D. Glenn Arthur Jr. wrote: > I went to Radio Shack to buy parts to build myself a cable release > for the *istD. They had submini phone plugs, but only mono, not > TRS, and it turns out that shorting ring to sleeve keeps the > autofocus constantly activated (which I presume costs battery life). > Check the stock number on line with Radio Shack.com They may very well have the stereo sub mini in stock but not know it. (If you have the stock number they can find it much easier that way). > And they didn't have cheap IR LEDs to make an invisible flash with, > either. Though there was a spot marked for them in the drawer. > *pout* (Unsurprisingly, they didn't have PC connectors either, > so I'll probably look for the cheapest PC-cord accessory I can > find and snip the plug off it when I do build the invisible flash.) > > Question: when emulating a locking cable release for long exposures, > should I disengage the autofocus connection once the shutter is open, > or does the camera automagically do that internally? (Or should I > just not worry about the battery drain of having the autofocus system > powered while the mirror is up? Is the cost of holding the shutter > open high enough to swamp having the autofocus powered? I've no idea > what aspets of the camera's operation cost how much juice, but I'm > guessing that electromechanical aspects -- and lighting the LCD > backlight -- cost more than purely electronic operations ... right?)\ > Once the shutter is open the auto focus is superfluous to the current operation. . I'd be very surprised if it was continually powered at that point. However I built a mechanical to electronic cable release adapter for my *ist-D and Ds which keeps the auto focus circuit closed and I haven't had any problems so far. > -- Glenn, starting to wonder > how much an *istD repair > manual would tell me about > the electronics. > >
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