Controlling 7D with Macbook pro?

so im getting a studio within the next week or so and I want to be able to take photos with the 7d and have them instantly appear on my macbook pro, if you have the usb cable ive heard you can do this? and is it possible to use a macbook pro as a remote for the 7d?

You can tether direct with the USB cable that Canon supply in the box, and EOS Utility with DPP supplied on the CD also in the box. Just update to the latest from the Canon website for your area, the latest updates support 10.6.8, 10.7 and 10.8.

It's all free

Or you might be able to do it through Lightroom or Capture One Pro, but not 100% sure as I'm a tight wad!

Nalauk wrote in post #16338983
You can tether direct with the USB cable that Canon supply in the box, and EOS Utility with DPP supplied on the CD also in the box. Just update to the latest from the Canon website for your area, the latest updates support 10.6.8, 10.7 and 10.8.

It's all free

Or you might be able to do it through Lightroom or Capture One Pro, but not 100% sure as I'm a tight wad!

i was thinking of lightroom! never heard of capture one pro though!

jonathanheierle wrote in post #16338965
so im getting a studio within the next week or so and I want to be able to take photos with the 7d and have them instantly appear on my macbook pro, if you have the usb cable ive heard you can do this? and is it possible to use a macbook pro as a remote for the 7d?

Grain of salt: I HAVE to run tethered to even turn my camera back on...

Tethering is very easy with a modern canon camera. The disks that come with the 7D should be some help. Other programs you may use are Aperture, LightRoom, or PhaseOne's Capture One pro7.

I HAVE to use CaptureOne because my setup is pretty old.


To be honest, you dont want to have to take a shot and then look at the screen and then take another shot. If you have an art director on hand (or such a person happens to be your significant other...) you do NOT want to keep them waiting for the next frame.

Now, if you happen to focus almost exclusively on product photography (like Foodguy, sorry) You will very likely want to shoot. stop, check, and reshoot.


I wish I figured out how to tether my 7D before I went down the really dark rabbit hole ive crawled into with my mamiya. Being able to shoot a number of frames and then see them pop up on a monitor(or monitors if you want to keep the art director comfortable...) is really fun. hook your computer up to a very large monitor(or TV) and you can lighten the mood in the studio if you have a model who is wound a little too tightly.

should work in lightroom, I've done it with my 40D a while ago. Not all cameras worked, we could not get a Sony to show up. No idea what model.

Make sure to have a long cable and make sure you can't pull your computer off the table...

it takes a couple sec for a shot to show up. MUA wanted to see the photos as they were shot, personally I don't like the cable on my camera, so I don't use tethered at all.

Never installed the canon software and don't have capture one. In Lightroom, just go under "file" and you'll see the option for tethered capture.

pyrojim wrote in post #16339004
Grain of salt: I HAVE to run tethered to even turn my camera back on...

Tethering is very easy with a modern canon camera. The disks that come with the 7D should be some help. Other programs you may use are Aperture, LightRoom, or PhaseOne's Capture One pro7.

I HAVE to use CaptureOne because my setup is pretty old.


To be honest, you dont want to have to take a shot and then look at the screen and then take another shot. If you have an art director on hand (or such a person happens to be your significant other...) you do NOT want to keep them waiting for the next frame.

Now, if you happen to focus almost exclusively on product photography (like Foodguy, sorry) You will very likely want to shoot. stop, check, and reshoot.


I wish I figured out how to tether my 7D before I went down the really dark rabbit hole ive crawled into with my mamiya. Being able to shoot a number of frames and then see them pop up on a monitor(or monitors if you want to keep the art director comfortable...) is really fun. hook your computer up to a very large monitor(or TV) and you can lighten the mood in the studio if you have a model who is wound a little too tightly.

so if you have the usb cable your set? oh and would the pictures instantly show up on a tv with an HDMI cable?

jonathanheierle wrote in post #16339009
so if you have the usb cable your set? oh and would the pictures instantly show up on a tv with an HDMI cable?

Not quite. You need some way to tether the camera to a computer(I have to use a strange firewire cable, you may need a USB cable....)

Then you need tethering software. canon ships each camera with software. its not bad. its not great....

if you want it to show up on a large monitor.... hook the computer up to the huge monitor....

pyrojim wrote in post #16339020
Not quite. You need some way to tether the camera to a computer(I have to use a strange firewire cable, you may need a USB cable....)

Then you need tethering software. canon ships each camera with software. its not bad. its not great....

if you want it to show up on a large monitor.... hook the computer up to the huge monitor....

i have a smart tv, and a macbook pro so those are my options, i have a usb cable that fits the camera, i dont think theres a firewire option on the 7d, i would most likely use lightroom to tether

The USB cable supplied in the box is a bit short, the computer needs to be close which is a bit of a problem.

Last time I used Capture One Pro it was a little slow, but that was a firewire equipped 1DS. With the later cameras I've always been happy with the transfer time of EOS Utility and DPP so much so I've never used Aperture to tether.
It gets the image up pretty quick, and lets face it it you probably won't be working on it until later, so it's just a quick check. You can record to the computer and to the CF card at the same time, or just quit EOS utility when ready to go and shoot just to CF for the ultimate in speed and import into your prefered RAW converter afterwards if needed.

EDIT: Beware the connection on the camera for the USB cable - they can be a bit fragile.

Nalauk wrote in post #16339092
The USB cable supplied in the box is a bit short, the computer needs to be close which is a bit of a problem.

Last time I used Capture One Pro it was a little slow, but that was a firewire equipped 1DS. With the later cameras I've always been happy with the transfer time of EOS Utility and DPP so much so I've never used Aperture to tether.
It gets the image up pretty quick, and lets face it it you probably won't be working on it until later, so it's just a quick check. You can record to the computer and to the CF card at the same time, or just quit EOS utility when ready to go and shoot just to CF for the ultimate in speed and import into your prefered RAW converter afterwards if needed.

EDIT: Beware the connection on the camera for the USB cable - they can be a bit fragile.

i ordered a 6 foot cable from amazon