From the course: Photo Gear Weekly

Remote cable release

- Photography naturally revolves around gear and I think as a result the emphasis is often on what sort of gear you need to add to your camera bag rather than potentially remove from your camera bag, but with today's more advanced cameras adding additional features all the time, you might be able to leave one of those accessories behind, and that would be the cable release. In the case of this particular cable release, for example, I have an intervalometer feature, an interval capture feature, that is especially helpful, of course, for time lapse photography. But many cameras now include a built in intervalometer, so I don't need that feature here any more. Exposure bracketing has been updated to include, not just three shots, but often five, seven or even nine shots in certain cameras, so there again a feature that I might not need. There are still, to be sure, a couple of benefits with a cable release. For example, the ability to capture exposures longer than 30 seconds, which is a limit of many digital cameras. And of course, there's nothing quite to replace the button on the cable release. While we have a variety of remote capture options with many of today's digital LSRs, there is certainly something to be said for being able to focus all of your attention on the subject that you're photographing and to be able to just press that button, moving around as needed. So, there's certainly still are some great uses for a cable release, but you might take a look at some of the specifications of newer cameras, maybe even check the feature list for your own camera to see if some of the features you think you need a cable release for are already built into your camera.

Contents