My project uses a Raspberry Pi PICO to make a infrared remote controlled shutter release for a 35mm film camera. 

This is the equivalent of a simple remote shutter button you might use on a dslr camera,  or even a remote trigger button that came with your tripod to use with a smart phone.

Now for old film cameras you have a couple of options to take a picture without being behind the camera. You could use a manual shutter release cable, but the longest one I could seem to find online was around a meter long, and in my opinion getting further back and taking a photo makes for a much nicer shot!

I wanted to be able to stand far away from the camera and make it take a picture with a simple remote to give full control over when the picture would be taken, unlike using a timer this system gives you more freedom for when you would like the picture taken.

My idea was to make an electrical circuit driven by the PICO and activated by an infrared remote controller I had laying around my house to take a picture with an old film camera.

HOW IT WORKS

The basic operation of it is you point the remote at an infrared receiver, press a button, the circuit turns on and moves a small servo motor that pushes the shutter button on the camera.

There is a small delay of 5 seconds when the circuit is turned on in order to hide the remote in your pocket or somewhere else before the servo motor moves and takes a picture.

The circuit is also turned off using the same remote button if your using a standard power on off remote which sends 2 separate signal codes.

The PCB is powered by a simple USB connection into a 5V power bank, the one I used had a capacity of 10,000mah and I found it didn't move off 100% after shooting 1 roll of film which is 24 pictures. So in simple terms, it has all day battery life! given a reasonably sized power bank.

I also wanted it to be portable as well so I used a power bank as a 5V power supply and had planned for the finished product to mounted to a tripod easily.

The range is up to 9 meters or 30 feet away from the receiver when your using the remote, I did find the acrylic sheet limited this range though.

I had a lot of fun creating this project, and hopefully other people enjoy it too.