Which is the softest cable release?

[John Layton]

While I've found cloth-sheathed releases to be, generally, a bit smoother and more supple than either plastic/metal or metal-only sheathed releases, I've also found that many brands of cloth-sheathed releases simply don't last - and that in fact they tend to suddenly fail (in the field) with no warning. But I've been very stubborn about insisting on cloth-covered releases, and so over the years have spent a small fortune...more or less continually replacing them.

So when I recently set about to research this a bit further...I discovered that many folks, who'd had similar issues with their releases, are very happy with Pentax cloth-sheathed releases, citing not only their quality and smoothness, but also their longevity. So... I went ahead and replaced all of my old releases with new, Pentax ones (20" long, from B+H) - and am (thus far) a happy camper!

[mjork]

Then there is getting an old solenoid from a Speed Graphic lensboard, and wiring it to a little battery pack, and making a little link to the shutter release to fire it electrically...

Electrical release with a solenoid seems like the softest possible solution. And for ultimate convenience, use a Graflex Super Graphic camera which already comes with a built-in solenoid in the front standard and electrical shutter release button at the camera back.

Alternatively, a mechanical self-timer could be used to fire the camera (assuming that winding up the timer mechanism isn't too hard on the hands and the subject doesn't move...)

[Drew Wiley]

The quality of the release is important because the ordinary cheap ones eventually kink and develop friction near the shutter. I prefer Linhof or true Minolta ones. These were originally rather expensive. But unused ones do turn up frequently, if you can beat me to them.

[B.S.Kumar]

I got a Nikon cloth covered release, but it's not particularly soft. Will check the other brands.

Kumar