I sometimes tie a rope to the models ankle so he/she won't run off before the shoot is over.
Usually only needed when the models are sheep and goats.
Does that count as tethered shooting? 

i shoot all my studio stuff tethered. I dont check every photo was I take them but, just a few here and there to make sure lighting/focus/etc is all where I want it.

To tether for the pentax K10D and k20D you have to use pentax software and all it does is to allow you to see the image and the settings. The image is in a small window so it is nothing to write home about.

I'm not sure if that is correct to say that the K10D is the same as the K20D. The K20D has far more features that K10D does not. I saw a demo using Live View and tethering with the Sony and this is similar to what the K20D can do. I don't think the K10D has that screen capture preview either.

We shoot objects tethered - food, small stuff, etc.  No way we shoot people tethered but for food and white bkgd objects it's useful.  It makes editing later on much much easier!  Why not do that?

yes, that's the whole idea really. check dof, and saves not having to shoot until you're satisfied with the lighting and placement,etc... this , I find is a large savings in both time to edit via PS as well as not needing to look through your images to find the one you want. even more important, you don't clog up your hdd with too many RAW files which can be hefty at 23 MP +- each.

In my case, all I wanted was for DOP and subtle accent light checking. I found out a couple of days ago from my colleague at Henry's that all I really needed for my K20D is a TV, hook it up via the yellow RCA . the quality is not that hot, but it does the job for checking DOF within squinting at the LCD. he told me of a fella who shoots jewelry, and he used the K20D to do the job this way.

So, that's going to be what I will get. A cheap TV, or even a 2nd hand portable DVD player, which could make it easier than lugging a TV.
I will let you know if it works out.

Maybe it works differently with the K20D vs the Canon,etc..

The uploading to HDD via usb is not the problem, as it only takes a short time to do that with the SD memory adapter.
I only want to use the TV monitor or DVD player monitor as a large previewer instead of the tiny LCD on the camera.

As I mentioned before, the K20D has a feature that enables me to see a snapshot before deciding to save it as RAW and or RAW + jpg.
With a flip of the switch on the shutter release, I do that. With another , I decide either to trash it, or save it. Very simple, and not needing to go tethering via Assistant. I don't need the other procedures.

I am told it works . So I am going to try it this way. It cost almost nothing to get a TV , and since I don't have a TV, it 's not entirely wasted. I can connect it to my cable and get free cable tv shows too, as here , our internet already includes cable tv.

So if this method works, it 's a win win situation for me.

Now I remember: one thing that is easier to do tethered is to get straight lines straight, to get a straight "horizon". It's always better to shoot everything straight in camera instead of rotating the image in Photoshop.

Easier way: Use a tripod with a level.

-Larry

Quote from: Lcjtripod on July 13, 2009, 09:23

Easier way: Use a tripod with a level.

It's not as precise as shooting tethered and using a grid on the preview. And it's not always when the "horizon" is parallel to the natural horizon (that makes the level un-usable)

Whoops! What do I know? I did not know that we had two (count 'em) horizons. I have used levels on tripods for over fifty years with every kind of camera from 11x14 view cameras to pin hole. Never been a problem yet!

-Larry

Quote from: Lcjtripod on July 13, 2009, 10:02

Whoops! What do I know? I did not know that we had two (count 'em) horizons. I have used levels on tripods for over fifty years with every kind of camera from 11x14 view cameras to pin hole. Never been a problem yet!

What I meant was that it's not always the natural horizon that has to be straight. Let's say you have a still life on an old crooked table, and you want the table to look straight in the photo. Or let's say you are shooting a painting that is on the floor leaning against the wall.

OK .... Un natural horizons .... kill the levels. 

