Third party shutter release for the EM1.3

[retiredfromlife]

Has anyone had any luck with a third party shutter release for the EM1.3, I guess same as the EM1.2 shutter release.
I really don't want to use the phone and the Oly ones are very expensive in Australia.

I would prefer a dedicated one, not like the one I purchased for my EP-5 that had a joiner for swapping between Oly and Panasonic.

 

[Hendrik]

My cabled release for the E-M1 II came out of the bottom of my son's (abandoned, ca. 2002) Canon camera bag.

 

[Bytesmiths]

Any remote that works with Canon (three-conductor micro 2.5mm audio plug, like used on smart phones and MP3 players) should work.

If you're not afraid of soldering, you can cobble together any number of specialized triggers. Shorting the outer sleeve to the middle sleeve causes auto-focus. Shorting the outer sleeve to the tip trips the shutter.

The plugs for such things are not very cheap and somewhat of a pain to solder to. But you can find headsets and other things with a long cable, complete with proper plug attached for less than you'd pay for just the plug!

I found an old dictaphone tape player it a thrift store for $1. Not very exciting, but it came with a two-button foot pedal — I knew what was in there!

The foot pedal has a long surface for starting and stopping playback, and a smaller inset pedal for reversing a couple seconds. I made the reverse pedal be focus and the big pedal the shutter. This is really useful for macro and astro, where you don't want to touch the camera, or even jostle a cable going to the camera!

I also have an old rifle-stock camera mount — handy for telephoto. Problem is, the trigger on it was a mechanical cable release, which no one uses any more.

So I wired my headphone cable to a couple magnetic reed switches, and glued a magnet to a button mounted in the trigger position, where the old mechanical cable release was — now I've got a rifle-stock that works with Olympus! (Or Canon.)

There's no end to what you can do with this simple interface. You can drive it from an Arduino with a relay shield, for example. The magnetic reed switch makes all sorts of "animal selfie" shots simple to trigger. Your imagination is the limit!

 

[Holoholo55]

As @Bytesmiths says, Same Canon style remote worked on the EM1 II and same for EM1 III.

 

[retiredfromlife]

Any remote that works with Canon (three-conductor micro 2.5mm audio plug, like used on smart phones and MP3 players) should work.

If you're not afraid of soldering, you can cobble together any number of specialized triggers. Shorting the outer sleeve to the middle sleeve causes auto-focus. Shorting the outer sleeve to the tip trips the shutter.

The plugs for such things are not very cheap and somewhat of a pain to solder to. But you can find headsets and other things with a long cable, complete with proper plug attached for less than you'd pay for just the plug!

I found an old dictaphone tape player it a thrift store for $1. Not very exciting, but it came with a two-button foot pedal — I knew what was in there!

The foot pedal has a long surface for starting and stopping playback, and a smaller inset pedal for reversing a couple seconds. I made the reverse pedal be focus and the big pedal the shutter. This is really useful for macro and astro, where you don't want to touch the camera, or even jostle a cable going to the camera!

I also have an old rifle-stock camera mount — handy for telephoto. Problem is, the trigger on it was a mechanical cable release, which no one uses any more.

So I wired my headphone cable to a couple magnetic reed switches, and glued a magnet to a button mounted in the trigger position, where the old mechanical cable release was — now I've got a rifle-stock that works with Olympus! (Or Canon.)

There's no end to what you can do with this simple interface. You can drive it from an Arduino with a relay shield, for example. The magnetic reed switch makes all sorts of "animal selfie" shots simple to trigger. Your imagination is the limit!

Thanks for that info.
Just a couple of questions, when you say 2.5 I measured one I have and it is 2.4 on the shank and 2.2 at the end of the tip.
For the bit that goes into the camera should it have 3 or 4 sections? I am guessing that if the shank has 3 insulators that equals 4 electrical contacts ?
If I make a mistake soldering and short out the incorrect bits will it hurt the camera ?

