Best 12-24" cable release?

[Austin Moore]

Look at the Calumet deluxe cable release I use one my self and i think they are made prety good.
http://www.calumetphoto.com/ctl?PAGE=Controller&ac.ui.pn=cat.CatItemDetail&ac.item.itemNo=BR5122&ac.cat.CatTreeSearch.detail=y&type=SPDSEARCH

[Wayne Crider]

Not much of a rec except to say that in test with two different length cables and a glass of water on top of the camera, I found a cable 12" or longer to give less deflection; Or I'm heavy handed.

I've a nice Minolta cable but it has a disk lock. Pretty well built tho. If anything, the way the things can be lost, buy cheap.

[KWSmith]

Thanks for everybody's input, I'll check them all out. I'm pretty sure the cloth one I had trouble with was a Gepes. The Degroff isn't too expensive if it solves a real problem, thanks for the heads up. Do all the Hasselblad release's work with standard shutters?

A week ago I bought a new Mamiya double cable release for $80. Scratchy, imprecise, doesn't look like it'll last very long but at least it was really expensive. The bicycle industry figured this stuff out a long time ago, with lined housings, teflon coated cables, etc. so nobody has to re-invent anything to make these things works better.

A lot of my exposures are 2-5 seconds, where timing still matters. The main problems I keep having are ends that pull away from the fittings, dysfunctional disk locks, and binding that happens at the worst possible time.

[John Cook]

KW, I just had another thought over early morning coffee: your problems with releases would be solved if you could work out a way to install a small Packard shutter on your rig.

The rubber bulb on a Packard shutter has a hole in the end. When you squeeze the bulb while holding your thumb over the hole, the shutter blows open and stays open. You then remove your thumb and the bulb re-inflates without affecting the shutter position.

To close the shutter, first squeeze the bulb with the hole open. Then place your thumb over the hole and release the pressure on the bulb. As it re-inflates, the bulb will suck the shutter closed.

For a faster exposure, keep your thumb over the bulb hole at all times. As you squeeze, the shutter will open. As you release, it will close. Accomplished "squeezers" can obtain an effective speed of 1/50th or 1/25th second.

Hope this long-winded explanation makes sense. It is as tedious as writing an essay on how to tie your shoe laces. Much simpler to do than to explain in print.

[Brian Ellis]

Nikon makes a very nice 12" or so cable release. I've used them for years on all my lenses and don't recall one failing. They cost a little more and for a while I adopted the theory of buying the cheapest releases I could find and carrying a bunch of spares but I just got tired of using crappy releases so I went back to the Nikons at about $20 each.

[Joe Hunt]

After finding my disc-locked cable releases locking accidently, I superglued the disc down after well-tightening it. I don't use long exposures requiring the lock.