Tag Archive for: tethering

tethering without wires

/in /by

I love Sony cameras, but sometimes I feel a little bit left out in the cold by manufacturers, I even sometimes feel they don’t care or don’t realize that Sony is really very fast becoming a major (if not THE major) player. For example I’ve been bugging CamRanger since day 1 for Sony support, their response is very basic… it won’t work and it will never work because Sony doesn’t support it…. well it’s weird that Capture One for example shows live view (which according to CamRanger is not possible…. don’t get me wrong I LOVE Camranger, heck I would buy one if they would support Sony in a heartbeat.

 

What do we/I really need?
Something a lot of manufacturers seem to miss.
For me personally I don’t need to see my live view, I don’t need to do settings or anything else fancy, I just want my images to come in, preferable the JPGs in small sizes, show the images and that’s it.

 

Now where do I want it?
The new iPad pro has me all excited, and yeah I know it’s “just” an iPad but the screen size is very handy for us on location and I strongly believe that (because it’s Apple) Adobe and other app makers will start making apps especially for the iPad pro and to be honest I see myself working on an iPad Pro much more than on my MBP when flying or traveling. So my initial thoughts was to use the Sony Remote control software to shoot tethered to my iPad Pro during workshops (which we now already sometimes do during location workshops with small groups) and that works flawless, however…. we can’t get the files to my MBP, so I was actually looking into that and while searching for solutions I found a company called DSLRdashboard

 

You might know their software for iPad, iPhone and Android, but you might not know they also have a desktop version, well at least I didn’t, and it works flawlessly just connect the Sony via their smart remote app to the wifi network and start the software, search for Sony and within seconds you’re up and running. And it’s fast, plus we tried it out throughout the whole studio area and we have pretty good coverage everywhere, so I’m very happy with this. Now the only thing Sony needs to fix is that the EVF doesn’t work in smart remote (which it did in the past).

 

But is that all?
No.
While doing my research online I more and more became convinced that although CamRanger might not support Sony there must be another solution, the CamRanger is in essence a rebranded and customized TP-Link router so what did they do, well very quickly you will find out that there is a firmware flash option that will run a modified firmware on the router and that will actually transmit your files, as long as the camera has a PC-Remote option, which the Sony has. So I thought “why doesn’t it work”… and the more I looked online the more it puzzled me, according to all the programers it would work with any camera that has PC-Remote and according to the app makers it wouldn’t work…. but what doesn’t work. If you read closely they all talk about the fact that Sony doesn’t allow to change settings etc. but I don’t care about that, I just want the files to come in and I couldn’t care less about time-lapse etc.

 

So I decided to just order the TP-Link somewhere and as soon as it’s in I’m gonna try to make it work to transmit just the JPGs, so keep looking at my blog and social media for this, I could be totally wrong but in my opinion it should be possible to do it, if the Sony smart Remote can make a connection and transfer RAW or JPGs why not via a router, what’s the difference if you only need JPGs…. I’m not a programmer but it doesn’t seem like much to just show images to students right?  we will see 😀

 

Anyway, long story short.
Here is a video in the digital classroom series on wireless tethering, and I also included a tip to shoot tethered with your iPhone without the need for internet 😀
Make sure to subscribe to my channel and share the link 😀

Tethering… what if all goes wrong…

/in , /by

We get a lot of questions about this so I thought it would be handy to do a small blogpost about it.

 

So you want to shoot tethered right?
Well I don’t blame you, it’s the best thing ever, it’s fast, you can check your images, you can beam them to smart devices (or worldwide) etc. etc. the options are limitless at the moment and it keeps getting better. My personal favorite way to shoot tethered in the studio is by cable, and if you talk about tethering tools there is of course one brand that stands out… yep Tethertools 😀

 

But what if your brand new cable doesn’t work?

 

Most people buy an extension cable and a camera cable (and of course a jerkstopper, which is a must buy if you want to keep your port working), and in most cases it’s plug and play, and it should be that way, it’s not rocket science. But in some cases…. well it just doesn’t work, so here is a small list you can follow to find the problem.

 

1. Check your camera
Make sure your camera is on the right setting.
In most cameras you can set the USB protocol, some are called PC remote, some are called PC etc. but make sure it’s not on storage mode (if you don’t have that setting… it’s probably setup right).

 

2. Check your software
Believe it or not but if Lightroom 6 (cc) supports your camera, it doesn’t mean that Lightroom 4 also supports your camera.
Also, with for example Capture One, RAW support doesn’t mean Tethering support, so make sure you also check this.
You can check it very easily on the websites from the supplier of your software. We have best results for tethering with Capture One followed by Lightroom, both should work pretty flawless (although Lightroom sometimes looses connection, but a simple “stop tether” and “start tether” should solve that problem.

