So, you are into your long exposure photography, such as night-time or macro photography? To get top quality photos, you’re going to need a remote control. And most of the time, this is going to set you back quite a lot of money, especially as the cheap as chips screw in type cable releases don’t work on new cameras anymore.

Not all is lost, though, if you don’t feel like forking out too much, you can make your own jack-type remote control for Remote control For Canon cameras.

If your camera uses the newer, N3-type remote control ports (that’s the round plug with three prongs), things become a little more tricky, as the actual connector is difficult to get by. However, if you do find one, this is how to wire it.

Nikon users also have a wealth of information available to them, if you for example run a F100 camera. Or you could build a more advanced, Infrared version, as seen for the D70.

In fact, there are probably schematics or technical drawings available for most remote controls – try a google search for your camera brand along with “remote” and either “schematic” or “build”.

Good luck!