Supported Cameras (Sofortbild 1.5)

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Sofortbild is a Mac app for tethered shooting with Nikon DSLR cameras. Each camera model has to be actively supported by Sofortbild, so only models listed below will work. In addition, Sofortbild requires a ‘library’ from Nikon as foundation. Certain lower-end and older models lack this Nikon library.

Requires macOS High Sierra (10.13.x), macOS Sierra (10.12.6) or Mac OS X El Capitan (10.11.6).

FX (full frame) format models
  • Nikon D3, D3S, D3x
  • Nikon D4, D4S
  • Nikon D5
  • Nikon D300, D300S
  • Nikon D600, D610
  • Nikon D700, D750
  • Nikon D800, D800E
  • Nikon D810, D810A
  • Nikon Df
DX format models
  • Nikon D500
  • Nikon D5000, D5100, D5200, D5300, D5500, D5600
  • Nikon D7000, D7100, D7200, D7500
  • Nikon D850
  • Nikon D90
Compact
  • Nikon 1 V3

Unsupported Nikon Cameras

The following models lack the necessary library (SDK) from Nikon and therefore cannot be supported by Sofortbild:

  • Nikon D3400, D3300, D3200, D3100, D3000
The following models are not yet supported, but may be in the future:

  • N/A
Older cameras can no longer be supported, as Nikon does not provide libraries for those models that are compatible with recent macOS versions.

Missing Models

If a certain Nikon camera model isn’t listed here, it’s probably too new and will be added to one of the lists, soon. Feel free to make us aware of this fact.

Other Brands

Sofortbild only works with Nikon cameras. Other brands like Canon, Sony, Olympus, … are not supported at this time.

Support for Nikon D3400, D3300, D3200, …?

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As listed in the separate article Supported Nikon Cameras, the D3x00 series are not supported by Nikon.

Nikon does not offer the library (also known as SDK) needed by developers like us in order to add support in Sofortbild. We don’t know why that is the case, there’s no official information from Nikon regarding the topic. Feel free to check the Nikon site for yourself to see which cameras can be supported in theory.

Support for Canon, Sony, … DSLRs

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The single most frequently asked question about Sofortbild is: “Does Sofortbild support my camera?” or “When will Sofortbild support my camera?”. “my camera” is a placeholder for any not yet supported Nikon or any Canon, Sony, etc. DSLR on the market.

tl;dr: Sofortbild only works with the specific Nikon DSRL cameras outlined on the Supported Nikon Cameras page. Models from other manufacturers like Canon, Sony, Olympus or others are not supported at this time.

Since releasing Sofortbild (and Nikon Control before renaming the software) we got emails asking for support of basically every DSLR ever released.

Sofortbild currently uses the Nikon camera drivers exclusively. Canon provides SDKs for third party developers like Nikon does. Both SDKs do not have much in common, which means most of the code would need to be rewritten from scratch to add support for Canon cameras. Adding support for Sony and other DSLRs is even harder.

Sofortbild currently only has a single developer, working on it as a private side project. Although Sofortbild has become one of the most used applications for tethered shooting, it does not generate any revenue. A few people have donated some money in the past, for which the original developer was very grateful. Nevertheless, this was never enough to make a solid investment into Sofortbild. With that said, Sofortbild is still being actively developed, adding some features, fixing problems and supporting new Nikon cameras as SDKs become available.

But, unfortunately there is no specific plan to support other vendors in addition to Nikon any time soon.