This weekend I set my camera up on my tripod and placed it near one of the bluebird houses I built. I tripped the shutter from about 40 feet away with an extended cable release that I built. Lens: Canon EF 100mm Macro USM. This is not the shot I was after, but I like it.

How does one keep up to you lol :) Great as Always :)

Do you prefocus? I have aways wanted to do that very thing, so how about you tell me how you built a 40' release?

How does one keep up to you lol :) Great as Always :)

Knight, thanks for the kind words, you're making my head swell. :D

Hey Paul,

For this shot I did pre focus on the front of the nest box. As for the 40' cable release. I bought the 2' cable release the Canon makes and use that as my switch. The plug that goes into the camera is just a 3/16" audio plug. Just like on a set of headphones, only a size smaller. I went to radio shack and bought two 20' headphone extention cords. Both cords have an 1/8" male conector on 1 end, and an 1/8" female conector on the other. Then I bought an adapter to go from the Canon cord, 3/16" female, to 1/8" male to plug into the 1/8" female end of the cord. Another adapter with an 1/8" female end, and a 3/16" male end to plug into the camera and I'm all set. If I don't need all 40', I can take out one of the long cords and just have a 20' release. I can post some pics if my explanation is too confusing.

What camera do you shoot, is it the Dreb? I don't believe my 1D has the same release unfortunately. The release for my camera is a 3pin one.

Here is the extension for the (1series, D30, D60, 10D, 20D) release.

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/controller/home?O=productlist&A=details&Q=&sku=164272&is=REG&addedTroughType=categoryNavigation

Do you think I can build one safely for cheaper?

Yup, I'm shooting with the DReb and also an Elan 7n. I'm guessing that I have about $45 in my set up (that's counting the $25 Canon release), and I had a semi broken film Rebel to test it all on before I bought anything, or even attempted to plug it into my working gear.

I would think the release would be easy enuf to make IF you could find the right type of plug and switch. It might be a bit too risky unless you have something you can test it on tho.

Does your 1D have an IR reciever on it? You might be able to program a universal TV remote to fire the shutter too, if you can find the right code.

IR reciever.... not that I am aware of. I count buy one I bet .

Well seems I will have to drop over a $120 to get my release huh. My felease right now is what I am typing with ;)