D810 Tethered Capture

[steve9791]

Could someone please help before I pull my hair out

I've never done tethered capture before but I have a shoot coming up at the end of the month when I have to shoot tethered. 

I have a D810 with a 15ft Teather Pro USB 3.0 cable attached to a MacBook Pro running OS X El Capitan and Lightroom CC.

Before upgrading to Lightroom CC (today) I had LR5.7 which was supposed to support tethered capture with the D810.  However, lightroom could not / would not detect the camera.   I contacted Adobe who advised upgrading to LRCC as this did support tethered capture with the D810.  However, Lightroom, for reasons unbeknown to me, seems to refuse to recognise the camera.  I've tried any number of different methods of connecting it and turning it on but nothing seems to work.

I've seen the Adobe Troubleshooting link online for tethered capture but none of what is described works or seems relevant to my particular problem, and to be honest, it seems out of date too.

Am I just being dumb and overlooking something really simple or does tethered capture with LRCC and Nikon D810 just not work.

Any answers, including any camera settings I might be overlooking would be greatly appreciated before I end up completely bald...!! 

Thanks

[Mrinmay Majhi]

Hi Steve,

Tethering Nikon & Leica cameras using Lightroom CC 2015/Lightroom 6 is not currently supported on El Capitan.

Please refer to the below link.

Lightroom and El Capitan | Mac OS 10.11

~Mrinmay

[steve9791]

Hi Mrinmay, thanks for your help.

[marcofwi]

Hi Steve

I have been pulling my hair out on this one as well. I think this is a major issue knowing that I need to work tethered on certain projects. I think the problem does come from "El Capitan". The iPhoto equivalent recognizes the Nikon D810, so El Capitan "sees" the camera. We can expect Apple, Adobe and Nikon to toss around the hot potato before someone comes up with a solution. In the meantime, users cannot work.

Since "El Capitan" is responsible for the problem, Apple should do the right thing and offer a solution : A simple roll back solution to their previous OS.

In the meantime, with all my pro equipment in the studio, I have to tell my clients that the "machine" doesn't work... and it will take twice as long to do the job.

Thanks all!

Marco

[almelz]

I agree. This is a major inconvenience for photographers who use tethering in their workflow!  I wasted a lot of time before finding this nearly hidden issue statement i.e.

Tethering with Nikon and Leica cameras

Tethering Nikon and Leica cameras using Lightroom CC 2015 and Lightroom 6 is not currently supported on El Capitan.

Adobe recommends that customers who rely on Lightroom for tethering Nikon and Leica cameras do not upgrade to El Capitan at this time.

The engineering team at Adobe is working with our partners to correct this issue and provide compatibility in the future.

Adobe, you had plenty of time during the beta version of El Capitan released in July 2015 to recognize and work on a fix with Apple and fix the tethering problem in Lightroom. Only after the release of El Capitan in September did you release the notice about upgrading to El Capitan. TOO LITTLE TO LATE  FOR EVERYONE THAT UPGRADED TO os x El Capitan.

This is really unacceptable for two software giants like Apple and Adobe to have this type of problems.

Both Apple and Adobe need to give your engineers a good kick in the ass to resolve this problem immediately.

[johnrellis]

Jeffrey Tranberry, Adobe Chief Customer Advocate, said this a few days ago:

The current Nikon Tethering SDK uses an API that was deprecated by Apple in El Capitan. Nikon needs to update their SDK to use a different API. Once they update their SDK, we can test and integrate it in a future update.

So looks like Nikon deserves a large part of the blame, here.

[johnrellis]

A simple roll back solution to their previous OS.

If you use Time Machine for backups, see this article for how to downgrade to OS X 10.10 (Yosemite): How to downgrade from OS X El Capitan to Yosemite or older version.

[btfitz]

Hi Mrinmay,

I've been keeping track of the update at the link you posted, but as of now (a month after I upgraded to El Capitan) there is no additional information, no update from Adobe and no mention of progress.   I rely on tethering for my daily workflow.  I understand that it takes time to get a fix done, but I think all of us would appreciate status updates from Adobe more frequently.

Thank you-

[johnrellis]

If you add your vote and opinion to this bug report in the official Adobe feedback forum, Lightroom: Can't use tethering with Nikon and Leica after installing MacOS 10.11 El Capitan, you'll be notified as soon as there is any change in status.  See in particular the response from Jeffrey Tranberry, Adobe Chief Customer Advocate.

