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Making a Cable Remote Release for the EOS 3 EOS 1v (help me help you save money on cable releases!)


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I've looked around photo.net and THE net and I couldn't find a post on

this subject. Does anyone know the pinouts (what each pin does) for

the remote release socket of the EOS 3 / 1v? Does the metal screw

socket serve as a fourth conductor or a ground or is it not used

electronically? Does anyone know where I can buy just the connectors

for the remote socket (male or female)? I don't want to pay Canon's

extortionist price of $50 for a piece of crappy plastic that happens

to have a fancy proprietary connector that plugs into the cable

release socket on my EOS 3. So........... I'm gonna make my own piece

of crappy plastic for $5 either by buying a connector or by making a

converter... and then I'm gonna make a 40 foot cable release extension

for $3 instead of paying Canon $80... and when I get time I'm gonna

design a timer/intervolometer for $20 instead of paying Canon $120...

and then when I have time I'm gonna design a IR release for $40

instead of paying Canon $400! At some point in there I'm going to

document all my work, scan my electronic schematics, and put all the

information you would need to build your own super cheap releases,

extensions, and remotes, all on my <a

href="http://home.kc.rr.com/aaronphoto/">webpage</a>. Help me out

here! Nobody should have to pay the unreasonable prices that Canon

charges for these cheap accessories. I yearn for my old Elan IIe that

had simple $20 releases and IR remote... ironically it was much easier

to hack your own because it used a simple 3 conductor stereo headphone

jack.

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>It has been done before

 

Actually, it hasn't. The links you posted are for how to build a

cable remote for low and midrange EOS cameras, which use

simple 1/8" stereo miniplugs.

 

Semi-pro and pro Canon cameras use T3 and N3 connectors,

which are very different. They look a bit like mini-DIN 4

connectors but aren't the same. As far as I know the designs are

proprietary to Canon, though they may well be standard but

obscure off-the-shelf parts. I've never been able to find much

more about them, though.

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If I was going to build all the stuff that you have listed, I would save some initial anguish and buy the cheapest canon release (sorry I don't know what that is for the EOS3... I have Elan 7e) either new or used. Then, I would "gently" hack it to see how it was done and add sockets/connectors to it at the "do it you self" price to get the rest of your planned accessories. This way you get a "good" socket to start with along with functional understanding but still have the future savings associated with your other plans. I did this for my Elan 7e albeit a simpler connector, I adapted it for use my LC-1 remote.
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Yes, the connector is proprietary. We had someone here a few years ago who tried to do this for Nikon. What this guy appeared to have done is mold or hack something out of plastic and used solid wire to serve as the pins. Of course it lacked the threaded retaining collar. I think you would spend more time wiggling the thing around to make it work and hoping that it would stay in place than you would taking pictures. The whole thing including the buttons looked amateurish and would not be something that would compliment you or your equipment.<p>

In short, unless you have or have access to the wide range of facilities to pretty much duplicate the original manufacturers products especially in the area of reliability and can do it for less than what they charge you are wasting your time. Ever wonder why there are no "third party" versions of this stuff?

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Well the ultimate solution to my 4 connectors may be to buy a $40 N3-T3 connector adaptor and hack it apart and insert my own standard 3.5mm stereo connector then build all my accessories to fit the 3.5mm connector. I'm not about to take apart my EOS-3 and buying an actual remote defeats the purpose of this project. Anyone out there with a RS-80N3 and a continuity tester who would care to take 5 minutes to figure out the pinouts? PLEASE?
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Figuring the pin-outs is simple - you can do no harm. Shorting the correct two pins simulates a partially pressed shutter button and shorting all 3 pins releases the shutter. There is no 4th (grounded) contact. ...now just find a 3rd party plug.... (BTW, the RS-80N3 typically sells for under $50 new)
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  • 5 months later...
I don't have the answer, but I have heard before that one of the pins is a "common", one is for anti-sleep, and the other is to trigger the camera. A dead short is rumored to do the trick. I'm about to test that theory, starting first with a resistor in series, just in case, and then "working up" to a dead short if necessary. There may be a diode required, if another thread is correct.
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