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Remote Camera Control

by Mike McNamee

MikeMcNamee talks to Ron Thomas ARPS and looks at the Phottix Hero

This feature is intended to cover a number of topics which are linked in not too obvious ways. The common thread is remote controlling a camera, which historically has been the province of nature photographers and master spies working for the KGB! Things change, however, and the prompt for this piece was the arrival of a new remote control called Hero and made by Phottix.

Casting about for a source of expertise we soon found ourselves on the way to visit Society member, Ron Thomas.

Now visiting Ron is a little bit like stepping into Doc's laboratory from Back To The Future. Everything in sight seems to be wired up to something and the surroundings of the house are festooned in miniature cameras. The neighbours, however, need have no fears of covert surveillance, unless they go poking around in the undergrowth and, unless they have either four legs, or wings they are unlikely to be captured on a watching camera.

There are many circumstances in which the ability to trigger a camera without being in physical contact with it are important. At the most simple level you may wish to prevent any undue vibrations from your presence, or touch, on the camera. Further along you may have grounds not to be near the camera for reasons of safety, discretion or so as not to disturb the subject.

Cameras have the advantage that they do not (normally!) smell of humans so you can put your set-up down outside a badger set and Mr Brock will take very little notice of it. In another scenario you may wish to share your camera space with a Gaboon Viper but not get close and personal. You may also wish to install a camera in a location that is out of bounds due to other hazards or simply a lack of space, such as a small-entrance manhole.

Traditional long-wire or radio-linked triggers have served their purpose well and have proven reliable under adverse conditions. One of the more famous tales is when a fuel-laden Boeing 720 Jumbo jet was crashed by radio control into a specially prepared runway to test a new fire-safe fuel. The press were invited and all but one used sound-triggered camera devices. These were all set off by the low pass of the safety helicopter, just before the main act! The only press-person to record the incident was the photographer who took the trouble to drag a wire across the airfield and trigger his camera manually.

All of this prior technology suffered from an inability to see what the camera was looking at. This has changed with the arrival of Live Picture, initially on consumer products but now on prosumer and professional digital SLRs. Phottix is one of the first products to take advantage of this technology - now you can remotely see what the camera sees and trigger the shutter as well, all from a distance of up to 100 metres. The system even works in the absence of Live Picture as there is a small camera built into the unit which can look through your viewfinder.

Live View is available on the following cameras (please double check before purchase though!)

Nikon D3x; D3; D700; D300; D90; D5000.Canon 1Ds MKIII; 1D Mk III; 5D Mk III; 50D; 40D; 20D; 450D.

Seeing how your editor is presently on garden leave from MI6, we trotted round to Ron's with the Hero to avail ourselves of his wellschooled garden birds and also to look at his own bespoke equipment. With a professional background in electronics, soldering gizmos, wires and plugs holds no fears for Ron and he already has a number of remote control devices undergoing development. Using a Maxwell remote Pan-Tilt and a ZigView he is able to sit in the comfort of his conservatory, move his camera around, focus and shoot, all from a £12 garage door remote control - nature photographers are fabled for their ingenuity!

As it turned out, the ability to change the viewpoint was quite critical. We were working with baited perches but the birds knew this full well and spent time on every perch but the one we were focused on with the Hero (which was not moveable). We were rewarded with robins, juvenile robins, wrens, long-tailed tits, blue tits, great tits and magpies dancing on every perch but the one we wanted. The images shown here were all taken after your editor had left the scene - is that telling us something?

The verdict on the Hero for this test at least was that it did the job adequately but it was not possible to have a clear idea of how good the focus of the shot was. We chose to manually focus but really needed a little more control over just where the birds perched. For example a short branch mounted perfectly parallel to the camera back, with the chosen focal plane a bird's breast depth forward of the branch, would help in controlling the bird's position.

The bait could then be placed out of shot so that the incoming birds waited their turn on the branch. Providing the bait was closer to, and lower than, the camera, and out of sight, you should also get the opportunity to shoot birds launching themselves off the perch. All this activity is better controlled by the human hand on the camera but as we have said, that might not always be possible for a variety of reasons.



Updated 27/04/2026 16:44:22 Last Modified: Monday, 27 April 2026