P: Tethering

[scottawoodward]

I am a professional photographer who relies heavily on LR for my digital workflow. I tether my Nikon D3 and D3x to LR frequently. I've never had an issue with tethering my cameras to LR until this past week. And, after much frustration and processes-of-elimination and testing the issue across multiple machines, I BELIEVE that the problem has to do with the latest OSX 10.6.8 update when running LR 3.4.1.

You can read my initial post about this problem on Adobe forums here http://forums.adobe.com/message/37883... when I was stumped about why it was happening.

Then you can see my follow-up post about this problem today here http://forums.adobe.com/message/37894... and why I think it has to do with the recent 10.6.8 update.

Please feel free to contact me for anymore information. I really hope you can look into this issue.

Thank you,

Scott Woodward

[Lee_Jay]

Why not just go back to a previous version of the OS that you know works?

[FeedbackCommunityMember]

I'm not really excited about the idea of going back and reinstalling a previous OS, I suspect that would create either a lot of other problems or a tremendous amount of work with some potential for real problems, data loss etc. As well, I don't believe Apple make it very easy to unwind an OS update. Also, I shouldn't have to. Apple says they give all developers ample time to test their products against the updates to ensure compatibility and based on my past experience with Adobe, they're usually behind the curve on this or conveniently come up with a new version that is compatible but requires a paid upgrade.

[bcarmic]

So here is my final take. Adobe doesn't give a DARN about pro photographers or any photographers as far as I can tell. Quite simply, they don't want to admit this screw up with LR3. They are still marketing it like it is the cats meow... I'm tired of reading ad nausea accounts of fellow photographers lamenting this disastrous non functioning tether option which every other company SOMEHOW has figured out how to accomplish with consistency. All we get are "employees" who want to string us along asking dumb questions about OUR procedure etc etc etc. JUST FIX IT ADOBE. PUT SOME MONEY INTO IT and MAKE IT WORK and PUBLICLY admit your mistake as opposed to covering it up on these threads. I'm disgusted by this how little effort Adobe has put into this. It should not have been released and marketed. We did believe you ADOBE that you wanted to step up with LR3. Do you ever read anything about recalls or admission of error? No and that simply is not acceptable and is unethical. This has been going on for three months and Kevin above is still tracking it down? Give me a break.

Bob Carmichael
bobcarmichael.com

[Lee_Jay]

When they sold LR3, it worked, and it continued to work up until Apple broke it. This is like blaming the car manufacturer for the fact that your neighbor's teenager ran into your car while it was parked.

I don't understand the mentality of Apple fanboy's. They screw everything up and they can still do no wrong.

[LR_Kevin]

I have a new potential fix for the tethering problem with the D3/D3x, and would like to find someone here who would be willing to test it for me. Note that this fix only affects Nikon cameras (Dan, your problem is on my radar, too).

If you've been having tether problems with your Nikon and would like to try this new build and give me feedback, please let me know how I can contact you.

Thanks,

-kevin

[FeedbackCommunityMember]

Kevin...I would be glad to help you out. But it appears there is no way on this photoshop.com "community" to contact anyone with a private message. Please let me know if there is any way to do this.

[J453]

Hi Jim, thanks. Kevin and I have access to your email address behind the scenes so we'll send you an email.

[bcarmic]

Kevin: If the fix involves going back to 10.6.7 or some such nonsense then please don't respond to me. However my email is bc@bobcarmichael.com I use a Nikon D3.
Carmichael

[bcarmic]

HAD to go look at current Adobe Marketing of LR3: This says it all about TRUTH in ADVERTISING. And I'm IN advertising... Adobe should PULL these ads.

Adobe® Photoshop® Lightroom® 3 software helps you bring out the best in your photographs, whether you're perfecting one image, searching for ten, processing hundreds, or organizing thousands.
Create incredible images that move your audience. Experiment fearlessly with state-of-the-art nondestructive editing tools. Easily manage all your images. And showcase your work in elegant print layouts, slide shows, and web galleries, as well as on popular photo-sharing sites. All from within one fast, intuitive application.

Tethered shooting new
Instantly import and view images as you shoot them with tethered capture, available for select cameras. Use it to make an immediate, highly detailed check of your shot, the lighting, or the shooting setup. Or get instant feedback from clients or subjects.