 

If your software is supporting your camera, make sure you are running the latest version of your software and OS.

 

3. Check your software 2
Some cameras will tether without any drivers from their manufacturer, but sometimes you need to install the drivers, just use the CD that was delivered with your camera and to make sure just install everything, and later start deleting stuff and see when tethering stops.

 

4. Check the cable
If it’s not the software the quickest test is to check the cable, just connect the supplied cable from the camera and see if that works, then start with the extension cable between the original cable and the PC/ Mac and see if that works, and then change the camera cable.

 

5. Switch USB ports
Believe it or not but not all USB ports are created equal, just switch the ports.
If you use a hub, make sure to first test a DIRECT connection to your PC/Mac.

 

6. Reset your PRAM/NVRAM or SCM on Mac.
On rare occasions the Macs can have a problem with USB (and other things), it’s rather easily solved, find online the term PRAM/NVRAM or SCM and reset and you’ll be set in seconds.

 

On most macs it’s as follows:

 

NVRAM (PRAM)

  1. Shut down your Mac.
  2. Locate the following keys on the keyboard: Command (⌘), Option, P, and R. 
  3. Turn on your Mac.
  4. Press and hold the Command-Option-P-R keys immediately after you hear the startup sound.
  5. Hold these keys until the computer restarts and you hear the startup sound for a second time.
  6. Release the keys.

After resetting NVRAM, you may need to reconfigure settings for speaker volume, screen resolution, startup disk selection, and time zone information.

 

To reset the SMC:

  1. Shut down the computer.
  2. Plug in the MagSafe or USB-C power adapter to a power source and to your computer.
  3. On the built-in keyboard, press the (left side) Shift-Control-Option keys and the power button at the same time.
  4. Release all the keys and the power button at the same time.
  5. Press the power button to turn on the computer.

On MagSafe power adapters, the LED might change states or temporarily turn off when you reset the SMC.

 

To reset the SMC on Intel-based Mac Pro, iMac, and Mac mini computers, as well as Xserve:

  1. Shut down the computer.
  2. Unplug the power cord.
  3. Wait fifteen seconds.
  4. Attach the power cord.
  5. Wait five seconds, then press the power button to turn on the computer.

 

If nothing works…. it could very well be that you already damaged the port in your camera (it’s very easy to do).
You can check if you can put the camera on storage mode and if the camera can be seen by your computer, if that works at least the port works, now bring it to another computer and try the tethering there, as mentioned before it’s not rocket science and in 99.9% of the cases it should flawless and at once. If it doesn’t it’s often one of the above, if not… well it gets a lot more complicated because it could be something in your machine, but that’s way to diverse to discuss here. However in almost all cases it’s one of the above.

 

Now one more thing…
If you need reliable tethertools make sure to visit the site from Tethertools or the international site.
And if you are using USB3 and experience problems, or you simply want to cover more distance, check out their USB3 booster.

Tethering

/in , /by

Shooting tethered is without a doubt something I always try to do, when in the studio or on location. So here some tips for making that experience easier.

Yvonne PTO workshops (504) February 05, 2015-Edit

1. the right laptop
make sure you choose a laptop that is durable and make sure you use a protective case. My laptop is often used in locations where it’s easy to scratch and I always use cases on the top and bottom, these cases retail for 25-50 euros and really make sure the laptop stays brand new. A good brand is for example Specks.

As my laptop I’m now back at the MacBookPro 15″, the 13″ was great but for me a bit too slow when working with loads of larger files, also the extra screen size is very nice.

Read more

Tethertools cable example

/in , , /by

Loads of people ask me why they should use the Tethertools cables instead of standard USB cables that are often 10-20% cheaper.

 

I’ve shot for years with standard USB cables and normally it would work, but especially with longer runs and when the files got bigger it happened a lot that sometimes it felt like the buffer was “stuck” if you would leave the camera for a few seconds (10-20) it would often work again but it was not smooth.

 
When I switched to Tethertools I never experienced this stuck buffer anymore. Lightroom still sometimes just drops the connection but this a problem some people have experienced since version 5.x and is easily solved by restarting the tethering option.

 

A better tethering solution is Capture One which is literally build for Tethering and RAW conversion (use AMBDOORHOF for a cool discount on buying Capture One).

 

So why is the Tethertools cable better…
Because images tell everything, here is a shot with a normal standard USB cable and the Tethertools Orange cable, I think it’s pretty obvious.

attachment

For European customers visit www.tethertools.eu for US customers www.tethertools.com