remote operation of xh a1?

[William Boehm]

Question....any suggestions on using the remote to record from a position other than from the front?

i have a hummingbird nest set up about 15 feet away from a nest, and have stepped back to document the humminbird female feeding her young. after waiting several hours...and just running 'record' on blank tapes until i got her on the nest...is a waste of tape.

i would like to use the remote...and set up a mirror taped to the front of the mike to bounce off the infrared beam that i would trigger from behind...but also i am not sure i can turn the recorder 'on' and with the remote, then record. any suggestions out there? bill

[Chris Hurd]

Very simple and effective solution: use a wired remote lens controller. There are a variety of them that will operate the XH A1. They connect via the Control-L jack (the blue jack) on the back connections panel under the rubber tab. All of them offer record / pause control and zoom control; plus many other features depending on the type and brand of controller. They are worth their weight on gold. The Canon ZR-2000 controller has a 12 or 15 foot cable, but you can easily extend any such cable. See this article I wrote for RES Magazine several years ago for more information about LANC controllers:

http://www.dvinfo.net/articles/camaccs/vzprolx.php

We have a forum dedicated to all kinds of remote camera controls:

http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/forumdisplay.php?f=123

Hope this helps,

[William Boehm]

chris...thanks for the information. but all i want to do is to turn the camera either on off, or just start recording. i can go into the menu and turn off the battery save function...so then all i want to do is simply wait, when the hummingbird approaches..then fire the record butten, the pause it or stop it. thats it. predertmined manual focus etc. do i then still need a lanc controller, or is there something out there cheap that i can string a 25 foot cable to? thanks in advance. bill

[Jack Walker]

Originally Posted by William Boehm

chris...thanks for the information. but all i want to do is to turn the camera either on off, or just start recording. i can go into the menu and turn off the battery save function...so then all i want to do is simply wait, when the hummingbird approaches..then fire the record butten, the pause it or stop it. thats it. predertmined manual focus etc. do i then still need a lanc controller, or is there something out there cheap that i can string a 25 foot cable to? thanks in advance. bill

I think you can use an extension cable with any lanc controller that works. I have a couple, but not real cheap ones.

However, if you can turn-off the auto shut-off feature in the camera, you should be able to use the remote without a problem.

One question though, if the camera starts up as the bird is approaching, won't the noise scare the bird? I don't know.

[Josh Laronge]

Originally Posted by William Boehm

chris...thanks for the information. but all i want to do is to turn the camera either on off, or just start recording. i can go into the menu and turn off the battery save function...so then all i want to do is simply wait, when the hummingbird approaches..then fire the record butten, the pause it or stop it. thats it. predertmined manual focus etc. do i then still need a lanc controller, or is there something out there cheap that i can string a 25 foot cable to? thanks in advance. bill

I have the zr-2000 with my A1. You can let the camera go into standby mode and the zr-2000 will wake it.

[William Boehm]

no..noise doesnt bother them...it is movement. of course the call of a predator, be it a sharp shinned hawk or whatever will alert them. bill