How to tether sony a7 to lightroom

Question

I am trying to tether my Sony a7 to my mac using the USB cable with Lightroom 5.

But when I start a tethered capture I see a "No Camera Detected" error on the tether panel.

My camera LCD shows "USB Mode" so I am unable to take a picture.

It seems that the Sony a7 is not on Adobe's official supported cameras page.

Could that be the problem? Is there an alternative/workaround to this?

Answer 1

Yes, it is most probably a problem that the Sony A7 is not listed in the officially supported camera list of Lightroom.

There are several things I found on the web that might help you.

Firstly make sure your camera's USB mode is not set to Mass storage but to PC Remote.

Now you can try using other software to tether your camera. Sony has the Remote Camera Control application available free of charge, and from the site it seems it supports the A7. You can involve Lightroom in this process by monitoring the folders to which Sony's application imports photos. The photos will then show up in LR directly after you shot them so you can develop/inspect immediately. Here it's explained how to set this up.

If you really want to use Lightroom 5 to tether your camera I found a paid plug-in (web archive; original site is dead). I am not related to the company, nor do I have experience with the plug-in, but there is a demo-version (web archive) available so you can try it out first.

Answer 2

I am adding a new answer to this, as the problem still persists (2023).

The Problem

Adobe Lightroom does not natively support the Sony a7, a9 or a1 cameras. So while Nikon and Canon cameras just work by attaching them and maybe setting the camera up for remote connection, it will not do anything for a Sony.

Solution: Sony Imaging Edge Software

This solution is the cheapest, as you have all the stuff needed for it already at your hands or can get it for free.

1. Get Sony Imaging Edge Software from their homepage
2. Set up your camera to use PC remote
3. Set the Software to save each image to a folder on your computer
4. Set up Lightroom to watch this folder and auto import any image in here
5. Start up Software, Lightroom and connect your camera
6. Start shooting.

Any image should now be saved to your drive, then imported into Lightroom.

Note: This solution is slower than direct tethering support.

Solution: Smart Shooter Software

Tethering Tools offers a software called Smart Shooter (currently version 4, Windows & Mac) which offers a way better shooting experience than the Sony software and includes a Lightroom Plugin for direct tethering.

With that it is simply setting up the camera for remote PC connection, connect and start a tethering shoot in Lightroom.

(This is my preferred way after trying out everything described here.)

Solution: Capture One

Maybe not really a solution: Capture One as an alternative to Lightroom offers native support. The approach of Capture One is quite a bit different. You might or might not like it. It has some strengths over LR in some areas, while lacking in others. Tethered shooting is a strength of it.

Disclaimer: I am neither affiliated with Smart Shooter, nor Capture One.