Digital info for serious shooters: specializing in Nikon & Canon

Using DigitalPro™ on a Macintosh

Users of the “other’ platform have been stymied by the lack of a native version of DigitalPro for Mac OS. For those familiar with emulation technology, there is a workable solution in the form of Virtual PC for the Mac. Running DigitalPro in the Virtual PC environment gives the Mac user the best of both worlds. In this article, I will explain the hows and whys of set-up and configuration as well as talk about some of the gotchas to avoid in setting up your workflow to take maximum advantage of living in both worlds.

Installing and configuring Virtual PC

Virtual PC for Mac, available from Connectix, currently at version 5.0.2, supports multiple Windows Operating Systems including Windows 98 SE, 2000 Professional, XP Home and PC-DOS. Windows 98 SE is the minimum recommended Windows OS version for USB support. Virtual PC comes bundled with a version of Windows or PC-DOS. I would recommend getting the version bundled with Windows already to avoid the additional trouble of installing Windows over PC-DOS.

If you intend to use Virtual PC on Mac OS X or both Mac OS 9 and Mac OS X, you will need to have Virtual PC version 5.0 or later. For a Mac OS 9 only system, version 4.0 or later will suffice.

The installer is fairly simple and straight-forward. After selecting the destination to install to, simply choose the Easy Install option and click the Install button. The installer will install a number of files and folders to the directory you select including the Virtual PC application as well as a Windows OS Drive container such as the Windows 98 SE (up to 10 GB) shown:

After the initial installation, connect to the Connectix website noted above and look for any updates that may be available for your version of Virtual PC. If an update exists, download and install it before you proceed to the next step.

If you plan to use Virtual PC for both Mac OS 9 and Mac OS X, be sure to follow the instructions in the user manual for version 5.0 that explain how to configure Virtual PC preferences for use with both operating systems.

When you launch Virtual PC for the first time, you will be greeted by the PC Setup Assistant, which will guide you through the setup and configuration process. The first setting you will be presented with is Memory Settings. You would be well advised to increase the amount of memory allocated to the PC. I increased mine from the default of 64MB to 256MB. The next option presented allows you to configure a secondary drive. I chose not to. The third option relates to Modem settings.

After finishing the setup process, the assistant will finish creating your PC and allow you to start up Windows.  This will launch the Windows Setup Wizard where you will set the keyboard layout and enter the Windows product registration key.

Installing DigitalPro

Once you have successfully installed Virtual PC and configured the Windows environment, you can download and install DigitalPro. The easiest way to do this is to use the version of Internet Explorer installed with Windows to connect to the Pro Shooters site. From here you can download the latest version of the DigitalPro installer.

After installing the patch, if necessary, run the DP Install Shield installer and select a location to install DigitalPro. Once you have installed the application, you are nearly ready to get started.

Storing Files

One of the most important decisions you will have to make is where to file your images. DigitalPro creates a filing cabinet by default in ..\Pro Shooters\DigitalPro. This means that all of your images will be filed in a Windows directory that is only accessible to Digital Pro or other PC applications running on Windows.

An alternative to consider is the Folder Sharing feature of Virtual PC that allows you to access a Mac OS directory/folder as a volume in Windows similar to File Sharing on the Mac. To set this up, Go to Virtual PC List… in the Window menu and select the Settings… button. In the Settings for <<PCName>> window, select the Shared Folders item and click on the Share Folder… button to select a MacOS folder or volume to share.

You can assign a drive letter to use for each shared folder or volume.

Accessing your files stored in this Mac OS folder/volume is simple using the Open External Folder command in the File Menu of DigitalPro.

This alternative storage mechanism has the distinct advantage of making it possible to access your files in other Mac applications like Photoshop or iPhoto.

You might want to create two separate shared folders – one to put incoming images into and one for filed/processed images. I have mine configured with a folder for incoming images and a folder hierarchy containing all of my filed images. This allows me to use the Open External Folder command as well as the Load Card feature to access new images and File Images to select the correct folder in the filed images hierarchy for saving sorted/manipulated images from within DigitalPro. 

Loading Files

Getting your images into DigitalPro can be accomplished in one of two ways and depends somewhat on whether you are using OS 9 or OS X. Since many manufacturers, including Lexar, have yet to update their card reader device drivers to run on OS X, you will need to read the cards using the Windows device drivers running emulated in Virtual PC. If you are using the Lexar Jumpshot cardreader for example, simply download the drivers available at http://www.lexarmedia.com/support/support_main.html, using Internet Explorer in Windows. After installing the appropriate driver for your device, the Load Card feature can be utilized within Digital Pro to read files from your card(s). I should mention that this is somewhat slow given the emulated nature of the drivers, but for OS X, it represents the only way currently to read from most USB cardreaders.

If you are running Virtual PC from OS 9, you have a choice between reading the cards from within DigitalPro on Virtual PC or using the OS 9 drivers to read the card(s) and copy the files to the previously mentioned Incoming Images folder that is shared with Virtual PC. The OS 9 drivers have the advantage of speed, but require an extra step. Try it both ways and decide which way works best for your workflow.

Following these steps and giving some thought to the considerations outlined above, it is possible to make use of the power of DigitalPro on the Macintosh platform. Give it a shot and I think you will agree, it is possible to live with the best of both worlds.

--Kenneth Petersen