My new photography toy

[Mike Buckley]

I participated in this Kickstarter project and received the product today.

It is the second product produced by MIOPS (the first one was also a Kickstarter project) and it allows me to release the camera's shutter either wired or wireless via my smart phone using a variety of activators including sound detected by the phone's microphone, motion detected by the phone's camera, vibration of the phone itself detected by its electronic gyroscope or the most basic method of touching the phone's display. Various modes that use time lapse, long exposures and other methods can also be combined in a sequence determined by the user.

My primary interest in the product is to release the camera's shutter by voice activation when doing tabletop photography in my makeshift studio. When using both of my hands to control a scene, such as to perhaps pour some wine with one hand and to handhold a light source or reflector with the other hand, I can also release the shutter by simply speaking "Now!" I can speak the word repeatedly each time I want to release the shutter or I can configure the device to release the shutter repeatedly after I speak the command once.

EDIT: Now that I've read the full-version User Guide, I realize that I actually can't configure the device to release the shutter repeatedly after giving just one voice command. However, I can configure it to do that using motion as the activator.

I've been using a WiFi-based tethered device to display the scene being captured on a computer, which immensely helps me fine tune the details of setting up a scene containing several objects. Once that is done, I can now use my new toy to release the shutter via voice or motion activation when my hands are too occupied to release it by touch.

The first product released by the company is similar but is used for releasing the shutter much more quickly after being activated to capture lightning, an exploding balloon or the like. This second product is so new that it's not yet displayed at the MIOPS website. Once I notice that it is being advertised there, I'll mention it here in the thread.

[Clactonian]

I hope you have more luck than I did with a similar trigger device that not only shipped months later than was due, turned out to be a complete piece of junk that a student could have manufactured better in class. No leads, no manual, software that wouldn't work ... a complete con. I will never invest in a Kickstarter project again.

[Mike Buckley]

I've only participated in two Kickstarter projects and no other crowd funding projects. The first one went bust but I got lucky because Manfrotto had purchased the product. When they stopped the project, they gave all participants a 100% credit toward the purchase of any Manfrotto product at a time when my Manfrotto tripod had broken after decades of use. I decided at that time to participate only in crowdfunding projects for which the company is already established with a successful track record of bringing at least one product to market. This company seemed to have met that requirement with a very similar product, so I participated.

Both of my Kickstarter projects incurred extreme delays. They're probably not all that extreme in the sense that they might be the norm, but they were extreme relative to the originally promised shipping date.

The product itself seems to be fine. It has attractive packaging and exterior product design that indicate attention to detail, durability and classy branding. And my limited testing indicates that it seems to do what it is advertised to do. (I'll probably never test 80% of its capabilities because I have no need to ever use them.)

The one really irksome issue is that the product came with a handy Quick Start Guide that is handy only if you're used to using a smart phone to control a camera. I'm not. The end of the guide refers to a full version Users Guide to be obtained online and there is no such guide. It took me a couple hours to figure things out on my own along with my wife's help, so I let the company know how rude they are regarding everything about the Users Guide.

[Mike Buckley]

I just now received a full-version User Guide that seems at a glance to be complete, detailed, attractive and easy to understand. I look forward to reviewing it in detail later today. I have no idea why the company kept it such a secret, so I made it available to all Kickstarter participants.

EDIT: Now that I've read the full version Guide, I'm impressed both with it and the app's software. The software is intuitive and elegant. Better yet, the capabilities that I will use seem to work exactly as explained in the Guide. More comments about all of that are below.

My only disappointments have to do with the following: When using the voice command, it's not possible to configure the software to release the shutter multiple times having received just one command. When using the motion command, it is possible to release the shutter multiple times though there is no way to control the amount of time in between each release. However, as a workaround, I may be able in certain situations to use the Basic Timelapse mode, which includes an intervalometer. I would use that mode to touch the smart phone to begin releasing the shutter the configured number of times at the configured intervals. It seems to be reliable when taking no more than about 2 to 3 frames per second.

I'll send a couple suggestions to the manufacturer involving the voice and motion commands. My needs probably aren't exactly those of the target market for which the devise seems to have been designed, so I won't be disappointed if they don't implement my suggestions.

[Mike Buckley]

The company's customer support has been very responsive to my emails, which is always an excellent indication.

