Choosing Tethered Shooting Software for Nikon DSLR Cameras
Most Nikon DSLR owners are unlikely to have experimented with tethered shooting for one simple reason: Nikon charges in the order of $153 (Amazon)
There have been free alternatives available for some time now but they weren’t that easy to locate or use and had to rely on approaches (e.g. WIA) that couldn’t take full advantage of all of the camera’s capabilities. Nikon’s public release of newer SDKs redresses that and has spurred developers to produce more sophisticated alternatives. These may finally bring tethered shooting to the Nikon masses.
Why Shoot Tethered?
Photographers use tethering for two main reasons:
- Image Review and Workflow – Shooting while tethered provides immediate feedback about your work on a larger screen, making it easier to review and adjust your approach mid shoot and let the “keepers” enter your digital workflow more quickly. (More detail)
- Remote Control – Previewing, configuring and triggering your camera remotely can be extremely helpful when doing product, macro, time lapse or self portraiture photography.
The feature set for free tethered shooting software has traditionally focused upon the needs of “Image Review and Workflow” users. The new Nikon SDKs allow better support for “Remote Control” users, especially with the introduction of Live View.
Selecting Your Software
The most appropriate tethering software for you will be dependent upon a number of factors:
- User Type – Are you using tethering for “Image Review and Workflow” or “Remote Control” purposes? The latter user type has fewer options to chose from and may need to resort to commercial options to meet all of their needs.
- Camera – Cameras released prior to the D80 are unlikely to be supported by the more sophisticated, free tethering alternatives. SDKs for older models must exist but Nikon have only released SDKs product July 2007 or later (at the time of writing, this includes the D3, D3x , D40, D60, D80, D90, D200, D300, and D700).
- Operating System – Few tethering software vendors support both the Windows and Mac platforms. Only one Linux option appeared in my brief search on the topic.
- Budget
I had access to Windows XP and a Nikon D70S while preparing this post. As such I was unable to test Mac and Linux specific software or perform in depth testing of programs utilising the Nikon SDKs. Also some software has been released in German only and could not be reviewed.
The material below focuses upon the free alternatives available, and has split the free choices into separate “with Extensive Camera Support” and “with Modern Camera Support” categories. Commentary about my experiences is included when I’m able to test the software. Where I can’t test software directly I’ve included links to relevant publicly available data. This can be used as a starting point if you wish to conduct your own investigation into application suitability for your needs.
A list of commercial alternatives has been included for completeness. Limited detail is provided and I suggest readers use the vendor websites to gain a better understanding of the vendor’s solution.
My Picks
Keeping in mind that I tether for “Image Review and Workflow” purposes and use a Nikon D70S and Windows XP, my top picks are:
- DIYPhotobits.com Camera Control – it works, and has the widest feature set of any non-Nikon SDK tethering software on Windows
- Loligo Tether – visually more appealing but had reliability issues during testing
If I upgraded my camera body to something a little more modern my list would become:
- DCamCapture – use of Nikon SDK should result in more robust and fully featured connectivity with the camera
- DIYPhotobits.com Camera Control – it works, and has the widest feature set of any non-Nikon SDK tethering software on Windows
Mac users should definitely look into Stefan Hafeneger’s Sofortbild application. The feature set is impressive and I wish that DCamCapture’s feature set was as rich! If you use both a Mac and Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 2, or require support for older cameras, then StudioTether would be preferable. While Sofortbild has more advanced features than StudioTether many of them would become redundant when added into a Lightroom-based workflow.
gPhoto2 was the only option I found for Linux users though I’m sure there are more available. See this post for details.
Good luck with your adventures with tethered shooting, and please share your experiences with us in the comments section below.
Free Software with Extensive Camera Support
Tethering software in this section uses the underlying Picture Transfer Protocol, rather than Nikon’s published SDKs, to talk to your camera. This provides wider compatibility at the expense of supporting more advanced camera features such as Live View.
Two options were tested to confirm whether they could meet my needs, with the results outlined below. An overview of all options (including those I couldn’t test) is included at the end of the section.
DIYPhotobits.com Camera Control
| Download Here |
DIYPhotobits.com Camera Control is a hosted script using WIA over a PTP link to interact with your camera. It provides features for both Image Review and Remote Control users. It is designed to solely manage the link to the camera, with more advanced workflow tasks being left for the user’s preferred viewer/workflow tool. Personally I prefer this approach because there are plenty of viewers and workflow tools to choose from and I’d rather the author focus on getting the tethering right.
