Here’s something that may not be relevant to most of you, but if you enjoy dabbling in do-it-yourself gear hacks you might find it interesting. Milan-based photographer and freelance engineer Andrea Biffi came up with an interesting way of creating a shutter release cable connector for his Canon DSLR. Instead of buying an actual remote and slicing off the plug end, he decided to cast his own out of hard rubber.
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Here’s a tutorial on how to capture an exploding water balloon in the precise moment the balloon pops, while the water still holds the shape of a balloon. I didn’t want to invest any money in laser barriers or something similar, so I built a very simple mechanism. It doesn’t give me perfect timing, but it produces acceptable results.
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Japanese photographer Wataru Yamamoto‘s “Drawing a Line” project might look like a series of strange photos of a forest, but they’re actually self portraits. His description is simple: they’re “self-portraits taken in the forest, using a cable release made of string.”
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I need the ability to wirelessly take photos, but my Fujifilm X100 did not have a conventional shutter release — it has the old fashioned ”cable” release.
After playing around and buying some cheap cable releases off eBay, I was able to build a working wireless shutter using an Arduino, servo, and a cheap wireless shutter for a Canon DSLR.
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Remote shutter release cables are extremely simple devices, but they can cost quite a bit if you buy the official accessories sold by major camera manufacturers. Instructables user nk dtk has an awesome makeshift alternative that’s dirt cheap: all you’ll need is a cable and a can of soda!
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Stranger Tourist Self-Portraits is an experimental photo project by photographer Benoit Paillé that consists of photos of strangers encountered on a beach in Mexico. What’s different about the series is that the photographs are captured by the subjects themselves, as evidenced by the remote shutter release cable seen approaching the camera from the strangers’ hands.
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Ever since the launch of iOS 5 in mid-2011, iPhones, iPads, and iPods have accepted the “volume up” signal as a “take a picture” command, allowing Apple’s headphones to double as handy remote shutter releases. If triggering your camera’s shutter with a pair of earbuds in your hand isn’t “hip” enough for you, check out this new iCA Remote Shutter by Japanese novelty photo company Gizmon. It’s a dedicated shutter release for your iOS device that’s designed to look like a roll of film.
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If you have a Canon compact camera running the Canon Hack Development Kit (CHDK) firmware, you can create a simple shutter release cable using some cheap components. The firmware causes the camera to snap a photograph anytime 5V is sent down a USB cable connected to the camera. You can do this using a USB cable (e.g. the one that comes with your camera), 5V battery, simple push button, and some kind of housing (a metal candy tin, for example). Oh, and you’ll need to be comfortable cutting up and soldering wires. Luo Bo Te over at kisstheasphalt has written up a tutorial on how to put everything together.
DIY Shutter Release Cable For Canon Cameras with CHDK (via Hack a Day)
Trigger Happy is a new product that lets you use your iOS or Android smartphone as a fancy camera remote. It consists of an app and a one-meter-long cable that goes from your phone’s audio jack to your camera. Besides acting as a simple remote shutter release for shake-free shots, the app offers bulb functionality for timing long exposures, an intervalometer for timelapse photography, HDR mode, and bramping. They’re also working on lightning detection, audio waveform detection, face detection, and accelerometer-based triggering.
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Pentax released a new compact camera today called the Optio VS20, which offers a feature we haven’t seen before on a point-and-shoot: a second shutter release, zoom lever, and tripod mount for shooting vertically. The 16-megapixel camera is also smart about the orientation, as it packs an accelerometer that helps it intelligently display images the correct way. Other features include a 3-inch LCD screen and 720p video recording. It’ll start shipping next month for $250.
