I am sure that those of you with even a passing interest in photography know, that it is possible to connect your camera to a computer, using a USB cable and download your pictures. What you may not know, is that most cameras offer you the ability to transfer each picture you take, to your computer, using the same USB cable. So you shoot a picture and you can immediately view it on your computer monitor.

Now when I say "most cameras" I mean most DSLR cameras, but it is quite possible that even lesser ones have that functionality.

Those of you who have tried this, it is obvious that the USB cable is a major headache, since they usually come in short lengths, and even if you find a longer one, 5 meters is usually the max. And of course, having a cable hanging from your camera and your computer is always a recipe for an accident waiting to happen.

Most major camera manufacturers like Nikon or Canon, offer wireless solutions, but usually the required hardware costs a lot of money. I know that Nikon's WT-4 WiFi transmitter, which allows you to do the same thing as your trusty USB cable, only without a cable, costs more than $700. Not exactly cheap, right? You can buy a second Nikon camera for that amount of money.

So, when I saw some articles in a certain web site (reference below), about a very cheap solution to the above scenario (which is called "tethered shooting"), I decided that it was something I need to investigate. And I am happy to report, that my initial experiments have proven to be quite successful.

Please keep in mind, that I've played with what is described below, for only a few hours and those were mostly spend downloading files from the Internet and trying some things out.

OK, here goes:

I think I have found a wireless tethering solution, which does away with the expensive WT-4 wireless transmitter.

I got inspired for this, but some articles found in this web site: http://petetek.blogspot.com/, especially from those links in the right-hand column, about tethered shooting.

After doing some research, I found the following kit:



The dongles are made by "Cables to Go" and you can read all the technical specs here: http://www.cablestogo.com/product.a...=1542&sku=29571

Now, these two little boxes, do not create a WiFi network between your camera and your router, or your computer, like the WT-4 does. They instead replace your typical USB cable you use to connect the camera to your computer, with a wireless USB connection. The front one goes into any USB port on your computer, while the rear one gets connected with a supplied cable to your camera. They are supposed to allow you to create a wireless USB link, so you can connect the camera to your computer, from a distance of up to 30'. So, I ordered one of these kits (price at Amazon $87) and today the mail man delivered it to my door. Here is what is included in the kit.



The two dongles, a power supply, a CD-ROM with the software, two antennas and a very handy USB extender cable, with a base, in which you can install the computer dongle vertically.

OK, and the $1,000,000 question is : Do they work?

First of all, they do not work in Mac OS-X, no driver for them in the Mac environment. However, since I have Parallel's Desktop installed in my Mac, I installed the software in the Windows virtual machine.

The first test showed that the dongles work. I connected the remote dongle to my printer and it was immediately recognized by Windoze. So far so good.

Then I got my D300 and connected it to the dongle. At first, Windoze refused to recognize the camera. I removed the power from the dongle and reconnected it, and immediately the camera was recognized by the computer. Now the difficult part was to see if I could shoot pictures and see them on my monitor. I tried some free tethering programs I found on the Internet (DCamCapture was one of them), which immediately recognized the D300. As soon as I pressed the shutter release button, an image was found inside the folder I had specified in the computer! Hurray! So basically tethering worked. But I still couldn't see the picture, as it was transmitted from the camera to the computer.

Well, time for some more downloads. I visited Nikon's web site and downloaded Nikon Camera Control 2.7.1 (the latest version, which Amazon sells for about $145) hoping that the trial would allow me to see the pictures as they were transferred. Wrong! The download was just an upgrade, not the complete software. Why Nikon doesn't allow you to download the complete software is beyond my comprehension, but that's how it is.

Anyway, I found somewhere on the Internet version 2.0 of Camera Control, which I downloaded and installed. Then I applied the upgrade to 2.7.1. I fired up the program, changed some settings (the folder where I wanted the pictures to be transferred to, declared that I wanted to see the picture in the Viewer etc) and took a picture.

Zappp! The picture immediately showed up in the viewer window. OK, that was fast, but I was shooting jpg in the lowest possible quality. Time to check raw. I changed the settings in the camera and took another shot. Immediately, the picture showed up in the viewer, with almost no more delay than when I was shooting jpg. However, the status bar indicated that while I was already viewing the picture, the real transfer was still taking place. So, if you shoot raw, it will take a couple of seconds for each picture to be transferred to the computer.

