SnapBridge: that was fun! Now what: USB Tethering? WiFi?

[Matthew Currie]

As long as the computer end of the camera's USB cable is standard, you ought to be able to find a standard USB extension cable to run from it to the computer.  No guarantee that it won't slow things down, but it should work mechanically.

[David H. Hartman]

As long as the computer end of the camera's USB cable is standard, you ought to be able to find a standard USB extension cable to run from it to the computer.  No guarantee that it won't slow things down, but it should work mechanically.

I haven't check any of this lately but I believe both the length and quality of the cable come in to play. My guess is a high quality 3m extension cable rated for USB-3 will not slow the connection.

Dave

Here are photo of various standard USB cable types...

https://www.mycablemart.com/images/usb_connectors_20_30.jpg

[David H. Hartman]

I'm not associated with TetherTools.com and I'm not even a satisfied customer but they appear to me to be a reliable source...

https://tethertools.com/product-category/cables-adapters/

...I'm quite sure one can gather good information from this site. I'm gone to see what I can learn.

Dave

It appears that a 4.6m (15') cable is the official USB-3 standard assuming a quality USB-3 rated cable.

Tether Tools wants more of your money, not a surprise...

https://tethertools.com/product/tetherboost-pro-core-controller/

I think what I'd prefer is a high quality USB-A to USB-A, Male to Female USB-3 extension cable. I'd use this cable with the cable Nikon included with my camera. I'd secure the short cable to my camera or tripod with something to keep it from being jerked out. If I trip on the cable I'd prefer the extension and Nikon included cable separate and spare the camera port and not topple a tripod. I think a ports saver pigtail 0.15m (6") at the laptop would save the laptop from damage. If a simple non-active port saver pigtail doesn't work due to three cables and two connection the TetherBoost Pro USB 3.0 Core Controller would probably do the trick.

Frankly cables are a pain but maybe not that bad in studio if the camera and laptop can be protected. I'd much prefer Wi-Fi for the safety of no cables.

Here is one more link to TetherTools.com...

https://tethertools.com/blog/what-is-tethered-photography/

Money, honey.
Money, honey.
Money, honey, if you want to get along with me.

As sung by Elvis Presley

or if you prefer...

The best things in life are free
But you can keep them for the birds and bees
Now give me money, (That's what I want)
That's what I want

As sung by John Lennon

 

[Ilkka Nissilä]

Ilkka, it seems you've got a stable configuration there that works consistently each time you need it.

I wouldn't quite say that. If I am in a crowd of people it may not work (presumably due to the mobile phones causing interference). Sometimes a bit of playing around is needed to establish the connection, but lately it's been easier and more reliable, and I've seen fewer instances of the "demo effect". However, if I don't do anything for a bit while the wifi connection is on, it usually drops the wifi connection between camera and phone in a matter of tens of seconds. This is very annoying. In practice it does allow me to transfer files from camera to phone and usually the connecting business is not fussy as long as I don't idle. So it gets the job done but still Nikon has work to do to make it faster and more reliable.

In the D6, the built-in wifi also supports connecting to laptop or desktop and this works much better, it doesn't drop the wifi connection and it remembers the list of computers which I've previously paired with, and reconnecting after camera or computer has been off is a breeze. This is how it should be also between camera and mobile phone.

Sadly because of the need to use Nikons proprietary USB connector, the limited cable length again restricted its use.

The cable is short indeed, I tested using the camera as video camera for zoom conference and it does work but the cable is as you say, very limiting. I have previously used extension cables but that was with USB 2, and those cables that I have did not maintain USB 3. I should probably look into those Tethertools products myself.

But what I really wanted was a reliable wireless connection - ideally with my tablet, but at a pinch the laptop.

Yeah, looking at how frequent poorly functioning connectivity is in video conferenecs, it seems like a very mainstream problem. We commonly turn off the video in order to get a clearer audio feed to be able to continue discussion.

[ColinM]

The USB cable my D850 accepts is a USB-3 Micro-B 10 pin.

Doh!
Stupidly, because the D500 came with an unusual proprietary-looking USB cable, I assumed that's all that would work.
I never looked closely to see it was a USB-B plus extra bit on the side (see below).
That extra part of the socket does seem to have terminals in it, so guess it's for other uses....?

Meanwhile thanks, I would still prefer not to work tethered, but this does indeed offer a bit more flexibility

[ColinM]

...if I don't do anything for a bit while the wifi connection is on, it usually drops the wifi connection between camera and phone in a matter of tens of seconds. This is very annoying.

This is discussed earlier in this thread so you may already be aware.
Nikon's default for some of the key settings in wireless comms is a fairly short timeout.
You can extend these and it reduces these disconnections, though eventually at the expense of some battery life. Let me know if you'd like a link on this

If you're working indoors, have spare batteries or charger handy this shouldn't be an issue

[Ilkka Nissilä]

This is discussed earlier in this thread so you may already be aware.
Nikon's default for some of the key settings in wireless comms is a fairly short timeout.
You can extend these and it reduces these disconnections, though eventually at the expense of some battery life. Let me know if you'd like a link on this

If you're working indoors, have spare batteries or charger handy this shouldn't be an issue

Oh, if you have information about how to increase the timeout I would really appreciate it. I don't mind some reduction of battery life.

[Akira]

Doh!
Stupidly, because the D500 came with an unusual proprietary-looking USB cable, I assumed that's all that would work.
I never looked closely to see it was a USB-B plus extra bit on the side (see below).
That extra part of the socket does seem to have terminals in it, so guess it's for other uses....?

Meanwhile thanks, I would still prefer not to work tethered, but this does indeed offer a bit more flexibility

That is a generic USB microB socket for USB3.0/3.1.  Not Nikon's proprietary one.

