> Is anybody using a shutter release device that is activated by either light
or sound. If a camera has a port for a wired remote shutter release device,
then a specialized remote wired device actived by lightning for example would
trigger the shutter.
I use such "gadgets" on a periodic basis. My main application has been the
photography of barn swallows approaching their nest. They break a light beam
and this causes a "dark" activated circuit to close a switch and trigger the
camera which in turn fires the flash that provides the action stopping power
to make sharp photos of their wing feathers (and the bird as well!).
One of my circuits is activated by light instead of dark and this one can be
used exactly as you describe. Usually though my main application has been the
one where a light or IR beam is interrupted (or a sound detected). BTW, for
sound I have applications where a flash is set off instead of the camera
because often the delay introduced by the mechanical nature of the camera's
shutter release is too long and sound producing events move too far in the time
it takes the camera to react.
There are several commercial devices that work in either one, two or three
synchronization modes. I have a rudimentary circuit that I have used for many
years and still do in spite of some unreliability problems. It is described in
this article: http://www.rit.edu/~andpph/text-cross-beam.html
There is a picture of how the system is set up for the birds here:
http://www.rit.edu/~andpph/photofile-c/barnswallow-14.jpg
andy
