Tethering Canon 5D MkIII w/10.8

There's a support article that lists the cameras that work with Aperture 3, along with any settings that may be needed:

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4176

Computer says Yes.

HI,

I have a Canon 5D Mark III (5D3) tethered to a Macbook Air via Aperture 3.3.2 (latest version) and running Mountain Lion. Tethered capture of raw files works a treat. I actually purchased Aperture because Lightroom 3 does not support tethered capture for the 5D3 or the Raw file Format of the 5D3. I understand that Lightroom 4 does support the 5D3 raw files but (at this stage) still does not support tethered capture from the 5D3.

Also use an eyefi card and capture with that in the 5D3 to Lightroom 3. I use the two card setup in the 5D3 to capture RAW to the CF card and small JPG files to the eyefi SD card that then transfer wirelessly to a watched folder in Lightroom. Allows me, or the client, to see an image straight away on the computer screen while still giving me high quality RAW files for final print preparation etc.

Steve

Eye-fi cards can also import to Aperture as well with an Aperture Hot Folder:

http://automator.us/aperture/example-04.html

My 5Diii was working fine tethered until today. I Use Capture One as my capture software. When I upgraded to OS 10.8, the release notes said it was fully compatible, and it worked fine. Now the camera will no longer sync.

Phase One / Capture One's support site now says it WAS compatible in the "pre-release" of Mountain Lion, but now it won't work because of an Apple / Canon license issue!

I went to the Apple Store and they didn't know anything about it. I'd like to keep Mountain Lion, so I was contemplating going back to Aperature, Lightroom, or Canon for capture software. But, if there is a dispute between Apple and Canon, it seems all software would stop functioning for tethered 5D's.

My question is, when using the latest Mac OS, is there some way to confirm that Aperature or any other capture program is still working? Again, Capture One's official statement is the problem is between Apple and Canon and its about licensing. I would think that shuts down anyone's capure software.

Adobe just released Lightroom 4.2 and I upgraded yesterday (From 4.2RC) and tethered Capture with the 5D Mk iii now works beautiully with Lightroom 4.2. I am running Mountain Lion and all is fne.

Also have had no problem shooting tethered into Aperture with the 5D Mkiii (on Mountain Lion).

Have also been using Aperture watched folder and an eyefi card to capture into Aperture and no problem. Using the approach mentioned in my earlier post with 2 card capture. Like how you can then import RAW files and Aperture matches the RAW file to the corrosponding Jpeg file and even puts the jpeg metadata into the RAW file.

Eg when shooting a number of people (school, event etc) I put the persons name in the title filed of the eyefi transferred low res jpeg in Aperture and then later when I transfer/ import the RAW files into aperture it automatically matches the correct jpeg to the RAW file and puts the metadata into the RAW file as well. Brilliant. Only problem is that the eyefi card transfer is sometimes too slow when shooting a lot of photos quickly.

As my preferred management and editing software is lightroom I am very happy that I can now shoot tethered straight into Lightroom with the 5D Mk iii.

Not sure about that Apple - Canon license issue. I have always been able to shoot tethered with my Canon 60D it was only a problem with the 5D Mk iii. That seems to be solved now though so at the moment I am a happy bunny!!

Thanks Steven. I'm intrigued with the eyefi solution. Btw- I messed-up in my earlier post. I actually have the 5D mark ii. Anyway, I'm shooting mostly business headshots. Its not exactly fast shooting, probably one shot every 8 seconds. Usually I shoot a dozen or so, then have the subject take a look at the previews on the fly.

Do you think the wifi would transfer images fast enough?

I know you mentioned a "watched folder", but if this worked, I would probably stick with my old standby, Capture One. Can the eyefi send directly to the capture folder? Or, would I need to select them and drag them over?

Also, do you bring your own "hotspot" or possibly use an iPhone where you don't have wifi?

Thanks for walking me through this!

Crap! I just checked eyefi's site. The mark iii is compatible, but the the mark ii is NOT!

http://www.eye.fi/products/prox2#camera_compat_widget

Back to the drawing board.

Update Re: Eyefi

I just spoke to Calumet Photo and was told that the eyefi should work on the 5D mark ii. What eyefi doesn't tell you is that you need a thrid party CF to SD card converter. He suggested shooting JPEG + RAW and sending just jpegs via wifi. Does this sound reasonable?

Also, he confirmed that Mountain Lion has screwed just about everyone who tethers.

That is why I use the 5D3, it takes both CF and SD cards. When using the eyefi card I save RAW to the CF card and the lowest res jpeg to the SD (eyefi) card. With the 5D3 the RAW files can be 27-30MB in size while the jpeg are aroung 750KB. Wireless transfer of the RAW files is therefore much slower with the eyefi card.

With the eyefi card you set up which networks it will attach to. You can setup private networks, Direct mode and what to do with Public Hotspots.

I have it set to work on my home network of course and also on an ad-hoc network. I use a Macbook air and when away or on location I setup the macbook to create an ad-hoc network called "stevesmacbook" or similar and I have already set the eyefi card up to "Attach' to this network when it doesn't find my home network.I think this is using the direct mode.

You also need to specify on the eyefi card where it will save/ send the files to. I have a portable 500GB hard drive that plugs into the Macbook and on that I have a folder called "Today" and this is the folder I specify on the eyefi card. I got caught out a couple of times by creating a new folder on the HDD to save the current photos to and set this folder up as the monitored folder for aperture etc and then couldn't work out why the photos were not showing until I remembered that the eyefi card was sending them to a different folder!

I use Aperture Hot Folder to also monitor that folder and when I run Aperture I set up a new project that uses the same folder.

