Laptop for tethered shooting

[Colin Creevey]

Hi all,

I want to move into using a tethered setup but I don't currently own a laptop. I currently use my desktop for editing and despite not buying it for photo editing, it's fairly beefy. I am now looking at buying a laptop but given that I will exclusively use the laptop for tethering (and not photo editing), what specs should I be looking at so that I don't over invest in something that will depreciate quickly?

Whilst I don't have anything against Macs or MacOSX, I am looking not looking for a Mac.

Can anyone give me some advise about what I should be looking for?

Thanks in advance.

P.S Wasn't 100% sure where to post this but I thought that tethered shooting is more likely to occur in a studio and not so much in the other forum categories (such as street photography).

 

[BAK]

Daniel Norton is a New York studio photographer who creates YouTube programs sponsored by Adorama, almost always involving tethering.

Track Daniel down on YouTube, and you will learn a lot.

Are you going to use Capture One?

My partner and I use laptops equipped with bigger Samsung external monitors. She has a new HP Spectre 15, with two solid state hard drives.

I have a five-year old HP Envy 17 and a 27 inch Samsung monitor.

The point of this note is simply to point out the ability to use big monitors on smaller laptops.

BAK

 

[Colin Creevey]

I've seen some of Daniel's stuff on YT before. Also has some down to Earth talks on photography, great person to listen to as unlike many he isn't trying to sell you his course.

That's a good point about being able to use larger monitors with smaller laptops. I should have mentioned that portability is a factor to me as I am only a hobbiest and rent studios most of the time. Coupled with the fact that I am in a wheelchair, I think a monitor would logistically be too difficult to move and setup all the time. Then again, most of the studios I have hired in the past have had a loading dock so I should look into this a bit more.

 

[GreatWhiteWing]

Hi all,
I want to move into using a tethered setup but I don't currently own a laptop. I currently use my desktop for editing and despite not buying it for photo editing, it's fairly beefy. I am now looking at buying a laptop but given that I will exclusively use the laptop for tethering (and not photo editing), what specs should I be looking at so that I don't over invest in something that will depreciate quickly?

Whilst I don't have anything against Macs or MacOSX, I am looking not looking for a Mac.
Can anyone give me some advise about what I should be looking for?
Thanks in advance.

P.S Wasn't 100% sure where to post this but I thought that tethered shooting is more likely to occur in a studio and not so much in the other forum categories (such as street photography).

I would look for a laptop with an IPS display. I personally need a 17" screen but a 15" will be a lot more portable if you can see what you need to see. If you get to IPS display probably has all the other features you would need. SSD drives are also important at least for the boot disk and enough room to hold a typical session.

I would also look to insure it has USB-C ports

I bet a good stand for the laptop would be a good investment too having a place to hold the computer securely and conveniently.

Disclaimer- I am not a tether shooter but I do use laptops in the field for engineering work.

 

[Colin Creevey]

Thanks. Was going to go the Tether tools route and get a stand like the Tether Table Aero. I already own a dolly which is scarcely similar to this product. In the end I vision my tethered setup looking somewhat like this.

 

[tugwilson]

Thanks. Was going to go the Tether tools route and get a stand like the Tether Table Aero. I already own a dolly which is scarcely similar to this product. In the end I vision my tethered setup looking somewhat like this.

Where are you based, Colin?

If you are in the Uk there's this.

 

[Jacques Cornell]

Hi all,
I want to move into using a tethered setup but I don't currently own a laptop. I currently use my desktop for editing and despite not buying it for photo editing, it's fairly beefy. I am now looking at buying a laptop but given that I will exclusively use the laptop for tethering (and not photo editing), what specs should I be looking at so that I don't over invest in something that will depreciate quickly?

My bare-minimum 2017 13" MacBook Pro with 8GB RAM and 256GB SSD has handled Lightroom-tethered shoots superbly.

Whilst I don't have anything against Macs or MacOSX, I am looking not looking for a Mac.

Oh, well then, good luck. I can't help you.

Can anyone give me some advise about what I should be looking for?
Thanks in advance.

P.S Wasn't 100% sure where to post this but I thought that tethered shooting is more likely to occur in a studio and not so much in the other forum categories (such as street photography).

 

[stateit]

I've a 7-year old 15" i3 laptop. I swapped out the hard drive for an SSD some time ago, and swapped its original RAM to 8GB. It runs Win 10 comfortably. We've a faster laptop in the house, but it's being used for home-working this past year.

It has no real bottlenecks for plain tethering when compared to my 'new' spec desktop. I don't edit on it. Just tether with Capture One.

Point I'm making is you don't need a fast-and-mighty machine for tethering. It only has files passed to it from a 24MP camera though. For editing, yes, a faster machine certainly helps.

A faster USB interface would be nice, but for considered slower shooting it's no problem.

 

[Colin Creevey]

Hi Tug. I'm based in Australia but that is the exact type of setup I am thinking.

