# Tethering Nikon to Mac troubles.



## Peakapot (Jun 5, 2017)

I have been trying to tether my Nikon D7200 to my Mac. My Mac is running the latest OS (Sierra). 

Firstly I tried to use lightroom (5.7.1). When I plug my camera into my Mac with the provided cable I can go to import in lightroom and my camera can be seen. I can access the photos on my memory card in my camera no problem. However if I go to tether it shows as no camera detected. 

Secondly I tried Sofortbild. This again did not work and from what I can make out it's due to the Nikon SDK changing. I then downloaded a beta version of this software but when I went to enter the activation code (that they sent me) I always got the error "incorrect code". This happened multiple times. 

I then tried multiple softwares recommended in various threads to no avail. 

Surely there is a free software to tether my Nikon out there that actually works. 

Can anyone help me. 

Thanks in advance. 


Sent from my Nexus 6P using ThePhotoForum.com mobile app


----------



## Don Kondra (Jun 5, 2017)

Mountainstorm | Studio & Lightroom Tether is a lightroom tethering add on 

Cheers, Don


----------



## Peakapot (Jun 5, 2017)

Don Kondra said:


> Mountainstorm | Studio & Lightroom Tether is a lightroom tethering add on
> 
> Cheers, Don


Tried both of the downloads from that page already and neither work. Thanks anyway don. 

Sent from my Nexus 6P using ThePhotoForum.com mobile app


----------



## Don Kondra (Jun 6, 2017)

> Sofortbild 1.3 requires Mac OS X Snow Leopard 10.6.6 up to Mac OS X Yosemite (10.10.x). *It is incompatible* with Mac OS X El Capitan 10.11.x and* macOS Sierra 10.12.x*. Newer camera models and macOS versions are supported in Sofortbild 1.5 and later.



Try running Boot Camp with digicamcontrol.

How to Install Boot Camp and Run Windows on Your Mac

Cheers, Don


----------



## Peakapot (Jun 6, 2017)

Peakapot said:


> I have been trying to tether my Nikon D7200 to my Mac. My Mac is running the latest OS (Sierra).
> ThePhotoForum.com mobile app



As you can see don I am running Sierra so that software is not an option for me. 

Thanks. 



Sent from my Nexus 6P using ThePhotoForum.com mobile app


----------



## Peakapot (Jun 6, 2017)

Don Kondra said:


> > Sofortbild 1.3 requires Mac OS X Snow Leopard 10.6.6 up to Mac OS X Yosemite (10.10.x). *It is incompatible* with Mac OS X El Capitan 10.11.x and* macOS Sierra 10.12.x*. Newer camera models and macOS versions are supported in Sofortbild 1.5 and later.
> 
> 
> 
> ...


I will try bootcam tonight thank you. 

Sent from my Nexus 6P using ThePhotoForum.com mobile app


----------



## Peakapot (Jun 6, 2017)

So as it stands there are no free programs to tether Nikon to Mac on the new OS without running a virtual Windows machine on my mac?

That seems very odd to me.

looks like i'm going to have to pay for something you get for free with canon.


----------



## TCampbell (Jun 6, 2017)

I don't own a Nikon to test, but that can't be right.  

One semi-command problem is that so many devices now use USB cables as "charging" cables that there are now products that ship with "USB charging cables" that have ONLY the power-pins wired and no data pins.  Your camera won't show up without a cable that wires those data pins.  So you might want to make sure you are using the correct cable for your camera... not just a cable that fits.

I have noticed that Apple made some changes to how USB support works in Sierra (my "guess" is that this might be to do with them updating USB to support the new "USB C" standard.) 

I do know of software that runs on Sierra and controls Nikon cameras -- my eclipse software being one of them.  So I'm sure it "can" work ... it's just a matter of figuring out why the camera isn't working on your computer.

Check to see if the Mac can at least detect the presence of your camera.

Connect the camera via USB and power it on.

Go into the "Utilities" folder and launch the "System Information" utility.

In the left margin of the utility window, select the "USB" category. 

On the right you should now see every USB device connected to the Mac (whether there's a driver or not it will show up.  You should at least see basic fields such as the "Vendor ID", "Product ID", and "Manufacturer" fields.  

Note that "System Information" utility only scans for hardware when it is launched (but you can do a CMD+R to force a refresh).  So if the camera was not connected and powered on before you launched the utility then it won't show up without a refresh.


----------



## table1349 (Jun 6, 2017)

Well you might give this a try before you buy.  Capture One Pro 10 Imaging Software | PhaseOne


----------



## Peakapot (Jun 6, 2017)

TCampbell said:


> I don't own a Nikon to test, but that can't be right.
> 
> One semi-command problem is that so many devices now use USB cables as "charging" cables that there are now products that ship with "USB charging cables" that have ONLY the power-pins wired and no data pins.  Your camera won't show up without a cable that wires those data pins.  So you might want to make sure you are using the correct cable for your camera... not just a cable that fits.
> 
> ...


