Air Cable Release

Ara Ghajanian · Jun 2, 2006

I have one of those 20' air cable releases with the squeeze bulb. I bought this many years ago and it's never worked right. What happens is when you squeeze the bulb it will work for one exposure, but then air won't get back in the bulb for another exposure. I have to unplug the bulb to fill it with air again. Very inconvenient to the point of not wanting to use it. Most of the time you have to really squeeze hard and fast to get it to fire. Does anyone know of a high quality model that doesn't have these problems? Maybe one like the bulbs you find on blood pressure testing thingies (sorry, I'm not a doctor or I'd be shooting Leica instead of Nikon). Can one of those be adapted to work as a shutter release?
Ara

clogz · Jun 2, 2006

I have an air cable release made by Hama. Works perfectly. Not sure if Hama still makes them. This one sold by Adorama looks a lot like it. Dead Link Removed

Hans

Ara Ghajanian · Jun 2, 2006

clogz said:
I have an air cable release made by Hama. Works perfectly. Not sure if Hama still makes them. This one sold by Adorama looks a lot like it. Dead Link Removed

Hans,
That's exactly the one I have. Have you experienced any of the problems I mentioned?
Ara

removed account4 · Jun 2, 2006

hi ara

i had one of those too. i bought it at sbi/hunts, and it never really worked right. last year i broke down and bought a degroff air release. it cost quite a bit of money, but it is pretty amazing. works every time.

mine was new, purchased from a store in IL, but you can buy direct from degroff, or you can find olde ones on FEEBay that will work with surgical hose and a blood pressure bulb.

good luck!
john

Ara Ghajanian · Jun 2, 2006

John,
You weren't kidding when you said they were "quite a bit of money". It's $80 from B&H. I'm sure it's well worth it.
Ara

Bill Kahn · Jun 2, 2006

Just out of curiosity, guys, why do you use air realease cables? I've never had the need to get far enough from the camera to go beyond the length of my mechanical cable release. I do strictly outdoor work, things that don't move or talk back.

Ara Ghajanian · Jun 2, 2006

Bill Kahn said:
Just out of curiosity, guys, why do you use air realease cables? I've never had the need to get far enough from the camera to go beyond the length of my mechanical cable release. I do strictly outdoor work, things that don't move or talk back.

Bill,
I did a group portrait of my family (including myself) a few weeks ago and I used the air release to fire the shutter on my Hasselblad. A self timer would have worked out better, but there isn't one on a Blad. The bulb was so difficult to squeeze and fire that I think there was an obvious look of tension on my face in all the shots.
Ara

removed account4 · Jun 2, 2006

hey ara

it looks like talyns still has some.
i bought mine from them last year ...
http://www.tallyns.com/tpp/amazing/searchresult.asp?CartId=EVEREST{C901C592-0EB8-430D-BD38-B78395FB43D4}

was expensive, as i said, but i will never have to replace my shutter release again ( went through 3 of those cheep-0 kalt releases in a year or so ... ) the ones from ebay are engraved-brass and about 80-100 years old. they will work, but it is a matter of finding one, cause they aren't always being sold ...

hi bill.

i use a wollensak studio shuttter and a regular release won't work on those.
i have a cloth covered release, it "works" but studio shutters work best and you will get a nice fast exposure ( 1/20th, instead of 1/5 or 1/10S ) with an air bulb. for outside - i use a cloth covered release.

john

clogz · Jun 2, 2006

Ara,
Although I have not used this air release cable a lot it has always given me good service. Perhaps you have one that was made on a Monday morning. Who knows?
Regards
Hans

David A. Goldfarb · Jun 2, 2006

I have a DeGroff air release that I got with some other equipment, and it's pretty good. I hadn't realized they were so expensive. I've got old portrait lenses that use air releases, so I have a couple of bulbs and hoses.

Peter De Smidt · Jun 3, 2006

Ara Ghajanian said:
Bill,
I did a group portrait of my family (including myself) a few weeks ago and I used the air release to fire the shutter on my Hasselblad. A self timer would have worked out better, but there isn't one on a Blad. The bulb was so difficult to squeeze and fire that I think there was an obvious look of tension on my face in all the shots.
Ara

You might look for a universal self timer. These screw into a threated shutter release, and you can set them for various times. Maybe someone can remember what brands there are/were.

haris · Jun 3, 2006

Peter, you were faster

I just wanted to tell Ara to buy universal self timer. I found: http://www.camerafit.com/various.htm#SELFTIMER
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/con...ootPage.jsp&A=search&Q=*&bhs=t&shs=self+timer

There must be others...

Regards

George Papantoniou · Jun 3, 2006

Ara, I think that the simplest solution to make things like that (for example: when you want to photograph yourself making love to your girlfriend in the position of page 116 of the 1934 edition of Kama Sutra), all you need is a Hasselblad ELM with an electrical cable release. I have a long one (it must be 6-8 ft long) and never had a problem. The camera will wind the shutter for you, too, so there will be no need to interrupt whatever you're doing for that either...

Charles Webb · Jun 3, 2006

Bill Kahn said:
Just out of curiosity, guys, why do you use air realease cables? I've never had the need to get far enough from the camera to go beyond the length of my mechanical cable release. I do strictly outdoor work, things that don't move or talk back.

Bill, a pneumatic release does not have the stiffness of a regular cable release
The soft rubber tubing is far less able to cause a shake or wiggle when releasing the shutter. The Degroff is expensive, but I am still using the same ones I bought fifty years ago. Most of my Degroff surgical tubing and squeeze bulbs are about 20 to thirty inches long. Longest perhaps six feet!

Somebody gave me one of those twenty foot long gadgets, didn't like it so cut it off to about 30 inches, works fine now.

For what its worth,
Charlie.............................

Ara Ghajanian · Jun 7, 2006

George Papantoniou said:
Ara, I think that the simplest solution to make things like that (for example: when you want to photograph yourself making love to your girlfriend in the position of page 116 of the 1934 edition of Kama Sutra), all you need is a Hasselblad ELM with an electrical cable release. I have a long one (it must be 6-8 ft long) and never had a problem. The camera will wind the shutter for you, too, so there will be no need to interrupt whatever you're doing for that either...

It's interesting how we went from a portrait of my family to sex with my girlfriend. I'll make sure I wash the cable release before using it with the family again.
Ara

George Papantoniou · Jun 8, 2006

Don't get me wrong, Ara, it was only a suggestion... you know how my dirty old mind works...

Ara Ghajanian · Jun 8, 2006

George Papantoniou said:
Don't get me wrong, Ara, it was only a suggestion... you know how my dirty old mind works...

Probably the same way my mind works.

Air Cable Release

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