Shooting tethered with back up

treeman

treeman

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I dont know if its the same with all cameras or software, but shooting a D3s using LR4 the files are only written to the HD on the laptop and not to the cameras CF cards as well. Meaning you've only got on version of the image file.

Does anybody know if there's a way to have a continual back up to a second HD while shooting tethered, or if different tethering software allows writing to the cards as well?
 
I know on the PC certain back up software, such as Acronis, can be set to do constant backups, meaning any new file written to a folder can be backed up immediately on a file by file basis.

No idea what's available for a Mac though.
 
Nikons can't do this. It's a limitation of the SDK (though I heard the D4 can if anybody ever bought them). Nikon could easily fix it but nobody else could.

Canons can.

Acronis and the like won't help much because if the file drops out in the cable then you get 2 corrupt copies instead of one.

However, on tethered shoot I velcro a small USB drive to the bottom of the laptop stand and run a Super Duper script at every restyle.
 
My bikinis write to the card and the computer. I shoot wireless with a wt4. My d700 does, my d3 does I haven't tried the d3s. A company set mine up but it's in the wireless settings not to delete after transfer. Not sure if it helps you out.
 
1. Best autocorrect of the day

2. Yeah that's a measure of how short sighted Nikon are. The functionality is built into the WT4 code (where it really really needs to be because of poor transfer rates) but not the USB code (where it would be nice).

Simple code change would make a lot of tethered shooters happier.
 
Pookeyhead said:
No idea what's available for a Mac though.
Click to expand...

There are paid-for apps like FolderWatch which will do this (not a recommendation, just the first I found).

However, Automator comes free as part of OS X and it's easy enough to set up an Automator script to copy new files from a watched folder to a backup location as they're placed in the source directory.

This will give you a good start - same idea, just making a thumbnail for new files instead:

http://www.apple.com/uk/pro/techniques/automator/
 
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JonathanRyan said:
2. Yeah that's a measure of how short sighted Nikon are. The functionality is built into the WT4 code (where it really really needs to be because of poor transfer rates) but not the USB code (where it would be nice).

Simple code change would make a lot of tethered shooters happier.
Click to expand...

How unbelievably stupid of Nikon not to do this, I'd like to think there's a good reason why they don't, but I fear I may be wrong :shrug:

Musicman said:
There are paid-for apps like FolderWatch which will do this (not a recommendation, just the first I found).

However, Automator comes free as part of OS X and it's easy enough to set up an Automator script to copy new files from a watched folder to a backup location as they're placed in the source directory.

This will give you a good start - same idea, just making a thumbnail for new files instead:

http://www.apple.com/uk/pro/techniques/automator/
Click to expand...

Yeah I'd heard about 'folder actions' but the little looking around I did on it left me more confused, but that link looks like it may be worth pursuing, thanks.
 
JonathanRyan said:
Photomechanic is the answer to many things. But not tethered shooting ;)
Click to expand...

Oh, ye of little faith!

Just downloaded the trail of PM and it seems to do the job (well at least on the 20 or so images I rattled off just now).

If you use Live Ingest on PM you can set it to ingest from your source folder (which is the one you set in LR) and it ingests to your primary folder (set in PM) on the lap top, and at the same time, ingest to a secondary folder, like an external HD, (I just tried it on a Memory stick).

And bingo! I'm shooting tethered, files going to the lappy and an external source, so I've got two copies instantly (ish).
 
Ah right. I kind of see what you're doing. Lot of moving parts in that solution....

Do you end up with 3 copies?
 
As long as the moving parts are automated, and work, I can live with that :)

Nope, it looks like 1 copy on the laptop and 1 copy on the ext HD, the files in the original LR tethered folder are deleted as they move to the other two folders.
 
treeman said:
Nope, it looks like 1 copy on the laptop and 1 copy on the ext HD, the files in the original LR tethered folder are deleted as they move to the other two folders.
Click to expand...

Yeah, rather you than me ;)

I would actually rather use something to dupe the folder. You can do that for free with Folder Actions / automator.

But that still doesn't address Nikon's idiocy. I want one copy on the card and one on the hard drive. From a process point of view that's very different from 2 copies on separate hard drives.
 
I stand by my initial comment ;) One of the biggest problems with the entire nikon system imo...
 
I shoot an old copy of Nikon capture control, it came free with Nikon Capture 4, it lays one on the card and one on the HD.
In fact I don't even know if there's an option to change it, never been inclined to change it.
If the card gets full, it won't actuate even with a HD available, which is good because its handy to have two copies, but can occur at awkward moments if you don't keep your eye on it.
 
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