# Problem with tethering



## Eldar (Dec 28, 2016)

I am trying to improve my skills in a studio and tried to make my cameras work using tethered capture in LR. That turned out to be anything but easy.

My 5DSR will not be recognised by the Macbook Pro at all. My brand new 5DIV goes into a cycle of connected/not connected and impossible to use. My 1DXII works like a dream, except the angled USB cable will not fit with the RRS L-bracket attached. Same computer, same cable and same Lightroom. 

Has anyone experienced something similar? Any advice on what I should do differently?


----------



## Mt Spokane Photography (Dec 28, 2016)

LR is not a choice I'd use to tether a camera, its very limited. Use EOS utilities and set LR as the external editor. IMHO, its far better.


----------



## Valvebounce (Dec 29, 2016)

Hi Eldar. 
I second Mt Spokane's recommendation. I have found that EOS utility will work well even on a clunker pc (AMD Athlon Windows XP running EOS utility 3.? that drives my 40D) that I have at my workshop mainly for cctv recording. I use it for time lapse shooting of work in progress like gearbox overhauls, I find it simple and intuitive to use, I can't say Light Room isn't either of those as I have no experience with LR, but EOS utility is free too! 

Cheers, Graham.


----------



## Eldar (Dec 29, 2016)

Thanks, I´ll try that. 

However, I still have the problem with unstable connectivity from the 5DIV and no connectivity at all with the 5DSR. As far as I know, the only changes I have made to their default settings are reprogramming of buttons, disable of all kinds of JPEG functions and a few minor things like that. I have not found any menu item where I can turn off the USB port and certainly not make the connectivity oscillate as it does with the 5DIV (it seems to be at a fixed frequency; Long cycle connected, short cycle disconnected)


----------



## Valvebounce (Dec 29, 2016)

Hi Eldar. 
Sorry, it was clear that it was a connection issue before connecting to the software, I misunderstood it as being the software! D'oh :-[
I'm a PC user so have absolutely no mac experience. I can tell you that not having the EOS utility version that supports the camera has caused me problems with a PC in the past. If you don't have the latest version of the utility installed try downloading that from the Canon support site, maybe they broke something supporting the earlier cameras on the version that came with the 1DxII (if that is a different version than came with the 5DIV)? These things sometimes happen. 
Have you done a restart on the computer recently, I have also had issues with a PC because I continually hibernate rather than shut down (for a faster restart). 
Last resort, have you tried pulling the USB plug out and blowing on the end then plug it back in?  : 

I hope that you are able to get to the bottom of this, a most frustrating situation. 

Cheers, Graham. 



Eldar said:


> Thanks, I´ll try that.
> 
> However, I still have the problem with unstable connectivity from the 5DIV and no connectivity at all with the 5DSR. As far as I know, the only changes I have made to their default settings are reprogramming of buttons, disable of all kinds of JPEG functions and a few minor things like that. I have not found any menu item where I can turn off the USB port and certainly not make the connectivity oscillate as it does with the 5DIV (it seems to be at a fixed frequency; Long cycle connected, short cycle disconnected)


----------



## tron (Dec 29, 2016)

Have you tried to configure the camera to not sleep after a specific time of minutes? I usually set it to always on when I connect it to my pc but then I use it only to download images and not for tethering...


----------



## Eldar (Dec 29, 2016)

I believe I know the problem with the 5DIV. I was working on a MacBook Pro and LR had not been updated. I believe the oscillating connected/not connected message is LR´s way of telling me the camera is not supported. I´ll check when I get home. The 5DSR is still a mystery though.


----------



## DominoDude (Dec 29, 2016)

Eldar said:


> I am trying to improve my skills in a studio and tried to make my cameras work using tethered capture in LR. That turned out to be anything but easy.
> 
> My 5DSR will not be recognised by the Macbook Pro at all. My brand new 5DIV goes into a cycle of connected/not connected and impossible to use. My 1DXII works like a dream, except the angled USB cable will not fit with the RRS L-bracket attached. Same computer, same cable and same Lightroom.
> 
> Has anyone experienced something similar? Any advice on what I should do differently?



I took the liberty of tossing the question out on Twitter with a link to your original post. Hopefully someone will have clues on how to proceed with the troubleshooting, and/or have some sort of solution.


----------



## jprusa (Dec 29, 2016)

Hey Elder, By any chance do you have a Wifi card in that 5d/R?


----------



## Eldar (Dec 29, 2016)

jprusa said:


> Hey Elder, By any chance do you have a Wifi card in that 5d/R?


No WiFI adapter installed.


----------



## Eldar (Dec 29, 2016)

Now I have another puzzle. 

