Is there such a thing?...

[daveozzz]

I was doing some long exposures (> 10 secs) with my bessa the other day with a locking cable release (bessa r's longest shutter speed is 1 sec).. and I got to thinking, is there an off-camera gadget (clockwork or electoric) that'll time these long exposures for you? So you can dial in, say, 1 min and it'll trip the shutter for a minute automatically for us unfortunate souls who don't have such long exposures built into our cameras? Anyone heard of such a thing?
Just thought it'd be handy while I was attempting to juggle lightmeters, filters, cable releases and stopwatch.
Cheers again.
Dave.

 

[thpook]

http://home.att.net/~drt-3d/toys/timers/ (look at the bottom)
http://www.bmumford.com/photo/camctlr.html (sadly electronic)
http://www.adorama.com/catalog.tpl?page=searchresults&searchinfo=intervalometer

The higher end intervalometers will allow you to set exposure length, with prices ranging from $125 - frightfully expensive.

Edit: You could also just buy a Gossen Digisix, a cable release, and use the Gossen's countdown function to measure how long your exposure should be.

 

[pvdhaar]

That $125 price comes awfully close a Lego 'Robotics Invention System': http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B00005NLID/002-0398557-5013652

With set this you can build your own, and have loads more photography fun: http://www.philohome.com/legophoto.htm

 

[pshinkaw]

Or you could justify buying yourself a really nice Swiss Chronometer. It would be useful more frequently than an Intervalometer.

-Paul

 

[Hektor]

When we were kids we used to fly model gliders fitted with 'de-thermalisers' to activate the elevators and bring them down after say five minutes.

These 'de-thermalisers wre just a piece of cotton string soaked in a nitrate solition and then dried out.......so they acted a slow burning fuse, smouldering away reliably and not going out....then they burnt down to a rubber band which was holding the elvator up. when they got to the rubber band they would burn through it and it would fly apart, releasing the elevator, and the plane would descend to earth.

Maybe you can use a slow burning fuse to break a rubber band which is holding the shutter open....?????????

Well it would be cheap, if you could make it work.......!!!!!!!!

 

[jlw]

I know I've seen pictures of a cable release with a built-in timer, specifically made for timing long exposures. The timer part is somewhat hourglass-shaped, has a dial on the front, and forms the body of the upper part of the cable release, just below the plunger.

I can't remember the manufacturer, but maybe this description will jog someone else's memory.

 

[daveozzz]

I love the idea of setting up my picture then lighting the fuse! Alas might not be as convenient as a good old stopwatch - that works fine - it's mostly laziness for me why I'd like a mechanical timer - would cut down some human error too as a bonus tho.

I found a mechanical shutter release on ebay which has a built in timer up to 18secs which is pretty cool indeed. Looks dead wee as well.

The cable release jlw's talking about would be great if we can work out where to get hold of one. Certainly don't seem to be many kicking about!