Underwater trigger

chewyuk

chewyuk

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Neil
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I've been asked to get involved in a rather nice project, but it involves triggering the shutter underwater.
Has anyone got any links or details they can share about how I can trigger a DSLR shutter underwater.
What makes this slightly more complicated is that I am not allowed to get in the water. So unless a water proof housing has a long arm attachment( to ensure some stability and reduce shake), with a shutter release cable, I'm struggling.
My best solution at the moment is a DIY job.... 30d in a water proof bag, a thread drilled into a wooden pole, which is attached to the tripod thread, I then run a shutter release cable down the length of the broom and seal with gaffa tape!!! DIY at it's best.
Other option of course is a remote trigger, but that involves more expensive kit in a dodgy bag!

I hope I am making myself clear!

Cheers,
Neil
 
you are making clear, but sealing with gaffa tape and drilling holes into anything intented to keep expensive kit dry will end in tears. I would try a remote trigger but I would have a conversation with Paul at cameras underrwater about this one
 
As an ex scuba diver and having done some underwater photography I can tell you that water will get into anywhere given the chance.

Your best bet, I would suggest, would be a wired remote from the camera to the housing to a socket DESIGNED for use at those depths and fitted to the housing properly with waterproofing etc. Then a lead attached to that and going to the surface.

The housing can be weighted at the bottom with a couple of hooked weights like you find in a scuba shop (usually yellow with a hook thing at the top) and then lowered into the water using an SMB reel which should give you 30-50m of strong cord and be reasonably quick to real back in.

The weight on the bottom of the housing should keep it reasonably stable
 
chewyuk said:
Take your point, but have 30d and cheapish wide angle I am prepared to risk!
Click to expand...

fair enough - but if you drill a hole in a housing and then run a cable through it, it will leak, unless you seal in a far better way then gaffa tape - if your not going too deep with it you could try sealing either side of the hole & with the cable in place using a silicon sealent
 
chewyuk said:
Is there anyway to do his without a housing ?

The depth is probably at most a couple of metres.
Click to expand...

at a couple of metres you could use one of the olympus tough type cameras, assuming its not going to take all day and you can trigger it.

No way using an SLR without housing at any depth
 
boyfalldown said:
fair enough - but if you drill a hole in a housing and then run a cable through it, it will leak, unless you seal in a far better way then gaffa tape - if your not going too deep with it you could try sealing either side of the hole & with the cable in place using a silicon sealent
Click to expand...

You can buy grometted electrical connectors specially designed for this purpose. They are not cheap and you need to follow the instructions to the letter but they are cheaper than a 30D and they do work. The ones used were about £30 each 15 years ago if I remember rightly and came with silicon sealant, O rings either side and all manner of gubbins! (They were rated for 100m static water pressure. They were used down to 58m without issue on a sub off plymouth (They were used for some very high power home made underwater lighting). They had 4 connectors so that would be enough for the remote and/or focus. You would then just get the corresponding plug (sorry same price!!) and 40m of 4 way cable of the correct thickness and wind this onto the SMB real with the SMB real cord connecting it every foot or so. At the top end you can have a plastic box (cheaper waterproof gromits etc should suffice on the surface going to 1 or 2 splashproof buttons).
 
chewyuk said:
Is there anyway to do his without a housing ?

The depth is probably at most a couple of metres.
Click to expand...

Forget everything I've said then :D (it is all miles more than you need!!)

Get a waterproof underwater point and shoot. You could trigger it using a wire from the surface. Drill a hole in the housing and attach a cable to the trigger button and fill the camera near the hole with silicon. Hang a weight from the tripod hole to steady it. Or use a bag :)
 
the seal is the biggest concern - but maky I suggest when you've built everything, put it in the water for ten minutes without a camera in - it could be a cheap way to save yourself a 30d

Darren I'd not seen those, useful thank you
 
Thought of that, but point and shoot worries me in terms if quality of image. Also if u wanted to get clever with flash I'm restricted.
Just had a good chat with cameras underwater and they have suggested a flexable bag with specially prepared holes for shutter release cable and tripod mount.

