DIY Shutter Release

Someone in my family stepped on the jack for the shutter release on my Rebel XT and broke it. I had been wanting to take bird pics with my 400 mm lens but I had no release. There are also no camera stores closer than an hour and a half to buy one. Some how or other I stumbled upon this site where you can make one from an old hands free mic for a cell phone. So I went down to Big Lots store and bought one for three dollars. I found one that had the switch separate from the mic and speaker. Because of this I didn't have to take anything apart like the one shown on the site. I just cut them off. I hooked it up to my camera and voila it works just fine. The only disadvantage i could find is that I can't lock the shutter of the camera when it's on bulb if I want to do night shots. You can however hold the button down and it will keep the shutter open. For hour long exposures this might be a little tiring on the fingers!

In any case I was able to use my three dollar shutter release until I was able to drive down and buy a new shutter release. Being the Cheapo guy that I am I was reluctant to part with the forty bucks for a new one but in the end I did. My DIY one is going to hang around as a back up for my new camera . On a sad note my old Canon10D has gone to camera heaven after five years of heavy usage. It was even rebuilt once by Canon during that time too.

God's blessings to all,

chris