New gadgets: Smaller, faster, more feature filled, but not always better. Exhibit A: The remote shutter release. It used to be that every camera had a threaded hole in the shutter release button. You'd buy one cable (or pneumatic tube) and it would last you forever. With the exception of a few high end cameras, the standard now is, well, a non standard. You have to buy a proprietary widget, and of course, they cost more.
Enter the hackers. Dave Schiller took an old mouse and a 2.5 mm stereo jack plug and rigged a remote release for his Pentax K110D (it'll work with some Canon models, too). It's not hard, but you'll need to do a little soldering and some circuit board butchery. Total cost? Virtually zero. And if you don't have an old mouse lying around, DIY Photography has a scratch built version that will cost around two bucks.
Mouse remote shutter release [Flickr via Hackzine]
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