Foot operated remote for A900/Sony? (Ideas to make?)

Trying some home photography with A900, and need both my hands free whilst I fire the shutter. Don't want to use a delay timer (as I need to do something with both my hands fractionally before taking the shot), but am thinking of making up some foot operated switch device connected into the camera remote socket.

Anyone else done this and have ideas how to go about making a foot operated switch?

I can find cheap foot switches (for mains) and cheap Sony remote releases and wire those together. Looks like possible for less than £20 total (I am in UK). The Sony remote is a 3-wire 2-contact system (one for focus, one for shutter), and the mains are momentary or push-on/push-off. I guess I would wire the foot-pedal and the camera remote together somehow maybe with the focus wire permanently contacted to the ground/common wire of the 3 (camera is on manual focus anyways).

Alternate is to build a foot-switch housing for the old Minolta RC-1000 remote lead I have. So just something that the RC-1000 goes into with a spring loaded foot-switch of some kind.

Anyone ever made anything similar or have any ideas/guidance?? (I don't need exact instructions, just general concepts if you have done something similar to solve the root problem of needing two hands free and still fire the shutter after doing something with my hands).

Thanks!

Button.................._ _ _ _ _

Focus ------------------I
Gnd --------------------I
Fire ----------------------

When you press the button you press fouc to the ground, and when you continue , you press ground to the fire/shutter contact.

not a mystery to build one
--
Cheers
Erland

Eleson said:

Button.................._ _ _ _ _

Focus ------------------I
Gnd --------------------I
Fire ----------------------

When you press the button you press fouc to the ground, and when you continue , you press ground to the fire/shutter contact.

Click to expand...

Thanks. Do you know if can wire the focus permanently to ground so be able to use a single-pole foot switch just for shutter? Camera/lens is set in Manual AF.

Eleson said:

not a mystery to build one

Click to expand...

Yeah - I guessed not, but just wanted folk's advice before I pitched off an Amazon order for the bits I think I need .

Many years ago I made foot operated switches, these were latching and used with timer circuitry to fire off a sequence of shots using a film Konica camera with inbuilt autowind.

Not exactly what you are asking, but the point is I used one 'make' relay contact and wired the focus and shutter release wires together to one contact, and the common to the other.

My shots were always in pretty good focus.

It won't hurt the camera to try wiring this way, and if it works like the camera I used to use, it maybe an answer.
--
Don't forget to smell the roses.

Mark K W said:

I can find cheap foot switches (for mains) and cheap Sony remote releases and wire those together. Looks like possible for less than £20 total (I am in UK). The Sony remote is a 3-wire 2-contact system (one for focus, one for shutter), and the mains are momentary or push-on/push-off. I guess I would wire the foot-pedal and the camera remote together somehow maybe with the focus wire permanently contacted to the ground/common wire of the 3 (camera is on manual focus anyways).

Click to expand...

Mark K W said:

Anyone ever made anything similar or have any ideas/guidance?? (I don't need exact instructions, just general concepts if you have done something similar to solve the root problem of needing two hands free and still fire the shutter after doing something with my hands).

Click to expand...

I made my own connection for an underwater housing in much the same way. I bought a cheap remote for the connector only, then cut the wires and soldered them to the housing trigger. The trigger on the housing was not two stage, but for my needs, autofocus does not work anyway so I set everything manual. Just a heads up, the cheap remotes have extremely thin gauge wires, they are hard to work with.

Your idea is interesting (sell-able??), I might have to try it. For the foot pedal, thought of using an old used analog guitar effects pedal?

Just updating - here's what I made:





Total cost £15 and about 30mins to construct. Worked out the wiring of the hand remote (with 3m cable, £8.99 from Amazon) easily once I had opened it. Kept the cable from the remote, and connected the ends of focus and shutter wires together, soldered to the Normally Open connector of the foot pedal momentary action push-switch (£5.81, actually spec'ed for 250V 10A mains, also from Amazon). Connected the remote ground wire to the Common of the switch. Just by co-incidence the bonded gromet of the remote wire was good fit into the foot-pedal housing and then there is cable clamp inside, so it's also robust against snagging.

Works fine and can also set the A900 to continuous drive to take multi-shots (by keeping foot down), leaving both hands free to do the high-speed flash type liquid photography I am experimenting with.

Here's the kind of stuff me and my A900 are up to. The first one got an Editors' Choice over at 500px.

















And this is the first effort using the foot remote pedal. Need much more perfection of this cream drop technique; this one isn't so good, but it proved the pedal worked and I was able to take a sequence keeping both hands free.





Lots of ideas for things to photo in and around water using both hands now!

I knew I would find a use for my old Minolta 5400HS one day (actually using two flashes combined with a with Sony F56AM).

You must trigger the shutter AND focus even on Manual Focus.

I use an iPhone remote and Sony cameras (my a900) won't fire unless I have the remote firing the focus AND the shutter. Weird, but how it works even with camera in manual focus mode.
--
http://tandaina.smugmug.com/

Awesome fast photography. Beautiful shots. Thanks for sharing.
--

Person is taking photos, not camera. When photograph is bad, it's because photographer doesn't know how to choose settings optimal to "own preferences". Then blames camera for bad IQ.
This is same as blaming car about arriving to wrong destination.

http://stan-pustylnik.smugmug.com

Very interesting photos, and the setup has the potential for some very beautiful images, especially the cream in the liquid. Video would be great.

