Nikon D40X connecting to computer?
I have a Nikon D40X and I need to connect it to my computer but still be able to take pictures as I do. There are two ports on the side of the camera, one is a usual cable to download pictures but there's also a rounded end. (Sorry I don't know the names)
I need a set up like this for a photography job I'm doing where I need to instantly download the pictures to my computer, but still have the camera active.
I've seen this done, but I don't know how to set it up on my camera.
Help please.
1) what is the secondary cable I need, the one with the rounded end.
2) Do I need any software for this?
The Nikon D40x is an older dSLR, designed and made long before the idea of tethering a camera to a computer became the hot ticket.
Adobe Lightroom 4 and 5 can tether dSLR cameras to a computer, but you have to have a more resent camera to do that. Any Nikon D5000 or above will tether using Lightroom.
NOTE: When the camera is tethered to a computer, the time between shots will be slower, since the speed of the card and camera buffer account for the rapid writing speeds when using the camera as it was intended.
Adding a USB cable between your computer and camera, will slow things down to something like honey in winter, not because of speed, but because you lose the use of the cameras image buffer.
If you decide you are going to take more "jobs" in photography, you may want to think about getting a Nikon D800E and work from it. If you are billing enough for your services, buying a new camera every five to seven years should be a piece of cake.
Just in case you do not know what your cost of doing business is, here is a link to help you with that
https://nppa.org/calculator
NOTE: When I first started shooting fashion and products with an art director hanging over my shoulder, I started shooting using 2 gb memory cards. That way when the art director got to obnoxious, I just handed them the card and told them to look at the images on their computer and take notes if they wanted any changes.
Whether you use smaller memory cards or tether your camera, this kind of second guessing slows down the productivity of a shoot.
I have the client tell my how many hours they want to rent the studio, lights and have me take photos and that is how I price the shooting session. In my contract, I specifically state that if the session runs longer due to an inaccurate estimate of the shooting session time or due to a slowdown caused by interruptions by the art director or client, they will be paying an additional fee at 2x the hourly fee as stated in the contract.
This addition to my contracts has saved my much grief, much time and taught clients and art directors to just trust the photographer.
You need to do tethering.
Connect the camera to the computer using the USB cable, the one you already have. You don't need any other cable. I suspect the round-end port on your camera is for the wired remote control.
You will definitely need software though. My son uses Digicam Control (freeware) for his Nikon D50 (which is older than your D40X). I don't recall if LiveView works but I wouldn't be surprised if it didn't since the camera doesn't have it anyway. Everything else works. He shoots, the picture previews on the computer monitor and gets saved automatically in the computer's hard disk.
No copies are saved to the camera's memory card as the camera in tether mode is nothing more than a part of the computer. You could plug a memory card to the computer through a USB card reader for fast manual copying if you want to during the shoot or after.
If all you need is a way to save the pictures on both your camera and the computer at the same time, see EyeFi.com. It's a memory card that's adds (limited) Wi-Fi capability to your dSLR.
The round jack is for an RCA video adapter (tip-sleeve to yellow - video). It is handy for reviewing photos on a TV which has an auxiliary jack in easy reach, but can't be used for tethering.
Nikon's own tethering software, Camera Control Pro 2, is available here:
https://support.nikonusa.com/...il/a_id/61
It currently costs about $134 at Adorama and Amazon.
I can verify first-hand that digiCamControl does work with the D40X. You do have to set transfer mode to "Save to PC and camera", as the setup doesn't seem to work in any other mode. ("PC only" results in a transfer error, and "Camera only" does not pass the images on to dCC.) Also note that any unsupported features such as Live View on the D40X will cause the program to hang.
http://digicamcontrol.com/
I'm curious about the license-whether they permit you to use the software for commercial purposes.