Why does the Unleashed need a cable?

HDMI cables for Unleashed M

Each Unleashed M comes with an HMDI cable that is needed to supply power to the Unleashed. It thus needs to be plugged in at all times.

USB cables for Unleashed N1 and N2

The Unleashed N1/N2 plugs directly into a 10-pin port on Nikon cameras. Through this port we get power and information on the camera state. Remote triggering, intervalometer as well as geotagging are possible on all Nikons through this port alone – the accompanying USB cable is not needed for these features. On newer cameras (since about 2012), we can even control almost all settings through this port, so changing settings, manual and automatic exposure ramping are possible without a USB cable entirely. On older Nikons, you’ll need to connect the USB cable for changing settings.

On all Nikons, the USB cable enables getting thumbnails, and also activates some extra settings, most notably metering mode (spot/matrix/center-weighted). It also makes automatic switching to video mode a little easier. Additionally, there are more image histogram based algorithms available for autoramping timelapses.

We made the cables just long enough, really flexible and with right-angled plugs that are as small as possible so it won’t get in your way or get damaged over time.

Every Unleashed comes with the fitting cable for your chosen camera model. If you want a spare or plan to use one Unleashed on multiple cameras, you can purchase additional cables here. (In the latter case, please make sure that both cameras require the same Unleashed (N1 or N2) as there are two different Nikon accessory sockets.)

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