Tethered Shooting with Capture One and the Nikon Z9

Ed Dozier

1 day ago

8 min read

Capture One has offered camera tethering for many years, and is considered the ‘industry standard’ for shooting this way. Photographers assume that this is used strictly for studio shooting, but that’s not necessarily true.

I should mention that Nikon offers NX Tether software, which is of course strictly for Nikon cameras. Capture One, on the other hand, isn’t camera-manufacturer specific. It is challenging to configure connecting the camera using an Ethernet cable with NX Tether, although USB-C (short cable) was easy to connect.

Capture One tethering can accept a huge variety of camera models, and it also accepts a variety of cabling options. Most photographers will choose USB-C cables to connect their computer to their camera, but this has a big disadvantage: cable length. The typical maximum cable length with USB is 15 feet, or 4.6 meters. Products such as TetherBoost Pro are ‘active’ cables, which can boost lengths up to around 31 feet or 9.4 meters.

My only camera that has an Ethernet jack is the Nikon Z9. Just for kicks, I tried a 100-foot (30.5 meters) Ethernet cable. I plugged it into an Ethernet port on one of my home wireless mesh network nodes, which provides the wireless signal for my desktop computer with Capture One 23. I was never able to get a successful pairing by going directly into my computer’s Ethernet port.

Guess what? The Ethernet cable connection works perfectly, with zero dropped signals. This setup opens up a lot of shooting options. My Nikon Z9 also has a gigantic battery in it, which can keep the camera powered up all day long while doing tethered shooting.

Ethernet cables are CHEAP. I got the 100-foot insulated cable for about $15. It has gold-plated RJ45 plugs, and has the specifications of LAN 500MHz Cat6. It’s rated as indoor/outdoor as well.

Tethered shot outdoors while I was indoors

Before I forget, I need to mention that you need to safely secure the cable to the camera/tripod AND your computer. You don’t want to accidentally jerk on the cable while it’s plugged into the camera. I use a conventional clamp to do this, but there are companies like Tether Tools that make special equipment for this purpose.

Yes, it was raining in the above shot. I covered up the camera, since the Ethernet connection in the camera could cause havoc if moisture were to enter there.

Using Live View for shooting tethered

As shown above, you can watch what’s going on while sitting at your computer.

Tethered shot while I’m located about 20 meters away from my camera

Capture One Setup

Setup procedures of course vary according to the camera that you want to tether. Different cameras have different features that are available inside Capture One, as well. Some companies that are supported include Canon, Fujifilm, Leica, Nikon, Phase One, Sigma, and Sony. All companies listed will work with USB, while Leica and Sigma will not allow Wireless/LAN connections.

You’ll want to configure some things in Capture One before configuring your camera. For myself, I needed to shut down and then restart Capture One after setting up this configuration to get it to properly listen for the camera connection.

In Capture One, it’s recommended that you configure a Session instead of using a conventional Catalog for shooting. After a shooting session, you can use the drop-down under the Library tab to go back to the Catalog for regular non-tethered use of Capture One.

There are zillions of settings that are possible with configuring a Session. I will only discuss a few fundamentals to identify where to save the tethered shooting photos and the naming convention for those photos.

Start with File | New Session…

Set a Session Name and browse to the location to save the data/photos

For this example, I want to save the photos taken while doing tethered shooting into:

D:\Tethered_Shooting\Ethernet Connection Shooting\Capture

I set the Session name to “Ethernet Connection Shooting” and I want the session to be located in:

D:\Tethered_Shooting

Start by clicking the TETHER tab, located next to the LIBRARY tab, as shown below.

Set up custom file naming

I want the photos saved with a Name, today’s date, and a 4-digit shot number. I want the parts of the file name separated with ‘underscore’ characters. Click the little “…” to the right of the “Format” to get the “Naming Format” dialog. In the “Format” field, I have the Name (the session name), Current Date, and a 4-Digit Counter. The name parts can be dragged from the list below into the Format box, and I separate them by typing in the “_” character. On the left-hand side, you can see a “Sample” file name. Ignore the file suffix; it will get replaced with the camera’s photo file suffix, such as “NEF” for mine.

As shown above, the photos will get saved into the “Capture” folder underneath the session name while doing tethered shooting. The files will automatically get the current date and then 4 digits, starting with “0001”.

At this point, I’d recommend exiting Capture One. I couldn’t get the program to successfully connect to my camera without doing this setp.

Nikon Z9 Setup

Physically connect the Ethernet cable (or USB cable) to the port on the camera and the other end into the router/switch port or directly into your computer’s Ethernet port (or USB for that cable type). I am using a wireless mesh network repeater LAN port for the connection.

Nikon Z9 Ethernet connection port

In Setup, set USB connection priority to “Shooting”

This setting will prioritize immediate shooting action over the transmission of sending pictures back to the computer. You want this if there is any subject action you’re trying to capture.

