What's the maximum length of USB cable that you can use for tethering?

Question

What's the maximum reliable length of USB cable that you can use when shooting tethered?

Does it depend on the camera?

There's lots of conflicting information out on the web; I'm hoping Photo-SE can provide some reliable info.

Answer

USB 1.1/2.0 specifies a maximum cable length of 5 meters (~16 feet) as a function of a minimum required transmission speeds. That's pushing the limit, to some degree, and will be highly dependent on how well the cable is made, shielding, etc. If you're worried about reliability, I would go under that, probably no more than 3 meters (~10 feet).

USB 3.0 doesn't actually specify a maximum length, but we're still talking copper here generally, and so the maximum practical length is probably around 3 meters to meet the speed requirements, so on USB 3.0, I'd go less than that again, maybe 2 meters (~6.5 feet).

My source for this is Wikipedia which is usually pretty good at explaining standards items. In this regards, I'd probably trust them. In any case, 10 feet is a pretty decent cable length, but if you need much longer, you can also get USB repeaters, bearing in mind that you often get what you pay for with these.

So, in general, I think the limiter is most likely associated with cable quality as opposed to the camera. If the camera is truly specified to the USB 2.0 standard, going with a good cable smaller than the maximum, should be more than fine and use of a good repeater can help in extending that length as you need.

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