Customer Reviews

Satechi TR-M Timer Remote Control for Nikon D90

5 star:		(26)
4 star:		(15)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

I bought this product to act as an intervalometer for my Nikon D90 for time-lapse photography. There aren't many products currently that can do this for the D90, as a result of Nikon changing the remote cable connector. You can do time-lapse with Nikon's camera control software, but you'd also need to lug around a laptop and pay $170 for that minimalistic software. The Satechi product was the cheapest remote timer / intervalometer I could find, and its functions seemed to fit what I wanted so I bought it. Overall I'm very satisfied.

Functions

All timing functions work great. When used in full manual with the camera, the timer control can set the exposure time as well. The controls are pretty simple - one look at the user's manual and you'll know how to use the timer without needing to reference it again. If using any other modes on the camera (P, S, A), the remote simply acts as a remote timer / intervalometer. It's smart enough to pre-focus during count-down, prior to triggering the shutter - so for example, if you want to take 1 shot every 5 seconds, the timer will tell the camera to perform autofocus about 2 seconds prior to actually triggering the shutter. One of my initial concerns was that the documentation listed number of exposures from 1 - 399. This is the pre programmed number limitation, however you can also set it to `--` which essentially means keep taking pictures forever. This is the mode I especially wanted since I plan to take time-lapse photos over very long periods of time.

Build Quality

This is the only reason I didn't give this product 5 stars. The build is pretty cheap plastic, the battery cover is a little flimsy, but it's essentially what I expected for buying the absolute cheapest intervalometer I could find. It's very light, so I don't think if I dropped it, it would break. But if crunched in a bag/luggage I could see the screen breaking. It does have an LED light which I thought was really nice to have, since I've been in many low light situations where this is needed.

Connections

This remote plugs into the `GPS' port on the D90. Because of the connector Nikon chose for this port, it's not inherently obvious which way you plug in the cable. This product's cable uses a hard plastic connector, not a metal housing. It is foreseeable that you could force the connector in the wrong way which could possibly damage the pins on the camera. However, I think this is more of an issue of the connector Nikon chose and not so much a cheap connector on the part of Satechi.

If you want to do time-lapse photos, or need a basic remote-trigger timer for your D90 - this is your product. I've uploaded some picture for size comparison reasons - look at the picture next to the can of soda.

I also bought this to do some time lapse photography. Works great and is pretty simple.

You select delay (if any), bulb (if any), interval, number of exposures.

I bought the Satechi hand grip for the D90 but that will only allow you to take 99 pics. No limit on this if you select "--" for interval. Great tip.

Customer service from Satechi is quite good. They called to check to make sure I got the delivery. I called about the number of exposures on the hand grip and the guy called back twice to answer my questions.

Update: I used this to make a time lapse of my niece's wedding rehearsal. Set it to music. It was a big hit. Even my sister couldn't find something to gripe about...a first!

I also found a really great, cheap, and easy program to use to turn the single images into a movie: MovieSalsa. $20. Google it. I was really struggling to find something that was easy to use. Even my Sony Vegas sw was difficult....I screwed around for several hours trying to figure out how to do it.

With MovieSalsa you just dump the photo files in and it does the rest. Lots of things you can tweak if you want to read the directions and start modding it. Pretty easy to speed it up, slow it up, make it run backwards. Fantastic little program.

I then took the MovieSalsa movie, put it into Sony Vegas sw and added the music, titles, etc.... mainly because I was already pretty familiar with Sony Vegas. Zero problems.

First off, the remote totally works well. It does everything as expected. It can shoot on a timer, can shoot in intervals, and can shoot for a certain amount of time. It can also just be used as a remote shutter..

The first remote I got actually broke.. the tip of the plug separated from the rest of the plug when I pulled it out of the camera. This must have been defective because it broke far too easily..

Picture of broken tip here: [...]

So I sent a message to Arthur at Satechi customer support, who actually contacted me before this to make sure I received the remote in the first place.

He was very sympathetic, and told me they would replace the remote free of charge, as soon as they could. And they did!

So Kudos to Satechi for providing an excellent product backed by even better customer support. Not many companies are great like this.

