LF Remote Trigger

[alec4444]

Hey all,

Was playing around with a Hansa Self Timer the other night from my grandfather's old Canon camera. It's basically a "wind-up toy" that mechanically pushes a plunger at the end of the wind cycle. It's made to screw in over top of the shutter button of the Canon camera.

Just wondering if anyone has successfully modified one of these to trigger a LF shutter... I was toying with the idea of getting a couple more and giving it a try. If you did get it to work, which model did you use? If you didn't get it to work (but tried) what was the problem you ran into?

Thanks!
--A

[alec4444]

Here's another one I just picked up. The thread looks like a close match to the lens cable release socket, and I didn't want to trash the family one (even though they're not worth a lot of money, really). So you wind the little mechanism and it pushes out a little cable at the end. I imagine I'm going to have to lengthen that a bit...

--A

[Scott Whitford]

Do a search on ebay for "autoknips".

Like you said, it's a mechanical timer with a plunger that fits onto the end of your cable release.

I have the version II and it works fine.

Scott

[alec4444]

Thanks, Scott. I see, so this version pulls on the cable release itself rather than pushing in the plunger? That might make more sense...

--A

[Scott Whitford]

That's right. It hooks over the end of the cable release and pushes down the plunger to release the shutter. I'll attach the instructions so you can see how it works.

[Oren Grad]

Alec - be aware that you may need to play with several samples to get it to work. I've always found these little wind-up thingies to be very finicky. I've tried to make this work both with an Autoknips on a cable release and with the type that screws directly in to the cable release socket on the lens, and I'm afraid I've never been able to get either type to work reliably. Instead, I use an inexpensive air release that screws into the cable release socket and has a rubber bulb plus 10 or 15 feet of rubber tubing. That works well, though it obviously won't help if you need to be beyond that range, or want to be in the picture yourself and not have the rubber tubing show up.

[alec4444]

I've tried to make this work both with an Autoknips on a cable release and with the type that screws directly in to the cable release socket on the lens, and I'm afraid I've never been able to get either type to work reliably.

Thanks, Oren. Can you tell me if there was a general issue with them? Spring not strong enough or something? I suppose I could try to make my own Rube Goldberg device or something.....start with putting a marble in a bucket.

--A

[Ralph Barker]

Some models have an adjustable throw on the release, so they can be adjusted to work with different types of shutters. Some caution is advised, however, to avoid damage to the shutter.

[Oren Grad]

Thanks, Oren. Can you tell me if there was a general issue with them? Spring not strong enough or something?

With the Hansa type, of which I have maybe three or four of various makes and vintages floating around, the following issues come to mind:

* Not enough force to trigger the shutter, or to trigger the shutter reliably
* Impossible to screw it in to the socket on the lens without messing up the adjustable throw retaining collar
* Wind-up is so stiff that I can't do it without twisting the device and messing up one of the above

As for the Autoknips, I have only one and have never been able to get it to work. I concluded that getting a working one would mean hours monitoring eBay for the right type, then probably having to buy several to get one that's in good working order, then more fussing and fiddling to figure out how to make it work for me. I decided that pursuing it further wasn't a good use of my time.