So, basically the tethering part of the test worked. Here is a picture, with Nikon Camera Control 2 and its viewer on the screen.



What remains now?

1. Try to see how I can power the remote dongle (the one connected to the camera) with batteries. It's quite pointless to have a wireless tethering solution, if you have to power the dongle from a power adapter. I have some ideas on how to do it. The dongle requires 5V DC to operate, so I need to check if four AAA rechargeable batteries (4.8V) will be enough. If the dongle works with 4.8V, then I plan to install it inside an old SB-E flash, from which I have removed all its internals, except the batteries chamber. If the four AAAs are not enough, then I'll have to reconsider my project's packaging.

2. I need to find a way to see the shot picture, without using Nikon's Camera Control software. The idea behind this project is to have the same functionality as the pros have, using Camera Control and WT-4, with the smallest possible cost. So I am not paying Nikon $145 for the program alone. There is a lovely program for Mac OS-X called Soforbilt, I sure hope I can find something similar for Windows.

3. I need to find a short "male-mini-USB-to-male-USB" cable. The one supplied with the kit is relatively long. Basically, I need a cable which is about 15 cm long, while the one supplied is about 50cm.

I am rather optimistic that I'll soon have a solution to all the above issues, so I'll have a wireless tethered solution for less than $100.

Stay tuned for more developments.

__________________
John Caradimas SV1CEC
The M1911 Pistols Organization
http://www.m1911.org

Further development on this project:

1. Battery power for the dongle:

Yesterday I created a battery power source, for the dongle. I had a spare 8.4V battery from an airsoft rifle here, which I had no use for. So I charged it up and attached it to a small voltage converter I had purchased from Ebay. The converter will produce a 5V or 6V output (jumper selectable) from any power source between 8V and 40V. Amperage is within the specs of the dongle so I gave it a try.

The result is a very "large" battery pack, which however produces 5V for the dongle and makes it work like a charm. I used an old flashlight pouch I had laying around, which can take the battery, the voltage transformer and the dongle in it. So you can put that on your belt, connect the camera with a USB cable to the dongle and fire away.

The alternative option is to use a four AA batteries box, but while I have also purchased one of these from Ebay, it still hasn't arrived. I have some different plans for this one, we'll see.

2. Still no alternative to Nikon Camera Control Pro.

3. I have found a short USB cable, to be used with the dongle mounted on the hotshoe, but I still do not have the power pack for that.

More to come.

__________________
John Caradimas SV1CEC
The M1911 Pistols Organization
http://www.m1911.org

OK, I found a program that you can use instead of Nikon's Camera Control Pro. It's called DcamCapture (you can download it from here and while it can't show you the picture you shot immediately, you can use it together with another program called XnView (you can download it from here and get an (almost) immediate view of the picture you just shot.

However, this combination of programs is slow compared to Nikon's program and also there are some limitations if you use it in a Mac with Parallels Desktop. It works, but it's not perfect.

There is another program that others have used, called DIYPhotobits Camera Control, but this program refused to work inside Parallels Desktop. No matter what I tried, I didn't manage to get it to transfer the files from the camera to the computer. I need to play a little more with this one.

Of course, the folks who use Canon dSLRs have no such problems, since Canon ships their corresponding program with their cameras. Good touch Canon!

Oh how I wish CablesToGo could come up with some Mac drivers for these dongles!!! There is an excellent program for tethered shooting for Mac OS-X, called Sofortbilt, which works like a charm and is totally free.

__________________
John Caradimas SV1CEC
The M1911 Pistols Organization
http://www.m1911.org

John,

Why dont you try purpose built portable USB power bricks? You can get them off ebay. They are used to charge mobile phones, PDAs and MP3 players. It includes electronics to ensure you get supplied with a steady 5V supply. Some models even include solar charging.

ZAP Portable Energy USB

Lenmar Portable Solar Charger

USB Solar Charger

LoRL, I didn't think of these! They should work fine, I guess. And they don't need a transformer, since they produce 5V.

Oh well, I solved the battery issue. I got a small 4 AA batteries box, on which I mounted a hot shoe I had removed from a non-working, old, Vivitar flash. The dongle sits on top of the battery box. I'll take some pictures later on to show you what I've done.

