Customer Reviews

Opteka Remote Release Cord for Canon EOS 5D 10D 20D 30D, 40D, & 50D Digital Cameras

5 star:		(16)
4 star:		(12)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(21)

 

 

I was initially wary of Opteka's quality, however, after receiving the product I've been very happy with its quality and construction. The remote is solid, not flimsy, and works as advertised to allow you to take photos with your tripod-mounted camera with no shake or movement to blur the image. It is especially useful for long exposure shots. I'm impressed with Opteka's engineering and will seriously consider their other products. It's far cheaper than Canon's remote, so it is an excellent buy.

For the price difference, this is a great buy. The cable is as described. Mine works fine. Admittedly you can tell it's not of the finest quality at first, but it's a button. All it needs to do is trigger the focus, then the shutter. After trying it out a few times you won't think twice about it.

There are three functions. Half-press autofocus, full-press shutter release, and hold/continuous(this locks the button down as if you were holding the shutter release button down (bulb or rapid-fire).

Good quality, and cheap enough to replace without a second thought. I can't justify getting the more expensive version.

This item is very LOW quality. I ordered two of these (one for a back up). BOTH of them stopped working after one or two days. Both had LOW QUALITY electrical wire in which one or more inner wires separated/broke making them useless. I repaired them and in a short time the inner wires separated/ broke in another spot. I finally cut the original wire out and spliced some phone cable between the two ends. They both work now, but the repairs don't look great.

I love it...It works awesome. Better then I have hoped. I use it all the time. Hope this helps.

I took a gamble and lost. I used an off-brand shutter release cable on my Rebel XT and it worked fine, but that camera has a very common headphone type plug for it, whereas the 20D-50D camera has a proprietary plug. Despite being a very simple switch mechanism, the release cable has something disconnected in it and will engage autofocus, but it never triggers the shutter. I rolled the dice with Opteka and I got burned. Since it cost $13 and I'm having trouble contacting 47th Street Photo to exchange it (and will probably cost me 50% more in shipping fees), it's probably easier to just eat the cost. Lesson learned. Note: based on other reviews, the Opteka product might have connectivity issues with 50D cameras, as I see a lot of complaints from 50D owners with Opteka shutter release products while 20D-40D owners seem happy with it.

I originally wrote a review that praised this cable release because it seemed to work fine and was so much less expensive than the Canon version. I was wrong and the following is the update.

I recently spent a week on the road taking photographs including a lot at sunrise and sunset when my Canon 40D needed to be on a tripod and I needed a cable release. On the second day of the trip, the Opteka cable release stopped working. When I pressed the button, nothing happened at all. I could press the shutter button manually and the camera worked fine so it was defiantly the cable release and not the camera. The failure was on the 7th time that I have ever used the cable release and so excessive use was not the cause.

If you are purchasing a cable release for your camera, then you are probably the type of person who would be upset if the one you purchased stopped working without notice when you were far from anything and without hope of getting another one before you lost the light. I have learned my lesson and will buy the Canon version next. Better to pay too much for a piece of plastic that works than to get a bargain that fails when you need it.

This product works as advertised. It's not the most sturdy constuction, but is does what it needs to... trigger the shutter.

I have not seen the Canon version, so cannot really compare, but as for the Opteka cable release I feel that the actual cord part is very "stiff".

Let me try to explain better. When I hold the cable in my hands one end in the left hand and the end in my right hand; then move the hand holding the grip-end, then the other end moves around quite a lot, because the cable/cord is very stiff (not as felxible as I had hoped). This poses a slight problem for me as the whole point of the purchase was to try and eliminate ALL movement/shake when releasing the shutter. So when you consider that even the mirror inside the camera can cause shake then how much more would a cable that moves all along it's length.

I guess it's still better than having your hand directly on the shutter button of the camera body, you just need to be aware that it you still need to keep VERY still when using this cable release.

To summarize: I'm getting the remote soon.

I had a similar problem as many others who also gave this remote a poor rating. It lasted about one week, worked intermittently and then stopped working altogether. I mistakenly gave the Opteka remote a chance over Canon's pricier model due to its low cost, but its ultimately not worth it even at $12.95. Go for a better built remote.

This remote worked for only a week or two on my Canon 20D and 40D DSLR's, It's been non-functional since.

I have to give it 1 star because of the build quality. I tested the remote at home and thought it was great. I took it on a trip downtown to take pictures of the city and after around an hour I had to hold the chord at a particular angle get it to engage and focus/shoot, but it did work for 6 hours.

For xmas I went on a trip and when I went to use the chord, even holding it at the same angle, I couldn't get it to engage and focus/shoot. It's completely dead. Maybe I could send it back and get it replaced, but then I still wouldn't trust it as my only remote so I'd recommend just getting the next step up to begin with.