[Duncan Murdock] received a Canon DSLR camera for Christmas and wanted a remote shutter release to go along with it. Since nary a store was open on Christmas, he was pretty much out of luck. Scrounging around in his parts drawer, he found all sorts of goodies waiting to be reused, including a knockoff Wii nunchuck.
He pulled the original cable from the nunchuck and replaced it with an old telephone wire, attaching a 2.5mm plug to the end. The plug goes directly into his camera’s control port, allowing him to trigger the auto focus and shutter mechanisms with the push of a button.
We like the idea of a junk controller being recycled for use in a camera, though we think it has far more potential than being used as a simple wired trigger. If both the nunchuck and camera were fitted with some sort of wireless interface (Bluetooth, IR, etc), we think it would make a great addition to any hobby photographer’s kit.
Car horn stalks from scrap cars make a handy button in a pinch when you snap one off.
That’s cool, I wonder if you could hook up the zoom to it as well, maybe a tripod that pans and tilts.
For a DSLR, zoom control would require a whole apparatus to adjust the zoom on the lens, as this is controlled mechanically by twisting the lens and not electronically. Using the joystick to control a tripod would be pretty awesome.