# tethering and LR4?



## jlev23 (Mar 30, 2012)

ok, so i have my first professional digital still camera, not that i haven't shot with rented 5Ds for years now but I'm a cinematographer by trade and this camera has seemed to infiltrate our sets, so now i have my own. so, that explains why my questions on the stills side might seem bit simple but here it is;

tethering, whats the best cable to get? or one thats decent and affordable?

Lightroom 4, I've used it tethering to grab pictures before on sets, but thats all we used it for. what can i do with it and is it worth getting. can i set looks with it, or is that only photoshop?
thanks and sorry!


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## Mt Spokane Photography (Mar 30, 2012)

jlev23 said:


> ok, so i have my first professional digital still camera, not that i haven't shot with rented 5Ds for years now but I'm a cinematographer by trade and this camera has seemed to infiltrate our sets, so now i have my own. so, that explains why my questions on the stills side might seem bit simple but here it is;
> 
> tethering, whats the best cable to get? or one thats decent and affordable?
> 
> ...


 
For stills, use the USB cable that comes with the camera to control the camera and capture stills to your computer or to both your computer and the camera memory card using EOS utilities. 

If you want to use the HDMI out to capture video, you will only get a 720P video, not the full HD resolution, so recording that will not do what you want.

The EOS Utility manual is available at the Canon web site, so you can read the fine print.


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## jlev23 (Mar 30, 2012)

Mt Spokane Photography said:


> jlev23 said:
> 
> 
> > ok, so i have my first professional digital still camera, not that i haven't shot with rented 5Ds for years now but I'm a cinematographer by trade and this camera has seemed to infiltrate our sets, so now i have my own. so, that explains why my questions on the stills side might seem bit simple but here it is;
> ...



oh its just usb? i guess my digi tech was using a high end longer cable, the one that came with seems pretty short.
is there a maximum length they can be? or a certain type of usb thats better for transferring quickly?
thanks!


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## dsidaway (Mar 30, 2012)

I can second Mt Spokane's advice. I shoot hockey with a 1D mk IV tethered via the usb cable that comes with the camera and Canon's EOS Utility app (needed to access the camera) then use Photo Mechanic by Camera Bits to rename and caption the files via the app's Live Ingest function. All that happens at the point of shooting. During the intermission, I tweak the captions via the Code Replacement function of Photo Mechanic. That might be more than you wanted but there it is all the same. 
Regarding Lightroom, we use Photo Mechanic as our image browser of choice primarily because of the built-in Variables and Code Replacement functions and of course, Photoshop. Lightroom is a pretty cool app, it just doesn't do certain things that PM does for many of us in the news biz.



jlev23 said:


> ok, so i have my first professional digital still camera, not that i haven't shot with rented 5Ds for years now but I'm a cinematographer by trade and this camera has seemed to infiltrate our sets, so now i have my own. so, that explains why my questions on the stills side might seem bit simple but here it is;
> 
> tethering, whats the best cable to get? or one thats decent and affordable?
> 
> ...


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## PeterJ (Mar 30, 2012)

jlev23 said:


> is there a maximum length they can be? or a certain type of usb thats better for transferring quickly?


Not sure about a Mk3 but for a 5D Mk2 it's USB 2.0 high-speed (480Mbps) making the maximum standard cable length 5 meters. I've used a pair of active extension cables like these for a total of 20 meters without problems:

http://www.amazon.com/Active-Extension-Repeater-Female-Meters/dp/B002VG39BI

I just used those because they were available locally, I've seen them advertised up to 50 meters but have never had any experience with those. Note there are limits on how many you can normally chain together (I think most manufacturers say two) so don't try anything like 4 x 10m extensions, and you will need the active extension cables to go over 5 meters.


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## Mt Spokane Photography (Mar 30, 2012)

jlev23 said:


> oh its just usb? i guess my digi tech was using a high end longer cable, the one that came with seems pretty short.
> is there a maximum length they can be? or a certain type of usb thats better for transferring quickly?
> thanks!


 
For long distances, you can get a USB extender. Some of them work and some do not, so try to find someone who has used a particular model.

BEWARE ... Many of these only work with USB 1 and will be too slow.

Here is a faster one, but I do not know if it will work with a 5D MK III

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16812270479


Another solution is a USB to Ethernet extender. These will let you use a few hundred feet of ethernet cable to extend the USB port. 

BEWARE, nost of these are USB one and far too slow. Those for USB 2 are expensive and hard to find.


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## tt (Mar 30, 2012)

Creative Live did a post on their site/FB I think of the setup they've used - has worked well for them - and what they use


http://www.creativelive.com/blog/shooting-tethered-creativelive-studio


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