Network Menu: Wired LAN turned ON

Network Menu: Connect to computer (top item)

Connect to computer | Connection type | Camera control

Connect to computer | Network settings | Create profile

Under “Create profile”, give it a profile name (using LAN1 above). Choose “Obtain automatically (DHCP) unless you need a fixed IP. Complete the IP address configuration.

Ignore if the camera asks to start the Wireless Transmitter utility.

You should only have to do the above steps once. Later, just plug in your camera, start up Capture One, and then turn on your camera. It should pair automatically and be visible inside Capture One. If it doesn’t connect, select your profile name again in ‘Network settings’.

After restarting Capture One, make sure you’re in the TETHER tab again.

Go to Tether tool tab | Camera

Click the “Select camera…” option to see the list of available cameras. You should see your camera show up now, as shown above. Click your camera name (Nikon Z9 here), and you should be ready to go. It may take a few seconds for the camera pairing to complete.

I have occasionally had the problem of Capture One NOT seeing the camera, instead saying “No camera available”. This is with any Ethernet cable (I also have a 6-foot cable). After powering-down the camera, I disconnected the Ethernet cable and then attached a USB-C cable to the camera and computer (6-footer), and then turned the camera back on. Voila, it was seen immediately by Capture One as being tethered. Next, I turned the camera off, re-attached the Ethernet cable, and turned the camera on again. Magically, now Capture One saw my Nikon again. This with zero settings changes in either Capture One or the Nikon. Go figure.

I should mention that some cameras have an option to save to both in-camera media and also directly to the computer folder. I haven’t been able to find any such option for my Nikon, although the default of saving to disk is what I want anyway. For cameras that have it, you should look for the Camera settings option called “Save To”, which would let you choose camera, computer, or both.

It’s worth mentioning that Nikon's NX Tether program does let you save to computer/memory card using the “Computer+Card” option. I'll discuss NX Tether in another article in the future.

Tethered Shooting

Lots of options

I have identified several areas of interest above. I’d recommend that you start by clicking the ‘Live View’ button to bring up the window that shows what’s going on real-time.

In the Live View window, the large white round button is the shutter button. The indicated rectangle allows you to invoke autofocus. It will focus ONLY on the center of the field of view. Only Fujifilm cameras have the ability to indicate what part of the image to focus on, and I believe that only Fujifilm cameras let you manually change focus with the controls beside the autofocus button. I’m hoping that other cameras will get this feature in the future.

I should mention at this point that Nikon’s NX Tether does let you select which focus point to use.

On most cameras, you also cannot temporarily stop-down the aperture to check depth of focus using the DOF control. Instead, you need to take a shot and review the result to check depth of focus.

Once you take a shot, you can select it from the right-hand side of the screen and edit it if you wish. To return to the live view window, just click the ‘Live View’ button again.

Zoom in Live View to verify focus

The Cursor Tools include a magnifying glass to zoom in on parts of the image and verify the quality of focus. Just click where you want to magnify the image. Select the “zoom minus” to restore full screen viewing.

Again, most camera models aren’t allowed to auto-focus anywhere other than the center of the field of view.

Grid overlay

To help with leveling and centering for focus, there’s a grid tool. Remember, for most cameras only the center of the field of view is used to autofocus. If you are remote and try to invoke autofocus without the subject centered, it’s automatically totally out of focus.

A closer view of some controls

Some common controls are located at the top of the application. These common controls are duplicated down below in text form. MANY settings are available for changing/viewing in the list below the main controls.

In the view above, the shutter speed (1.3s) is greyed-out (disabled), because I’m in aperture-priority mode (A). Here, I pre-focused on the subject that isn’t in the center of the field of view while using the camera instead of via Capture One. I made sure to not touch the autofocus control in Capture One here.

Set the number of shots to take in burst mode

In continuous shooting mode, you can tell it how many shots to take in a burst. This is very handy when things are rapidly changing. The shots will get rapidly shot (and stored in the camera’s buffer), but will arrive back into the computer at a much slower pace.

I’d recommend that you ALWAYS leave the camera in continuous shooting mode. The Z9 has a physical dial for this, so you cannot enter this mode through tethering. Just set the number of shots to 1 for single-shot.

Continuous shooting will invariably lead to lots of unwanted photos. If you’re shooting in a Session, you can just multi-select these shots, right-mouse click, and choose “Delete (Move to Session trash)”. The shots are eliminated from the Capture folder and placed into the Trash folder. This way, you can still recover these shots in case you change your mind.

Why Use Tethered Shooting?

Most photographers that shoot tethered are doing product shots. Their camera might be at an uncomfortable location or behind a bunch of lighting gear. They also love the ability to see the shots on a huge computer monitor as they’re working, instead of just the camera’s screen or viewfinder.

I’m aware of “Auto Capture” features, where you pre-program the camera to shoot when a subject moves into the field of view. I’m not interested in photography where you have no participation in actually taking the shot.

For me, tethered shooting means that I can have the camera set up outdoors while I’m indoors at my computer sipping a latte! A hundred-foot cable is very liberating. It sure would be handy to also have a motorized pan/tilt tripod head; I’ll discuss this extravagance in a future article.