Sounds like something I may try to make one day if I can find a suitable two stage trigger

In the mean time I look for a cannon one

 

[Mack]

What I use: https://www.amazon.com/FreeWave-Wireless-Remote-Shutter-Release/dp/B006BGVRZE

 

[Michael Meissner]

Here is a site that lists the pinout for various shutter releases:

• http://www.doc-diy.net/photo/remote_pinout/

The part that goes into the E-m1 mark II/III, E-m5 mark III, and E-m1x cameraes is a common 2.5mm audio cable with 3 poles. The pole nearest the wire is the ground wire. The middle pole is the focus wire (if you connect the ground to the focus, the camera does the normal 1/2 button press, typically to focus the scene). The tip is the shutter wire (if you connect the ground to the shutter wire it will take a picture). I don't recall if the modern Olympus cameras need the focus wire to also be connected to ground to activate the shutter (some do, some don't).

If you want to do a DIY shutter release, perhaps these cables would work:

• https://smile.amazon.com/Fancasee-Replacement-Connector-Headphone-Earphone/dp/B07ZT15JVM/ref=sr_1_12
• https://smile.amazon.com/CablesOnline-3-Screw-Terminal-Connectors-PL-CN22-2/dp/B01J4JDNJW

Note, the camera supplies the power. All you are doing is connecting the middle and/or tip poles to the base pole to complete a circuit. When I've built Arduino triggers in the past, I would use an optocoupler between the Arduino and the camera. That way there is no voltage transfer between the two.

For reference, here is a shutter release that I built in 2012 using an Arduino and a telegraph key. The idea is when the telegraph key makes contact, the code connects the focus wire to the ground (using the optocoupler). When the telegraph key is released, briefly the shutter wire is connected to the ground (via the other optocoupler), and then both focus/shutter are cleared. The code would then use the buzzer to emit the string "fire" in morse code. I haven't used it in awhile, but some time I hope to bring it back.

Note, the older Olympus cameras used a different pinout using the Olympus combination 12 pin cable (the above link has a description of the pinout for the shutter release bits on the older camera). For the Olympus cameras, I found clone remote shutter releases that had the Olympus plug on one end, and a common audio 2.5mm cable on the other and plugged it into this board. For the newer cameras, you could use a normal 2.5mm audio cable with 3 poles.

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[RAH]

For use with my E-M5III, I am using a Vello (B&H) wired remote I bought in 2014 for use with a Canon DSLR:
https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/765659-REG/Vello_RS_C1II_RS_C1II_Wired_Remote_Switch.html
It works fine. I'm still amazed to see a company (Olympus) go from an inconvenient, proprietary (I think) connector on the E-M10 to a pretty universal connector on the E-M5. Don't let Sony hear about the concept of non-proprietary! It will just confuse them!!

 

[Chris5107]

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I have a jjc. Works great

 

[runner girl]

Why not just use the Olympus app? After trying a couple of remotes for my EM1 MKII, I gave up and use my phone. It works great and now I have one less thing in my bag.

 

[Michael Meissner]

Why not just use the Olympus app? After trying a couple of remotes for my EM1 MKII, I gave up and use my phone. It works great and now I have one less thing in my bag.

I use the app for some things (particularly for a second camera physically distant from me), but it is inconvenient for other things.

If I'm using the shutter release for shooting fireworks, I can put the shutter release cable in my lap, and hold down the button for a few seconds to get multiple pops while still looking at the fireworks with my eyes (and enjoying them in real time). I can glance over to the camera on a tripod, and see that it is recording from time to time. If I had to use the phone, I would have to look at the phone instead of the fireworks, and my eyes would then need to take some time to readjust to the dark when I look away from the phone.

Another time I use a shutter release cable is when I'm shooting video with one camera, and it is simpler to use the shutter release cable to start/stop the camera on a tripod. I can then more easily use the other camera to shoot stills. Often times it is rather cramped, and I don't have room to hold the phone and second camera, and no place to put one down. The shutter release, I can drape over the camera on a tripod, and it is simpler.

When I'm not housebound, I go to steampunk events, and I disguise my camera in wooden boxes and bellows meant to invoke the cameras of the past. Using a shutter release cable blends in more with the build than using a modern cell phone. In fact on my 2nd build, I used a 1912 5x7" camera, taking out the lens, and putting my E-P2 inside. While the E-P2 did support a wired shutter release, there wasn't enough room in the camera to attach the shutter release cable (without drilling a hole in the antique camera body), so I fashioned a mechanical shutter release to shoot the camera (the E-P2 did not support wifi nor did it support touch screen).

