Canon cameras

This page is the Canon half of tethered shooting — what a Canon EOS body needs, and what it will and won’t hand over. Everything about the panel itself is on that page.

Just plug it in

Turn the camera on and connect it by USB. Canon EOS bodies are ready for computer control over USB as they are — there is no separate mode to switch on first, unlike some other makers. The camera appears under the Tether tab; if it isn’t listed, press Refresh and check it is switched on and the cable is in a data port (some USB-C cables are charge-only).

Nothing to install

PxlMonk drives Canon cameras through Canon’s own EDSDK, which ships inside PxlMonk. There is no Canon software (EOS Utility) to install and no driver to add — the app already has what it needs.

If something else grabbed the camera

A camera can only be driven by one program at a time. On macOS, plugging a camera in can make Photos or Image Capture open and take it, and while one of them holds the camera nothing else can reach it.

If the Canon won’t connect, close Photos and Image Capture and try again. To stop macOS opening an app every time you connect a camera, open Image Capture, select the camera, and set the small connecting-this-camera-opens control at the bottom left to No application.

Where the photos go

Captures come straight to the computer and into your current library — that is how tethering is set up here, so you don’t have to fish files off the card afterwards. Whether the camera also keeps its own copy on the card depends on the body and its menus.

Which cameras

Canon’s EDSDK drives the EOS line — the EOS DSLRs and the EOS R mirrorless bodies. PxlMonk doesn’t check your camera against a list; it asks the SDK for whatever Canon cameras are attached and drives what it finds.

Not sure yours is covered?

Plug it in anyway. We’ve tested against an EOS 650D; the rest of the EOS range is what Canon’s SDK supports. Very old or non-EOS compact models may not be driveable, but a modern EOS body generally is. If yours misbehaves, we’d like to hear about it.

Cable only

Canon cameras are tethered over USB. Canon’s SDK can reach networked bodies too, but none of that has been built or tested here — so PxlMonk doesn’t offer it rather than offer something that might not hold up on a shoot.