Your subject matter reminds me of my fun with smashing lightbulbs with a hammer in the days of film photography where I had no idea of what I was getting until the prints came back. I was using my Pentax Spotmatic on bulb exposure in a darkened room and open flash technique, triggering the flash with various contact arrangements. Everything had to be set up just right, and then I drew the blinds, turned off the lights, pressed the manual locking cable release, and smashed the lightbulb. Whereas in your arrangement you may have to clean up a few water drops, the worst part for me was the cleanup of broken glass all over my bedroom floor.

For my first attempt I taped two overlapping strips of tinfoil to the top of the light bulb, with the wires running down the back where they would not be visible in the picture. The foils were gapped slightly so that when the hammer hit it would press the strips together and fire the flash. I was both amazed and disappointed with the result -- the hammer was sitting on top of the bulb and there were cracks in the envelope about half way down. Clearly I needed some time delay for a more interesting result.

My second setup involved a thin piece of fishing line stretched across the top of the light bulb and secured to the top with a piece of tape. One end of the line was secured to a rigid support while the other end was attached to a paper clip separated from another paper clip by a variable gap. The idea was that the fishing line would pull the paper clips together as the hammer pulled on the line. It took a series of different gaps (and many light bulbs) to get some interesting effects.

It sounds like you are having fun. Enjoy.

Yes I learnt that, and wired the focus and shutter wires together, so that both simultaneously connect to the ground wire on the single-pole foot-switch being pressed.

I tested all the combinations of MF/AF/drive and the 3-wires with my old A100 knowing that the foot-switch I had bought was only single-pole. That testing to work it all out was what took half of the 30mins in making it!

I'd love to hear more about your setup!

I tried my first water/splash images with my a900 and just wasn't happy with them. (My setup was at fault, NOT the camera). Obviously you had a far larger water container than the glass bowl I was using. And dang I need a good flash.
--
http://tandaina.smugmug.com/

I have a long list of things now to try. I am just really exploring flash photography - I have been doing photography for maybe 18 years, but flash/studio/still-life has always eluded me because I could never get the lighting to work.

Then I remembered I had an old 5400HS which I had retired (because it does not do TTL with the A900), so realising I had two flash units for playing around with in manual mode thought it was time to learn about about flash photography and lighting set-ups.

I'd seen these water splash shots before and so spent time gathering all the needed bits (tanks, backgrounds, tank cleaning squeegees for wiping off side splashes, etc.,). Then once I started to take the first pictures, I was amazed how easy it is. There's quite a bit of PP tricks to work the black background, and decide which splashes are worth keeping and which to black away (it's just a -20 exposure mask in Photoshop), but I've found it's an amazingly mechanical process once you have the set-up and technique.

That light-bulb picture was a composite (of course). First, I did shots with the un-powered bulb thrown in the tank. Then after that, I choose a good shot with nice vortex and splashes and I just held the bulb - now connected up and switched on via a dimmer - in the same orientation in the dry tank and re-shot. Then (more-or-less) I simply layered the filament from the on bulb shot onto the image with it under the water.

I will indeed do some shots with broken bulbs and filament burn-outs. Wonder if there's a way to make it look like that is happening under-water with cream plumes all around ;o)

You stated it correctly when you said making filament burn-outs look like they are happening under water. I am sure you have a healthy respect for keeping electricity and water well separated, as you did for your glowing light bulb. Otherwise, you may not be seeing just cream plumes, but real smoke!! ;-)

I think there is great fun in doing a set-up that makes people ask, "How did they do that?"

Good to know these 'new' cameras can still be wired as I used to do. Nice shots btw.

Denis247 said:

Many years ago I made foot operated switches, these were latching and used with timer circuitry to fire off a sequence of shots using a film Konica camera with inbuilt autowind.

Not exactly what you are asking, but the point is I used one 'make' relay contact and wired the focus and shutter release wires together to one contact, and the common to the other.

My shots were always in pretty good focus.

It won't hurt the camera to try wiring this way, and if it works like the camera I used to use, it maybe an answer.
--
Don't forget to smell the roses.

Click to expand...

--
Don't forget to smell the roses.

That pedal is neat!!
Your pictures and timing are awesome!!

JohnFrim said:

You stated it correctly when you said making filament burn-outs look like they are happening under water. I am sure you have a healthy respect for keeping electricity and water well separated, as you did for your glowing light bulb. Otherwise, you may not be seeing just cream plumes, but real smoke!! ;-)

Click to expand...

Indeed - the water and electricity are kept far apart. Although it was the same bulb it was dried very very thoroughly, as was the tank, and the bulb was then in a proper threaded holder and then further held by me with a plastic clip (to keep my hand out of the shot, but also for extra safety).

JohnFrim said:

I think there is great fun in doing a set-up that makes people ask, "How did they do that?"

Click to expand...

Absolutely. Here was an attempt at that kind of shot (which I will have another go to do better):





After I'd thrown the strawberries, citrus fruit, dice, etc., in the water and found it was easy and fun to get those shots, I started to wonder how a lightbulb would look. When I saw that also looked cool spashing down, I thought the obvious next step, having done this dry effect one above earlier, was to add the illusion of the bulb actually being on as it went in the water.

How did you do the first one, the lightbulb?
--
Cheers
Erland

Buy you an old guitar pedal and have at it. Would be easy to convert. I would think.

Tandaina said:

I'd love to hear more about your setup!

Click to expand...

Here's an annotated photo with all the info.





I guess you can download/save from dpr at the max resolution I uploaded at - so all should be legible. If not use dpr message function and tell me your e-mail address and I can send (even higher-res) version direct.