Tethering without losing the images on my camera

Software darktable
1

Can I use Darktable tethering (Canon 5D mk IV) while keeping the images in my camera’s memory card? When I tether with Adobe Lightroom, the images are duplicated to the computer, but it appears that they are retained on the computer alone when I tether with Darktable. Or am I missing something? Thanks!

2

Darktable uses gphoto2 for tethering. Here: https://github.com/gphoto/libgphoto2/issues/197 is some information on how to change the gphoto2 setting that handles the requested feature. I am answering from my phone so I cannot test it myself, but maybe you can try and report your findings.

3

The question then is if DT needs a checkbox for this in the UI or not.

4

Being a newbie to this, is this something I can “fix” in my Macbook? Looks like PC coding to me.

5

DT uses libgphoto2, not the application. So the feature would have to be added to the code. Not sure if someone might be interested implementing it but you could open a feature request on dark table GitHub.

6

libgphoto2 respects the gphoto2 config file, such that it works as described above. At least on my linux machine. Unfortunately, the api doc is not very verbose regarding this topic, from here I would have thought it would always store the file on the camera which then can be downloaded. As there is no active deletion of the file in camera_control.c, I did a test and it is really the case, libgphoto2 respects the settings file ~/.gphoto/settings.

I leave this to the OP. I do not use tethering with darktable. A checkbox would be handy, but it can be controlled by the gphoto2 settings as well, as described below.

Yes, at least it worked for me to plug in the camera and then run gphoto2 --set-config capturetarget=1. This writes several lines to the config file, such that I would not edit it directly. You may need to install gphoto2 on your computer, I have no clue how this is done for non-linux systems. I just typed sudo apt install gphoto2. Make sure to close darktable when running the gphoto2 command.

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7

Thanks. I have a feeling this is beyond my paygrade! I’m just a guy with a camera and a Macbook. I was hoping it was something I could do within the settings of Darktable. Evidently, it requires a bit of coding and a knowledge of Linux. I appreciate all the responses. – Dan

8

No coding, I just did the following:

  1. close darktable
  2. open a command window
  3. type gphoto2 to see if it is already installed. If you get a hint that this command is not available, install gphoto2. This is probably the most difficult part for you, and as I do not use apple computers, I cannot help with it, but maybe you will find a solution here: Install gphoto2 on macOS with MacPorts.
  4. plug in the camera
  5. type gphoto2 --set-config capturetarget=1 in the command window
  6. close the command window
  7. run darktable again, it now shows the behavior you were requesting

Above are the steps that are necessary, but as I do not use apple computers, I don’t know if this will work as well for you, maybe there are little adjustments required. Other than this, somebody with apple knowledge has to step in.

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9

Nice find, @chris!

You’ll stay at your current paygrade until you try and move beyond it. Give yourself a raise!

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10

Thanks so much for this! I’ll give it a try and rise above my current paygrade after all.

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