The interface was a little slow on the initial connection – times of more than 2 minutes were common – but this seems to be a common complaint with WIA based applications. So be patient and give the application time to connect. The hosted script development approach means you may see the odd script error message pop up and be asked whether to continue running scripts on the page. In practice the program seemed to recover and continue performing its duties if you selected “Yes” to continue running scripts.
There was one repeatable (and long standing) issue that will impact Remote Control type users. When you use the “Shutter Release” and “Download Immediately” features together the image capture format is swapped. e.g. select JPG and “Download Immediately”, click the “Shutter Release” button, and an NEF format file will be transferred to your computer. Strange, but once you know the issue is there you can easily work around it.
Despite my concerns with the hosted scripting development approach, this was the only program I could get to consistently work with my Nikon D70S for tethered shooting. I’d recommend trying this program first if you have a camera not supported by the Nikon SDKs.
Loligo Tether is a .Net framework application using WIA over a PTP link to interact with your camera.
It is designed for Image Review type users. It includes some basic image viewing capabilities but for best results should be combined with a dedicated viewing or workflow application.
I had high hopes for this application and was planning to use it in preference to DIYPhotoBits.com Camera Control. Unfortunately there was one minor issue that got in the way: I couldn’t get it to consistently work with my camera when using either my camera or the program to trigger the shutter. To be fair to the author they did describe this as an alpha release so my expectations were unrealistic. This problem may be specific to my environment so you might want to test it yourself. I will keep an eye on the application’s progress but until reliability improves it is hard to recommend this for general use.
All Options Considered in Free Software with Extensive Camera Support Category
| Name | Compatibility | Suitable For | Features | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| DIYPhotobits.com Camera Control
$0 Current Version: v4.0 |
Camera(s): All OS: Win XP, Vista Language(s): English |
Image Review, Remote Control | Image Review: Auto Sync, View Exposure Settings, External Viewer, File naming prefix Remote Control: Remote Trigger, Time Lapse, Set Exposure Settings, Set File Format, Bracketing |
Basic Image Review and Remote Control features. No Live View. Would need to be used with an external viewer/workflow application. Written as hosted script, so can be more error prone than a true application. One of the more mature free tethering programs. |
| gPhoto2
$0 Current Version: |
Camera(s): D40, D40x, D50, D60, D70, D70s, D80, D90, D100, D200, D300, D700
OS: Linux |
Image Review, Remote Control | Image Review: “All” Remote Control: “All”, including Remote Trigger, Time Lapse, Set Exposure Settings, Live View |
See gPhoto2 documentation for tethered capabilities. See this post for a tutorial around its usage. |
| Icarus Camera Control
$0 Current Version: Snapshot 20090425 |
Camera(s): D80 OS: Mac OS X Language(s): English |
Remote Control | Remote Control: Remote Trigger, Time Lapse, Set Exposure Settings | Basic Remote Control features. Minimal information available about the program. PTP based so assume it will be able to provide extensive camera support. Relatively young application. |
| Loligo Tether
$0 Current Version: January 2, 2009 |
Camera(s): All OS: Win XP, Vista Language(s): English |
Image Review | Image Review: Auto Sync, Internal Viewer, Multi Photo View Remote Control: Remote Trigger, Time Lapse |
Basic Image Review features. Limited to no remote control features. Relatively young application. |
| PhotoRemote
$0 Current Version: v1.0.3.0 |
Camera(s): All OS: Win XP, Vista Language(s): German |
Image Review | Image Review: Auto Sync, External Viewer, Web and FTP Server publish, Event Scripting Engine Remote Control: Remote Trigger, Time Lapse |
Basic Image Review features. Limited to no remote control features. Notable features are automatic publishing to web/FTP server, and internal scripting support. |
| StudioTether
$0 (Donation Requested) Current Version: v3.6 |
Camera(s): D1, D1H, D1X, D2Hs, D2X, D2Xs, D3, D100, D200, D300, D700, D70, D70s, D80, D90, D40, D40x, D50, D60 OS: Mac OS 10.5 Language(s): English |
Image Review, Remote Control | Image Review: Auto Sync, View Exposure Settings, Lightroom Integration Remote Control: Remote Trigger, Set Exposure Settings, Liveview |
Basic Image Review and Remote Control features. Designed to integrate with Lightroom. * Remote control of your camera & onscreen display of camera settings |
Free Software with Modern Camera Support
Tethering software in this section uses Nikon’s published SDKs, rather than the underlying Picture Transfer Protocol, to talk to your camera. This provides simpler access to more advanced camera features (e.g. Live View) at the expense of camera support. At the time of writing Nikon’s SDKs support the D3, D3x , D40, D60, D80, D90, D200, D300, and D700 only.
