5D MkIII Tethering Problems

[FrankNagy]

Probably has been covered, having issues with tethering using LR4.3 (as well as C1, MacBook Pro. NEW 5D's!  A real frustrating upgrade!

LR & Camera locks up, connection lost, after complete re-start, works for 5-10 frames, lock up!  Tried diff cables, cameras and computers, no go.  Please don't ask if I have updated firmware and OS on Mac, have spent hours trying to find solution.

Have cable rigged to relive stress and movement (All the Right Stuff plate and cable harness), my own rigging (angled cables, stress relief.

The only thing I have not done is send the gear to Canon (CPS member)

Any Comments?

[ebiggs1]

I am not a Mac user but my 'friends' that are tell me there are problems with Lion and LR. May be your issue?

Second, for best results as I always use tethering at shoots if possible, is your cable must be less than 12 feet and six feet is a better max.

Unless you get an active USB cable, that is. Than the cable can be up to 75 feet.

[Tim]

Hello FrankNagy!

You may want to consider trying to tether with Canon's EOS Utility.  We suggest this because Lightroom is not a supported product in our technical support department.  EOS Utility would be able to tether to the camera and provide camera control and also remote shooting.

We wish you the best of luck!

If you need to urgently contact Canon in need of support, please visit our Support and Service web site.

[FrankNagy]

Tim, thanks but no thanks. Canon EOS utility does not fit into my workflow and is awkward to use, and since I have used LR( & C1) for 7 years as capture tool and  catalog all my work etc, My old 1DS mkIIs worked flawlessly with LR and C1 but the 5D is glitchy,  maybe Canon should work more closely with Adobe and the Phase people to ensure your products function properly with them since most working photoga thar use Canon are trying? to used 5Ds. The 1 series model no longer fits into my needs. I think you are loosing a lot of shooters to Nikon because of this.  Too bad, always enjoyed working with canon DSLR s.  might be time to re-think.  Ps: USB 2 really?

[ebiggs1]

With all due respect and not trying to defend Canon, but I use LR 4 all the time to theater a 1D Mk II, a 5D Mk II and my 7D with no issues at all. The combination does indeed work. I use active USB cables usually 32 ft but I have used up to 75 feet long. I am working on a Win 8 machine though, so possibily you should investigate if the Mac is the problem or at least look somewhere else for the problem.

I do agree with you EOS Utility and DPP are nearly useless! But they are free, so hey, what do you expect?

[andrew_akaphoto]

We recently bought a new 5D mk iii and can no longer use an active usb extension cable. Our old one had no problems, and I even tested out a friends older mk iii body with firmware 1.1.3 or whatever the latest one is (not 1.2.1). I tried on both mac and pc with eos utility.

[TCampbell]

I'm not necessarily thinking you need to use the Canon tool as a permanent solution... but you can use it for testing purposes just to make sure this isn't an issue with LR.

I have LR CC (I didn't convert from Aperture until the CC version so I have no experience with LR 4) and I don't have any problems (well... OTHER than the fact that LR saves all my tethered RAW images and .DNG files and that's a problem.  Because of this I don't use LR for tethering because I need to be able to open my RAW files in more than just Adobe applications.)

I previously used Aperture (which does a great job with tethering but that's been discontinued).  Now I use Kuuvik Capture 2 for tethering capture.  This is dedicated capturing software (that's all it does) and as such, it has some very nice features around tethering that beat everything else I've seen (namely the ability to mark the key points in the live-view where you need critical focus and it'll open multiple windows with 100% crop views at those points... and it also does focus-peaking.)  When I'm done, I feed all the .CR2 files into Lightroom -- but at least this way I have .CR2 files instead of .DNG files.

One question I have is... are you using a USB hub?  If so, take that out of the mix and go direct from camera to computer.

Also... is the tether cable you use longer than the USB limit?  The high-speed limit is 5 meters (about 16') and the low-speed limit is 3 meters (just under 10')?  If the cable length or quality is in doubt, you can try using a short cable (such as the Canon supplied cable) just to see if you can get unlimited capture without locking up.

You an elimintate the tether cable completely by going wireless.  I use a CamRanger (about $300) but there's a new competitor on the market called the Cam-Fi which is about half the price.  Both work pretty much the same (I haven't seen a side-by-side comparison).  The device is a module (roughly the size of a mobile phone) and it plugs into the USB tethering port... but it links via WiFi to software on your Mac which can control the camera completely.  Even if you shoot RAW, it sends over JPEG previews of the RAW (so it's very fast) so you can inspect for focus, composition, etc. (but those images show up very quickly) and this avoids waiting for a large RAW transfer via WiFi.  You tap the ones you want and it sends over the RAWs.

[ebiggs1]

"...  OTHER than the fact that LR saves all my tethered RAW images and .DNG files and that's a problem."

I just got through shooting yearbook photos using LR 6.1 and all the files are saved as .CR2.  Not .DNG.

[TCampbell]

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@ebiggs1 wrote:

"...  OTHER than the fact that LR saves all my tethered RAW images and .DNG files and that's a problem."

I just got through shooting yearbook photos using LR 6.1 and all the files are saved as .CR2.  Not .DNG.

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Well that's good to know... it means there's hope.  I thought I'd had looked for a way to change it but didn't see one.  

I avoid .DNG because while this was Adobe's attempt at creating an open standard for RAW files, nobody else adopted it.  That means mostly only Adobe software can read a .DNG and that really makes it harder if I need to open an image in other software.  Consequently I really prefer to use .CR2.  

I'll have to go look again... perhaps it was just defaulting to .DNG and I can override it with a preference (but I thought I had looked.)

[ebiggs1]

I did not even know that was possible.  I thought you had to use the DNG converter to get one.  I have no idea how to change the default from CR2 to DNG or vice versa.

I have used LR for this for about 10+ years now.  I use active USB cables.  I have my assistant watching the 17" laptop while I do the shoot.  Teenagers, ya gotta love'em.