Cost £800 - any cheaper suggestions :)
 
chewyuk said:
Thought of that, but point and shoot worries me in terms if quality of image. Also if u wanted to get clever with flash I'm restricted.
Just had a good chat with cameras underwater and they have suggested a flexable bag with specially prepared holes for shutter release cable and tripod mount.

Cost £800 - any cheaper suggestions :)
Click to expand...

Thats what a lot of sports guys use for diving/swimming. And no, you're not likely to get anything cheaper.

If you did, I'd be wondering about why it was cheaper...and whether it would actually work.

With regards to wireless triggers as well...there have been issues with range in the past, even with Pocketwizards...so bear that in mind if you go down that route.
 
can you say why you're not allowed in the water?
 
I think you'll have issues trying to use radio triggers underwater, most of the remote subs have trailint antennae to get round this. How about a compact on a pole/monopod as you were saying but set to time lapse? It's a bit spray and pray but needs must sometimes. I suppose you could use a TC80N3 with your 30d on time lapse every half second say in a waterproof housing and just go till the card is full... I assume your model will run out of air before you run out of card.
 
jamesb84 said:
Thats what a lot of sports guys use for diving/swimming. And no, you're not likely to get anything cheaper.

If you did, I'd be wondering about why it was cheaper...and whether it would actually work.

With regards to wireless triggers as well...there have been issues with range in the past, even with Pocketwizards...so bear that in mind if you go down that route.
Click to expand...

I understand. The difference with sports is that diving/swimming pools are well lit. This will not be, hence my worry about point and shoot.
But will probably start there!
I'm not trying to reinvent the wheel just look for a creative solution.
 
I wonder if an ordinary boring infra-red trigger would work through just "a couple of metres" of water? :shrug:
 
mmcp42 said:
I wonder if an ordinary boring infra-red trigger would work through just "a couple of metres" of water? :shrug:
Click to expand...

probably not - water defracts any sort of light like mad, and it also does a really good job of filtering that end of the spectrum
 
One thing to realise when looking at underwater SLR/DSLR kit is that, to have any amount of trust in the water sealing, the camera itself becomes the cheapest part of the rig - proper housings are typically £1200+.

Unless you want some special depth of field effect, an underwater housing for a compact is definitely a better way to go.

Also, what conditions are you shooting in? If it's not a swimming pool or gin-clear conditions in the carribean, you'll have a very short optical range before things just won't appear in the picture.
 
SparkUK said:
I think you'll have issues trying to use radio triggers underwater, most of the remote subs have trailint antennae to get round this. How about a compact on a pole/monopod as you were saying but set to time lapse? It's a bit spray and pray but needs must sometimes. I suppose you could use a TC80N3 with your 30d on time lapse every half second say in a waterproof housing and just go till the card is full... I assume your model will run out of air before you run out of card.
Click to expand...

That's kind of alligned to my thinking at the moment.
The subjects will have much longer air capacity that I have card capacity :)
 
you could try the old diving bell method
5m is about half an atmosphere
so you'd need a bell around twice the height of whatever is going inside it
it will need to be heavy to sink
and weighted to stay upright
the big advantage is it has an open bottom (stop it!)
so you can have cables going down the outside then back up the inside to fire/trigger whatever
for added peace of mind, keep the camera inside its sealed bag

oh and make sure there's a window in the bell!
 
mmcp42 said:
you could try the old diving bell method
5m is about half an atmosphere
so you'd need a bell around twice the height of whatever is going inside it
it will need to be heavy to sink
and weighted to stay upright
the big advantage is it has an open bottom (stop it!)
so you can have cables going down the outside then back up the inside to fire/trigger whatever
for added peace of mind, keep the camera inside its sealed bag

oh and make sure there's a window in the bell!
Click to expand...


You can get plastic bells for plants

Or you can buy disposable film cameras for underwater for about a tenner. I keep hearing how it's the photographer, not the camera...
 
What about one of these with a cheap wireless trigger :thinking:
 
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