Is this Possible

Back a few years ago when I owned a Nikon D70, I came across a tip from a fellow D70 user that a £3 universal TV remote (the cheapest one in the Argos catalogue) could be easily programmed to fully remote control my D70. I bought one, and indeed it worked as he said, and I used it successfully to take photo's of badgers at their sett entrance whilst I was some distance away.
Has anyone found a way to do this with Pentax DSLR's. I have a K-5, and still have the universal TV remote?

yes, just set the camera to remote mode, gather all the remotes in the house and press the buttons. I've had success with Sony TV remotes.

why the distance should be any greater than the dedicated remote is moot.

Have a look in your local pound shop, they often have the universal remotes for a couple of quid less!

I can't believe that someone would pay thousands for
cameras and begrudge buying a proper remote for a few
quid

TV remotes (well some at least) do work with a K10D, so I suppose would work with any similar camera in the range.

Snag is they are usually large bits of kit, designed not to be lost on the sofa (or down the backs thereof). They also need (or mine did) to be programmed with a code to match the camera.

I got a "proper" clone of ebay for, I think £2 which is 60x30x7mm and worked straight out of the box. See following link (prety much the same as I bought)

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Remote-Control-Pentax-K-x-k7-K10D-K20D-K100D-K200D-K11...



So why fiddle with TV stuff

regards

Bernard

Just checked mine and it does work with K5 (see page 145-146 of manual for set up)

Bernard

Thanks for that link Frogherder, I wasn't aware of those ready to go ones, nice and cheap too, unlike the Pentax offering.

Algernon.... I understand your point, but why pay out cash for another infra-red device when I already have a universal remote that could easily do the same job for nought.... it's not one of those huge things either and had a pretty fair range. With the D70, you just punched in the infra-red channel code into the remote, and it did the same as Nikons own remote, which at the time were costing about £30. When I looked online it appears that the the Pentax remote is still over £20, which to me is money I would rather spend in the pub this weekend

An old HP OmniGo Pocket PC or HP 200LX running a program called remcom could learn codes from remotes and be used in their place.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zlSQH-Wc1KU

I've still got about four 200LX's , but never tried it with the camera

Found this searching the internet, so other people have found the codes.

link


My universal IR remote is a Philips SBC RU 151

link

I bought a £5 (including delivery) remote from ebay/ Hong Kong a few years ago and it works perfectly