[MFloyd]

That is a generic USB microB socket for USB3.0/3.1.  Not Nikon's proprietary one.

I confirm.

[Øivind Tøien]

It is a standard USB 3-micrro-B cable similar to the one used for a number of hard drives. The only thing special about it is that the plastic casing probably is designed to exactly fit the plastic piece that came with it (with the D500) that clips into the space around the connector that otherwise is closed by the rubber flap, stabilizes connection against bending etc, and provides a rudimentary dust cover.

[David H. Hartman]

The D850 came with an "HDMI/USB Cable Clip" and the D800 came with a "USB Cable Clip." I've never used either but the user manuals show these clips being used with the Nikon supplied USB-3 cable. Other supplier's USB cables lack the ring or collar found on the Nikon original USB cable.

The clip that came with the D850 looks totally impractical as the cables cross in front of the lower control buttons on the left, rear of the camera. A Jerk Stopper would probably be a better solution.

Dave

[Ilkka Nissilä]

The D850 came with an "HDMI/USB Cable Clip" and the D800 came with a "USB Cable Clip." I've never used either but the user manuals show these clips being used with the Nikon supplied USB-3 cable. Other supplier's USB cables lack the ring or collar found on the Nikon original USB cable.

The clip that came with the D850 looks totally impractical as the cables cross in front of the lower control buttons on the left, rear of the camera. A Jerk Stopper would probably be a better solution.

I don't know, the cable clip doesn't bother me (yes, it gets a bit on the way of using some buttons but does not prevent their use or normal shooting). I don't have a Tethertools cable or their solution to the problem but will look into it. Because my cameras have mini-USB, micro B, and USB-C connectors it would be somewhat annoying to get separate longer cables for each one. I have used the supplied cord and an extension cord that works with USB 2.0 speeds for tethering; I just haven't felt the delay to be enough of an issue to resolve the issue of how to get USB-3 speeds. But now I am testing it a bit. So far I can get about 1 D850 NEF in about 2 seconds in tethered shooting using only the Nikon cable. This is okay but doesn't break the maximum speed possible with USB 2.0.

In some earlier Nikons the cable clip doesn't require twisting the cable to run over the buttons and display. I wonder why Nikon went with this design.

I tested the Nikon cable with an USB 2.0 extension cable and it did not affect the transfer time when tethering in a noticeable way. I then tested the native cable with nikon transfer and that was about 4 times as fast as when tethering. Nikon Transfer didn't work at all when I included the 2.0 extension cord. I recall seeing a complaining message about the extension cord when setting up zoom and Nikon webcam utility, so I removed the extension cord and came to the conclusion that I need either a better extension cable or a longer standard one for USB tethered streaming.

From this I gather that tethering using Camera Control Pro 2, Lightroom or Smart Shooter 4 doesn't necessarily take advantage of USB 3 speeds, but Nikon Transfer does. On my desktop computer the Nikon Transfer speeds were about 4 D850 NEF images per second while tetherered transfers with Camera Control Pro 2 remained at about 0.5 images per second, again reflecting USB 2.0 not 3.0 speeds.

I tested LR with Smart Shooter 4 plugin and the tethered transfers were quite slow, but I'll do more testing of that later. Using Smart Shooter 4 as standalone program was about as fast as Camera Control Pro 2. Both Camera Control Pro 2 and Smart Shooter 4 allow the files to be stored both on the memory card in the camera as well as the tethered computer's drive. LR without the plugin only stores the images on the computer.

[David H. Hartman]

Both Camera Control Pro 2 and Smart Shooter 4 allow the files to be stored both on the memory card in the camera as well as the tethered computer's drive.

Thank you for this information. It's very important to me to have files stored on a memory card in the camera. I transfer file to my computer using Nikon Transfer 2 and it saves them in folders with my naming specs and renames my NEF files as it downloads them. Only saving to the computer is a deal breaker for me.

Dave

[Ilkka Nissilä]

I bought an USB 3.0 extension cable which increased the total length to 4.5m. I compared transfer speeds with the Nikon cable alone and when combined with the 3m extension and they were the same.

I tested LR tethering with a longer sequence and timed it and got 24 D850 lossless 14bit raw images transferred in 21 seconds to my desktop. This is about 1 image per second and seems clearly faster than my laptop. For me, it is fast enough for practical use in the studio as images would appear as quickly as I can turn my head to look.

The extension cable is blue so that it is noticeable and perhaps less likely to be stepped on by accident. It doesn't seem necessary to have active extension although the recommended max length of USB 3.0 is said to be 3 m though I guess I will need more experience to see if there is any problem.

I noticed that there is a lot of conflict between my L-brackets and cables connecting to the left edge of the camera body. I can mount the (actual) Arca-Swiss L-bracket and put the camera in vertical orientation on my ball head but with most of my other L-brackets it is not possible to achieve vertical mounting without tilting the head to the side (which is no fun using ball heads). So if I want to do tripod-based verticals while tethering I need to use specific parts that work for this. Now I understand why some tripod users shoot all horizontals even when the subject is a face. I am considering a tripod partly because I want to do some LED-lit portraits and my LED isn't that bright. Also a tripod would make it easier not to get keystoning when using a short lens for full-body images.

I guess it is quite likely I will take off the cord when doing verticals on tripod rather than deal with the hassle, although I would like to get all the images on the computer.

[ColinM]

Oh, if you have information about how to increase the timeout I would really appreciate it. I don't mind some reduction of battery life.

For Ilkka and anyone else interested, you can find a (long) thread on DPReview where a solution is proposed, then others comment (not necessary to follow the whole thread through!)

https://www.dpreview.com/forums/thread/4114865

Note: this thread focuses on the D500, so benefits or options may be different on other models