and true way to avoid any induced vibration. I did try it with the K-5 and it produced noticeable bounce in the frame so I have avoided it. I will try next session, though, to see if the K-3 has improved this. Jack

03-03-2014, 01:42 AM	#12
Barry Pearson Veteran Member Join Date: Jul 2013 Location: Stockport Posts: 964	Originally posted by derekkite A thread to collect all the tips and solutions people have found. WIFI: A device that runs either the Safari web browser (Apple products) or Chrome browser(Android phones, laptops etc.) is required. An older Samsung tab running the non Chrome browser doesn't work. Other browsers may work or work partially. I've used Firefox successfully. Although I got some timeouts, I don't know if this was because of Firefox or something else. ---------- Post added 3rd Mar 2014 at 08:46 AM ---------- Originally posted by jerryleejr Ok my question is, since the K3 has two card slots do both cards have to be the same capacity? Or can you setup to transfer from 1-2 to device basically keeping your card space freed up? JJ I've used my K-3 with a 32GB Sandisk Extreme Pro in slot 1 and the Flucard in slot 2, with DNGs going to slot 1 and JPEGs (small and low quality) going to slot 2. This is a useful mode for some purposes. (For me, the main purpose of the Flucard is while shooting - viewing and reviewing. I don't need the DNGs until later, and can download and process those in the normal way).

03-03-2014, 06:05 AM	#15
unkipunki Site Supporter Join Date: Dec 2012 Location: South Lochaweside, Argyll Photos: Gallery Posts: 615	Originally posted by grahamcoad The good news for any Windows smartphone user is that Mozilla's Firefox for Windows Phone browser is being released for download on 18th March so the flucard should be able to function Oh well, I just stumped up for an ipad mini 2 retina display as I couldn't find any reference to anything that works for the flucard coming for Windows Phone . I guess it's nice to have an ipad mini anyway, but maybe I can return it to save a few quid.