Thank you Satechi, and to everyone who is reading this that is considering this remote, buy it now! Just be careful with it!! You will be very happy with it, and Satechi deserves your service.

I had this device for about 9 months and used it mainly for time lapse photography and astrophotography.

The manual is ok and the device is fairly intuitive to use. So no complaints here.

I also thought that it provides ease of use and good performance to cost ratio.

All the problems related to this device concern the connector that connects to the Accessory Port of the D90.

I must have one of the earlier versions of this device with the straight connector. So I cannot comment on the newer angled connector.

First of all, the mechanical coding on the straight connector is weak and it is therefore possible to plug it in the wrong way. As astrophotographer I deal a lot with low to no light situations. The connector is not angled and also has no tactile features that identify front and back.

Worse, it says "FJ" on one side and has an arrow on the other.

So which side is front???

It took me a while to figure out that "FJ" has to point towards the front on my unit.

But be aware - it may be different for your untit!

I noticed some issues with the camera connection a while ago but attributed it to the fact that I did not push the plug in far enough.

However, last night it finally quit completely on me and no pushing and wiggling could bring it back to life.

So I finally opened the connector for inspection and discovered that one of the 3 wires had come loose.

The solder connection must have been bad to begin with since the connector it used to be attached to looked almost shiny new. This was obviously a manual solder job. The reason why the connector showed intermittent contact earlier was due to the fact that the wires were hot glued into the connector housing. The wire probably just touched the contact until it eventually came completely loose.

Once loose, the wire was free to move around and touch other contacts.

I am therefore concerned that the camera port may have suffered damage too.

So, in summary:

Good device as long as it works.

And: Make sure you get a better connector than I did.

What an excellent product! I was looking for a D90 remote or cable release as a gift for my girlfriend, and while browsing through Amazon came across this. The weakness of the Nikon remote control was that it could only be used from the front of the camera on the D90, and the cable release is just a cable release. We had previously tried to do some long exposure night work by mounting the D90 on a sturdy tripod and lightly pressing the shutter release on the body, but it was just too much shake. Also, the longest timed shutter release on the D90 is 30 seconds. Anything longer and you have to use the BULB setting, and time it on your own. That just stinks.

When I saw all that this one simple device could do, I was blown away. Cable release problem = solved. Timed exposures longer than 30 seconds = solved. Time lapse photography = covered. Why buy a remote or simple cable release when you could have something that does so much more, for not really that much more money? It was so simple to use, that by the time I finished reading the directions, my girlfriend has set it up and was about to start her first long exposure shot of the night. It's pretty self explanatory if you are used to shooting on manual settings - just set the shutter on the camera to BULB and program your shutter settings on the TR-M Timer Remote.

The only reason it gets less than 5 stars is that the first time we tried to put the connector into the port on the camera, we could not figure out which way it went in (it was dark out). It got forced in a little until we realized that we should try it the other way - luckily nothing seemed damaged, and we continued to take pictures for 2 hours afterwards. It also doesn't sit completely firmly in the port - seems like it would be very easy to bend it or pull it out during work in the dark (when most people are likely to use it). This is a relatively minor complaint for such a versatile product. We can't wait to take it to Zion National Park this spring and do some night work!

Bought my Satechi TR-M Timer Remote Control directly from the Satechi website. Their website indicates that this unit is also compatible with the Nikon D5000, as well as the D90. However, the plug on my unit looks different than the one pictured here on Amazon. Mine is a "straight" plug, instead of a "right-angle" plug. If you own a D5000 you may want to verify with Satechi and/or Amazon, to see if the one Amazon is selling is compatible with the Nikon D5000.

Needing a remote timer/trigger that I could use while standing BEHIND my D5000, as well as having the need (astrophotography) to be able to keep the shutter open for more than the meager 30 seconds the onboard D5000 timer limits you to, I decided to purchase this unit. Out of the box, the unit has worked perfectly.

The build quality is definitely not that of a well machined metallic unit, however it is nonetheless quite sturdy, for being made out of ABS plastic. Obviously, as any twerp knows, if it were machined out of metal, it would be nowhere near the affordable $60+ pricetag. Questions about the security of the battery cover have proven unfounded to me. It is definitely "lightweight" without the batteries installed. However, when you insert the two AAA batteries (provided), the unit feels a bit more "beefier" in the hand.

