Monday, April 7, 2008

DIY Remote Shutter Release for Canon 400D aka. XTi


I'm all about saving the all mighty dollar, I have always been keen on the DIY stuff love to tinker with all kinds of stuff. When I was a mini-kid (as my dad use to call me) I would take things apart just to see what was inside and try to figure out how things worked. My Simon Says was in a million parts and pieces not a week after I got it for Christmas one year, needless to say it did not work for another month or so after that till I figured out how it all went back together (try hiding that from your parents for a month when you are 6 years old). This yearning to know how things work has continued in to my adult hood (love watching How It's Made and other programs on the Science Channel) so anything I can tear apart and put to use as something else just makes my day.

I can not take the credit for this Mod / DIY with the remote shutter release found similar configuration on instructables.com thank you deth2all.

Taking pictures with the 400D has just been great I love this camera, unfortunately I'm not the steadiest person in the world. Taking pictures of small things with the 70-300mm just don't come out right when you are bouncing all over the place, even with the tripod pressing the shutter release will cause blur. And what about all of those self portraits, trying different things with lights (that my beautiful wife and children will not sit around for 2hrs.) from some of the Strobist Lighting 101 and 102, it's a bit of an issue waiting for the timer on the camera plus you have to pre-focus the shot and that is tough when all you have is a blank (black sheet, in my case) wall to focus on. (just doesn't work).

Well as deth2all suggested I found an old cell phone corded hands free ear phone. Had one that was no longer working properly from work it would place and receive calls but no one could hear me, apparently the microphone was not working any more. That is good because that part is not needed, and actually not wanted to function. All that is needed to do is clip off the ear phone part, and crack open the body of the set (ok, so cracking it open is a bit harsh carefully pry it open, mine opened with just a fingernail your mileage may very).

Don't have before and after pictures only after didn't think about this till it was to late. (DOH!)
DIY remote XTi 1
After clipping (did not have a set of wire cutters with me, used fingernail clippers) the head phone wire off I tried it, no go would not work. Had to use a sharp screw driver (the jewelers screwdriver set I had from the dollar store) and scratch the etching connections on the PCB {printed circuit board} after the connection was broken, just a press of the button and the camera fired. (WHAHOOO) this is cool.
DIY remote XTi 2

Now I can take all of those cool shots that will make me a famous photographer (as is said before, YEAH RIGHT. NOT!!!)

But does allow to get these shots with out blur from camera shake and other shot not having to use the “big teddy bear” as my stand in model.
rose 1a
Probably need to go back to the editing room with this one, but love the red
rose is a rose

and just for artistic tries for a self photo (hey first try, wanted the light back on my shoulder a bit more don't need the hair light.. showing that thin spot.. YIKES am I getting older?? or are my jeans .. I mean genes kicking in.. will try some Rogaine or something.)
just a

let me know what you think.

Sunday, April 6, 2008

The perfect Digital SLR / Laptop Backpack

DSLR, dslr laptopb bag, dslr laptop backpack


Well I have come to find out it does not exist here where I can purchase it! So, that is not entirely true either, but after spending 2 weeks searching on the web and looking at the limited camera shops we have here locally I have settled with this one.

Label states Quantaray Pro by Nanue Pro,

This Post has moved to a new home click here to go to it Thank You

Thursday, April 3, 2008

Off Camera Flash Photography Beginner Setup (Cheap)

Poor Person's cheap Flash Photography Studio setup for beginners

I have been reading on Strobist web site for a while now. This is just a great site very informative when you want to move to off camera flash.
Like a lot of people that get in to photography, (ok maybe not that many, I'm sure there are more folks out there that just want to take good pictures) I have delusions of grandeur and

This Post has Moved click here to see the rest of the story



Most of my Photography Stuff is moving to http://cesphotography.blogspot.com/

Do you know what an ID 10 T Error is??? "Data Image Recovery"

Reclaim lost photos, Digital Photography media unreadable, digital photograpy sd card lost photos, digital photography compac flash card (CF) lost phots


Well I do... and I have done it.. idiot.. thats me.

Ok so in my original post Welcome I mentioned something about diving deep in to the Digital Photography realm. Well after shooting a bunch of pictures I figured “hey its time to upload them to my laptop”. So plugged the camera in to the USB port awaited the EOS utility to appear (this takes an inordinate amount of time on my little Dell). Finally after what seemed like an eternity (made a new pot of coffee, had a cup) it popped up and off we went, buzzing all of the pictures down in to the designated folder. This takes a bit as well (off to have another cup, hmmm not going to sleep tonight are we?) something odd happened .. EOS utility just stopped downloading .. I though “huh maybe it did get everything...”
Here is where the ID 10 T thing cropped up .. “Kewl all done I will just format the card and put the other one in that I need to download” (Great, Fantastic, just Freeking Awesome Idea). Put the new card in waited again for the utility to do its thing and blip .. up pops the notifier “Battery to Low to Continue”. DOH what have I done??? Not that there was anything really important (it is to me) on the other card that I had formated but still “AAAAARRRRGGGGG...” how could I be so stupid cardinal rule for any data transfer “MAKE SURE IT MADE IT TO IT'S DESTINATION DOUBLE CHECK IF NEED BE”.