EXCEPT... IT DOESN'T WORK KIDS!!! FLAT OUT DOESN'T WORK.
Bob Carmichael

[bcarmic]

Kevin: Please don't shoot the messenger either.

[FeedbackCommunityMember]

"Note that this fix only affects Nikon cameras (Dan, your problem is on my radar, too)."

Kevin,

Do you have any sort of eta on a Canon fix? A week or two or more like 6 months? I realize you're under the gun, I just need to make some decisions re making other arrangements.

If you find a solution, I'm willing to do some testing, you can contact me off line via email.

Dan

[LR_Kevin]

Hi Dan, I just looked into this problem and have a potential fix for it. Would you like to try it out? If so, I'll contact you at the email address you used to register on this forum.

[LR_Kevin]

Doh, I really should have read your entire message to see that you already volunteered. I'll be contacting you. 🙂

[Trantow]

Kevin, please do send me your fix...I'd love to try it before I start switching versions around! Thanks!

[charlesb31301963]

Kevin, I'd be happy to help testing on a D3. Charlie@charlesbest.co.uk

[Daveloulou]

Kevin,
I would be happy to test my D700 with Lion and LR 3.4.1.
Everything was just fine for the last two weeks then today I had all sorts of connection problems ( as discussed on this forum) and
corrupted files. Switched to Sofortbild and a watched folder - and had no problems

david@softbox.co.il

[FeedbackCommunityMember]

Kevin,

I have made a lot of tests and tried all the tips presented here without success.

But (that's my two cents...) I am sure now that there is a direct relation between the probability to fail and the file size.

If I shoot at "basic" level (small file: about 1 MB) I can take hundreds of pics without problem.
If I shoot at "fine" level (medium file : about 5 MB) it goes into trouble after 10/15 shots.
If I shoot at "RAW" (15MB) ... let's say that I can get one or ZERO picture correctly transfered to my MBP, and it's locked !

Never had to reboot the MBP but I have to quit LR and start it again to retry.

And I always wait 10 seconds between the display of the shoot on the LR screen and the next shutter triggering to be sure that all things are calmed down...

(Tests done with LR3.5, OS 10.6.8 and a Nikon D200)

I would like to test your last fix if possible (jp.potez@gmail.com)

[ben anders]

Hi All,

After trying everything!! Re-installed LR, Lion, Different USB ports, mac powered or on battery it appears that I have found a fix for my tether issue. My Canon 1dsmk3 only works consistently with a Canon branded tether USB cable. I've always been convinced that they are the same as any other USB cable but maybe thats not the case... Again no idea if mine is a specific case but thought it worth mentioning. After months of problems my workflow seems to be Ok again now.

Ben

[Mike M Lynch]

I have often reported the problems I have had with LR tethering and was hopeful that the promise made in this forum that the failures of LR would finally be fixed with the latest version (3.5) , but was frustrated to discover that the problem continues even after the upgrade.

I am using a Dell Laptop with 8GB Memory and an I-5 processor with Windows 7 - Dell's custom edition. . I use a 15 foot long USB cable and my laptop recognizes my Nikon D700 camera instantly while LR takes a much longer time (2-5 minutes) to discover there is a camera available.

Once it finally discovered the camera, LR worked just fine for the first 200 photos. Then it stopped loading photos from my camera. In fact, one entire entire sitting vanished because I did not see that the images had stopped downloading. Luckily for me, I offer the clients a chance to examine the images after each sitting and discovered my problem before they went away.

But ALL THE BEAUTIFUL IMAGES I thought I had captured were LOST!
They were NOT on my Laptop nor on my computer.
All the while, the camera and laptop both reported that they were connected and even LR reported that it was connected to the camera, but the photos did not load into the computer. I tried many things to see if I could get the missing images to appear.
Like just waiting a little. Waiting a little more. Disconnecting the camera to see if they had gone onto my memory card (NO!) And when it happened again, I also tried firing the camera from LR's tether window release button. NOTHING!

All the while LR was reporting that it was connected to my D700.

In order to keep up with the line of clients, I had to disconnect the camera and show my clients previews off the back of the camera.

