Tethered Shooting with Lightroom

[jaygeephoto]

Does anyone here have experience shooting tethered in the studio,  with the Canon 1Ds MK III and Lightroom.  My current rig involves a trusty old iDs MK II and a Firewire connection; it's quirky sometimes but workable.  I was wondering if the MK III would be much slower since it uses a USB connection.  Any and all help would be appreciated.
JGeiger Photography

[John S C]

Used a 1Ds3 tethered for a few years. No real problem. OK took a few seconds to transfer the image, possibly 5-8 ( from memory) but nothing to write home about. Worked fine with both Canon DPP software and Lightroom onto a MacBook Pro

[jaygeephoto]

Thanks. I think it may be about the same, maybe a bit shorter (time) with the set-up I have now. Fire wire connections have seemed to lost favor to USB, 1, 2, and 3. Clients in the studio are impatient though.  The Fire wire on the MK II is a weak point and I've replaced it twice already - I don't imagine the USB one on the MK III is any better if photos of the connection port are any indication.  It seems that the high end studio business is not in Canon's interests any more - more the sports photographer.  I like shooting with this type of camera and am not quite ready to remortgage my house for a medium format system.

[nemophoto]

Personally, I'd go with a 1Dx over the 1Ds3. I own both (or at least did till I recently sold my trusty 1Ds3 -- rarely used it compared to the 1Dx.) Tethering is much quicker and more straightforward with the 1Dx, plus faster transfers for two reasons: 1) the 1Dx has USB3 (though the connector looks like USB2) and 2) you can also use Ethernet connection for very fast transfer. The caveat: only when using Canon's EOS Utility.

I tethered with both cameras in the studio, and this is why I gradually just never used the 1Ds3 (with it's marginally higher res) after a while. The reason I mention the 1Dx is because it sounded as though you don't actually own the 1Ds3 and are thinking of, I guess, find a 1Ds3 to move up from the 1Ds2. FYI - USB has been far less problematic (at least on a PC) that Firewire ever was.

Nemo

[jaygeephoto]

Thanks for the thorough answer.  I am trying to budget and therefore may go for a used MK III for the interim.  Also my MacPro is going on 5 years and is equipped with only USB-2. I'm not sure exactly how the new MacPro connects with cameras - from the looks of it, maybe theoretical physics. In so far as the idea of using an Ethernet connection with Canon's proprietary image capture - I'll pass on that. My past experience with any of Canon's software has proved that their best at building cameras and lenses - maybe printers and copiers too.  I really like the workflow of shooting tethered with Lightroom.

[nemophoto]

I understand what you're saying about Lightroom versus Canon's software. The latter can be a little kludgy. I actually use four different software to tether, depending on what I'm shooting. My favorite for still-life is a PC only called DSLRemote from Chris Breeze. At this point, it's the only software that allows you to do test frames without actually capturing an image (it's a preview test only). Quite handy, and something no other program does (although EOS Utility version 2 did, but has been removed from version 3).

You may be able to find a 1Ds3 for around $2000-2500. I sold mine recently for a fair price $2150, in hope Canon will come out with something new in the next decade. If you are willing to go with gray market, a 1Dx can be had for around $4500. I would still suggest going with newer technology if you can swing it. My 1Ds3 was 6-years old, in excellent condition, well maintained by Canon, but I frequently would rather have shot with my 1Dx. A 1Dx body will serve you well for the future, and especially if you are going from the 1Ds2, it will be a quantum leap. You may have a 5-year old computer now, but that won't always be the case. The newer Mac Pros utilize USB 3 as one of their connectors (as do the notebooks). My suggestion is future-proof yourself as much as possible, since things always improve and always advance.

[phila]

I still shoot a lot with a 1Ds MkIII tethered to a 2010 MacBook Air via EOS Utility. No problems at all. Takes about 8-10 seconds to provide a full res preview (in LR, but only about 4 seconds to actually download). The thing is that Lightroom tethering is very limited in what you can control on the camera (or it was when I last checked), whereas EOS Utility gives you full control. The images import into a watched folder then automatically into LR for viewing.

[John S C]

It may be worth noting that the 1Ds3 comes with a clamp that locks the USB cable  to the camera. I found this stopped a lot of of the connection problems I had with the 5D

[nemophoto]

It may be worth noting that the 1Ds3 comes with a clamp that locks the USB cable  to the camera. I found this stopped a lot of of the connection problems I had with the 5D

I loved that little clamp. I wish the 1Dx had something comparable. It's one reason I often try to use the Ethernet cable. The caveat with the Ethernet cable/shooting is that it's sometimes a real pain to pair the camera and computer. On one shoot, I waited nearly 10-minutes for the camera and computer to pair and they never did (though the camera's green light kept flashing like it was trying). For that reason, USB tethering is still sometimes the easiest.

[John Caldwell]

We tether a 1Dx to LR5 on a Macbook Pro all the time.

1) 15 foot USB cable is velcro-strapped to the 1dx's RRS L-bracket for stability. Never had an unintended disconnect, but the method does require an L-bracket on the cam.
2) Images are visible in about 3-5 seconds on the Macbook - a little longer than that if a Develop Preset is being applied at import. For my work, this delay is of no detriment.
3) I have learned to disable sleep on both the camera and the Macbook. Sleep modes have generally resulted in dropped connection between cam and computer in my hands, and sometimes a need to reboot altogether - a huge time waste.
4) Very often , my tethered shoots involve multi-strobe environmental portraits. In the field, I control the lights with the Phottix Odin radio system. There is no question that the Odin adds a level of unreliability to the tether, with Busy behavior sometimes resulting inexplicably at the camera. Still, even with the Odin's nonlinearities, I've been able to get a huge amount a work done tethering the 1Dx to a Macbook in the field, and walk away with images I'd never get working from the camera's rear LCD.
5) Before the 1Dx, we did use a 1Ds III in the same way. File transfer was certainly slower, but I recall no special problems. While it wasn't the OP's question, I'll join Nemo in saying that once we had a 1Dx the 1Ds III got no use.

Best wishes,

John Caldwell

[John S C]

You might want to have a look at the Camranger. It's a wireless option for tethered shooting ( If wireless is still tethered) It's nearly 1/3 price of the canon option. The beauty is that it is small and lightweight and can be clipped to a tripod or put in a pocket. OK its not as robust as the canon but it will talk either to a computer or to a tablet. In fact it will talk to both computer and tablet with the latest software. Admittedly you need the Camranger software to act as an intermediary for Lightroom , and this does slow things down by a few seconds ( Only if you want to view in Lightroom not the Camranger viewing software. )

Only one drawback i found  is that when the internal battery goes low the connection is lost, despite the power light being on. Solved this with a Pebble portable power supply. Can shoot most of the day with this combination