But as discussed previously in this thread, this is primarily an issue between Nikon and Apple.  Nikon didn't bother to test its tethering software (upon which LR relies) prior to the release of El Capitan and now, a month later, still hasn't provided its customers with an update on the status.

[btfitz]

HI John,

Thanks--will do.  I hate to say it as a Nikon Professional Services member for many years, but I'm not surprised that Nikon's not being responsive on this one.  I'm hoping that Adobe can exert more pressure on them than I alone would be able to.

Brian

[johnrellis]

I'm hoping that Adobe can exert more pressure on them than I alone would be able to.

Me too.  But Adobe will likely never say more publicly than "we're working with our partners", so we won't have any visibility to how much pressure is being exerted.

[Mrinmay Majhi]

Hi btfitz,

I am sorry for the inconvenience caused to you.

Our engineering department is working on the issue to fix it.

Please follow the post provided by johnrellis for an update.

~Mrinmay

[marcofwi]

Thanks John:

I don't use time machine. I clone the OS drive and backup my files. Anyway, I wouldn't do the roll back as from what I read, I was worried that I would end up with a corrupt system and I didn't want to spend a week fixing it.

As for blaming Nikon (Hot potato), I don't know... I had a perfectly functioning system before upgrading to El Capitan. I actually bought the Nikon to do tethered work in the studio. That is 5k$ to 10k$ with lenses that becomes useless because of an upgrade.

Do you think Apple would have deprecated the Canon API for tethering? Would you still consider that the camera maker was to blame?

Thanks for your input though:

[johnrellis]

Do you think Apple would have deprecated the Canon API for tethering? Would you still consider that the camera maker was to blame?

I haven't been able to find out any of developer-level details about the Nikon tether SDK.  It sounds like there was an OS X API that the Nikon SDK relied on.  That API was likely not specific to tethering (I don't think OS X has any such APIs) but rather more generic, e.g. something to do with USB connections (just as a hypothetical example).   In the past, Apple has often marked APIs as "deprecated" but then gives developers quite a while, over several releases and a year or more, a chance to replace their use of the deprecated APIs.   Not knowing the particular deprecated APIs, I don't know if that happened in this instance.   But it's well-known among developers for OS X that it's their responsibility to monitor for such changes, by reading the documentation and by testing on the OS X betas.

But regardless, if Nikon were serving its customers better, it would have tested the Nikon tethering SDK during the El Capitan betas and, discovering it didn't work, gotten the word out that tethering wasn't yet working.  (The tethering SDK is used in its own apps, including Camera Control Pro 2, as well as in other third-party apps like LR, none of which work on El Capitan.)  To get the word out, it could have published articles on its own support site, sent word to sites like dpreview.com, notified third-party licensees like Adobe, and emailed those who had registered their Nikon cameras with email addresses.

It doesn't look like Nikon did any of this prior to the release of El Capitan. The only thing I can find is a support article and some FAQs from 10/6/2015 (a week after the public release of El Capitan) saying that "We plan to examine OS X 10.11 El Capitan compatibility" between its apps and El Capitan: Mac OS X version 10.11 "El Capitan" Compatibility Announcement | Nikon Knowledgebase. These apps include Nikon's Camera Control Pro 2.   I can't find anything newer on Nikon's site.

In general, Nikon doesn't have a great reputation for maintaining its software.  At least two different versions of ViewNX, over a couple of years, corrupted raw images as they were transferred from the camera card, and they didn't do anything to help customers repair the issue -- it took a third-party developer, working on his own dime, to release a repair tool: Fix Corrupted Nikon NEF Images.  In years past, my own experience with the Nikon drivers and Nikon Scan for the Coolscan film scanners was less than stellar.

[marcofwi]

Hi John

Thanks for your detailed answer.

There is one detail that irks me: Why does the new "iPhoto" in El Capitan recognize my D810 (name included) and not LR. I even upgraded to LR6 thinking that my old version was the cause, although I had recently upgraded to LR5 to tether the D810.

I hope you understand that when a photographer (old school) buys a camera, he mainly looks into the quality of the lenses and sensor associated with the necessary whistles and bells. Should I be privileging firmware reactivity rather than camera qualities? I guess so!

It is also odd that this feed doesn't have more input: I seems like there are only a few D810 owners working tethered with LR5-6 and El Capitan. Odd?

Anyway thanks for walking me through the subject.

