Saturday 30 May 2009

A short lighting stand for about £3. Not everyone has a set of pipe-benders but there's not many plumbers who would refuse to knock this little gadget up for you for the price of a pint.
About one metre of 15mm copper pipe is all you need. The straight brass union is so I can add a much longer piece instead of that six inch stump making a normal hieght lighting stand for less than £5.
The swivel head costs £14 from Hong Kong.
A camera radio remote trigger for £14. What!!!
Okay, so it started life as a mere flash trigger from Hong Kong. I took a 'Cheapo' PT-04 TM flash trigger and soldered a mini-jack socket onto the side of the receiver. Steady now, this does effect any warranty!
Drilling a hole in the side involved being careful not to harm the interior circuits, same too with the soldering iron - don't leave it too long in contact with the board connections while tacking on the two extra wires linking new mini-jack socket to the original pair of wires going to the hotshoe.
There was a length of cable with a mini-jack plug on one end in a box of junk under the stairs amounting to about 5 metres long, pity it wasn't longer, but hey it was free! The reason I wanted it fairly long was that I can also use this same gadget as a hand operated remote via an ancient slide projector handset, (see last photo). This too needed the addition of a mini-jack socket.
With a small iron I soldered a second mini-jack, from Maplins, to the bare end of the cable and plugged it into the remote socket on the side of my Canon 400D. I have to admit that the very first time I did this with fingers crossed.
Now, with the wireless trigger receiver and camera linked, I can fire my shutter from around fifty metres. First press focuses the lens and second press fires the shutter. Exactly the same happens with the altered projector handset, focus, fire.
The second image here shows a polycarbonate base into which I screwed a 1/4" inch UNC (tripod thread). This gadget is not shown in it's best role which is as an ultra short free-standing hotshoe flashgun support.
Price of these gadgets:- polycarbonate from a glazing merchant costs £1, tripod head from Jessops at £12, mini-jack socket £3, cable freeby, Radio trigger £14 plus postage at another £6.