Homemade Remote Shutter Using Earphones.

Hi, I'm Kevin.

Yesterday I received a Canon 1000D as birthday gift and I'm happy with it. Checking the conexions and the manual I discovered the possibility to use a remote shutter. Although they're cheap (~15€), I wanted to make one by myself since I found some headphones with the same Jack as the required for this accesory.

Materials you will need:

Earphones with a 2,5mm* Jack. Better if they're broken to not waste them.
A normally open button. I recycled it from a broken ATA optical drive.
A lighter to remove wires' varnish.
Scissors to cut the cables.
A solder (optional).
And the camera, of course.

Ready? Go to the next page!

*This can vary in each camera.

Step 1: Cut the Earphones' Cable and Find the Correct Pair.

I don't have to explain this: grab your scissors and cut the cable. That's all!

Now you'll have 3 or 5 cables (left/right ear, mic. and button). One of them can be composed of fine wires. Isolate that wire from others to work easily with them.

Now use the lighter to burn the end of each wire. After this, connect the Jack to the camera and try various combinations with the wires, by pairs. If your camera takes a photo, remember that pair of wires. In my case they're the blue and green wires.

Step 2: Preparing the Button.

Some phone earphones have a button/mic built in the cable. Unfortunately, in my case the camera takes infinite photos when I plugged them, so I had to do this stuff to get it working correctly.

Take a button (normally open) and join to it the wires you identified before. If you have a solder use it instead of wrapping them.

If you camera has a Bulb mode and it requires to hold the shutter, you can use a switch - it will be more comfortable.