[johnrellis]

Why does the new "iPhoto" in El Capitan recognize my D810 (name included) and not LR.

I'm not sure what you mean by "recognize" -- do you mean that LR 6 is not able to import photos from your D810?

[johnrellis]

Should I be privileging firmware reactivity rather than camera qualities? I guess so!

For better or worse, we're in a digital age and computers are taking over 😆 So I think the associated software and firmware have to be important considerations.  (E.g. I'm not likely to buy a Fuji X-Trans until either LR supports it well or there's another program that supports it that I'm willing to migrate to.)

[johnrellis]

It is also odd that this feed doesn't have more input: I seems like there are only a few D810 owners working tethered with LR5-6 and El Capitan.

It's not just D810s or LR -- no Nikons or Leicas tether with other programs in El Capitan.  I'm mildly surprised there isn't more feedback here. This topic in the official Adobe feedback forum has only two votes: Lightroom: Can't use tethering with Nikon and Leica after installing MacOS 10.11 El Capitan.  Perhaps tethering is used mostly by commercial photographers who are slow and cautious at upgrading.  Or perhaps people are concluding that there's not much that Adobe can do, so the feedback is getting directed elsewhere on the Web.  (A Google search shows lots of complaints.)  Don't know.

[marcofwi]

@(E.g. I'm not likely to buy a Fuji X-Trans until either LR supports it well or there's another program that supports it that I'm willing to migrate to.)

LOL I have one! But wasn't expecting to work connected with it.

[marcofwi]

With "El Capitan", the new iPhoto takes over and each time you plug in something in the system with photos on it, "Photo" opens and asks if you want to import from the source (until you check off the options). Cameras included. And in the case of the D810, Photo opens and asks if you want to import photos from the Nikon D810? But it may be due to the formatted card... As the card is also identified when mounted from a reader.

[johnrellis]

With "El Capitan", the new iPhoto takes over and each time you plug in something in the system with photos on it, "Photo" opens and asks if you want to import from the source (until you check off the options). Cameras included. And in the case of the D810, Photo opens and asks if you want to import photos from the Nikon D810? But it may be due to the formatted card... As the card is also identified when mounted from a reader.

See if this thread helps: How can I get Apple's Photos app not to interfere with LR importing?

[Remon_Wanas]

Hello everyone,

I do have problem to tethering using Nikon D7000 ? anyone have fix this issue

[Akash Sharma · Accepted solution]

Hi All,

We have just released  Lightroom 6.4/2015.4 which fixes the issue of Nikon tether with Lightroom running on Mac OS 10.11.

Please refer Lightroom CC 2015.4 / 6.4 now available

Regards,

Akash

[nratt]

Thank You, Thank You, Adobe!!!

[Joe_Arizona]

Tethered Capture malfunction in LrCC

I have the latest version 2015.4, but I cannot tethered capture either. I have the Nikon D800 and D7000..

I recently bought a Tether Tools USB booster, hoping to provide a boost for tethered capture, but there is no difference or change in camera recognition. LrCC will not recognize the camera. I have to fish around menu screens and settings, turn the camera on, turn it off, turn it on, turn it off, until miraculously the camera gets detected. This is very embarrassing when I have a customer right there, waiting for me to get started and I look like some amateur clown, trying to get the camera and PC setup.

Another problem I encountered last week, while shooting tethered is the screen refresh during image processing. In the middle of a tethered shoot, the screen went blank (white fill), as it was processing the new image. Only in this case, the software froze right there. I was able to close the tethered capture panel and return to the develop module, or import module. In each of both occurrences I had to restart LrCC and try to get the tethered capture to recognize my camera again.

I am positive this is an LrCC software malfunction. My PC has always detected the camera (with or without the Tether Tools USB booster). I can even explore folders, download images and import to LrCC, directly from the camera, while connected via USB.

This has been a problem for many years now and I feel that Adobe really needs to get this issue resolved. I've have three models of Nikon cameras and tethered capture does not perform camera recognition properly, with either. For 90% of my photo shoots, I can work around this problem, but the 10% of shoots where I absolutely desire to have tethered capture functionality, LrCC lets me down. If tethered capture wasn't so flaky, I could be doing 70% or more of my work using tethered capture. That would be a huge bonus to my operation.

Will you please relay the importance of getting this malfunction resolved? I would truly appreciate your empathy and conveyance on my behalf.

J. Aragon, Phoenix