Skip wrote:
>Pentax cable release for a ZX-M, from B+H, costs $35.00!
>For a cable release???
Skip,
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
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