It cost $28 at Adorama about a month ago when I bought one.
However, there was a thread on BYO Cable Release here some while ago, so
I'll list 2 items from that thread:
Item 1:
I had about the same reaction when I bought my MZ-50. However, this
electronic cable switch is VERY simple. You can build one with scrap parts
(if you're a packrat like me), or with maybe $10 in parts from your local
Radio Shack or computer hardware store. (This is an easy project that
perhaps should be described with a link from a Pentax web page?)
There are three pins on the camera body. If you electrically short two of
these pins -- and I believe it's the top pin and middle pin, but I don't
remember off-hand -- the camera will do its metering (and autofocusing for
AF enabled MZ/ZX bodies). If you short two other pins -- again, I don't
remember, but I think it's the middle and bottom pair -- the camera will
trip the shutter. That's all there is to it.
Biggest trick is finding a connector that will mate with the odd shape on
the MZ/ZX body. I solved this problem by adapting one of those little
four-conductor cables typically used for connecting the analog audio output
of a CD-ROM drive to your computer's sound card. These have plastic
connector bodies on each end holding a single row of four little metal
slip-on connectors. With a straight pin or tiny nail, you can depress the
little springy metal tab and remove each slip-on connector from the plastic
body. You must take a razor blade and trim off the plastic encasing the
fourth connector from the plastic body, so that you now have a 1 x 3
connector body. Next, trim one of the edges of this 1 x 3 connector body so
that it will insert into your camera body. When you have a good fit,
reinsert three of the metal slip-on connectors you removed earlier. Connect
two SPST switches to the appropriate wires on the other end of your cable,
and you're all finished.
Now, what to do with that $25 you just saved.... Hmmm....
Bill Peifer
Rochester, NY
Item 2:
The top pin is ground.
Shorting the top pin and the bottom pin activates metering and autofocus
(but doesn't trip shutter).
Shorting the top pin and the middle pin activates meter and trips shutter
regardless of AF lock.
Shorting the top pin and BOTH middle and bottom pins activates meter and
trips shutter only if AF
lock is achieved.
Mark
Maris
----- Original Message -----
From: Bob Keefer
To: pentax discuss
Sent: Saturday, May 19, 2001 7:34 PM
Subject: Cable Release F? Who needs it.....
Suddenly needing to remotely trigger my PZ-20 from about 15 feet away for a
series of photos this weekend, I called the local camera store this morning
and was told the Pentax Cable Release F was a mere $50.
For a switch?
So here's what I did: In the absence of any plug I could find around the
house that remotely resembled the Pentax release socket, I took a length of
two-strand speaker wire, stripped insulation from the ends, and wrapped one
end of each strand around a smallish piece of aluminum foil, so it formed a
ball about the size of a matchhead on the end of each wire.
Then I stuffed the foil balls into the release socket, one each next to the
middle and top contacts on the camera. A strip of black electrician's tape
held it all in place.
For firing, I first wrapped the other ends of the speaker wire around the
twin prongs of a household extension cord, and plugged an HH-PC flash cord
into the other end. The theory was I could plug the PC end of the cord into
my flash meter and trigger the camera by hitting the cord-flash-meter
button.
This Rube Goldberg solution actually worked, although intermittently; I
suspect by the time the camera trigger voltage made its way through all that
wire, it was able to be stymied by any contact corrosion or lack of
alignment. Eventually I gave up on the flash meter and triggered the camera
by shorting across the PC connector with a car key, which worked just fine.
Inelegant, perhaps, but very effective. And dead cheap. I shot two rolls and
didn't waste $50 on photo price gouging.
(By the way, this apparently only triggers the shutter, so you need to set
focus and exposure manually...The third contact seems to do AE and AF.)
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