# Lightroom 3 Tethered Shooting - Limitations?



## mdrdsr (Dec 21, 2010)

I thought that I would test out the tethered shooting capabilities of Lightroom 3. I had tried it in the past with third party software but never really found it useful or very user friendly. Setting up my Nikon D200 was a snap. I plugged in the USB cable to the camera then to my laptop. Started Lightroom and then turned on the camera. I then chose Tethered Shooting from the Lightroom 3 File menu and like magic, it worked! A few quick tests and all seemed to be working well. I can take a shot either from the camera or from the tethered shooting bar that now appears on the screen. The bar displays a few items like ISO & shutter speed. But, it also allows you to fire the shutter.

So, after a little testing I began to ask myself some questions and began to notice that there might be some limitations with respect to import/workflow when compared to import from a memory card.

I currently import from memory cards and automatically my files are renamed as "YYYYMMDDfilename". My filenames in the camera/on the card are in the format of "_DSRnnnn.NEF". Thus after import they become "YYYYMMDD_DSRnnnn.NEF". This doesn't seem to be possible with tethered import. Even using the existing LR3 template for filenaming has no affect. The files are named "YYYYMMDDCapturennnn.nef" upon import via tethered shooting.

I currently convert to DNG format on import. This doesn't appear to be possible via tethered capture. The images are all imported as .nef files with associated .xmp files. Is there a way to associate an import conversion/template?

Part of my workflow is that on import from memory card the images are stored in a file structure the is YYYY/MM/DD/file after being renamed and converted to .dng as described above. This is accomplished automatically upon importing from memory cards but does not seem possible via import via tethered shooting.

Any feedback that you might have regarding tethered shooting via Lightroom 3 would be appreciated. You can also respond here 

http://blog.pixelsonthewall.com/?p=324


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## smahn (Dec 21, 2010)

There's another significant limitation that's prevented me from getting very far with it, which is a lack of Live View compatibility.

So instead I use the Canon Eos utility to download to a watched folder from which LR auto imports from. In so doing you have access to the import naming options you're used to.


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## b_gossweiler (Dec 21, 2010)

Scott,

I guess the need for thethering into data-based folders is not so  prominent, as they would all end up in the same one folder anyway. So  setting up this one folder once before starting thethered also takes  care of it.



smahn said:


> There's another significant limitation that's prevented me from getting very far with it, which is a lack of Live View compatibility.
> 
> So instead I use the Canon Eos utility to download to a watched folder from which LR auto imports from. In so doing you have access to the import naming options you're used to.


 
I agree that thethering with EOS Utility and auto importing into LR is a good alternative. EOS Utility gives you the following advantages over the tethered interface in LR:


Live View
Control over exposure, aperture, shutter time by use of the PC interface.
Beat


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## sizzlingbadger (Dec 22, 2010)

For the Nikon shooters on Macs this app is free    http://www.sofortbildapp.com


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## Victoria Bampton (Dec 22, 2010)

Yes, there are a number of limitations with the tethered shooting, and they vary depending on the manufacturer too, because LR's using the manufacturer's own SDK's to run the tethering.



mdrdsr said:


> Thus after import they become "YYYYMMDD_DSRnnnn.NEF". This doesn't seem to be possible with tethered import.


Correct, that's a Nikon limitation.



mdrdsr said:


> I currently convert to DNG format on import. This doesn't appear to be possible via tethered capture. The images are all imported as .nef files with associated .xmp files. Is there a way to associate an import conversion/template?


Once you've finished your shoot, select them in Grid view and go to Library menu > Convert Photos to DNG to automatically convert and swap the proprietary files.  It isn't offered during tethered shooting for performance reasons.



mdrdsr said:


> Part of my workflow is that on import from memory card the images are stored in a file structure the is YYYY/MM/DD/file after being renamed and converted to .dng as described above.


 Correct, although all of your tethered shoot is (in most people's situations) likely to be on a single day, so you can direct the destination folder to the applicable YYYY/MM/DD folder yourself.


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