Part 2: Taking A Photo
Releasing the shutter is the next challenge, the reason I didn’t put it in first (and the reason that I forgot about it until near the end of the video) is that it’s actually very simple,
All housings designed for surf photography have a way of triggering the shutter with a button on a pistol grip via a wired remote port on the camera body, and it’s often a standard or even built in feature of basic models, so the chances are you will have a wire inside your housing designed to fit the original camera that it housed.
Most enthusiast range cameras have a wired remote port built in, the Sony NEX 5 series is notably lacking this though (I shot the video on my new backup camera body – a Sony NEX 5R), and I’m sure there are other examples of cameras which would otherwise work well for shooting surf photography, that’s why I included it as one of the features that I wanted in my backup camera.
Because the shutter button is relatively simple, a wired remote is usually just a button that when half pressed causes the camera to autofocus, and when fully pressed releases the shutter. This means not only is it easy to make your own shutter release cable but you can also fairly easily separate focus from shutter release if you wish, this is something that has become more popular recently with two-button pistol grip designs available from Aquatech and Essex housings.
My DIY version of the separate focus and shutter controls that I made for my old Aqualenz housing.
It’s worth noting that back button focusing is something that’s been used by surf photographers on land and on their water housings for decades and this is essentially a more ergonomic extension of that idea.
The a6000 uses Sony’s proprietary Multi port for triggering the shutter via a wired remote, it’s the same shape and size as a Micro USB cable but there’s some extra contacts in there, allowing you to control things like the zoom of the lens (only with a power-zoom lens).
The Aquatech housing has a 2.5mm jack plug which fits a lot of mid and low level Canon DSLR’s, so originally I bought a cheap wired remote which I intended to chop up in order to make an adapter for this remote plug, then I found a very cheap pre-built option on Amazon and thought I’d give it a go:
This simple adapter cable from DSLRKIT
converts a Canon wired remote to a Sony wired remote, you can buy it from Amazon for $9.99
It works perfectly and it does exactly what I need it to for my Sony a6000 water housing, and I didn’t even have to break out the soldering iron, I am now tempted get hold of the Sony RM-VPR1 remote control which includes video pause/record and zoom controls and have a go at butchering it to help make the ultimate surf housing for a Sony mirrorless camera. At $53 it’s a bit too much to invest in a hair brained scheme, but as soon as there’s a knock-off third party version I’ll snap one up.
I can imagine a pistol grip with some buttons placed handily for your thumb (like this Essex pistol grip) with a rocker switch for zoom control and a pause/record button, all in a tiny package custom built for the Sony a6000.
I Want to Adapt A Nikon Water Housing For A Sony a6000
Not all water housings are so simple to convert though, Canon have two main types of wired remote shutter ports and Nikon have a couple too, as Nikon and Canon are by far the most common brands to have surf housings made for them you’re pretty likely to be able to get the cable for you from DSLRKIT
The full range of terminal converters available from DSLRKIT, as long as you know which camera body your housing is designed for you can find the suitable cable, or combination of cables, that will trigger your new camera
If you’re in any doubt about which adapter you should use leave a comment on this post and I’ll do my best to help you out.
I Want To Adapt A 35mm Film Housing For A Sony a6000
There are other brands out there and even older Canon cameras, usually 35mm SLR’s, can have some exotic cable systems, I’ve got a housing for the Canon EOS 630 film SLR that has a very DIY looking 9 volt battery style connector on the pistol grip connected to a hacked together battery grip.
35mm camera housings are often quite a good fit for mirrorless cameras, as they tend to be less bulky than more modern DSLR bodies.
In cases like this you will need to go down the DIY route, I suggest buying a cheap knock-off wired remote like the one I got for $9.99 so that you’ve got the male end which fits your Sony camera, then strip the wire and solder it to whichever wire you have on your old housing.
Mudder wired remote control for the Sony a6000 is available on Amazon for $9.99, if you need to make your own cable this is a great place to start
Do some tests to make sure you’re connecting the correct wires to allow you to focus and release the shutter. If you have problems, or if you fancy a challenge, you might want to re-build the original pistol grip trigger with some new buttons, like I did on my old AquaLenz housing.
It’s not too difficult to do but it takes a while, I do plan on adapting my old EOS 630 housing at some point so I’ll document the process then in case anyone’s interested.
This is the best site I’ve found for finding out which pins do what on various shutter release cables: http://www.doc-diy.net/photo/remote_pinout/
My Camera Body doesn’t have a Wired Remote port
Unfortunately it’s very unlikely that you’re going to get an easy adaptation to allow a physical control on a DSLR housing to press the shutter button on aย much smaller camera body, so I would seriously consider buying a new mirrorless camera body which does have a wired shutter release, or going for a Meikon style housing which has a physical shutter button designed for your camera.
Page 2: Positioning Your Sony a6000
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