Tethered Shooting

<p>Next month I'm giving a presentation to my local camera club, and thought it would be beneficial to be able to project on a big screen directly from my camera. This is to show focus techniques, mainly. My idea is to hook a D800 to a laptop, and the laptop is connected to an overhead Epson projector. I will be focusing on the lens so I don't need remote focus or anything like that. So, what do I need, and what program would the laptop need to catch the video? Remember that I am cheap.</p>

<p>Kent in SD</p>

<p>Capture One trial is 30 days. It will let you use live view as well as accessing all of your camera controls via your laptop</p>

<p>CameraRC comes with a lifetime license for $20. You can also tether with LightRoom. You shouldn't need any program to project from your computer. You are just projecting the image from the tethering program/workspace.</p>

<p>I'm not sure why you need a laptop at all? Normally you could just hook your camera directly to the projector. Then the audience can see whatever you see including when you zoom in, check blinking highlights, change things in menus, view images/videos, liveview or other settings.</p>

<p>If they have a projector capable of HD you can use the hdmi out on your camera.</p>

<p>Agreed with Pete. The HDMI output from the camera (you need a cable with mini-HDMI, not to be confused with micro-HDMI, which is a little unusual but <a href="http://www.amazon.com/AmazonBasics-High-Speed-HDMI-Mini-HDMI-Cable/dp/B003ES5ZR8/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1427383673&sr=8-1&keywords=mini+hdmi+to+hdmi">not expensive</a>) can be connected to most variants of TV and projector, so long as they take an HDMI or DVI input. It's pretty configurable in terms of the output mode, too, and you can choose whether or not to overlay live view. If your projector is VGA only, you can get <a href="http://www.amazon.com/HDE-Converter-Adapter-Laptops-Players/dp/B00C0Y6BQG/ref=sr_1_2?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1427383742&sr=1-2&keywords=hdmi+to+vga">moderately cheap</a> HDMI-to-VGA adaptors these days (but add an HDMI-to-mini-HDMI adaptor).<br />

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If you want to record what you're doing for later, you could also get something like <a href="https://www.elgato.com/en/gaming/gamecapture-hd">this</a>, which should record the video output and output to a laptop over USB. You shouldn't need it just for the presentation, though.<br />

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Of course, like tethered shooting, this approach only gives you the live view output. If you want to look down the finder, you're best off pointing a web cam down it, unless you can get a live feed out of a compact camera.</p>

<p>Unfortunately, the Epson projector is attached to the ceiling. Don't really want a 15 ft. cord. The images sent from a lap top to the projector work pretty well.</p>

<p>Kent in SD</p>

<p>Kent: Sure... but how is the laptop connected to the projector? Surely that's not also on the ceiling? :-) I presume therefore that you already have at least one 15ft cable in place. You can get a mini-HDMI to female HDMI converter, if it's using an HDMI cable, or stick an HDMI-to-DVI converter in the way if needed. All of these are just wires (no complex electronics), and should be cheap. It's only if you're connecting over a VGA cable that it gets tricky, but even those converters are cheap these days. If the worst comes to the worst there's always the HDMI capture box route, but that doesn't sound necessary.<br />

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If everything's wireless, that's different, but it would be extremely unusual...</p>

<p>I've done this, and you don't need the laptop Kent. Just connect the camera's video output directly to the projector. Most digital projectors have an input selector, so you can quickly switch from the VGA connector to "Composite Video In" or HDMI.</p>

<p>"Don't really want a 15 ft. cord." - Just the 10 foot one from camera to laptop then? Anything shorter and you're in danger of pulling the laptop from its table/stand/whatever. At least a slight tug on the cable won't pull the projector from the ceiling!</p>

<p>Edit: Of course the camera has to be in Live-View for it to work at all!</p>

<p>Have you considered using DSLR Dashboard? I recently got it and tried it out for some focus bracketing.<br /> <br />I used it with my Android phone, but I believe the program is available for Windows also. Not sure about Mac. The download is free. The only thing I needed was a "On-The-Go" adapter for the USB cable. Radio Shack supposedly carries them but when I went to get one they were out. I ordered one online from Amazon but it took several weeks to actually get it. You might have better luck ordering online from Radio Shack. Not sure whether you need one of them when using a computer instead of an Android phone.<br /> <br />The program will do Live View so you can display the image on the computer (and presumably through the projector). You can control all the stuff on the camera from the computer. <br /> http://dslrdashboard.info/</p>

<p>Just a little experience speaking. <br>

I tethered my D7100 to a flat panel tv to demonstrate different flash effects. I used a 6' HDMI mini. Unfortunately I carried the camera 8'. Was able to catch tv and save camera. HDMI cable was the victim. (also the cheapest) I now have a much longer HDMI mini cable.<br>

Bill</p>