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

[FeedbackCommunityMember]

I would like to add that I too shoot for a living and am experiencing the same issues as Scott.
Im shooting to a new MBP. OSX 10.6.8 using a Nikon D700 body.
The tethering session seems to lose contact with the camera at random. Once I close the session and restart it things are fine again for a few minutes before the problem reappears.

[J453]

We'll take a look this week when everyone returns to the office. Most of our North American engineers were off last week for the holiday.

[scottawoodward]

Hi Jeff, thank you for the message about this. I initially posted this over at Adobe Forums (when I was troubleshooting and trying to establish if the problem was with me/my gear/my machine) and got a few replies over there from other photographers (shooting both Nikon and Canon) experiencing the same problem with LR 3.4.1 and the OSX 10.6.8 upgrade. You can see their comments here http://forums.adobe.com/message/37883.... I really appreciate your help in solving this -- as professional photographers, we rely heavily on your products. Thank you, Scott Woodward

[J453]

Thanks for the additional data points in the link. I'll have the LR guys who are familiar with the tethering API take a look.

[MCorelli]

I have had this same problem while using os 10.6.8 with lightroom 3.4.1. I tried deleting this lightroom and reinstalling an older version but that did not work either.

[scottawoodward]

Hi Mark, yes I also tried the same thing but to no avail. However, my old MBP running 10.5.8 with LR 3.4.1 tethers fine. The issue seems to be how any version of LR operates with the latest Apple OSX upgrade to 10.6.8. I am not sure if it's an Apple issue or an Adobe issue, though -- or who will work to fix it. But it doesn't seem to be isolated to Nikon (as Canon photographers on my other post ad Adobe Forums are experiencing it too). I rely heavily on tethering to LR for my fashion and advertising work, so I hope that the issue will be resolved soon. In the meantime, I'll have to use Capture One Pro, I suppose...

[Boptissa]

Hi all,

We're running two D3X under tethered mode with LR 3.4.1 and 3.4 and we're easily able to reproduce this erratic issue since we upgraded to 10.6.8.......

Even LR 3.4 experiences that issue!

I have noticed something strange indeed. While LR was "stuck" during file transfer, monitor utility indicated that Apple's picture transfert extension was requesting 100% time processor...

Everything was running fine since 10.6.7...... So bad.....

Hope LR team will be able to fix that issue!!

[FeedbackCommunityMember]

I have the identical problem. OS 10.6.8 (Mac Pro), LR 3.4.1. Canon 1Ds Mk3 (x2 separate bodies). I made the mistake of upgrading LightRoom & the OS at the same time & immediately lost the ability to shoot tethered reliably. Took me a while to find the root cause, but using the latest LightRoom on a slightly older OS on an iMac solved the problem. Upgrading that iMac immediately introduced the problem again. So, it is the OS ...

[J453]

We've started looking at this and we're trying to track down when/where things broke down.

[scottawoodward]

Hi Jeffrey, thank you for updating us. It is good to know you and your engineers are on top of it. Hopefully a fix can be introduced soon... Looking forward to hearing from you. Scott

[Gary_Heller]

Tether problems with Canon 5D mk2 and Windows 7 (not just a Mac/Nikon issue)

I am shooting in studio with a Canon 5D mk2. I have LR 3.4 installed on a system running windows 7. Its a 64bit operating system and LightRoom is installed in 64 bit as well. AMD Quad core processor with 8GB of RAM, 2 internal hardrives with lots of free storage.

The camera is connected to the computer via a Canon 15 ft USB 2.0 cable.

When I shoot everything seems to work fine for the first 20 images or so and then it simply does not load from camera to Lightroom after a while. I shoot with a 16gb sandisk card installed in camera and so the images are still loading into the card, but not Lightroom. The tether window still shows my camera connected with technical info appearing, but just does not receive the images.

I have tried aborting tether and then starting it back up with mixed results. sometimes it worked again for another 12-20 images and then other times does not.

Occasionally it will freeze the camera as well. A few times I have continued shooting to the card and the camera would not shoot after a bit and would appear "busy" Eventually I just disconnect the USB cable and the camera is fine again.

So, basically it works for a bit at the start of a shoot and then gives problems as stated above.

Thanks for getting on this.

[J453]

Sounds like a different issue. I'd look at solution 5 in the following document:

Troubleshoot tethered capture | Lightroom 3

[Benjamin Warde]

Hi Scott,

Thanks for the detailed report. I can reproduce this problem as well, and have entered the issue in our bug database. Note that in my testing, I have only been able to reproduce the problem using Nikon cameras, not Canon. But I still need to try using the specific camera that Richard mentioned (the 1Ds MkIII). Should be able to lay my hands on one within the next few days.

Thanks,
Ben

[MCorelli]

I tried using my laptop instead of my imac. I have not yet updated my laptop OS. in mac os X version 10.6.4, I have not had the problem.

[scottawoodward]

Hi Ben, thank you for your message yesterday. I really appreciate you taking the time/effort to look into this for us. Forgive my ignorance, but (typically) what are the next steps once an issue like this has been logged in Adobe's "bug database"? I guess what I am asking is: is it something that you foresee addressing relatively quickly or something we'll have to wait awhile to have solved? LR is my go-to software for tethering, and I depend on it working. I have implemented a work-around using Sofortbild http://www.sofortbildapp.com/ and auto importing the images into LR by setting-up a watched folder, but it's not ideal. Anyway, thank you again and I (we) look forward to hearing from you on next steps... Scott

[Benjamin Warde]

Hi Scott,

Unfortunately, I couldn't say how long it might take to fix. Not being coy, I just have no idea. At this point, it's not even clear if this is a fix that is entirely within our control, or if we'll be reliant on Apple (or even Nikon) to make a change as well.

