P: Development in Tethering capturing

No, I haven't upgraded. I was waiting for news on whether or not there were any new problems with Nikon. I haven't heard a lot of screaming and got the help from Victoria I needed to plan how I was going to use the new LR Classic + LR CC, so it was on my to-do list. If that prevents hangs without preventing anything else, that's all to the good.

Catalog size. Tiny. I only use it temporarily. I'm on a MBP with SSD, but I am connected to an external drive so I can easily move between computers. Since I mainly use a Bridge/CR/PS workflow, this was the easiest way to handle a catalog that isn't going to ever be a permanent organization method for my camera files.

I guess now is as good a time as any to update, since you'll be paying attention to any problems we have with tethering.

Oh, I didn't say that I shoot Raw + B&W JPEG.

Hi Chandan

Yes sometimes i have one camera above my head (table top shot) and another from the side. Not my regular workflow but in some cases I'm using specially for food photography. Im not tether both camera together same time, but I'm mixing on shot from above one from the side etc.. Where i can find my use case in Lightroom?

Thanks for reply 

Best

Hi all one more time

Here i will start posting links of different professional photographers around the globe that reviewing tethering and how essential this become in world of creativity.

F Stoppers article from Christopher Malcolm
March 8 2018
https://fstoppers.com/bts/how-capture-one-completely-changed-my-photography-workflow-and-streamlined-my-225291

F Stoppers article from Jeff Carpentr
January 14, 2018
https://fstoppers.com/capture-one/whats-better-tethering-capture-one-pro-or-adobe-lightroom-212396

F Stoppers article from Tihomir Lazarov
November 17, 2016
https://fstoppers.com/education/confessions-lightroom-user-trying-capture-one-pro-workflow-153879

Here is just few that I find today. If something more come up i will post. Hope this will help in developing.

Best regards

Jure

Hi Jure,

This is interesting, you mention at least 3 scenarios of connection lost. Something to work with as we have these cameras in-house too. You say you tether both cameras together, at same time? and is that a regular workflow? Could you please share your usecase.

Thanks,
Chandan 

HI Cristen,

Thanks for your feedback. Couple of questions:

• Are you on latest version 7.2
• Whats your machine configuration like and setup e.g. catalog size, which HD

We fixed slowdown over time in 7.2(feb release) especially on some configurations of WIN machines. It will help if we could replicate the slowdown.

Thanks,
Chandan

Hi guys

Yes as Stephen say many people switching to C1 just because of tethering. 

Im a food photographer so my camera is many times above my head. When im tether on Lightroom i need to take several pictures before i place all props and plates in the frame nicely, this is where live view will come handy. Even i was looking on one tutorial of Andrew Scrivani I think his Adobe ambassador, the funny part was that he was working in Lightroom but keep saying that they are out there some programs with live view. Not sure why ambassador will say this.. so this is for me as well first necessary thing to be developed.

Second thing i can fallow on Stephen complain and tell you the pattern:

>>My first complaint is how unreliable it is. The number of times I have tried to use Lightroom to tether, program freezes and camera connection dropping probably every 10 minutes cause it to be unusable.

When i checking my pictures of what i take in develop module the camera get disconnected. Its still showing me that is connected but it doesn't fire on laptop and when i try fire on my camera, picture doesn't go nowhere. Its not transferred on my computer and its not capture on my SD card. So i learn that im not going back checking my pictures until the job is done.

Second i notice as well is when i change my lens i switch my camera off and when i switch back on it showing me camera that is detected but when I fire pictures are not transferred on computer.

As well if my laptop go to sleep mode Lightroom will not fire my camera after i wake him up.

im using Nikon D850 and Nikon D750 sometimes i tether both at same time. but im facing with some problems. Not always my settings apply to correct camera. So i don't bother my self again with settings before the job is done.

So many times i need to restart lightroom switch of my camera in front of client what is really embarrassing.

So to wrap things I think live view and control your camera in Lightroom will help a lot with overall experience. Sorry for my English its not my first language guys but hope you understand my frustration 

I don't know if you care about the amateur photographer, but tethering is the reason I use LR. I'm not working with anything that moves of its own accord, and from my experience, I wouldn't try to, either. I shoot with a Nikon D750 and a very simple, very small home studio setup. My tether isn't falling out of the socket—I don't tug on it at all. That isn't the reason it gets slower the longer I'm working with it. I almost never have LR drop its connection, either. But the longer I go with it, the more often it hangs. Maybe it has to do with LR being on a portable hard drive, which is LR's own fault <G>, even though the laptop has an SSD drive. But I don't know why that would get worse the more I shoot, the longer the session.

If I've shot 2 or 3 images before I notice the hang, I am sitting there far too long, hoping it will finish transferring, to use this in any kind of production environment, even if creatures that move weren't involved. If I did product or food photography, it wouldn't be cost-effective to wait on it this much.

I've noticed that if it hangs and I stop tethering and start again, that seems to clear up whatever is the problem—for awhile. If I had to work with this several hours a day, I simply wouldn't be able to stand it. It's because I'm not shooting for more than 30-60 minutes at any given time, and my shooting is at my own discretion,  that I don't mind enough to stop using it—at least its better than shooting without being tethered and I don't have to buy a new app for it.

However, On1 Photo Raw just came out with tethered shooting as a paid update to those of us who have 2018. It doesn't look like the features are any better than LR's, it wouldn't surprise me if there are bugs or slowness, but I will try it out sometime in the coming week to see how it behaves.  At least it's direct to computer, no catalog (on an external drive) getting in the way, so that might be a plus.

I really would like to be able to shoot with Live View, too. It isn't all that easy to set up my camera at odd angles and still contort into position to see through the viewfinder. That means I may end up giving up and taking the camera off the tripod. Not ideal. That brings with it its own limitations to what I can try to do.

So I'm definitely all in favor of Adobe upgrading the feature to be pro-worthy. Us amateur photographers will find life easier, too.

Thanks Chandan, it's nice getting some responses!

Hey Amit,
I'll be honest and say I haven't tried in over a year out of frustration, but I can say I have tested with a variety of canon and nikon pro cameras, haven't tried with any Sony, fuji or Hasselblad. My main camera is a Nikon D800, so that's the one I've tested the most.
I try and always look for patterns, reduce and isolate variables... it really just seamed to be plain "bad," not working in any scenario. Sometimes immediately freezing, sometimes after a few shots, whether I left the camera still or was holding it, changing out tether cords, whether I taped the tether cord to the camera or left it free hanging, whether I took shots or not, whether I messed around in other areas of Lightroom or not, whether I had other programs up and running or not. I couldn't find a single reliable way to use it.
The only thing I can think of, with no understanding the underlying programing architecture, is that Lightroom doesn't know how to deal with slight connection blips that are inherent with tether cords and on-camera ports.. as they are inherently loose and the bane of the OCD. I know C1 had a hard time with camera dropping on occasion a few versions back, and it would similarly freeze requiring a force closing.... I can't recall one instance of this in the past two years though.
This is only tethering one camera at a time, never tried multiple.

Hi Stephen, 

Thank you so much for writing such a detailed feedback. It is very constructive and really helpful in understanding your POV. Have shared it with the team internally and we would be reaching out to you for more information. E.g. as Amit already asked, we would like to understand scenarios where tether in Lr becomes unreliable. We have been working on general performance improvements for some time now, would evaluate tether performance as well. 

I would also encourage others to share their feedback. We would also need your help in understanding issues and testing. It may take time but I think we can work together to make a difference.

Thanks again,
Chandan