Which is the best live shooting program?

I've been away from photography for a few years and now i'm getting back into the studio. In the past I used the canon programs to tether my Canon with my laptop but i was wondering if anything has changed, is there a new/better program to use when tethering a DSLR to a laptop?

Another question is Adobe lightroom, a few years ago it wasn't really offering anything better than CS4 but has it improved to a point where it is useful now?

Thanks for your input peeps.

Consider DSLR Remote Pro from Breeze Systems.

Putting aside the aspect of digital asset management in which LR is generally considered better than Bridge, editing functionality and image quality are significantly better in LR3 than LR2. Of course you can upgrade to PSCS5 and obtain the same advantages in ACR 6 as well as the other new features in CS5.

Excellent in, thanks for the replies.

Cyrus wrote in post #13006842
I've been away from photography for a few years and now i'm getting back into the studio. In the past I used the canon programs to tether my Canon with my laptop but i was wondering if anything has changed, is there a new/better program to use when tethering a DSLR to a laptop?

Well, there are for-pay apps out there, and I've heard that some are pretty good, although I haven't used any. Maybe the one linked to by the earlier poster is one of the "good" ones, I don't know.

But, to me, the Canon EOS Utilities packs a lot of great functionality for tethered shooting. This is especially true if you have a camera with Live View -- the software not only shows the view live before taking the photo but also gives you access to the various controls (including Live View focusing), and I don't know of other programs that even approach that, but like I said, I haven't check out what's out there. But hey, the Canon software is free, and upgraded when new cameras come out, which can sometimes add useful features, so I would write if off in favor of something I had to pay for, at least not without good tangible reasons to.

And, you mentioned Lightroom -- I'll adress that, but first you should know: the latest version of LR also has tethered shooting, supporting most Canon bodies of recent years (going back to the 20D, the 30D, the 350D and the 5D Classic). What it does not offer is the Live View capabilities -- you have to set your exposure, focus and then you can take a shot to see what you've got, but at least it is functional.

Hmm -- I don't know how much you actually did with Lightroom back then. As Elie said, there are (and always have been) nice tools and a nice integrated interface for organizing your photos -- there are a number of changes and additions to all that but it still "looks and feels" like Lightroom has all the way back to version 1.

The thing I wonder about it your comparing it to CS4 -- are you talking about the version of Camera Raw that is a plug-in for CSx? Did you use Camera Raw in CS4? That version of Camera Raw was the equivalent of the Raw processor in LR2 -- the two have shared the same Raw processing "engine" since LR came out (along with CS3). So, Lightroom has the same "tools" that CSx has, currently CS5. And, yes, LR3 has some "upgrades" of the Raw processor that a lot of people like. But, when people were working with CS4 (Lightroom2), I didn't hear complaints. There is always wishes and hopes for some new features/capabilities, but really Camera Raw and Lightroom had made significant strides with CS4/LR2, and with LR3, well, things just keep moving along.

My question is, are you comparing Lightroom to Camera Raw, or is there something else about CS4 that you were comparing it to? And, what was lacking in Lightroom that left you less than happy?

Thanks for your reply tonylong. yes i was mainly comparing LR to Camera raw. I only tried LR one on a friends mac and although i liked it i didn't really see a benefit to using it over other available programs.

As far as shooting tethered, i think i'll stick to the canon software, it's always been fine for me