In the past when I used the camera to shoot people for portraits in front of a backdrop, it was more convenient to have the shutter release cable so I could fire the camera when I was interacting with the person being shot. Ditto if I'm setting up models or stuffed animals, it is more convenient to use the shutter release.

With those traditional family portraits at holiday times, it is much more convenient to have a shutter release cable (particularly wireless) to take the picture, then to use a phone, where more often than not, the picture shows you looking at the phone.

With my previous phone, the battery life was so bad that if I used the wifi setup, I would need to recharge the phone more often. Also, with the Olympus setup on the older cameras (I haven't used the new Olympus E-5 mark III with bluetooth yet), I would have to turn the phone off of the local wifi network to connect to the camera, and I might be running something else on the phone (including talk over wifi) that needs the wifi connection.

One of the venues that I've shot in the past soaks up the radio waves, and it can be difficult to maintain a connection. The fact that this venue is the house of one of the pioneers of radio control, and his house seems to have natural deadning properties makes it amusing. It isn't as amusing for the vendors that can't get their credit card purchases authorized.

 

[Mack]

.....

For reference, here is a shutter release that I built in 2012 using an Arduino and a telegraph key. The idea is when the telegraph key makes contact, the code connects the focus wire to the ground (using the optocoupler). When the telegraph key is released, briefly the shutter wire is connected to the ground (via the other optocoupler), and then both focus/shutter are cleared. The code would then use the buzzer to emit the string "fire" in morse code. I haven't used it in awhile, but some time I hope to bring it back.

Hey, nice to see another Arduino user on here.

Years ago I had to shoot some fashion bathing suit layout at a waterfall. Area was dark and sunlit both so I decided to use studio flash for fill light. Big mistake!

All shots looked like "Salt and Pepper" were sprinkled all over the images and it was due to the flash freezing droplets of water spray and light reflection. I was also shooting at a slow shutter speed to make the water look flowing (i.e. Blurry). It was a big flop to use use electronic flash with waterfalls.

Talked to a Playboy photographer who told me they had the same problem so they had to resort to using large and super-expensive Arri HMI (Hydrargyrum medium-arc iodide) movie lamps along with truck-mounted generators as used on a movie sets when they did some waterfall shoot. Flash just didn't work for them either.

Back to being cheap, I found the slow-burning Meggaflash PF-330 flashbulbs online at one of the Hollywood set joints. They burn for about two seconds which would be good for a slow shutter speed and waterfall blur both. But how to sync them with the Nikons as they have no flashbulb or FP sync jack anymore?

Arduino was the rescuer. Had to trigger the bulbs first to ignite, add a few milliseconds delay until they gained full brightness, and then trigger the Nikon shutter via a cable. Was an adventure and not a cheap one as just one of those flashbulbs cost $75 each! Meggaflash (Ireland) is the last remaining flashbulb maker in the world so you pay their price. Beautiful color came from the two-second burning of the bulbs too when compared to electronic strobe. Spectrum of old flashbulbs seemed a lot better overall than that of our Xeon flash tubes, imho.

Another Arduino timing/sync adventure was to trigger studio flash units on the ground off an airborne DJI drone's camera. What programming fun that was!

 

[Bytesmiths]

… when you say 2.5 I measured one I have and it is 2.4 on the shank and 2.2 at the end of the tip.

Yea, that's a 2.5mm plug. The next bigger size is 3.5mm, which has been the standard for headphones since the Sony Walkman.

For the bit that goes into the camera should it have 3 or 4 sections?

You want one with three sections — two insulators.

The ones with four sections (three insulators) may not work, because of spacing issues. They are usually longer, and it may not fit all the way into the jack.

If I make a mistake soldering and short out the incorrect bits will it hurt the camera?

I can't guarantee not, but if you just short things together and don't apply any external voltage, it is pretty unlikely to damage the camera.

 

[Bushboy]

I bought a really cheap one on trademe nz for small change. Works perfect. Once I made one with about 20meters long cable. Worked well to.

 

[Chris5107]

The app is nice but the cheap cable just works. Does not time out, go to screen saver, have its battery die, etc. You can also use it without looking at it because it is just like pushing the shutter button. I like the app but it does not replace a cable release for some jobs.