As I shoot I get a full RAW file saved to the CF card and the S3 jpeg to the SD eyefi card that then automatically sends it wirelessly to the "Today" folder on the HDD connected to the Macbook Air. Aperture Hot Folder sees that a new photo has appeared and shows it in Aperture.The first file when you start up, or after you have had a break for a while, is slow to appear but then the subsequent photos pop up pretty quickly. I guess you would have to test for yourself to see if it is fast enough for your requirements. It probably would be OK for my school shoots but, they are usually pretty hectic so I just didn't want to add the extra "thing" to think about at this stage. When shooting portraits in my "Studio" ( some may call it a double garage) I use the eyefi system all the time - With the macbook air connected to an appleTV showing the photos on a 55inch LCD TV!

Once setup, and it isn't as complicated as it probably sounds, it all works automatically and easily.

As I shoot I watch the photos ( or an assistant does for schools) and picks the "Keepers" by giving them a 1 star rating in Aperture and we also put the persons name in the Title field of the metadata for the choosen photos.

When the shoot is finished I open aperture and look at the jpeg files and filter to only show the "Keepers" I then plug the CF card into a card reader on the mac and import them using the "Matching RAW" option and the "current filter" option. Aperture then imports only the RAW files that match the Keeper photos and the RAW files have the metadata matched. I then select to view the Raw files and away I can go with post and printing.

It all sounds complicated but isn't really. (Thinking of maybe doing a youtube video to show the setting up and use - which would be easier to follow).

BTW - As I said before I have had no trouble shooting tethered into Aperture with the 5D3 before or after Mountain Lion and the issue with Lightroom was that Adobe hadn't updated to include tethered shooting for the 5D3 until they released 4.2. Now they have I can shoot tethered direct to Lightroom. It hasn't been a Mountain Lion issue for me at all.

Hope this helps

Thanks Steven. That helps a lot.

I hope to continue using Capture One. Since the Canon Mk 2 only uses one card, I'm not sure I can do this, but I will set the camera to shoot RAW + Medium jpeg for proofing. The guy I spoke to at Calumet Photo seemed to think I could just send the jpegs with the eye-fi but let it hold the RAW images until I download with a card reader.

Does that sound right to you?

If this doesn't work, I'll probably check out Lightroom. I did the free demo of Aperture a couple of years ago and I really did not like it. It seemed like a very odd file for organizing your jobs. Maybe I just didn't get it.

Hopfully, tethered operation will still work with the 5D2. However, Calumet says this is a big problem and they all know about it. Amazing, I went to Apple's Genius Bar and they knew nothing abou it! Its very frustrating.

Yes, I believe you can shoot RAW + jpeg and only transfer the jpeg files. In fact I think it is only the Pro x2 version of the eyefi card that will actually transfer RAW files. Bear in mind though that the eyefi cards are only 8GB so saving RAW+jpeg might fill them pretty quickly. They are bringing out a 16GB card ( can pre-order now) and if I was buying I would certainly go for that. The cards do have an "endless memory" capability where you can get the card to delete the files (from the card) it has transferred once the card reaches a certain capacity (that you can nominate). Not sure how this would go with the RAW+ jpeg though ( would it also delete the raw files??).

I have to admit that I am not too keen on Aperture either. I only bought it so I would have the tethered capture until Lightroom udated to include the 5D3. Having said that, I must say that I do really like the Aperture ability to match the RAW to jpeg files and transfer the metadata automatically on import that I mentioned before .

But now that Lightroom does support the 5D3 I am back using it. Prior to getting Lightroom I used to do most post in Photoshop but now I import/ capture to Lightroom and do most of my post there. Only for special work (using layers etc) do I go to Photoshop. Have looked at Capture One but couldn't see much that would take me away from Lightroom. With lots of my work I sell photo packages (schools etc) andI really like the way I can set up these print packages in Lightroom. Makes the printing very quick and easy.

Apple seem to be pretty good at updating to fix bugs etc ( have already had a few for Mountain Lion) so I would be surprised if they don't fix your problem soon. Doesn't make sense to me that it is a licence issue between Canon and Apple because they support most other Canon camera's and products. Anyway - good look with the eyefi card.

Thanks for all the help. I'm getting the SD to CF card adapter tomorrow at Fry's Electronics. The EyeFi is available at Best Buy. It looks like the next generation of the Pro x will be faster, as well has holding 16GB. Amazon is taking preorders.

I thought you might like to see some excerpts from Capture One's tech support posting on their user forum:

We're looking into the issue but it doesn't seem like a simple fix as we first need to identify what Apple has changed. I apologize for the inconvenience... just another headache in the early adaptation of an OS...

As previously stated in this thread, it seems Mountain Lion changed something between the Developer Release and the Final Release. As such, the hard work we put in to build and test support for tethering in Mountain Lion was all for naught. (Using the Developer version of Mountain Lion works just fine).

We're looking into it as we speak and we hope to have an update soon, unfortunately it will take some time...

As the Canon Software package used in any version Capture One Pro does NOT support the Mountain Lion OS (10.8.x), tethering with a Canon Camera on this Operating System is not possible...

We are hopeful that with the support for Mountain Lion (10.8.x) in an upcoming SDK release from Canon, the above conflicts will be resolved...

This is crazy. Apple don´t connect with Canon.

This is an issue between Canon and Apple. They need to solve it yesterday!

My workpace has been reduced massively and I want this fixed now, not investigating lame ways around.

Apple wake up!

i have an imac running 10.8.2 and a macbook pro running 10.6.8 and using lightroom 4.2 i can't get my 5dmk3 to shoot tethered. i updated the camera firmware to 1.1.3 and still can't get it to work. any ideas? thanks, craig