P: Tethering

3 hours into my studio shoot with my D3x running OSX 10.6.8 and LR 3.5 and I had 3 x tethering "cut-offs" and 2 x tethering "hangs". I lost dozens of images (that were not captured), frustrated both my assistant and myself and angered my client. I've officially given-up using the tethering function on LR 3.5 and moved onto Sofortbild and a watched LR folder, which hasn't crashed on me in 2 hours of use (and counting). From where I am sitting, having used LR 3.5 on 4 shoots days (location and studio) thus far, the tethering problem(s) have not been solved. Scott

I would also be interested to hear others' experiences with 3.5 running 10.6.8. I hope the commenters here will provide their own feedback. Thank you.

Hi Ben,

Thank you for your personal attention to this matter. Following are my answers to your questions:

1) Although I would say that -- in my experience -- the tethering behaviour on my D3x between 3.5 vs. 3.4.1 (while running 10.6.8) is better, it is still not what I would consider "stable" or "consistent" by any means.

2) The "duration of time" was sporadic. Sometimes, the connection would be lost if my camera/computer sad idle for just a few minutes (my Mac was not in Sleep mode) while other times the connection would be lost if my camera/computer sat idle for 20-30 minutes (when my Mac WAS in Sleep mode and woken-up). I cannot see any consistency to when the connection is lost.

3) I experienced both being "cut-off" and "hanging" with 3.5. For me:

- Being "cut off" was when the connection was lost between camera/computer after sitting idle. When this happened, I would go to File > Tethered Capture > Stop Tethered Capture and then File > Tethered Capture > Start Tethered Capture and the connection was found again and (most importantly) everything that I shot and was buffered on the camera would still come down and into 3.5, thereby not losing any of my work.

- However, "hanging" occurred on me a number of times as well, where I was shooting and images were coming-into 3.5 fine and then -- for no reason and mid-shooting -- 3.5 tethering would "hang" and the images would stop coming in. When this happens, I would go to File > Tethered Capture > Stop Tethered Capture and then File > Tethered Capture > Start Tethered Capture (same as above) but the connection was never resurrected and the only way to proceed was to close LR and restart LR, thereby, losing everything that was buffered on the camera.

In my experience, 3.4 was very stable with 10.6.7. Sure, I had sporadic instances of hanging (it happens sometimes), but nothing like I experienced with 3.4 after upgrading to 10.6.8, or even now with 3.5. In my opinion, 3.5 has not solved the tethering bugs. My experience shows that it is unstable and unpredictable. However, as I said before, when tethering using Sofortbild and a watched folder linked to LR 3.4 or 3.5, I have not experienced a single tethering hiccup.

I should note that the 3-day fashion shoot I am basing this experience on was shot completely running only on my MBP's battery power. I am not sure if that had any effect on 3.5's stability. However, on Monday/Tuesday I am doing a 2-day studio shoot where my MBP will be able to run the entire time on A/C power. I will see if I have similar tethering issues in this more "controlled" environment and report back accordingly next week.

Best regards,

Scott

Glad to hear it! Thanks for the update.

-Ben

Benjamin,

I have not tried the update, yet will try it this week

Hi Ben,

The 3.5 update worked perfectly for me in Snow Leopard and, after a recent hard drive failure (no fault of yours 😉 ) I installed 3.5 along with Lion and it still works perfectly. Thanks so much for the fix.

Best,
Christopher

Hello all posters on this thread,

There were roughly 10 people who posted on this thread saying that they had this problem. Of those 10, two have posted back to say that the 3.5 update has not solved the issue for them. How are things going for the rest of you? Has 3.5 solved the problem? Has it not? Have you not tried it? The more information we get, the more likely it is we can solve any remaining problems.

Thanks,
Ben

Hi Scott,

Thanks for the detailed information. In Lightroom 3.4.1 (when running on Mac OS 10.6.8 or later) if I simply let the computer and camera sit, Lightroom would lose the connection to the camera in 15-20 minutes. After the fix we made for version 3.5, I have let the camera and computer sit for as long as an hour and a half without losing the connection (haven't tested longer than that).

Which is to say, that prior to the fix in 3.5, I could easily reproduce the problem you're seeing, and after the fix, I cannot. So I'm wondering:

1. Is the behavior for you unchanged? Is Lightroom's propensity to lose the connection to the camera the same in 3.4.1 and 3.5? Or is one of them worse or better than the other?

2. What, specifically, is the "duration of time" that you refer to? And does the same duration of time do it in 3.4.1 and 3.5?

3. In your description above, what is the difference between "cut-off" (your first bullet point) and "hang" (your second bullet point)?

Thanks,
Ben

I shot a location fashion assignment for 3 days in a row last week (using D3x with LR 3.5 on my MBP running 10.6.8) and, I am sorry to say, I still experienced similar tethering problems as before when I was running LR 3.4.

- Tethering cut-off 5-6 times per 10-hour shoot day if the camera/laptop sat idle for a duration of time.
- Tethering would hang mid-shoot 3-4 times per 10-hour shoot day for no apparent reason.
- Images were lost a number of times due to these LR 3.5 malfunctions.

I have tried all troubleshooting suggestions mentioned here http://kb2.adobe.com/cps/894/cpsid_89... (including deleting the preference file, ensuring camera firmware is up-to-date, etc) without any luck.

However, when tethering using Sofortbild and a watched folder linked to LR 3.4 or 3.5, I have not experienced a single tethering hiccup.

In my opinion, LR 3.5 has not solved the tethering bugs.

Hi David,

If you are using version 3.5 and are still having trouble with Lightroom losing the connection to your camera, then I would try everything here:

http://kb2.adobe.com/cps/894/cpsid_89...

Thanks,
Ben