[Adam] made a remote camera trigger that uses a laser. He had to install CHDK on his camera, which we’ve featured in a how-to, in order for it to work. CHDK allowed for a remote shutter trigger through the USB port. The laser bounces off a mirror and onto the photoresisitor hooked up to an Arduino. When the beam is broken, the Arduino sets off the trigger. He also plans to use the trigger to tweet over ethernet. Embedded is a video demonstrating its functionality.
[vimeo http://vimeo.com/4603644%5D
[Related Control your camera remotely with your DS]
[via adafruit]
looks like the camera needs to be set to take pictures more instantly to be practical.
@hang
You’ll notice the autofocus light come on as soon as he breaks the beam. That’s just how long the camera takes to take a picture. Maybe if he used chdk to manual focus it could be quicker but it’s not the trigger that’s causing the lag.
the audrino is extra here
i agree with therian
the motion detection scripts would probably be faster for this
I was thinking that I’d suggest using a photo transistor since they have a much faster response than a photoresistor, but after looking at the video and comments I agree that something else is making this much slower than the few extra ms from a photoresistor.
That said, I think this project is useful for a lot of applications. For instance if your camera is set to a wide angle and you want to take a picture of people walking through a room this should work fine. Nice article.
chdk allows to half-press the shutter in scripts to make the camera focus, set white balance and charge the flash. You can then full-press the shutter and get much better response times (just like you can do by hand).
Would it be worth adding a resistor between pin 12 and the camera to ensure you don’t burn out the pin or am i just being paranoid?