An option was tested to confirm whether it could be used for cameras that weren’t officially supported, with the result outlined below. An overview of all options (including those I couldn’t test) is included at the end of the section.
DCamCapture is an application developed using the SDKs Nikon began releasing last year. This allows access to more sophisticated functionality than the previously mentioned applications (e.g. Live View) at the expense of supporting older cameras. Nikon’s D80 is the oldest camera model for which an SDK is publicly available. For me personally this means I’m unable to test this application as I own a Nikon D70S and the software refuses to connect to that model.
DCamCapture provides features for both Image Review and Remote Control users. While it does support Live View and provides an IPTC editor I’d still suggest teaming the application with a dedicated image viewer/workflow tool for best results. From the current documentation it is difficult to know exactly how many of the exposure setting controls are available when trying to remotely control a camera.
I can’t comment on the application usability as I don’t have access to a newer camera to test with. Digital Photography Tips and Techniques has reported some usability issues but it is unclear whether these issues are model specific, so its worth conducting your own testing in case it is model specific or they have released another update since then. To be fair to the author they did describe this as an alpha release so we should set our expectations accordingly.
All Options Considered in Free Software with Modern Camera Support Category
| Name | Compatibility | Suitable For | Features | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| DCamCapture
$0 Current Version: v0.5.0 |
Camera(s): SDK Supported Only OS: Win XP, Vista Language(s): English, German |
Image Review, Remote Control | Image Review: Auto Sync, File naming prefix, IPTC editor Remote Control: Remote Trigger, Time Lapse, Live View (inc recording) |
Basic Image Review and Remote Control features. No visibility or control of camera settings. Able to record Live View to avi file. Would need to be used with an external workflow application. |
| Sofortbild
$0 Current Version: v1.0 |
Camera(s): SDK Supported Only OS: Mac OS X 10.5.0 or later Language(s): English |
Image Review, Remote Control | Image Review: Auto Sync, View Exposure and Focus Settings, Automatic HDRI Creation, Internal Viewer, Histogram Viewing, Configurable Filename Remote Control: Remote Trigger, Time Lapse, Set Exposure Settings, Bracketing |
Has both Image Review and Remote Control features. Feature set is the most advanced of any free tethering software considered during this review. |
All options listed in this section are commercial software. Please refer to the software websites to confirm whether the feature sets are compatible with your requirements. Most provide trial versions so you can properly test the product before having to part with any money..
| Name | Compatibility | Suitable For | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|
| TetherPro
$49.95 Current Version: Unknown |
Camera(s): All OS: W2K, XP, Vista |
Image Review, Remote Control | * Remote Camera Control – Adjust Camera Settings via your PC * Intelligent rules giving Complete Control over your image files * Automatic Image Backup for Safety * Adobe Compatible Image Tagging (Rating and Colour coding) * Automatic Printing of images and Proof Sheets |
| NKRemote
$95 Current Version: v1.0.3 |
Camera(s): D90, D300, D700, D3 or D200 OS: Win XP, Vista |
Image Review, Remote Control | * Display live images on the PC screen* * Auto focus and manually control focus from a PC* * Run a Photobooth: automatically take a sequence of photos and print them out * Sophisticated control for time lapse photography * Preview images in black and white or color |
| Camera Control 2
$153 Current Version: v2.5 |
Camera(s): D3X, D3, D2X, D2Hs, D2H, D2Xs, D700, D300, D200, D100, D90, D80, D70s, D70, D60, D50, D40X, D40, D5000 OS: W2K, XP, Vista, Mac OS X 10.3.9/ 10.4.11/ 10.5.1 |
Image Review, Remote Control | * Picture Control Utility: In certain Nikon digital SLRs such as the D3, D700, D300 and D90 customized image adjustment, including tone compensation curve data, can be saved to tailor the camera’s behavior to the photographer’s vision, improving efficiency when using multiple cameras at the same time. * LiveView support: Live previews direct from the camera are supported on the D3, D700, D300 and D90 when this feature is enabled. See what you are about to shoot! * Compatible with WiFi operation: In addition to supporting USB cable connections, Camera Control Pro offers compatibility with the optional wireless transmitter models WT-2a, WT-3a and WT-4a. When attached to a digital SLR, the WT-2a, WT-3a and WT-4a enable remote shooting and setting via a wireless LAN over WiFi. * Compatible with Nikon’s Image Authentication Function: Image data can be transferred and stored without affecting the authentication function. |
(via DIYPhotoBits, NikonRumors and Digital Photography Tips and Techniques)
25 Responses to “Choosing Tethered Shooting Software for Nikon DSLR Cameras”
Hi there, great reviews there, and thanks for having a try with the Loligo software of mine
as you mentioned there are some issues, and it is early days.