Another possible work around of course would be to revert to 10.6.7. Also not ideal, I realize, particularly if you're anticipating the upcoming release of Lion.

Thanks,
Ben

[scottawoodward]

Hi Ben, of course I understand the situation. I also appreciate that it might be an Apple and/or Nikon problem, too. Would you suggest that I/we photographers who are experiencing the issue with 10.6.8 and Nikon cameras (and, it appears, Canons too -- although you've been unable to confirm that as yet) to also feedback this "bug" to Apple and/or Nikon to help expedite a solution? Or will Adobe be in contact with Apple and/or Nikon directly? Pardon my ignorance. Thank you for updating me/us and we look forward to hearing from you in due course... Scott

[J453]

We added an alert to the following page:

Troubleshoot tethered capture | Lightroom 3

Right now we're suggesting users who require tethering support to stick with 10.6.7 until we're able to resolve this with the involved parties.

We'll post an update to this thread and the knowledge base document linked above when we have more info.

[FeedbackCommunityMember]

Im wondering if Adobe has a developer copy of OSX Lion to play with. I just bought this new MBP a month ago and have been given a free upgrade to Lion when it comes out so I was planning on using it.
As it turns out... this laptop came with 10.6.8 installed, so I dont even think its possible for me to revert to a pervious version of the OS.

Side note/thought: I know Windows has some kind of usb power management that puts them in a type of "sleep mode" when the OS is trying to conserve power. I wonder if OSX is doing a similar thing, not realizing that the camera is still tethered.

Its nice to have this forum to connect with Adobe employees... Its nice to know there is someone listening to the end users out there. 🙂

Thanks!

Ahh.... Question: Is there a keyboard shortcut to take a photo in tethered mode?
Im so used to using " Command K " in Capture One that i kinda miss it.

[J453]

We are testing against Mac OS X Lion, but can't comment on any specific compatibility issues until it's officially released. Sorry. We do work closely with Apple to try and address any issues we encounter. We'll keep you informed as we know more.

[J453]

Here's a tech doc on reverting back to a previous version of OS X 10.6:

Reverting to a previous Mac OS X version

[Daveloulou]

Having the same problems . D700 into LR 3.41 onto my MBP 10.6.8
I lose my tethered connection randomly - sometimes it seems that it happens when I take a break !
I thought that the cables were faulty and cleaned all the plugs , changed cables but the problem continues. I started using my Nikon Camera Control 2 but this also crashes from time to time so maybe it's not LR but the OS.
Thanks.

[Benjamin Warde]

I've done quite a bit of testing and am unable to reproduce this issue using any supported Canon camera. There may well be a problem with Canons, but if there is, it's a different problem. If you are having a problem with Canon cameras and tether in Lightroom, please start another thread, and provide as much detail as possible.

Thanks,
Ben

[ben anders]

Hi

I am a professional photographer shooting Canon 1dsmk3 and 5dmk2. Both cameras shooting tethered to LR 3.4.1 and OS 10.6.8. I have been having the exact same issues. LR acknowledges the camera when it is tethered. If I fire a few frames everything is fine. If I pause and start shooting again the files won't download. LR still shows the camera attached and then LR will crash with spinning ball showing. The only thing I can do is then restart my MacBook Pro. I shoot with a card in the camera as my back up workflow. I have tried different CF cards, USB leads and different USB ports on my mac and nothing makes any difference.

My work around at the moment is to shoot tethered to the Canon software (Camera Window and Eos Utility). Then set up LR to auto import from a watch folder. This works fine. I thought that upgrading to Lion would help. However as far as I understand the Canon software will not work on Lion so my fall back work around will not work!

Really need this to be sorted out or if Adobe can try Lion and let us know if this helps. I rely on LR for all my work and its a real set back to have to deal with these issues.

Thanks,
Ben.

[FeedbackCommunityMember]

I shoot professionally as well and this is a real problem. I started another thread yesterday about it because this one seems to have been "solved", although hardly for me. I shoot the Canon 5d1 + 5dII and lightroom disconnects from the USB ports if you take any sort of break at all. It's absurd it's been this long with a solution besides downgrading to an outdated version of OSX, which quite frankly, makes no sense since windows users are having the same problem. Like above I always shoot to a card as well. I was going to use the Canon utility and have lightroom watch that folder but yesterday I downloaded Capture One Pro and I have to say this lightroom tether disconnect may be a blessing in disguise. Right now I'm using capture one (flawless) to tether and process the raw files and cataloging in lightroom, but this is only because I haven't had time to look at the capture one cataloging structure. Capture One Pro (i think you have to use the pro edition for tether) has a 30 day free trial so if you're having problems I would give it a try. I figured if lightroom can't get their product working within the 30 days I'll bite the bullet and pay for capture one, but I'm so impressed with capture one that I think at this point I'm a "former" lightroom user that's only still using it so I can access my old catalogs. When a professional level problem goes on this long without any action from the provider you have to ask yourself if this is a solution you want your photography business to rely on. For me the answer is no.