The display is definitely of a readable size for my older eyes, and the operation of the unit becomes more intuitive after the first few uses. The documentation, while somewhat anorexic, still gives a good description of all the readouts and associated buttons. It also indicates the settings you need to apply to your camera, in order for this unit to work at it's full capability:

Exposure Mode - M (Manual)

Shutter Speed - BULB

Camera Onboard Interval Timer - OFF

Focus Mode - AUTO-FOCUS or MANUAL

Single/Continuous - S (Single frame)

At settings other than these, it appears the unit works as a simple shutter release.

For interval/timed exposures, simply program the unit with the desired delay time, exposure time, interval time, and number of intervals, and then press the Start/Stop button. The unit will then take over control of your camera, and make exposures as per the program parameters you just entered. An audible signal and LED are also nice ammenities that this unit offers.

For long exposures without using the timer functionality of the unit, use the camera settings shown above, and press and hold the button marked HOLD. Release the button when you wish to complete your exposure. For extra long exposures, the HOLD button offers a lock feature so your thumb does not get tired or go numb. Just push the HOLD button upward toward the digital display, and it will lock in place. Push the button back to it's original position when you wish to complete your exposure.

Enjoy!

This remote is a fantastic value for the price. I use it for time lapse and astrophotography. I love being able to program in an exposure longer than 30 seconds without having to time it myself (this is a feature that should really be built into DSLRs by now). It's a little confusing when first setting up as the camera has to be in a certain mode for various features of the remote. For example, it must be in single shot mode for the intervalometer to work, and must be in manual mode and set to bulb for the programmed exposure mode to work. Once you realize that, it's a killer remote.

I wasn't sure about purchasing this product because it was half the price of the Nikon Brand, and I thought it might be a get what you pay for kinda deal. However, this unit works great! It is easy to use and I haven't had any compatibility issues with my Nikon D90. I will say the enclosed instructions are a bit on the difficult to figure out side, but the remote itself is very easy to figure out, set and operate. I have used it for at least 20 hours of shooting since purchasing it, and I love it. I'm having a lot of fun with time lapse photography, which is mostly what I use it for though it works great as a remote trigger as well. I highly recommend it. Oh.... and the customer service was awesome too. They shipped UPS 2nd day and I had it in a jiff. The company has also followed up with me not once but twice to make sure I am happy!

Updated 8/31/2010 - the connector to the camera on these are very fragile. I broke the first one my first trip out and the replacement was also broken within minutes. I cannot recommend this product any longer as it is just too fragile. This would be a much better product if they were to build a sturdier connector that was metal like the manufacturers own remote shutter release. On a side note - the manufacturer of this remote was very helpful and replaced the product fast, but I just can't rely on the product based on my experience in the field.

Original review

The timer is really simple and easy to use. I use it on my Nikon D90 for long exposures doing moonlight photography. It works well enough. I only gave it four stars because it isn't backlit (which would be nice at night) and the plastic connector that plugs into the camera is fragile and doesn't take much abuse. So, yes it is a good price and does a great job at what it does. You just need to be super careful to not tug on the connector or it will break and you will end up with a stop watch timer that doesn't control the camera.

This interval timer very versatile. Programming it is quite straight forward. The plug fits the GPS port so the other connectors can stay covered. The cable is one meter long. The display is about 1 1/2" diagonal and has a switchable back light. The timer resolution is one second increments. Time is set with 2 digits each for hours, minutes, and seconds. Timer can control delay like a self timer, bulb exposure time, and interval between shots. It can also be set to stop the shooting after a programmed number of exposures have been taken. There is a shutter release button that functions like the one on the camera - press halfway to meter & focus, all the way to open the shutter. The shutter can be locked in the open position by sliding the shutter button toward the display. The only slight issue I have with this function is the button won't slide to the lock if it's depressed. I would prefer it could be pressed and slid. I have to slide it with my thumbnail. It's a minor thing that took a little getting used to. The cost is very reasonable and it appears to be pretty well made. It does what the Nikon remote cord does and a whole lot more! I'm really glad I bought this little box.