Commercial food photography is pretty much my bread and butter. I tether my EOS 5D Mark II to a Dell Studio laptop with a 17-inch HD display using a 5m long USB cable. The length gives me a great deal of freedom to move back and fourth between the table where food is prepared and presented, and a separate table for the laptop. Tethered shooting works exceptionally well where reliability and transfer speed matters but this setup isn’t without a downside. As long as a physical cable is connected to the camera’s USB port it’s only a matter of time before an accident happens. Once I unknowingly stepped on the cable (happens when your mind is preoccupied with other distractions) pulling the cable downwards causing the mini USB connector to bend but just short of damaging it entirely. This cable is presently on loan to an associate who has just started to experiment with tethered shooting.
Find out if there’s a LockPort USB or HDMI device that suits your needs
A LockPort USB port saver attached to my 5D Mark II. The L bracket is secured to the camera body using the tripod’s quick release plate.
One incident was enough to make me look for ways to prevent a costly recurrence. The USB port on the camera is an integrated component of the main PCB so the entire board needs to be replaced. According to a comment in this post, it costs an approximate SGD700 (Singapore dollars) to replace the motherboard. The LockPort USB adapter kit cost me SGD211 including FedEx door to door shipping.
