Remote Camera Control Fun at DDD North 2025

It would be lovely if it worked…

I want to take pictures of folks at my DDD North Session next month. And not just with any camera. I want to use my “self-fogging” Polaroid Camera. You’ll find out how to build your own if you come along. Snag is I don’t want to have to press the shutter button myself. I mean I could, but I really want to control the camera for a brief timed exposure (around half a second or so) for each shot and I’d love them all to be totally consistent.

I found a design for a remote controlled camera release which looked like a good starting point so last night I printed out the actuator and today I printed the box. I then put it all together, connected a microcontroller and fired it up.

It doesn’t work. Not a problem with the device itself, it can trigger the shutter on a lot of my cameras. But not on my “self-fogger”. The shutter on early Polaroid cameras is cocked as you press it. This makes the mechanism simpler and less prone to wear, but it means that you have to work quite hard to push the button down. Something which my little 9gm servo is just not equal to. So I’ve switched to a much beefier servo. We’ll see how it goes.

If you want to find out out how it all turns out, and maybe even get a ready fogged snap of yourself, make sure to sign up for DDD North on the 22nd February and come along to my session.