__________________
John Caradimas SV1CEC
The M1911 Pistols Organization
http://www.m1911.org

Some bragging time and camera porn.



This is my tethering kit. You can see the small pouch that acts as the carry-all solution. To its right, you can see the computer dongle and below that you can see the ... camera part. It consists of a 4 AA batteries box (the black thing) used to power the remote dongle, which sits on top of the batteries box. It is attached to the box with double-sided foam tape. You can also see the locking hot shoe, which was donated by an old, not working, Vivitar flash.



Here is a different view of the hot shoe. Some remarks here: the initial position of the hot shoe was in the middle of the battery box. However, when installed on the camera, the box protruded enough at the back of the camera, to hit your nose, so it had to be relocated. Its shown position is too far back, so I'll need to move it again, a little bit forward, so that it doesn't bother me when shooting vertically, but also the whole contraption is not too nose-heavy.



Here is the device installed on the D300. I think it's a very neat installation.



And here is another view of the package.

Some more comments:

• The four little holes you can see on the top of the dongle box were made during the experimentation phase, when I was trying to figure out my various mounting options. I'll plug them with some modelling putty or something.
• The battery box has a very convenient ON/OFF switch, so it's not necessary to connect and remove the power cable from the dongle. I am using some 2700 mAh rechargeable batteries, in it, so I do not think there will be a battery life issue, at least not for the kind of shooting I plan to do with this.
• I wish I could find a smaller USB cable, this one is the shortest one I had and possibly the shortest one you can find in the market. Now, if I could only find my right-angle mini-USB adapter, so that the cable doesn't exit vertically to the camera body, it would be nice. The smallest cable I found in the market is 5" and for the name of God, it costs about $15. A 12" one, from OWC costs $3!!!!
• Some people will say that in the way this kit is assembled, you can't use the in-camera flash. Well, you can, because there is no need to mount the unit in the hot shoe. I can just hang the little pouch from the camera neck strap, and keep the whole thing in it, and just connect the dongle with the USB cable.

__________________
John Caradimas SV1CEC
The M1911 Pistols Organization
http://www.m1911.org

Another update on software:

i found and tried another program, called "TetherPro" which can be downloaded from this link.

I did some limited testing and the results are just great. TetherPro works just fine with the wireless USB kit. There are some questions I still need to answer, I am emailing the developer as I type this, so I'll keep you informed. What is interesting about this program, is that it does what Nikon Camera Control does (and then some) and it costs only 1/3 of the money you would pay for Nikon's program.

Stay tuned.

__________________
John Caradimas SV1CEC
The M1911 Pistols Organization
http://www.m1911.org

For a DIY, it looks very professional.

Ah! Thanks!

It could be done better, if I had the patience to wait for all the right parts, and if I had ordered two battery boxes, like I wanted to do from the start. But my Paypal balance was low, when I ordered that one, so I didn't have enough $$$ to order two of them.

I had to relocate the hot shoe at the bottom of the battery box twice. The first time, I had it mounted in the middle of the battery box, but when I tried it the box didn't allow my eye to get as close to the viewfinder as I wanted, when shooting vertically. I had tried it with the camera held horizontally, but not vertically. The second time, I mounted the hot shoe too far back and I didn't like it, so eventually I moved it again.

I could also have made the power cable a bit shorter, so it fits better, but that doesn't bother me.

Finally, I am waiting for a very short USB cable, which will allow me to connect the camera to the dongle, without wrapping the cable around itself to make it shorter.

I'll post more pictures when I have the new cable.

The good thing is that this contraption works, and it can save you about $600 if you want to shoot tethered. So I guess, I am happy with it.

__________________
John Caradimas SV1CEC
The M1911 Pistols Organization
http://www.m1911.org

Updates:

- I got a short USB cable from this ebay shop. The seller was very helpful, when I asked him to measure the cable so that I could figure out if it would fit my needs, he shipped it promptly and the cable just fits perfectly.

- TetherPro is a great program for tethered shooting. The developer just informed me that he added LiveView to it and he is working on a couple of more things I suggested. If he manages to solve those issues, it's the perfect program for this project.

__________________
John Caradimas SV1CEC
The M1911 Pistols Organization
http://www.m1911.org