Pentax electronic cable release,

  cable F switch conversion

Conversion to interchangeable end connecters to suit,

Canon 300D/350D/400D : Pentax *ist-D/DS/DL/K100D/K110D/K200D

[or any camera that uses the standard 2.5mm stereo audio connection for it's electronic release]

The following modifications are easy and simple to undertake, given the right tools and components.

You will need;

A small soldering iron, 15-18 watt maximum, with a tip no bigger than 3mm.

4 stereo audio plugs, 2 male [ 1 x 2.5mm  +  1 x 3.5mm ],  2 female[ 2 x 3.5mm].

electrical cable cutters/trimmers/craft knife.

care and commonsense!

Cable colours:  Black - feed.  Blue - AF.  Red - shutter.

Begin by cutting off the last four inches [100mm] of the cable from the camera connection end. Now cut a further four inches [100mm] off the remaining cable. Cut back all the exposed cable ends  by  1/2" to 3/4" [10-20mm] to separate cable ends of  Black, Red and Blue. Then bare all wires for 3/16" [4mm] .

Start with the spare 4" [100mm] cable and fit a 2.5mm male plug to one end. Black wire to the base, Blue to the middle section, Red to the tip. If your not sure which connecter the wires should be soldered to, do the following:-

Take the plug and insert it into its socket on the *ist-D. Now take the cable F switch and holding it in one hand, so you can use it, and with the black wire to the plug's base, try the blue one on the other contacts, one at a time. With the camera switched on press the switch halfway, as you normally would. One of the contacts should enable AF. Obviously this is the one to solder the blue wire to, the red then using the other.

Having finished this connection, next fit a 3.5mm female plug to the other end. Again black to the base, with red and blue to the other contacts. In this case it doesn't really matter which, the only proviso being that the other 3.5mm plugs must be wired the same way so the contacts match.

Next, take the Z series end cable and fit the other female 3.5mm plug on this, in the same way as the *ist-D's cable, and wired the same way.

Finally, fit the male 3.5mm to the end of the cable switch F, and wire this to correspond to the female plugs. Again, you can check which way around the Red and Blue should connect before soldering up.

You should now have a cable F switch with a 3.5mm stereo plug on the end, and two alternative camera connections, into which it will plug. As in the Photo below.

You will see that we have used a standard straight 2.5mm stereo audio plug for the *ist-D connection. There is no need to search for a small right-angled plug, as a straight one fits quite well as long as you pull the rubber connecter cover aside as you insert it into the socket. This also applies to the Canon 300D/350D/400D cameras, a straight connection is all that is needed.

                                    Pentax *ist-D                                                        Canon 400D

We regret we do not have details of the remote release connections used with the MZ series of cameras, but we are sure that the basic concept illustrated on this page could be used, if the correct connections could be obtained.