DSLR Remote

Your smartphone is a versatile tool that you always have with you. So why carry around unnecessary equipment? DSLR Remote allows you to turn your smartphone into a remote control, timer, or HDR controller for your digital SLR camera.

Whether through infrared, wire connection, or Bluetooth, DSLR Remote enables you to take timed exposure series (e.g. for time lapse), long exposures, or exposure sequences for High Dynamic Range (HDR) photography. If your device doesn't have a built-in IR sender, all you need is a small, inexpensive hardware that can be easily connected to the earphone jack of your smartphone (and a commercially available Bluetooth stereo headset if you want to use Bluetooth remote control). Detailed instructions on how to build the required hardware can be found on the author's website (http://bitshift.bplaced.net).

Possible functions (among others) include:

1. Simple remote control
2. Delayed shots
3. Series of shots with a fixed interval (e.g. for time lapse)
4. Bulb exposures
5. Combinations of delayed shots, series of shots, and bulb exposures
6. High Dynamic Range (HDR) sequences
7. Time-controlled HDR sequences (combination of timer and HDR)
8. Triggering shots or starting the timer or HDR sequences using the ambient light sensor on your smartphone (also known as a light barrier)
9. Triggering shots or starting the timer or HDR sequences using the internal or an external microphone

In some Canon models, the precision of the bulb mode is limited to one second. This means HDR exposures below one second and/or with fractions of a second (such as 1.5 seconds) will be rounded to the nearest full second. Unfortunately, DSLR Remote can't do anything about this limitation. Reported models affected so far include the 400D, 500D, 550D, and 5D II.

Using a built-in IR sender:

DSLR Remote should work with the built-in IR sender of the following devices (make sure to choose the right camera brand and switch your camera into remote mode):

• All Samsung devices with built-in IR sender

Note: Some/all Samsung devices have a bug where the IR blaster doesn't work correctly in power-saving mode. So, make sure to switch your device into normal (non-power saving) mode before using DSLR Remote.

• All HTC devices with built-in IR sender

For a list of supported devices, please see http://qa.mobile.developer.lge.com/develop/dev-guides/lg-qremote-guide/introduction/lg-qremote-sdk/#SupportedDevices

Unfortunately, the Sony native IR API does not provide the necessary feature for any remote app like DSLR Remote, as it only supports using codes learned from physical remotes or codes supplied with the phone/tablet. Please use an IR dongle or cable release hardware as described on the DSLR Remote website.

Unfortunately, Huawei didn't implement the Android Kitkat IR API on their devices. And there is no official IR SDK from Huawei available. Please use an IR dongle or cable release hardware as described on the DSLR Remote website.

With the integration of the Android 4.4.2 (Kitkat) IR API, DSLR Remote should work with all devices with a built-in IR Blaster supported by the Kitkat IR API.

Using DSLR Remote hardware:

Caution: A few smartphone models do not output a high enough volume on their earphone jack to make the infrared hardware work properly. In addition, there are a few camera models (e.g. Canon EOS 550D) that are not properly controlled remotely via the infrared receiver. In these cases, you may want to choose cable control (transistors) instead.

Supported camera brands when using as an infrared remote:

Canon, Fuji, Minolta, Nikon, Olympus, Pentax, and Sony

If you encounter any issues, please feel free to contact the author instead of leaving a one-star review. Contact information is provided below and on the author's website (http://bitshift.bplaced.net).