Shooting Without a Memory Card: The Smart Way to Tether?

Okay, Shooting without a memory card sounds risky, yeah? Let me tell you that by shooting cardless, you could actually prevent tethering issues and create a more efficient workflow during your next time on set

Shooting without a memory card:

Shooting without a memory card, or “shooting cardless,” is a term you often encounter when you start working with tethered photography. But why do people do it?

Depending on the photographer, some prefer to have a card in the camera, while others actively choose to shoot without one. The first time I saw someone shooting cardless, I thought it was a pretty crazy thing to do—until I learned how controlled tethering can actually be.

Before we dive into it, check if your camera supports shutter release without a card. A quick search should give you the answer.

Shooting cardless significantly reduces tethering issues

In my experience, shooting cardless significantly reduces tethering issues. Some problems I’ve encountered are related to the card itself. For example, if the card fills up—usually when it’s around 80% full—the camera may stop connecting to the tether. Another issue is card formatting; sometimes the camera won’t connect until the card is formatted correctly inside the camera.

One benefit of shooting without a card is that it can actually save you time during the day. When tethered, images are saved directly to your computer, which saves you from having to do a large file transfer after the shoot—sometimes that can take 20 minutes or more at the end of the day depending on the size of your file or how much you shot. Just be sure to create multiple backups throughout the shoot so you dont just have one copy of your files the whole day. You also save time by not having to swap out memory cards once they fill up, which can save you around 30 seconds each time.

Have your backups

That said, having a backup of images on a card can provide an extra layer of confidence while shooting. You can save to both the card and the tethered computer, giving you two copies of your images. Find this setting in “Save To” inside your camera settings in Capture One. Just keep in mind that the issues mentioned earlier might arise when shooting with a card.

As a Digi,

From a technical perspective, tethering gives you greater control over how your images are managed, whether that’s for file naming or quality control. By shooting cardless, the photographer is required to stay tethered at all times in order to save the images. Every situation is different, so it’s important to stay flexible and ensure the photographer is comfortable with the setup.