"Ghetto Style" Cable release for iPhone camera

If your hands are anything like mine, they are shaky. I'm not exactly brain surgeon material, and while I've never had the ambition to go down that route I would like to take sharp pictures.

From the DSLR world we are used to tripods and cable releases, so why not bring them to the smartphone photography world? That's the reason we have technology, to help us do what we want. I want sharp pictures.

Before iOS7, you could hold the shutter button, and when you released it the iPhone would take the picture. This helped you take sharper pictures as you could hold the button while you steadied your hands, braced your body and waited for things to settle before releasing the button and taking the picture. With iOS7 this is gone, the camera takes the picture as you tap the button. And that, in my case anyway, tends to introduce camera shake. Even if you are on a tripod it's far too easy to bump the camera as you touch the button.

Solution? Plug in your cable release! The Earphones that came with the iPhone doubles, as you probably knew, among other things as a remote for the music app and as a remote for the camera.

Tap the screen as usual to focus or change exposure. Any shake here won't affect the picture so hammer away if you feel like it. When you are satisfied, press any of the volume buttons on your Earphones to take the picture. This also works with Camera+ but not NightCap and Camera! I think NightCap would benefit from this so let's hope they fix it with an update.

I have a broken pair of Earphones just for this. When I yanked (no, don't ask) on them one time too many the left earpiece went silent. But they work perfectly as a cable release, and since they already are broken I don't mind jamming them into my pocket. They are more manageable ever since I cut away the earpieces:

Butchered Earbuds = cable release - iPhone 5s

Perhaps a bit disgusting for some, but when I shoot things where I need both of my hands such as Though The Lens I use my teeth to press the button. One hand holds the phone, the other the loupe and my teeth substitutes the third hand that´s never there when you need it. 

For the more creepy people out there, using the remote may enable some stealth-mode photography. You could easily look as you are playing or shuffling music or talking while you are in fact taking pictures. 

If you are on an iPhone 5 something you have the EarBuds instead. They work the same but are much more comfortable and sports a better sound. And come with a clever case that let's you wind up them neatly. I really like them! 

UPDATE January 12, 2014:

I just heard from Chris at Interealtime Software regrading NightCap. I wrote a quick mail suggesting they should enable the cable release. He told me that the reason why NightCap doesn't support the remote: "...unfortunately it’s actually quite difficult to add this feature in a way that apple will allow on the store, which is why we’ve delayed it so far (we did add it in a previous version, but had to remove it again). 

However, it is high on our priority list, hopefully we can get it implemented soon."

So, what do you know - let's hope for the best!

Thanks Chris for getting back to me!