[CMG]

I've seen talk about tethering.....what is tethering? I'm hoping it allows you to connect your K-5 to your computer and edit photos on your monitor using K-5's built in software.....I'm guessing this is not the case.

[LeDave]

Tethering is where you hook up your Pentax DSLR to your computer monitor allowing every shot you take to appear on the big screen. This allows you to look at your every photo without wasting time zooming in 8x every time you shoot. Only useful for professional fashion photography and models or portraits IMO.

[CMG]

Tethering is where you hook up your Pentax DSLR to your computer monitor allowing every shot you take to appear on the big screen. This allows you to look at your every photo without wasting time zooming in 8x every time you shoot. Only useful for professional fashion photography and models or portraits IMO.

Thanks!

[manacho2005]

Also useful if you need to snap more than 999 shots for a timelapse video

[interested_observer]

I've seen talk about tethering.....what is tethering? I'm hoping it allows you to connect your K-5 to your computer and edit photos on your monitor using K-5's built in software.....I'm guessing this is not the case.

You are pretty close, but it is really for camera body control (think LiveView on steroids), as opposed to editing your images after they are taken.

You PC (or laptop) is connected via the USB port to the camera body. By running a program on you PC/Laptop/tablet you can then control the camera body in terms of shooting mode, ISO, aperture, shutter speed, shutter release, etc. Essentially it is like LiveView on your PC but using your PC's monitor for the LiveView display. After you take the image, it can be downloaded to the PC/Laptop/tablet. What this is very useful for is to have a larger screen to look at than the camera bodies' rear screen. It works well in a studio setting or something like a macro, where its difficult to possibly see the rear screen, based on the camera's positioning.

The K10 and K20 bodies had the capability supported by Pentax using their Remote Assistant utility (which was free software). The K7 and K5 officially does not have the capability, however an industrious programmer has come out with a share ware application that apparently does a very nice job.

• PK_Tether | Tethering and remote control software for Pentax DSLR cameras

In that you are controlling the camera body from a PC, you can then use the PC to control the camera in additional ways, like long term timelapse as was pointed out previously.

Also, it looks like Pentax is coming out with a new tethering utility for the 645D. Since the 645D is based on the K7/K5 hardware, there may be hope that there will be a new tethering support from Pentax again.

• Pentax adds tethered shooting to 645D medium-format DSLR: Digital Photography Review

Why for the life of me they believe that they can charge $200 for it, is beyond my understanding.....

[photooo]

Thanks - interesting!