OUCH!!!!! Imagine how unprofessional that made me look!!!

Because LR took so long to discover the camera and I had clients lining up at my photo booth, I could 't even connect my camera to the computer to show clients photos until I had a obvious lull in business. Meanwhile I was forced to show camera-back previews to my clients and getting funny looks.

I was forced to wait for a lull in the shooting to get my D700 and LR working together because of the long lag time it takes to get LR starting to see the D700. And the only way I could get the camera communicating with LR working was to reboot.

But the problem recurred, only much sooner - after less than 40 photos.

I had some success after trying many different ideas when I tried changing the Lightroom Tethered-download preferences to use a different folder. But I don't know why that mattered, or if it was just a quirk that it worked at all. Changing folders SEEMED to be the reason I was finally able to download images into Lightroom again.

But only for a while.

I asked myself if it might be a bad connection, because that has always been a first looked at problem, but my camera was reporting connection and my computer also reported a connection.

Only LR had problems.

I have tried to examine every possible reason that my cameras and LR don't work together, but the ONLY reason that seems to come up is that LR is still a BADLY engineered program.

It is just not designed to do tethered-shooting and should NOT make claims that it can.

[FeedbackCommunityMember]

In addition to my contribution above, I can say that whatever the file size (1Mb to 15 MB), I do NOT have any problem with Sofortbild tethered mode ...

[charlesb31301963]

A good days shooting today with only one failure - as it was during set up I thought I'd take some time instead of the usual panic when it happens during a shoot. When I noticed the final image that I had shot was not coming through in the usual 4 seconds or so, I waited, while the SBOD span around and eventually after maybe thirty or forty seconds the image appeared, at which point the connection window suddenly changed status to "no camera detected". Stopping and restarting tethering resumed normal service.............Nikon D3, 2m USB, MacBook 10.6.8, LR 3.5

[FeedbackCommunityMember]

We decided to start trailing tethered shooting for some of our work and have been having exactly the same problems as being reported on this thread! Our setup is

Windows 7
Lightroom 3.5
Canon 5DII with firmware 1.1.0
Canon 70-200 2.8L
Sigma 28-70 ex dg

We believe the problem starts when swapping lenses during the shoot.

(I do not switch the camera off or do anything special ) We just notice the images are not transferring. Switching off the camera does not achieve anything as the camera just shows the transfer icon on the back continuing to whirr with nothing happening!

The only way out seems to be remove the battery, disconnect, stop the tether on Lightroom then start all over again. Needless to say I'm not terribly happy about this. Lightroom should be able to cop even if an accident like pulling out the cable happens!

[LR_Kevin]

Lightroom 3.6RC has been posted. It should fix the tethering problem with the Nikon D3 (where it stops pulling in photos partway into the shoot), and the problem reported here for Canon cameras (changing the lens or some lens settings causes a disconnect).

However, I've learned today that it apparently does NOT fix the problem for the Nikon D3x, or, more specifically, a new issue has arisen from the previous fix just with this camera. I had not had a chance to test it against the D3x previously, but I'll be looking into this problem this week.

So, if you were having tether problems and have a Nikon D3 or a Canon with the problem mentioned above, please download the latest RC and post your results.

http://blogs.adobe.com/lightroomjourn...

[bcarmic]

This is GREAT news as a D3 shooter. FINALLY someone from Adobe has stepped up and notified us that we can go back to LR3.

But, I suggest more transparency from Adobe fellows. Admit the problem and then Fix the problem. The bad feedback you've been getting stems from continuing to promote, market the LR3 tether ability when WE KNOW it ain't werkin!!!

Congratulations to Kevin Tieskoetter for getting er done. Will download 3.6RC ( I assume that stands for Robert Carmichael) tomorrow! In the meantime I'll go on my social media and extol the good work of Kevin. But this is NOT the model for how problems and fixes should go. Own up and get it fixed... That engenders loyalty yall KNOW that...

Bob Carmichael

[Lee_Jay]

"Own up and get it fixed..."

Anyone reading this thread with comprehension would see they were trying to gather information from those having problems (and still are), even asking for it at times, and trying to replicate the problem so they could fix it.