Can you tether video from your camera?
CloudTether is a stills tool first — but in 1.1 it can also send the clips you record while tethered. Here's what that does, and what it doesn't.
The short answer
Yes, with limits. CloudTether 1.1 can copy video clips off the camera and deliver them like photos — to Dropbox, Google Drive, a server or the phone's Photos library. It sends finished clips, not a live stream: a clip is copied once you stop recording. Photos always come first, so turning video on never slows down your stills. It's off by default, and it's new, so test it with your camera before a job that depends on it.
Turn it on for a shoot
Open the shoot's settings and, under “Transfer from camera”, switch on “Also send videos — large files; USB is fastest”. From then on, a clip recorded while the camera is tethered is copied off the camera and delivered as the original file. With the switch off, nothing changes: clips stay on the card, as before. Like the other transfer settings, it applies to that shoot on that phone.
Photos first, always
A clip is copied in pieces, and before each piece CloudTether checks whether a photo from that camera is waiting; if one is, the photo goes first. So a new still never waits more than a moment behind a long clip. Uploads work the same way: a clip uploads only when no photo is waiting, and one clip at a time. In the shoot, a clip's tile shows its progress (“Copying 42%”, or “Waiting for photos” while stills go ahead) and its duration.
How big is a clip?
Video is big, and that decides everything else. A rough rule: divide the bit rate in megabits per second by eight to get megabytes per second. A clip recorded at 100 Mbps is about 12.5 MB a second — roughly 750 MB a minute. At 200 Mbps it's around 1.5 GB a minute, and high-bit-rate or All-I modes are bigger still. Compare that with a 25 MB RAW file: one minute of video can weigh as much as thirty or more stills.
USB or Wi-Fi?
Use USB for video. A cable is much faster than the camera's Wi-Fi — about three times faster for photos in our speed test, and the gap matters far more with gigabyte-sized files. Clips over Wi-Fi still transfer, and the first time a clip over 1 GB is copied over Wi-Fi the app suggests USB. If a camera disconnects part-way through, that copy stops; reconnect and tap Retry on the clip to carry on from where it reached.
Phone storage and mobile data
Each clip is stored on the phone before it uploads, so CloudTether checks for space first — the clip plus a safety margin of at least 512 MB. If there isn't room, the clip is marked as needing attention with a storage-full reason, and nothing else is affected. Then there's the upload: a few gigabytes over mobile data takes a long time and uses a lot of your plan. For anything longer than short clips, deliver over Wi-Fi with a good uplink, or keep video for the card.
Where clips can and can't go
Clips are delivered as the original file: “JPEGs only”, size, look, renaming and rating rules don't change or drop them. Cloud drives and servers take video; the phone's Photos library saves it natively. Some destinations don't accept video, and the clip is skipped there with a reason: ShootProof, Lightroom, Flickr and PhotoHawk. Others have size limits, such as Box at 50 MB, Slack at 1 GB and SmugMug at 3 GB. A single clip larger than about 5 GB isn't uploaded to the cloud; it stays on the phone, and copies on the phone still get it. Very large clips to a slow FTP or SFTP server may also not finish.
Clips over 4 GB
Files past 4 GB need the camera to support 64-bit transfers over the tether. Where it doesn't, the copy stops at the limit with a message to copy that clip from the card instead.
Which cameras?
Video transfer uses the same connection as photos on Canon, Nikon, Sony and Fujifilm bodies. What varies is whether a camera announces a new clip while it's tethered: some bodies only report stills in their tether or remote mode — Sony's PC Remote may not show clips on the card at all. Record a ten-second test clip with the camera connected; if it appears in the shoot, you're set.
When to use something else
CloudTether sends finished clips for photographers who also shoot some video — a first dance, a speech, a short social clip. It doesn't stream, create proxies or connect to editing review tools. Productions that need proxies on an editor's timeline during the shoot are better served by dedicated video camera-to-cloud tools.
FAQ
Can CloudTether transfer video from my camera?
Yes, in CloudTether 1.1. Turn on “Also send videos” in the shoot's settings and clips you record while tethered are copied off the camera after your photos and delivered as originals.
Can I live stream from my camera with CloudTether?
No. CloudTether sends finished clips after you stop recording; it isn't a streaming tool.
Is USB or Wi-Fi better for video?
USB. Video files are large and a cable is much faster than the camera's Wi-Fi.
Will sending video slow down my photos?
No. Photos always go first, both off the camera and in the upload queue.
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