When I got home, I connected the 5DIV to my iMac, which has the latest LR version, with 5DIV supported, installed. It worked like a dream. So the oscillating connecte/not connected was LR telling me I had a non-supported camera connected. So far so good.

Then I connected the 5DSR to the iMac, with a cheap, but short, USB cable, which I normally use for mye memory card reader. Surprise surprise, it work. Then I tried to connect it to my MacBook Pro (software updated), with an expensive (long) tethering cable. Totally dead. Then I used that cable on the iMac and Voilá, it worked. And to finish it off, with little hope, I connected the 5DSR to the MacBook, using the short and cheap cable. And of course, it worked ... :

So now I have a situation, where the 1DX-II and the 5DIV works on the iMac and the MacBook, with both the long and the short USB cable, whereas the 5DSR only works with the short. 

So my conclusion, until someone tells me differently, is that my 5DSR has, in one way or another, a weak USB port, which is incapable of communicating over the long (and expensive) tethering cable, but enough to get over the short cable ...

CPS next


----------



## jprusa (Dec 29, 2016)

Eldar said:


> jprusa said:
> 
> 
> > Hey Elder, By any chance do you have a Wifi card in that 5d/R?
> ...


Only thing I could think of . My 5d/R seems to be working fine :'(


----------



## rfdesigner (Dec 29, 2016)

Eldar said:


> Now I have another puzzle.
> 
> When I got home, I connected the 5DIV to my iMac, which has the latest LR version, with 5DIV supported, installed. It worked like a dream. So the oscillating connecte/not connected was LR telling me I had a non-supported camera connected. So far so good.
> 
> ...



I do R&D on radios of various types, I take it the 5DSr has a fully charged battery in good nick, low power supplies cause all sorts of mayhem.

For reference what you usually get from better cables is better defined impedance and lower leakage in and out (less interference both ways) plus better connectors so less reflections where the cable is mounted into the back of the connector. Capacitance will generally be inversly proportional to diameter, regardless of cost, having said that I've teathered my old 30D over very long cables with no problems.

The driver on the 5DSr may just be sluggish and in need of repair.


----------



## Mt Spokane Photography (Dec 29, 2016)

Eldar said:


> Now I have another puzzle.
> 
> When I got home, I connected the 5DIV to my iMac, which has the latest LR version, with 5DIV supported, installed. It worked like a dream. So the oscillating connecte/not connected was LR telling me I had a non-supported camera connected. So far so good.
> 
> ...



Using the long cables with active electronics in them is hit and miss. Avoid them. If you can manage to use a 10 ft conventional USB cable, that will likely work. Those 25 ft and longer cables can be problems.


----------



## LDS (Dec 30, 2016)

Mt Spokane Photography said:


> Using the long cables with active electronics in them is hit and miss. Avoid them. If you can manage to use a 10 ft conventional USB cable, that will likely work. Those 25 ft and longer cables can be problems.



Agree. Beyond USB design specification, better to use an Ethernet cable (when wifi is not an option, for any reason) - unluckily only the 1Dx comes with a built-in port, the other requires one of those expensive WFT adapters. Moreover, I'm not sure LR tethering works with Ethernet.

When using USB, version 2 allows for a cable length of 5m (about 16ft), while v3 recommends 3m (10ft) max. Then a lot depends on cable quality and signal. I had no issue tethering a 5DIII with a 5m cable.

One way to try to extend it is using a *powered* USB hub between. Active cables are like 1-port hubs, but if they are not powered separately they may be far less effective.


----------



## LordofTackle (Dec 30, 2016)

Eldar said:


> Thanks, I´ll try that.
> 
> However, I still have the problem with unstable connectivity from the 5DIV and no connectivity at all with the 5DSR. As far as I know, the only changes I have made to their default settings are reprogramming of buttons, disable of all kinds of JPEG functions and a few minor things like that. I have not found any menu item where I can turn off the USB port and certainly not make the connectivity oscillate as it does with the 5DIV (it seems to be at a fixed frequency; Long cycle connected, short cycle disconnected)



Hi Eldar,

besides the connectivity problems you could also try Helicon Remote as tethering software. It offers much more functionality than LR or even Eos functionality. E.g. you can do automated and combined HDR focus stacking with it. 
I use it from time to time for macro wirk with a laptop, but AFAIK you can also use it via WLAN with a tablet for example.
They offer a 30 day trial so you can easily try it.

-Sebastian


----------



## jeffa4444 (Jan 3, 2017)

If your using the Tether Tools USB-3 cable then purchase the additional external power supply it could be you don't have enough juice running on the battery as the 5DSr / 5DS is more power hungry. My cable works fine but tethered I always add the external power boost.


----------