Thank you for the very good response. I appreciate you taking your time. 

I have added some photos to help. 

I am sure the cable is correct as I can import photos from the camera. Lightroom also detects the camera at this point. As seen in photo 1. 






However if I then go to file, tether capture, start tether there is no camera detected. See photo 2. 





I have tried everything including multiple different settings on the camera. 

Anyone else think of anything I might be doing wrong?

Again thank you for taking your time to help me out guys. 

Sent from my Nexus 6P using ThePhotoForum.com mobile app


----------



## Peakapot (Jun 6, 2017)

TCampbell said:


> I don't own a Nikon to test, but that can't be right.
> 
> One semi-command problem is that so many devices now use USB cables as "charging" cables that there are now products that ship with "USB charging cables" that have ONLY the power-pins wired and no data pins.  Your camera won't show up without a cable that wires those data pins.  So you might want to make sure you are using the correct cable for your camera... not just a cable that fits.
> 
> ...


Also please see picture 3 mate. 





Sent from my Nexus 6P using ThePhotoForum.com mobile app


----------



## table1349 (Jun 6, 2017)

Adobe has discovered the compatibility issues listed below with running Lightroom CC 2015 or Lightroom 6 with Mac OS 10.11 (El Capitan).

Fix tethered shooting in Lightroom


----------



## Peakapot (Jun 6, 2017)

gryphonslair99 said:


> Adobe has discovered the compatibility issues listed below with running Lightroom CC 2015 or Lightroom 6 with Mac OS 10.11 (El Capitan).
> 
> Fix tethered shooting in Lightroom


Thank you for your reply Gryphon. 

The solutions the links fix are all to do with LR 6 and above. I am using 5.7.1. 

Lightroom is up to date, my D7200 firmware is upto date. 

Looks like I use multiple softwares 30 day free trials or I pay. 

At this rate I'll be going back to my Canon. 

Sent from my Nexus 6P using ThePhotoForum.com mobile app


----------



## ronlane (Jun 6, 2017)

This may or may not help. I watched the video a few weeks ago and didn't pay much attention to the issue with Nikon, as I shoot canon.


----------



## table1349 (Jun 6, 2017)

Peakapot said:


> gryphonslair99 said:
> 
> 
> > Adobe has discovered the compatibility issues listed below with running Lightroom CC 2015 or Lightroom 6 with Mac OS 10.11 (El Capitan).
> ...


The link that lead to the first solution came from the same issue with Lightroom 5.  Apparently they are having the same issue with LR 6 as well.


----------



## TCampbell (Jun 7, 2017)

ronlane said:


> This may or may not help. I watched the video a few weeks ago and didn't pay much attention to the issue with Nikon, as I shoot canon.



Interesting... he claims that if you have a Nikon and also if you have a card in the camera (because you can shoot tethered with no card) and IF that card has images, then you'll see the "no camera detected" message while the activity light on the camera blinks ... it's traversing and inspecting every image on the card (not sure why) and the camera won't show up until it finishes doing this -- which he says can take several minutes.

If there is no card in the camera then the camera will show up in Lightroom tethering capture in just a couple of seconds.  I presume that if the card has been erased it would also be pretty fast.

I only have Canon, but also... once I import all images and verify the import, I always wipe my memory card.


----------



## Peakapot (Jun 8, 2017)

TCampbell said:


> ronlane said:
> 
> 
> > This may or may not help. I watched the video a few weeks ago and didn't pay much attention to the issue with Nikon, as I shoot canon.
> ...


Thank you for the suggestion. 

I removed both cards and went to import. The camera can be seen however it states it can not find any photos. (expected)

I then start tethering and it states no camera detected. I left it sat for over 10 minutes and it never showed up. 

Not sure now wether to buy a cheap windows laptop or buy Nikon software. I can get the laptop cheaper than the software. 

Really not happy. 

Thank you to everyone who helped me with this. 

Sent from my Nexus 6P using ThePhotoForum.com mobile app


----------



## Don Kondra (Jun 8, 2017)

If you do go with Windows, ControlMyNikon is ~ $30 and Digicamcontrol is free...

Cheers, Don


----------



## Peakapot (Jun 8, 2017)

Don Kondra said:


> If you do go with Windows, ControlMyNikon is ~ $30 and Digicamcontrol is free...
> 
> Cheers, Don


Thank you. 

Sent from my Nexus 6P using ThePhotoForum.com mobile app


----------

