Remote Control

As I said it is for birds so you can't MF and then retreat to a hide (my office) because you never know where about the bird will be but I think if I use a wider aperture I may manage with guessing where the bird may be but it is a bit hit & miss, think I could do with a remote on the tripod head as well.

For this purpose a wire will not do but for other uses it would be OK but if you have a remote there seems little point.

Jackie

The Seculine remote is just ideal for the purposes. Once you set it up on the menu of the camera then you use it, the moment you press the button it immediately focuses and releases the shutter. At first I was even in doubt if it had focused so I put the subject out of the focus and then pressed the button on the remote, heard the buzz of the AF motor and instantly fired the shutter. Then again tried manually focusing the lens for a test and then pressed the remote button, and it didn't budge and fired. Did quite a few tests with macro, that's when you really find that it works great with the camera AF system. I tend to shoot by using focus point right in the centre, so even a fraction of it out when I press the remote it hunts for the precise focus centre point and then releases the shutter. And the great thing I found just by coincidence is I dont need to change any setting at all except put the knob selector from AF.S to AF.C (constant focus) and when I press the remote shutter it fires even if its not on focus. So basically it allows me to use manual focus and press the remote button and it will fire.

hope this helps

Just tested again with the one off the link I posted. It works the same as Amin has described above i.e. set to AF.S it focuses first and then takes the picture. On AF.C just takes the picture without checking the focus. The button only has the one contact (i.e. no half way to just focus).

Amin does your camera still go to sleep when used with the remote? (mine does) and does the remote switch it back on (mine doesn't). I've read that the wired remotes turn the camera back on so possibly yours used with a cable should turn it back on.

Universal TV remotes are supposed to be OK for firing Pentax cameras, just a case of finding which TV to set it to. I'd just thrown one away when I read that..... the day after. There are programs that work with Palm PCs as well. I've a few old HP200 DOS PC's that could probably fire the camera through infrared. It may even be possible to to write a program that would do time-lapse.

shim

Shim

About the camera going to sleep, yup, it does unfortunately. There was a discussion going through one of the threads a few weeks ago, and most if not everyone who had the IR remote the consensus was that the camera would go to sleep if the feature is active. Someone had even mentioned that he leaves the sleeping mode off when using IR so that the camera stays permanently on. I actually do not need to do that. I am usually next to the camera and if I decide to fire a shot suddenly and the camera is off I just tap into the shutter button and it wakes it and with my remote on the other hand I just proceed to take the shot.
I personally do not find the fact the camera goes into sleep mode any problem, on the contrary in fact I think it preserves battery which suits my needs.

With regard to wired I haven't tried it, I find it cumbersome having the wire dangling, but that is my personal choice, I hear some here prefer even the cabled remote as its always next to the camera . I just slide the remote on my right pocket and I know its always there.

Before I got this IR remote I had one of these link but wasnt happy with it and returned after a few days and got the seculine one. That one was an RF remote and the main aspect which had attracted me was the fact that I had assumed that being RF even when the camera goes into sleep mode it would wake it up, and also that being RF there was no need of line of sight, in fact it says there that it has a huge range, but my experience was that it wouldn't wake the camera up. I failed then to determine whether it was the fault of the remote or they are just like that, the RF remotes also do not wake the camera up. But I decided to return that mainly because it wasn't focusing, tried everything but it didn't focus so clearly there was a fault with that particular sample that I got, Aparently most if not all remotes are supposed to be able to focus. Thinking about it its not even a feature of the remote that focuses but the camera itself, hence in the menu system you have to select "when using remote focus first before shutter release" so if the option is selected no matter what remote you use it will focus first and then fire. Well, at least in theory this is how it should be, but as we both have tried it works on AF.S only, if we choose AF.C it doesn't focus, so it might be also one of the features

Thanks Amin.... you've just saved me from buying a RF remote

I'm never far away from the camera either... just thought it would be useful to know for anyone who wants to set the camera up at a distance to photograph wild life.

I've just tried it with the official Pentax wired remote, but still set on infrared... that does wake up the camera, when you press to focus and you can then use the infrared remote. Because the CS-205 only makes a simple contact something other than a long lead could be made to wake the camera up at a long distance. Possibly a microswitch and a long string? although it would be just as easy to put an extension lead on the CS-205

shim

True Shim, might be ways to get around that. But for me as there is no way I could frame the subject without really checking it through the viewfinder so its no use. Before any shutter release I would need to check, frame it and then fire it up. Usually my subjects are so far that all I get is a tiny speck hardly covering the inner circle of the viewfinder .
I wish I could do that what you just mentioned, prepare it and just sit with the remote and if the subject is on location just fire it up. In tha case I would definitely go for something that would wake the camera up.

Thank you all for your help and opinions, in the end I choose to get the Seculine one and it arrived this morning, have not used it as yet buy can certainly manage the controls so I am delighted and once again proved that asking for help is more than worth the time it takes to read the opinion and experience of others. Purchased from SRS and the service was as usual excellent.

Read that you can use a universal tv remote from Poundland (no how much are they jokes thanks) to fire a Pentax camera
Think the code is 565 or maybe 556, easy enough to mess about with, its the remotes on/off button that activates the camera

Must admit to buying one out of curiosity, but its still in the packaging, might try at the weekend

A while back when I realised that a remote control would be a useful thing to have, I was surprised that the pentax ones are so expensive After all, it is just a push to make switch with a plug on the end. So I made one ~ (yes, that is a film canister for the casing:wink

[IMG]http://i715.photobucket.com/albums/ww157/Mr_Ist/_IGP5101Small.jpg[/IMG]

The black button focuses, and the red one fires the shutter. The idea came from Daniel Bridge's post link here (Thanks Dan!) The nice thing is that you can decide how long you need the cable to be... and even knock up a simple extension if need be.

Glad to be of service!

My wired remote seems to have gone walkabout at the moment (was only a very cheap and nasty one anyway), so will have to source another one. Tempted by the Aputure ones that Mannesty linked to in that thread, but they're over £30 including postage. I had a CS-205 when I first got my *istD but that broke in no time at all.

Dan

If you want to take photographs this way then why don't you set the camera up on a tripod and have it closer to the feeder, that way you can sit in yr chair and fire via remote.

Just a suggestion

Paul

Edited: Spelling mistake

Excellent