As I am in a wheelchair if my camera is mounted I wouldn't be able to use the EVF. From watching videos on Capture One (I assume LR is the same) I could use the live view feature and compose via the computer monitor. Not sure what the latency is like compared to the EVF on mirrorless cameras :/

 

[Colin Creevey]

Was watching some Youtube videos over the last hour or so and many people recommend MacBooks. If i did go the Mac route I would probably move over to Capture One but my main PC would still be running LR and a Windows based OS. Historically I've found mixing platforms to be more trouble than it's worth.

 

[Colin Creevey]

Thanks stateit. That's just the type of advise I was hoping for. Getting an average machine and a decent interface (possible use an external SSD) sounds like it should be fine to tether with. Just like you, I wouldn't be using it to edit on.

 

[rmexpress22]

Depending on your purpose, you can use a tablet if you have a camera with wireless. I use both a Surface Book and my Android phone and both work well for remote viewing, shooting, and previewing images.

 

[Donald B]

Your not thinking straight. Use a 22 in ips monitor connected via hdmi cable. I have twin monitors and they are mounted on tripods and swivel for portraits or landscape. Been shooting this way for 13 years.

Don

 

[Michael Firstlight]

At the cost of a laptop, did you ever consider wireless teathering? I was wired until I went to a high-speed wireless solution - so many things go wrong with wired. The typical argument for going wired is transfer speed, but with the new CamRanger2 that advantage is neutralized now that it's based on a fast 802.11ac protocol - images transfer takes about the same as wired for me now and it can even transfer RAW to a few seconds later - with a range of hundreds of feet, full remote control, backup storage, and works with laptops, desktops, iPads/tablets, smartphones, and has proven super reliable.

If you look back on my thousands of posts here on DPR over the years I have been a major and vocal critic of lack of affordable and high speed wireless transfer options. I had gone so far as to build my own 802.11n wireless rig for $75 using a pair of wireless USB2 dongles and published it here in the forums- it was fast at around 300-400Mbps but only good for near-field use (20-30 feet) and. I didn't even consider the OEM add on's as they were ridiculously expensive and complex to use, and the newer build-in wireless capabilities in some newer camera are really slow and still require an aftermarket add-on for decent performance, but now that I have a CR2 it's all history - I'll never go back to wired teathering or any other solution unless future camera bodies include built-in full-speed wireless 802.11ac that averages around 4-7 Mbps or the next gen wireless which will be 802.11ax that will deliver practical speeds around 2Gbps - after which hardly anyone will be considering wired teathering.









MFL

--
The one thing everyone can agree on is that film photography has its negatives. It even has its positives and internegatives.

 

[GreatWhiteWing]

At the cost of a laptop, did you ever consider wireless teathering? I was wired until I went to a high-speed wireless solution - so many things go wrong with wired. The typical argument for going wired is transfer speed, but with the new CamRanger2 that advantage is neutralized now that it's based on a fast 802.11ac protocol - images transfer takes about the same as wired for me now and it can even transfer RAW to a few seconds later - with a range of hundreds of feet, full remote control, backup storage, and works with laptops, desktops, iPads/tablets, smartphones, and has proven super reliable.

If you look back on my thousands of posts here on DPR over the years I have been a major and vocal critic of lack of affordable and high speed wireless transfer options. I had gone so far as to build my own 802.11n wireless rig for $75 using a pair of wireless USB2 dongles and published it here in the forums- it was fast at around 300-400Mbps but only good for near-field use (20-30 feet) and. I didn't even consider the OEM add on's as they were ridiculously expensive and complex to use, and the newer build-in wireless capabilities in some newer camera are really slow and still require an aftermarket add-on for decent performance, but now that I have a CR2 it's all history - I'll never go back to wired teathering or any other solution unless future camera bodies include built-in full-speed wireless 802.11ac that averages around 4-7 Mbps or the next gen wireless which will be 802.11ax that will deliver practical speeds around 2Gbps - after which hardly anyone will be considering wired teathering.



MFL

That looks cool but too expensive for my use but I have a question if you know the answer. Can you mount that transmitter say on your belt and not physically attached to the camera with a longer cable?

 

[Jacques Cornell]

Depending on your purpose, you can use a tablet if you have a camera with wireless. I use both a Surface Book and my Android phone and both work well for remote viewing, shooting, and previewing images.

Yeah, I've used my iPad this way, sending small JPEGs from my Panasonic MFT camera to it over an ad hoc wifi network. I've also wifi-tethered to Lightroom on my MacBook Pro and made 5x7 prints onsite from those JPEGs. It's a great solution for souvenir prints of attendees at events. In crowded situations with lots of folks milling about (pre-COVID, obviously), it was great to have no wires for them to trip over.