Ok so now what.. Being a Techie.... (ha, obviously not such a good one now are ya?) I did remember glancing at a few data recovery tools in the past that I though would not have much use for me at the time (I am A+, Linux, among other things Certifiable or is that certified tech why on God's Green Earth would I need something like that.). Off to one of my favorite sites www.download.com key word search .. “file recovery format fat” Wahoo tons of files match and state they can recover everything. (LOL, yeah right) Started downloading file after file on to my computer (hey if it starts acting funny, wipe out and reload the OS whats another 4 hrs of life gone?)

Here is my set up:
editting setup web stuff

Dell C400 1.3Ghz PIII
512MB ram
120GB Western Digital HDD

pc card reader
(bugger... and I call myself a photographer ... this is not my work got to be someone else blurry.. have to redo and repost.)
PCMCIA card reader for the Lexar CompactFlash card (oohhhh 1GB .. hey I'm married with children have to budget things accordingly my toys don't come first)
compactflash

Oh and WinXP ..(yeah, yeah I know .. could be using a Mac or Linux or something..)

Zero Assumption: Not sure if it works in this instance it started through its evaluation of the flash card and I just could not wait to see if it was going to find my files. And that was after waiting for 30 min or more. (so I'm a little impatient).

DiskInternals FAT recovery:
also just as slow for the waiting thing, but immediately started to find my files so I let it go (what the heck it's only 1 o'clock in the morning not like I need to be up a few hours to run the weekly meeting or any thing right??) but at the end it said it could recover the files and I could even see thumbnails of my RAW photo's that I erased by formating the card. Whew this is good one press of the button and I should have them back. “FYI: the demo just allows you to see that you can retrieve the files. You need to go on line and buy their software to get anywhere. Seems to be a good set of software though but not for me.


**** RANT****
I'm up for software writers to get paid for what they do I really am... but hey I need my stuff back and like I had mentioned before .. “I'm married with children” so I can't just shell out $$ when ever I want (well I guess I could, but then house wouldn't get paid food on the table... stuff like that)
I like the shareware thing, common license, or GPL and give credit where credit is due. And most of these folks you can donate to as well... (all of this stuff is expencive too many hobbies to little $$)
****End of RANT***

File Scavenger 3.2 :
This just did not seem to work at all, (for what I needed) the writers of the code obviously put in the time and effort .. but just did not work. And if it did ... ya got to pay

PandoraRecovery:
Also did not work. User friendly interface .. but no files

Now I'm really getting frustrated ...

www.google.com

key word : format data recovery fat free (get this free stuff :))

Finally got some where.... (ha... this is it .. its got to be it)

PC Inspector smart recovery 4.5 :
CONVAR Deutschland is a subsidiary of the English company group, CONVAR EUROPE Ltd, with headquarters in Rochester / England.

Kudo's to these folks, great user interface, even does *.cr2 for raw image search, found all my files and then some that were previously formated off the card. Wow could not say more. (FYI did not keep the original names of the files .. but hey they are back) This did take a while couple three hours. But well worth it .. in my opinion.

So if you have found your self in the same predicament .. try it out I think they are all on the up and up.

Welcome to CE's Geekbook.


I started this blog because I am a geek at heart and need a place to keep all of my stuff that I will end up forgetting if I don't type it somewhere. This site is not for any one specific thing, item, or thought. My thoughts tend to go in a million different directions at any one time. At the moment I have jumped in to the realm of digital photography with a Canon XTi the 2 lenses that came with it and a “nifty fifty”.

Oh and by the way, If you do by some stretch of the imagination read any, some, or all of my posts (lord knows why you would want to.) you may come across those little bracket things ... That is just my inner voice chiming in (my rice krispies talk to me too)
You can see some of my work at http://www.flickr.com/photos/corbinse/


Comments are always welcome.

Lone Star Custom Lapel Pins

Lone Star Custom Lapel Pins
Veteran Managed Lone Star Pins are creators of custom lapel pins. We offer a free digital how to PDF on our site, Free Artwork, and quote. Contact us today for your proof and quote.

Share

Twitter Delicious Facebook Digg Stumbleupon Favorites More