At last night’s special NYC Lightroom Meetup we had Adobe Evangelist Terry White as our guest speaker. He presented a Lightroom tethering tip for Nikon users that I really appreciated – he discovered that Lightroom slows Nikons to a crawl when tethering if it has a memory card in it with lots of captures. It’s going to look like no camera is connected…
It looks like there is no camera, but Lightroom is actually very busy reviewing all the photos on your memory card
until Lightroom first looks through all the photos contained on the memory card. Then LR tethers the camera.
The hint that this is happening will be the green busy light on the back of your Nikon. If it stays on after you connect the camera to Lightroom, check to see if your memory card isn’t loaded with photos. If that’s the case, either remove the memory cards, put in empty memory cards or reformat the cards (but only if you’ve already downloaded and backed up the photos). This this will get you connected with no delay. This doesn’t happen with Canon cameras.
Also, according to Terry, the tethering issue of a camera being randomly disconnected from Lightroom has been resolved with Lightroom 5.7.1. Make sure you have this latest LR update from the links below for less tethering headaches.
Thanks, Terry!
Where can I find a definitive list of the camera bodies (Nikon) that Lightroom CC/2015 supports for tethering? Sadly, my D3000 is too lowly, but if I am going to upgrade it, I’d like to know how far I need to go to get tethering capability as well.
Great question, Graham. Adobe has a list of Tethered Cameras that are supported by Lightroom on their website. In the column next to each camera listed there is the minimum version of Lightroom required. You could get tether support with a D5000 or even move up a step with a D7000. Since they’re out of production, you can get them quite inexpensively on eBay. D.A.
La información ha sido de gran ayuda.
I just found your page. I searched “why won’t Lr 5.7.1 recognize my D610” I’m not tethering . just importing. My D7000 shows in the upper left corner. I bought it from a guy on Craig’s list and although the serial # checks out as US, I wonder if this model is hinky. Zero shutter counts, $750.? Thought about going to Bestbuy and putting a card in their D610 as an experiment. Thoughts. Lr newbie, Bruce
I can’t answer the question as to whether or not there is an issue with the camera, but since it’s used and shows a zero shutter count, something does seem amiss. Lightroom 5.3 was the first version that supported the D610, so version 5.7.1 should work. Have you tried importing on LrCC, just as a control? I’m sure you can find a sample D610 raw file online, but it is a given that Lr 5.3 supports the D610. So I’d send the camera in to Nikon for evaluation.
Did go to best buy. Lr recognized that card. Time to call Nikon and find out if I have been burned.
It is NOT resolved in LR! It is September 15, 2016, and I am so frustated… I have done all the tricks there are in the internet, and of course I am not using any memory card in my D700. But once (not always) the connection goes off in LR (often after I have changed the battery, because I have the camera on waiting for passport customers), it stays off, whatever you do. The only solution is to completely restart your Windows (7). So frustrating! And customers are not happy either.. I hope there would be some way to stop… Read more »
First question: Which version of Lr are you using? And, I recommend using a powered USB repeater cable instead of a passive USB. When I was having problems, the powered USB definitely helped keep the camera connected. I haven’t been having this problem nearly as much with Lightroom CC. Occasionally my Nikon D810 will get dropped, but maybe a couple times a day and restarting Lr is the solution.
Lightroom tethering no detect my NIKON D7100
Have you tried different USB cables or a powered USB cable – Tether Tools makes one. I use a powered USB cable and this helps to keep my camera (Nikon D810) connected without any problems.
I was having the same issue on my D800, until I changed the 20% to a completely full battery.
Another tip is to connect it without memory cards in the slots (It is only gonna write to the PC anyway), so that the camera won’t take time reading them before connecting.
I know this is a late response, but might help to the next one to read it.
Best,
Hey there, I recently upgraded to LR 6 for Mac and am having trouble tethering my D610 – I have trawled the internet and have found that this is a widespread problem. I connected my camera via usb and begin tethered captured only to be told that there is ‘no camera detected’. If I go to import photo/ video however, the few photos that are currently on the card show up no problem. As there is no USB option in D610 camera settings (PTP/ mass storage options), I can’t make adjustments there. Have I missed anything? Surely I shouldn’t require… Read more »
Hi Chris, You didn’t mention what version of Lr6 you have. The current version is 6.9 as of April 5, 2017. That aside, I have had similar problems in the past with my D810 and found that using an active USB cable resolves the issue for the most part. Even now, it’s not quite 100%, but I’d say 95% with the occasional “no camera detected.” We’re a small contingent – tethered users – and Capture One Pro is more reliable, as they have the tethered audience of professional users. In any event, there’s a short blog post from Tether Tools… Read more »
Hi There,
Exactly same problem as Chris. I have a Nikon D750.
My cable used to work very well.
As my Mac book pro had a bug, I did reboot the system and got the latest version of LR. Version 6.8.
However now my tethering capture in not working and I did read many forums and blogs but couldn’t find the issue.
Can you please help?
Thank you
Philippe
Hi Philippe,
Please see my response to Chris Neale for my solution and read the post from Tether Tools on the D610 using active USB – http://tethertalk.com/2013/10/17/nikon-d610-usb-tethering-cable/
Thanks.
D.A.
Hello everybody! I know its been 2 years since this article, but i have an issue with my cameras and lightroom (5.7.1). I Have 2 Nikons (D90 and D800) and also a Mac user too (Sierra OS). I have tethered before with my laptop and both of my cameras and then i bought some EyeFi cards and used those for a while. Now i want to tether through a USB cable again and for some reason I cant! None of my cameras are detected by LR. What is even stranger i literally cant press the button to take a picture.… Read more »
Hi Alina,
The first thing to check is your camera USB connecting cable. Try different one. Then, if that isn’t working, try tethering to a different computer running Lightroom. Those are my 2 immediate recommendations.
D.A.
Great article. However, sadly I am still having issues with my LR5 (on iMac) not detecting my Nikon D3.
I am using a 16FT/5M USB 2.0 Male to Mini-B 5-Pin Tether Cable.
Lightroom version: 5.7.1
Nikon D3 firmware version 2.0
Please help!!
@Flawed Photon,
Other than updating to LrCC (my recommendation these days, as my tethering has been solid with LrCC), your cable may require a “repeater.” I strongly recommend using an “active USB Cable” like Tethertools’ TetherPro USB cable. When I was using Lr 5.7.1, this was my solution.
D.A.
Hi Can I save my images to the camera card as well as the folder I select in lightroom Classic 2020 I am using Nikon D4 and Z7
Hi Clive,
Bad News. Canon cameras can save to the memory card while shooting tethered. Nikons can not. It’s always been that way. https://community.adobe.com/t5/lightroom-classic/nikon-d5-tethering-store-pictures-in-lightroom-and-on-memory-card/td-p/9019299?page=1
Thank you for clarifying that, I thought that I was missing something