? slow tethered capture in lightroom 3

[mikeci]

Hi All,
I just tried the tethered capture feature on lightroom 3. All went well but it seems a little slow. I am using a Nikon D700 shooting raw hooked up to a brand new 17" macbook pro. I am using the cable into a usb 2.0 port on the laptop. I guess Id like to know where is the bottleneck. Is it the camera, the port or the laptop and Is there anyway to increase the speed of the transfer besides changing from raw to jpg.
thanks
Mike

[paulwilbur]

Don't worry... trial & error - you'll figure it out... do you REALLY need RAW? Very few do....

If you screen posting on the internet... no you don't need raw.

If you making a 3x4 foot (1x1+ meter)... the just perhaps you do, ask yourself, "where is this image going and how much technology do I really need vs good composition and some emotion

Asking for help is great - if you really need it, a bit of homework is a better teaching tool than just peer to peer (p2p) advise and comments.

paul

enjoy the journey

[Colin Southern]

Hi Mike,

Chances are it's just the size of the file ... I get the same with my 1Ds3 ... it takes about 7 seconds per RAW frame, and 2 sec for a low-resolution JPEG. Luckily for me, the 1Ds3 thas dual media - so I save RAW to the CF card, and JPEG to the SDHC card (which is what is exported to the PC & on to the tethered screen).

[Colin Southern]

do you REALLY need RAW? Very few do....

If you screen posting on the internet... no you don't need raw.

Not always that cut and dried ... if one nails the exposure then a JPEG if usually just fine for a normal dynamic range shot -- but RAW wins big time when there's a need to "did a little deeper" into RAWs inherant safety margin.

[mikeci]

Don't worry... trial & error - you'll figure it out... do you REALLY need RAW? Very few do....

If you screen posting on the internet... no you don't need raw.

If you making a 3x4 foot (1x1+ meter)... the just perhaps you do, ask yourself, "where is this image going and how much technology do I really need vs good composition and some emotion

Asking for help is great - if you really need it, a bit of homework is a better teaching tool than just peer to peer (p2p) advise and comments.

paul

enjoy the journey

Hi Paul,
Unfortunately the only trial and error is to output raw or jpg w/ this system. I have never, so far, have looked at a one of my shots that I could say that it couldn't be improved somehow by post production and raw gives me that wide latitude to make that improvement that I canot get w/ a jpg.

I'm not trying to be a wiseass or insult you when I say I always try to do my technical homework before I buy or tryout a new idea. I was hoping to come here to share my experience w/ others and more or less sit at the feet of some great teachers and soak up a little wisdom.
thanks for the help
Mike

[Fleshpiston]

mikeci - I can see two possible bottlenecks in the system. First would be the actual speed for USB 2.0 and the other is HDD write times.

You could always run a HDD test program to see what your write speeds are and go from there.
What are the specs for your new Mac? If it is the following one:
17-inch: 2.2 GHz

* 2.2GHz quad-core
Intel Core i7
* 4GB 1333MHz
* 750GB 5400-rpm1
* Intel HD Graphics 3000
* AMD Radeon HD 6750M with 1GB GDDR5

Then you will notice the HDD is large platters with a low RPM. In affect if that is your bottleneck then you could always chuck in a faster HDD (SSD). If it is the USB that is holding you back then.... well I am not sure what to do with a Mac TBH as I normally play with PCs.

I remember seeing a CF card to firewire connector..... could be an idea if USB is the problem. Hell why have Mac not adopted USB 3.0?

[mikeci]

Hi Fleshpiston,
That's my mac except I maxed out the memory at 8GB. I was never worried how long it took to transfer my shots into lightroom that always took time and depended on how many files I had on the card. I was just concerned that maybe it was taking too long for the tether to work. but it seems the opinion of the ppl that use the tether say 5 to 7 sec for 14bit raw file and thats just about right. So until nikon can come up w/ a thunderbolt output for its next series of cameras and mac doubles or triples its speed Ill live w/ the delay

thanks for the comeback
Mike