I’m more than happy to continue developing it, the reason I had not done much more on it was mainly due to lack of feedback, so assumed nobody was attempting to use it.
If anyone wants to let me know what they want from it and what issues they are having with them then I’d happily sort it out
@Mark, as mentioned I had issues getting it to perform some basic functions. I’m more than happy to work with you to resolve these as I know it can be difficult to debug these issues when testing only on the equipment you have at hand. I’ll drop you an email.
Re expansion of the program I think there are some .Net framework features you could take advantage of to differentiate your tethering software from the rest. Using the .Net framework Raw codec support would be one. Expanding the workflow capabilities to include Photoshop compatible ratings, applying basic IPTC information to the whole shoot, and flexible renaming based upon EXIF date/times would also be extremely useful features not often found in tethering software. Essentially you are competing with import programs such as Downloader Pro so their feature sets might inspire further expansion.
Thanks this is a really helpful guide – just what I’ve been looking for.
I just downloaded and used the DCamCapture to get pictures off my Camera (Nikon D90) and I then have Lightroom 2.0 setup to watch the directory that DCamCapture puts the pictures in…
This works like a charm…I then have lightroom 2.0 setup to show the most recent picture imported in.
I felt like a kid with a new toy.
Thanks for the information and your research in the tethering process.
@James, Thanks for sharing your experiences with DCamCapture and Lightroom with us. I’m glad to hear you had better luck with the application than that linked article reported.
Hey thanks for mentioning my script, glad it works for you.
Surprised about the bug you mentioned though, I used it just a few nights ago for some self portraits of me and my wife and shot both jpg (while setting up the lights) and raw (for final). And it worked correctly, or at least so it seemed.
That was the first time I’d used it in months. That’s why no development recently, I have very little use for it and it already does everything (and more) that I need.
@Raymond, thanks for putting the effort into the script and sharing it with us all!
I have experience the bug with multiple versions over multiple months. If it works fine for you maybe it is camera specific (I have a Nikon D70S) or there is something about my PC setup that changes its operation? Either way its an annoyance rather than a real problem. The script is still my main tool for tethered shooting.
Hi,
I currently doing my FYP with meddle with nikon SDK. Is it possible for you to give me a hand of how to start off using it?
@Vivian, Unfortunately my Nikon D70S is not supported by the Nikon SDK so I have no first hand experience with coding using it. Can’t really help you with this, sorry.
So i'm building a camera controller - Ideas please! - HEXUS.community discussion forums - September 10th, 2009
[...] Re: So i'm building a camera controller – Ideas please! There are alternative bits of software for tethered shooting, some do interval http://thephotogeek.com/choosing-nik…/#DIYPhotobits [...]
Great writeup, just what I was looking for!
FastPictureViewer Professional supports tethered shoothing through PTP/MTP since 11/2008. It supports all shooting modes (JPG, RAW, RAW+JPG) of all Nikon DSLRs and works natively on 64-bit platforms too:
http://www.fastpictureviewer.com
Tethering solutions based on Lightroom typically takes between 15 and 20 sec from shoot to display (an eternity), while FastPictureViewer typically takes 3 seconds or less and also leaves a copy of the image(s) on the camera’s memory card, so you don’t lose any photo when someone inadvertently steps on the USB cable or pulls the PC’s power plug…
Interesting site; it has wet my appetite.
However I’m using a Nikon D80 with Mac OS 10.4.11 and can’t find anything that will give me live view. Will the camera support live view at all?
