A Little News

Here is a bit more detail about setting up your camera as a remote with an eye to the tight wad in all of us. My set up is as basic as it gets. As I mentioned in the first post, I obtained a shutter release cable from Ebay. The important part is the ten pin connector on the camera end. Cut the wire leaving plenty to use for splicing then tie it in to a mini phono jack from Radio Shack. The Mini phono jack plugs into your Pocket Wizard. You can set the PW in your camera’s hot shoe or use velcro to mount it somewhere else or simply bungee it to your support. Whatever works best for you. The final step is to set your camera on the infinity setting on the setup menu for the auto meter shut off. This keeps the camera awake and ready to fire at all times. Mount your camera using your Variable Friction Arm (I erroneously called it a Magic Arm in my first post) and lock it down with cables to make sure it doesn’t fall and you are ready to shoot. You must make absolutely sure of your focus before you walk away. If the camera is mounted anywhere that there are people, you should probably use a little bit of gaffers tape to cover the focus ring so no curious folk adjust your focus for you. ALWAYS secure the camera in such a way that it cannot fall and injure anyone. ALWAYS ALWAYS TEST YOUR SETUP before you walk away. You will never know frustration like remote frustration if you think you are shooting and you come back at the end of the event to find not one single frame fired. Below are some detail shots to give you a better idea of how to set up your rig. As I mentioned in my earlier post, kudos and thanks to Jonathan Palmer for setting me up with this really cheap way to do remotes. Without his assistance I would still be remoteless.

Photos copyright Gary Cosby Jr. The opinions expressed in this blog are my own and do not necessarily reflect those of my employer.