-Larry

if you are a canon user then you need capture one. tethered allows you to shoot and see the image right away, then you can make adjustments on the capture one program to fine tune and reshoot. such as checking focus, just change it in the software and reshoot with a keystroke. Use it for catalog shooting all the time, highly recommend it. I have also tethered pentax and it is not the same. it just allows you to see the image (not a very big view) and all the file info on your monitor. you can not make adjustments on the software side. that is why you do not hear much about it. just as quick to pull the card and upload to the pc/mac

EOS Utility does the trick, for me is enoug, since I use Lightroom and CS3 I dont use CaptureOne.  The beauty is the ability to see the pic full size and check that everything is OK, very useful on a studio setting, more if you shoot macro.

Shooting tethered can be a real time saver as it allows to check the end result  more precisely and with more accurate colors on a calibrated monitor.

When shooting fixed subjects with the camera on a tripod, a USB cable may be ok. But when shooting handheld with a lot of mobility needed, it's a no-no for me. I don't want any cable to trip over. Yet, a 700$ wifi grip is not something I'd like to spend my money on.

The EyeFi wifi SD cards seem like an elegant solution but are reported to have many issues (according to user reports on their forum), especially when using a SD to CF adapter. And even when they work, they are reported to transfer data quite slowly (about 4 sec. for a jpg and much more for raw files). Kind of a workflow breaker.

Knowing that wireless USB is on its way, and is spec'ed to allow the same bitrates as wired USB2, I searched for a replacement solution, but only a few manufacturers sell WUSB dongles. Cables Unlimited offers a 2-dongles set (~US$40 on Amazon) which basically "replaces" a usb cable by a wireless connection, but while the computer dongle gets its power from the usb port, the "remote" dongle needs to be connected to the included docking station and a power supply outlet, which kind of defeats the wireless purpose.

Fotunately, it seems possible and relatively simple to add a DIY battery-powered solution (see here and here). The end result is a tiny box that can be attached to the camera strap and then plugged into the camera usb port for less than 50$ total. Seems to work with any camera capable of usb tethered shooting, works also with liveview, and allows workable transfer rates (> 100Mb/s for distances < 3m, the greater the distance the slower the transfer rate). Much faster than Canon's own wifi grip, but with a much shorter maximum distance (rated at ~ 10m/30ft max).

A warning for mac/linux users : the dongles currently work on windows only, no drivers for other OS's yet.

A few related links :
Eye-Fi SD card review
Eye-Fi users forum
Canon Wireless File Transmitter review

[EDIT]
I've read that some laptops already feature Wireless-USB capabilities, and that Samsung offers a low consumption W-USB chip with embedded flash memory controller (see this article in english and this one in french).
If only camera manufacturers could embed such technology in their coming new cameras, that would be a nice addition. But wait, if they do, they won't be selling any more 700$ wi-fi grip...

Another benefit of shooting tethered, even if you don't look at the pictures on your computer during the session, is that you can have your prefered DAM software work while you're shooting, thus saving time on the transfer/import part of your workflow. You'll be able to browse through all images instantly at the end of the shooting session, or during a coffee break, without having to wait for your software to transfer, rename, import, apply default metadata and post settings, etc...

For example, Lightroom can take a while to download and import 100/200 images in its database and generate 1:1 previews. If you import all images in one go at the end of a shooting session, you won't be able to quickly browse through them, view them at 100% while LR is still working.

What I do is set Canon's EOS Utility to transfer the files in a given directory, then enable LR's automatic import from this directory. Each time I press the shutter, the picture is automatically transfered to my HD, renamed and imported in LR, its 1:1 preview is generated, and I can have LR add default keywords/metadata as well as apply a post-processing preset. All that being done while I keep shooting.

transmitting directly to the computer really shines when you are dealing with clients who you want to push same day sales on. You can transmit and while you are shooting the retoucher is weeding through the shots and processing the keepers. Then within moments of finishing up shooting the client can go directly into the sales presentation .. make their selections and write a big fat check. By eliminating wait time the excitement from the session flows directly over into the sales presentation which leads to bigger sales.
As far as using it for things like checking your photos, etc. etc. you shouldn't have to do that anyway. Discipline yourself to get the shot without needing to double check it to such extremes.