--
"I learned long ago, never to wrestle with a pig. You get dirty, and besides, the pig likes it." - George Bernard Shaw
http://jacquescornell.photography
http://happening.photos

 

[Michael Firstlight]

At the cost of a laptop, did you ever consider wireless teathering? I was wired until I went to a high-speed wireless solution - so many things go wrong with wired. The typical argument for going wired is transfer speed, but with the new CamRanger2 that advantage is neutralized now that it's based on a fast 802.11ac protocol - images transfer takes about the same as wired for me now and it can even transfer RAW to a few seconds later - with a range of hundreds of feet, full remote control, backup storage, and works with laptops, desktops, iPads/tablets, smartphones, and has proven super reliable.

If you look back on my thousands of posts here on DPR over the years I have been a major and vocal critic of lack of affordable and high speed wireless transfer options. I had gone so far as to build my own 802.11n wireless rig for $75 using a pair of wireless USB2 dongles and published it here in the forums- it was fast at around 300-400Mbps but only good for near-field use (20-30 feet) and. I didn't even consider the OEM add on's as they were ridiculously expensive and complex to use, and the newer build-in wireless capabilities in some newer camera are really slow and still require an aftermarket add-on for decent performance, but now that I have a CR2 it's all history - I'll never go back to wired teathering or any other solution unless future camera bodies include built-in full-speed wireless 802.11ac that averages around 4-7 Mbps or the next gen wireless which will be 802.11ax that will deliver practical speeds around 2Gbps - after which hardly anyone will be considering wired teathering.



MFL

That looks cool but too expensive for my use but I have a question if you know the answer. Can you mount that transmitter say on your belt and not physically attached to the camera with a longer cable?

Yes, you can, and, it can also be mounted on the hot shoe as well. Yes, at ~ $350 is isn't pocket change but for those that can swing it - it's worth every penny. Once I was teathered by wire and tripped over the cable; down went the camera on the tripod and damaged the lens. Even though I had dedicated camera insurance the deductable alone would have paid for it. Also, it was just more wires in my studio and I since I do portraits, I wanted no wires on the floor for safety reasons and also for freedom of movement, but your point about the cost is well taken - it's not for everyone.

MFL


The one thing everyone can agree on is that film photography has its negatives. It even has its positives and internegatives.

 

[GreatWhiteWing]

Thank you for the 411. You point about tripping over a wire and perhaps trashing multi-grand body and lens is something to consider

 

[Jacques Cornell]

Thank you for the 411. You point about tripping over a wire and perhaps trashing multi-grand body and lens is something to consider

If you work in a studio, that's one thing. But, if you work on location a lot, the liability issue argues strongly in favor of wireless. For this reason, all of my flashes are battery-powered and radio-controlled.

 

[Donald B]

At the cost of a laptop, did you ever consider wireless teathering? I was wired until I went to a high-speed wireless solution - so many things go wrong with wired. The typical argument for going wired is transfer speed, but with the new CamRanger2 that advantage is neutralized now that it's based on a fast 802.11ac protocol - images transfer takes about the same as wired for me now and it can even transfer RAW to a few seconds later - with a range of hundreds of feet, full remote control, backup storage, and works with laptops, desktops, iPads/tablets, smartphones, and has proven super reliable.

If you look back on my thousands of posts here on DPR over the years I have been a major and vocal critic of lack of affordable and high speed wireless transfer options. I had gone so far as to build my own 802.11n wireless rig for $75 using a pair of wireless USB2 dongles and published it here in the forums- it was fast at around 300-400Mbps but only good for near-field use (20-30 feet) and. I didn't even consider the OEM add on's as they were ridiculously expensive and complex to use, and the newer build-in wireless capabilities in some newer camera are really slow and still require an aftermarket add-on for decent performance, but now that I have a CR2 it's all history - I'll never go back to wired teathering or any other solution unless future camera bodies include built-in full-speed wireless 802.11ac that averages around 4-7 Mbps or the next gen wireless which will be 802.11ax that will deliver practical speeds around 2Gbps - after which hardly anyone will be considering wired teathering.



MFL

That looks cool but too expensive for my use but I have a question if you know the answer. Can you mount that transmitter say on your belt and not physically attached to the camera with a longer cable?

Yes, you can, and, it can also be mounted on the hot shoe as well. Yes, at ~ $350 is isn't pocket change but for those that can swing it - it's worth every penny. Once I was teathered by wire and tripped over the cable; down went the camera on the tripod and damaged the lens. Even though I had dedicated camera insurance the deductable alone would have paid for it. Also, it was just more wires in my studio and I since I do portraits, I wanted no wires on the floor for safety reasons and also for freedom of movement, but your point about the cost is well taken - it's not for everyone.

MFL

The one thing everyone can agree on is that film photography has its negatives. It even has its positives and internegatives.

that has happened to me a few times as well in the studio. Is there much lag ?

Don



--
Olympus EM1mk2, Sony A7r2

http://www.dpreview.com/galleries/9412035244

past toys. k100d, k10d,k7,fz5,fz150,500uz,canon G9, Olympus xz1 em5mk1 em5mk2