Tether Cable Length

[DaveKerk]

Hello!

I am interested in shooting tethered photography and video with my Nikon D3300, I have found a program that will do so but I am concerned about the length of cable I can comfortably use without data loss or too much speed loss. Can I just get a really long extension if I want or do I need to get one of those special tethered shooting ones?

Thanks,

David

[AkiraDaarkst]

31 minutes ago, DaveKerk said:

Hello!

I am interested in shooting tethered photography and video with my Nikon D3300, I have found a program that will do so but I am concerned about the length of cable I can comfortably use without data loss or too much speed loss. Can I just get a really long extension if I want or do I need to get one of those special tethered shooting ones?

Thanks,

David

For tethering the D3300 to your computer, you can use a USB cable up to 5m long or a bit longer with an active extension cable.  Tether tools sells USB cables you can use.

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

Or you can buy the Nikon WU-1 wireless dongle that is compatible with the D3300.  This is mainly for photography, not for videos.

 

For video, you'll need to use an HDMI cable and there's a limit to how long an HDMI cable can be before signal degradation.  What kind of tether do you have in mind for video?  Using an external recorder like an Atomos Ninja or connecting to a computer via a capture card?

[DaveKerk]

On 10/4/2016 at 4:35 PM, AkiraDaarkst said:

For tethering the D3300 to your computer, you can use a USB cable up to 5m long or a bit longer with an active extension cable.  Tether tools sells USB cables you can use.

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

Or you can buy the Nikon WU-1 wireless dongle that is compatible with the D3300.  This is mainly for photography, not for videos.

 

For video, you'll need to use an HDMI cable and there's a limit to how long an HDMI cable can be before signal degradation.  What kind of tether do you have in mind for video?  Using an external recorder like an Atomos Ninja or connecting to a computer via a capture card?

What do you mean by active extension cable? For video I have digiCam Control which seems to work alright. But if I get the HDMI will I be able to use a program like Premiere Pro? And can I link the wireless dongle directly to a laptop or desktop and control as if it was tethered by cable?

[AkiraDaarkst]

4 hours ago, DaveKerk said:

What do you mean by active extension cable? For video I have digiCam Control which seems to work alright. But if I get the HDMI will I be able to use a program like Premiere Pro? And can I link the wireless dongle directly to a laptop or desktop and control as if it was tethered by cable?

What I mean is a cable that has some sort of signal amplification so that the signal does not degrade traveling the long length.  As long as you don't go beyond a certain length, any USB cable will work.  I think 5m or roughly 15ft is the maximum you should go without using any special cable.

 

The Nikon wireless dongle might require Nikon's own Camera Control software which is not free or perhaps the dongle has some kind of software included.  I am not sure if it will be compatible with a program like Lightroom which has it's own tether shoot feature.  But yes, the dongle with the right software will let you control the camera from the computer and with each shot it will send the JPEG or RAW file to your computer so you don't need to offload from the memory card.  However the dongle will not stream video, or if it does it will stream a low quality and perhaps low frame rate "live preview" that is only useful for checking what the camera sees.  Not the quality that you might want to use for video productions.  I am not sure if the dongle is compatible with your digicam control software either, you need to check their FAQs or website.  If I want to shoot tethered photography, I just put my MacBook on a table nearby and my camera on a tripod, connected via USB cable.

 

If you want to record what the camera is seeing using a program like Premiere, you need to have a camera that outputs a good video signal via HDMI or SDI.  The Nikon D3300 outputs clean video image via the mini HDMI port.  The computer needs a capture card or device (which also needs to be connected to the camera) that Premiere will recognize as an input source.  I don't think Premiere will recognize any video input source if the camera is connected directly to the computer by USB cables, I have never had any reason to test it out since I use devices like Blackmagic capture cards or Paralinx wireless video transmitter/receivers.

 

If you have specific reasons for wanting to tether your camera to the computer and capture the video using Premiere instead of recording the video onto the memory card in the camera or using an external recorder like the Atomos Ninja, let me know those reasons and I'll help you find a solution.  Just know that they may not be cheap.

 

But for tether photography, look at the literature for your digicam control software and see which wireless dongles (if you want to use a wireless dongle) are compatible otherwise get the USB cable you need.  There are third party wireless tether dongles available.

[DaveKerk]

On 10/6/2016 at 4:00 AM, AkiraDaarkst said:

What I mean is a cable that has some sort of signal amplification so that the signal does not degrade traveling the long length.  As long as you don't go beyond a certain length, any USB cable will work.  I think 5m or roughly 15ft is the maximum you should go without using any special cable.

 

The Nikon wireless dongle might require Nikon's own Camera Control software which is not free or perhaps the dongle has some kind of software included.  I am not sure if it will be compatible with a program like Lightroom which has it's own tether shoot feature.  But yes, the dongle with the right software will let you control the camera from the computer and with each shot it will send the JPEG or RAW file to your computer so you don't need to offload from the memory card.  However the dongle will not stream video, or if it does it will stream a low quality and perhaps low frame rate "live preview" that is only useful for checking what the camera sees.  Not the quality that you might want to use for video productions.  I am not sure if the dongle is compatible with your digicam control software either, you need to check their FAQs or website.  If I want to shoot tethered photography, I just put my MacBook on a table nearby and my camera on a tripod, connected via USB cable.

 

If you want to record what the camera is seeing using a program like Premiere, you need to have a camera that outputs a good video signal via HDMI or SDI.  The Nikon D3300 outputs clean video image via the mini HDMI port.  The computer needs a capture card or device (which also needs to be connected to the camera) that Premiere will recognize as an input source.  I don't think Premiere will recognize any video input source if the camera is connected directly to the computer by USB cables, I have never had any reason to test it out since I use devices like Blackmagic capture cards or Paralinx wireless video transmitter/receivers.

 

If you have specific reasons for wanting to tether your camera to the computer and capture the video using Premiere instead of recording the video onto the memory card in the camera or using an external recorder like the Atomos Ninja, let me know those reasons and I'll help you find a solution.  Just know that they may not be cheap.

 

But for tether photography, look at the literature for your digicam control software and see which wireless dongles (if you want to use a wireless dongle) are compatible otherwise get the USB cable you need.  There are third party wireless tether dongles available.

Thank you so much for the in depth explanation, lots of useful information!!