@Stuart, Live view is a feature built into your camera that the APIs allow you to access. Involves hardware participation, namely swinging the mirror out of the road so the sensor can see through the lens. AFAIK no software can add Live View like features to an SLR that doesn’t have this capability built into its firmware. Sorry to be the bearer of bad news.
@Axel, I haven’t thought about FastPictureViewer as a tethering solution. Will have to give it a go, and add it to the commercial section if I can get it working. Particularly if it plays nice with the D70S!
Yes, the default Lightroom tethering approach (Auto Import) is slow. Will have to wait and see if later drops of the LR3 beta decide to tackle this issue.
I’m really surprised about the sloweness of Lightroom to import (something I haven’t experienced, but read about). I believe that the author of one of the other tethering solutions has solved this by having a LR plugin — sounds like a good idea and if I ever start to use LR I’ll have to investigate how that works. Till then Bridge works fine for me as a viewer!
@Matt: Yes it should work with your D70s, Nikon cameras have an excellent PTP implementation and work out-of-the-box with Windows (Vista and 7 in particular, without manufacturer driver, so they also work on x64). Just make sure the camera is in “PTP” USB mode (not mass storage) and press Ctrl+T in FPV.
Hi, I have a Nikon D2X and a Macbook Pro, can you tell me what free thering software there is I can download. If any
Thanks
Peter
@Peter, The Sofortbild application states that it supports the Nikon D2X, it runs on Mac OS X, and the author still appears to be offering the software for free.
I am currently evaluating NKremote with a D5000. Works well to control the camera, including live view. There are two things it does NOT do, and I wondered if anyone had any other suggestions. First, NKremote does not seem to allow you to name the image files, so you have to accept the file structure the program creates. Second, there is no way of reducing the file sizes as they are captured, so the smallest file you can create is the smallest one the camera will output. I am trying to capture images of equipment to insert in an inventory file, and I do not need a large high resolution image, something that’s about six inches wide would suffice, so let’s say 500×300 pixels. Right now I hae to capture the images using NKremote, and then downsize the images separately before I can use them.
@Nick, I hadn’t really paid attention to those two aspects of the tethering tools so would need to look over them again to find those that had those capabilities. Personally I’d be surprised if any of the tools have the ability to downsize the images to 500×300 pixels for you as tethering is usually treats the computer as an extension of the camera, and cameras usually don’t have that capability built in. Different file naming schemes are more likely to be available though.
Alternatively you could just use another tool (script?) to manage this part of the process. e.g. On Windows I know that XnView allows you to create batch processing scripts that should be able to do these tasks for you.
Hi
I have a D70S. I want to do a RAPID succession (3fps is the fastest D70S can do), but these free programs (even Nikon’s program) can’t do it. Mostly they try to transfer the photos and USB is very slow to give me 3fps. So I really need a program that can do the triggering and the camera store the photos. DIYPhotoBits is a step in the right direction as it allows me to take the photo only (without transferring it), but for some reason it is slow at giving the order (6 photos in 10 seconds).
Anyone knows another solution?
@Djago, I think the protocol DIYPhotoBits uses is relatively slow, and as you have noted the other programs are unlikely to support trigger only tethering. If you had a newer camera it should be possible to code something via the publicly available SDK but the D70S SDK has not been published. Unfortunately I don’t think there will be a satisfactory answer to your question.
Yes, unfortunately I don’t have any hope on speeding it up. At the level I’m working with (WIA Aut) it is already going as fast as possible. I suspect that the WIA Aut interface is waiting for the camera to say the image taking process is complete before returning control.
If I could code straight WIA (which i can’t) I see there is a WIA Burst mode which perhaps could be faster, but only if it were supported all the way through WIA->PTP->camera which is unknown. And most importantly it has no controls to adjust camera values between shots so no bracketing. It would be pure timelapse. Search for WIA_DPC_BURST_INTERVAL if you want to consider coding this, but you’ll need to be doing proper Win32 COM, not just the COM Automation I’m using.
Videoaufnahme mit einer Nikon DSLR auch ohne Videofunktion? Dank Zusatzprogramme möglich. // hombertho.de - February 24th, 2010
[...] habe mich daher mal im Netz nach einer Alternative umgeschaut und bin dabei auf folgende interessante Übersicht gestossen. Ihr findet dort eine tolle Übersicht aller Programme, die es für Windows, Mac [...]
Leave a Reply