[NorthernFocus]

Hope you enjoy the new toy, Mike. The camera manufacturers, particularly Nikon and Canon, have been so slow to incorporate mobile devices that there is plenty of opportunity for outfits like this.

[Mike Buckley]

My hunch, Dan, is that there isn't enough financial opportunity in the mobile devices to attract the attention of the major camera manufacturers. Another way of putting it is that the smaller companies are happy to pick up the crumbs the major manufacturers aren't interested in.

[Mike Buckley]

I used the new toy to release the shutter using my voice command to make this photo. I also tried out the motion command. Though both functions worked perfectly, I happened to get a better composition when I used the voice command.

[Mike Buckley]

I wrote earlier in the thread that I was impressed with the full-version User Guide. Now that I've seen so many negative users' comments about it in the Kickstarter thread, I realize that it actually would benefit from the major improvements they have suggested.

I then wondered why I had had such a positive impression of it. So I reviewed it again and realized the answer: prior to being provided the full version of the Guide, I had already spent a couple hours figuring out a few important details with my wife's help. The result is that once I finally received the Guide, I no longer needed the portion pertaining to the setup and initial use of the product, which is an important topic the Guide does not meaningfully address.

[Manfred M]

Mike - you have identified on very major issue with a lot of products out there, especially new technology products coming out of startups, which includes a lot of what we see out of Kickstarter funded ones. The instruction / operating manuals are either non-existent and if they do exist, they often tend to be terribly written and not terribly useful.

Most of these people are "techies"; with an IT or engineering background. They didn't go into these fields because of their superior writing or communications skills. They will often try to push a product out the door and concentrate on that. The user guide or manual seems to be a poorly thought out afterthought, if it exists at all. They are rarely written by someone who has the end user's needs in mind.

[Mike Buckley]

I've only purchased three products upon or before their public release but the documentation provided with the other two products was just fine.

[Mike Buckley]

The cell phone is connected to the camera either wirelessly using Bluetooth technology or wired using a dongle. I have now learned that there is no reason to use the dongle to connect to the camera unless the battery on the wireless device has run out of power and has not been recharged.

The dongle can also be used to fire an off-camera flash unit. This is done by inserting the flash into the hot shoe provided by the company and then connecting the dongle to the hot shoe and cell phone. I am imagining a situation when the shutter is set to bulb mode to photograph a dark scene and you want to independently fire a flash unit to light parts or all of that scene. However, the combined length of the dongle and its connecting cable is only about 4 feet (1.2 meters). One would have to be so close to the flash unit to fire it using the cell phone that in most cases you might as well just fire the flash directly using the pertinent button on the flash.

In summary, there seems to be of little use for the dongle when the wireless device is available and charged. That's so true that I haven't thought of a use for the dongle in any type of photography I have ever thought of doing and wish that I had not paid for it.

Coincidentally, I can't get the dongle to work even when using the exact same camera settings that work using the wireless device. The company, which continues to be extremely responsive to email, is going to try to replicate my problem. I have provided the name of my cell phone model and its operating system.

[joewatt]

Not quite in this league, Olympus has an iPhone app called OI Share which connects to my PEN-F by wi-fi. It includes remote control with live view (especially good for long exposures) and some rudimentary editing functions. It will also copy your photos to the phone, which gets them into the Apple photo system.

I'm sure other camera manufacturers must have similar apps -

[John 2]

.................................I'm sure other camera manufacturers must have similar apps -

Fuji provide a similar app for their X series cameras - free and not limited to i Phones. Also not as capable as the device Mike is using but I think I can fire the camera set to continuous. Must give it a try. They also provide tethering software - not for free however.

[John 2]

................................but I think I can fire the camera set to continuous. Must give it a try. ..........................

Gave it a try and I can't. I hadn't noticed before that the shutter fires when I lift my finger from the smartphone/tablet screen not when I first touch it and so the is no mechanism for continuously firing the shutter. Same logic as the buttons on a mouse.

[Cantab]

Not quite in this league, Olympus has an iPhone app called OI Share which connects to my PEN-F by wi-fi. It includes remote control with live view (especially good for long exposures) and some rudimentary editing functions. It will also copy your photos to the phone, which gets them into the Apple photo system.

I'm sure other camera manufacturers must have similar apps -

My Lumix FZ300 point and shoot has wifi and an iPad app. I've used it for remote control of the shutter while doing a telephoto shoot of a bird feeder.