Tethered 7D questions

I am looking into a 15 foot cable to control my 7D through eos utilities. I understand that it can take up to 10 seconds to save a photograph to the laptop, however I don't want to save to the laptop just to the cf card only and control the camera..
Has anyone had any experience doing this?

I have not had any experience with that program, but have you thought about getting a shutter cable or wireless transmitters?

Why would it take up to 10s? Gezz, i get full raws from a 5d2 at about 4s each. It slows down a bit in a long buffer but thats over usb2.0

Theres a simple custom function to choose whether or not you want the data saved to : 1) just the card, 2) the card+laptop 3) just the laptop.

15' is a little long for a USB cable, might need a booster.

Triple A wrote in post #14350538
I have not had any experience with that program, but have you thought about getting a shutter cable or wireless transmitters?

I have a wireless shutter release but the reason I need this is to be able to lower the camera on the end of a monopod see what it sees and control the camera.

Csae wrote in post #14350692
Why would it take up to 10s? Gezz, i get full raws from a 5d2 at about 4s each. It slows down a bit in a long buffer but thats over usb2.0

Theres a simple custom function to choose whether or not you want the data saved to : 1) just the card, 2) the card+laptop 3) just the laptop.

15' is a little long for a USB cable, might need a booster.

Csae

All Research on the Internet Say's 10s for 15 ft

Again research shows 15ft is the max without a booster (no power where I will be using it)

Thanks for the heads up on the custom function for saving. I take it you mean in the camera as opposed to the EOS live view program?

I use a ~10ft standard USB extension cable along with the USB to mini USB to the camera totaling about 12ft or so and images take maybe 2 seconds to show up in Lightroom. My images are stored on the camera as well; I've never altered custom settings for this.

The only thing I can suggest is to realize that USB has different speeds depending on the hardware (i.e. USB 1.0, 2.0, 3.0). I am not certain what the cameras themselves are capable of, but I would guess USB2.0. That said, your computer hardware as well as the cable could limit that speed if they only meet 1.0 specs.

drvnbysound wrote in post #14352140
I use a ~10ft standard USB extension cable along with the USB to mini USB to the camera totaling about 12ft or so and images take maybe 2 seconds to show up in Lightroom. My images are stored on the camera as well; I've never altered custom settings for this.

The only thing I can suggest is to realize that USB has different speeds depending on the hardware (i.e. USB 1.0, 2.0, 3.0). I am not certain what the cameras themselves are capable of, but I would guess USB2.0. That said, your computer hardware as well as the cable could limit that speed if they only meet 1.0 specs.

Thanks drvnbysound that is helpful. Not being computer savvy I would guess that my older laptop (5ys) would be 1.0 specs. I hope not saving to the computer will speed things up a little with just dealing with live view.

This is for a trip to the Serengeti. I want to get photos of predators and elephants from a low viewpoint by lowering the camera on a monopod from the roof hatch of the landrover, if it go's wrong I have just lost a camera

Am I doing something wrong

Experimenting with a six foot cable and I have noticed there is a lag between firing the camera on the laptop and the camera actually taking the photo.
Shooting at 1/1000 as a bird launched from the feeder the picture on the laptop froze momentarily showing the bird in flight. Then it went to down load the image and the bird was not in the picture.

I use the BlueRigger USB 2.0 A Male to A Female Active Extension / Repeater Cable 10 Meters (32 Feet) with the following cameras:
1. Canon EOS 1D Mark IV
2. Canon EOS 1D Mark III
3. Canon EOS 1D Mark II
4. Canon 5D Mark II
5. Canon 5D Mark III
6. Canon 20Da
7. Canon 20D
8. Canon 550 D
9. Nikon D5000

I use PocketWizards Plus II's and/or Pocket Wizard Plus III's on all cameras using remote triggers to fire remotely when I shoot the camera that is using the EOS software.
There is no noticeable time delay in taking the photo, changing settings, etc. All cameras remotely fire instantly when the EOS pic is taken from the MacBook Pro 17.
Normally I would use a 10 foot cable but recently I wanted to get a little further away and went with the 32 meter cable. They do suggest at over 10 feet you use a repeater system on the cable so I went with that on the 32 foot cable.
I purchased the BlueRigger USB 2.0 A Male to A Female Active Extension / Repeater Cable 10 Meters (32 Feet) from Amazon for only $9.95 with free 2 day UPS shipping with my PRIME membership.
Hope this helps.

Rob573 wrote in post #14353728
I use the BlueRigger USB 2.0 A Male to A Female Active Extension / Repeater Cable 10 Meters (32 Feet) with the following cameras:
1. Canon EOS 1D Mark IV
2. Canon EOS 1D Mark III
3. Canon EOS 1D Mark II
4. Canon 5D Mark II
5. Canon 5D Mark III
6. Canon 20Da
7. Canon 20D
8. Canon 550 D
9. Nikon D5000

I use PocketWizards Plus II's and/or Pocket Wizard Plus III's on all cameras using remote triggers to fire remotely when I shoot the camera that is using the EOS software.
There is no noticeable time delay in taking the photo, changing settings, etc. All cameras remotely fire instantly when the EOS pic is taken from the MacBook Pro 17.
Normally I would use a 10 foot cable but recently I wanted to get a little further away and went with the 32 meter cable. They do suggest at over 10 feet you use a repeater system on the cable so I went with that on the 32 foot cable.
I purchased the BlueRigger USB 2.0 A Male to A Female Active Extension / Repeater Cable 10 Meters (32 Feet) from Amazon for only $9.95 with free 2 day UPS shipping with my PRIME membership.
Hope this helps.

Thank you Thank you Thank you. I have a Generic wireless remote trigger, I used the laptop to see the picture, adjust setings then fired with the wireless remote....instant shutter triggering of the shutter and the download of the photo I had just taken was less that 1/2 the time it takes triggering the camera from the laptop. Thank you again.

At 5 years old your laptop would have USB2.

cdiver2...also just an added note:
If you are using more then 1 camera remotely triggering with the P/W make sure that you do NOT have the Auto bracketing set. This will cause the camera not to fire properly when triggered with the main P/W. Otherwise, you can trigger as many cameras as you want while firing the main one with the EOS software, a P/W in your hand or attached to a camera you are shooting.

Thanks again Thankfully it will be only one camera. All seems to be going well, a few more test runs to see if I come across any more problems