Remote control via USB C

[Fabian]

Hi all,

My challenge are the shy fish in rivers nearby, so I thought why not place the camera on a tripod, pull a USB cable to my laptop (or phone), control it from there. Additionally, I would not need to worry about battery levels in camera.

Now surprisingly, I couldn't find a bulkhead (M24 or M16) to run that cable, all I found are remote controls for the shutter, which seems a bit too much 2010, not 2025.

 

Did anyone build something like this from of the shelf parts?

If so, which parts, and how long can the cable be without issues in signal transmission? Longest I found is 5m (4.9mm diameter), that could be a bit short, I was hoping for 10m (there are boosted extension cables, but not waterproof, but that should work).

Thanks!

[hellhole]

Sorry... I don't have a solution for what your want... But why not use wireless remote?

[Davide DB]

I successfully brought the HDMI signal from my GH5 up to 30m via a custom cable. 

Assuming your camera can be driven via USB, you need two cables and two bulkheads. Or a special cable. If it's just a few centimetres of water, you could try the wi-fi cable trick like for gopros.

Anyway, the specialist for these things is @Tom Kline 

[Nikolausz]

4 hours ago, Fabian said:

Hi all,

My challenge are the shy fish in rivers nearby, so I thought why not place the camera on a tripod, pull a USB cable to my laptop (or phone), control it from there. Additionally, I would not need to worry about battery levels in camera.

Now surprisingly, I couldn't find a bulkhead (M24 or M16) to run that cable, all I found are remote controls for the shutter, which seems a bit too much 2010, not 2025.

 

Did anyone build something like this from of the shelf parts?

If so, which parts, and how long can the cable be without issues in signal transmission? Longest I found is 5m (4.9mm diameter), that could be a bit short, I was hoping for 10m (there are boosted extension cables, but not waterproof, but that should work).

Thanks!

I do this kind of photography with a GoPro. I found out that the fish don't tolerate bigger cameras, they even avoid an insta360 OneX2 in the Bubble housing. I use coax cables to transfer the wifi signal from housing to smartphone. It should work with other, bigger camera systems.

[Chris Ross]

It can be done, but you are using custom made cables so is a little pricey.   Dive and See does this sort of cable:

 

https://diveandsee.com/products/cables/DNC-1035-Waterproof-USB-2.0-extension-cable

 

limited to 10 ft (3m) for USB 3.0 though and add a USB-C bulkhead for your housing, you'd need to contact them to confirm it will connect to this cable.

 

[Davide DB]

The guy who made the special 30m hdmi cable, years ago,  used a multi cores cable and he asked if I needed a remote trigger too because there were several free cores left. So it's possible and maybe you can find a good technician who makes these kind of works. It's common in cinema and TV services 

[Tom Kline]

On 2/28/2025 at 10:35 PM, Davide DB said:

I successfully brought the HDMI signal from my GH5 up to 30m via a custom cable. 

Assuming your camera can be driven via USB, you need two cables and two bulkheads. Or a special cable. If it's just a few centimetres of water, you could try the wi-fi cable trick like for gopros.

Anyway, the specialist for these things is @Tom Kline 

 

I have mainly used wired remote controls made by Seacam for my work with both Nikon and Canon DSLR cameras. The Seacam release  stick is two-stage like the shutter release button on a camera. First the AF is turned on (camera woken up if needed) and second the shutter is triggered by additional finger preassure on the button. This allows one to finesse the AF so as to get the fish in focus at the right moment.

 

I have not used anything via USB but over the past Christmas holidays at my sister's I used my ipad mini to trigger my Nikon Z9 remotely using the Nikon Snapbrige app. wirelessly. That worked only fairly. A lot of misses due to sluggish response as well as poor haptics via the screen release. As well the app frequently stopped working even with only glass (sliding door) between my ipad and the camera at just a couple of meters (close range). I did manage to get a few good shots of some Virgina wildlife at a bird feeder this way but I did shoot thousands of pix. Examples are on my website.

Edited March 2 by Tom Kline

[Tom Kline]

On 3/1/2025 at 1:04 AM, Nikolausz said:

I do this kind of photography with a GoPro. I found out that the fish don't tolerate bigger cameras, they even avoid an insta360 OneX2 in the Bubble housing. I use coax cables to transfer the wifi signal from housing to smartphone. It should work with other, bigger camera systems.

 

Nice shot. I have been able to take group shots of salmon etc. schooled up and generally not moving much but it does take some time for them to get use to the camera which I keep on the bottom (negatively buoyant). There are many examples on my website in several galleries.

Edited March 3 by Tom Kline

[Fabian]

Thanks all. I'm playing around with usb control on the surface, so far the best solution seems the Sony desktop software. Remaining pain point is quickly setting focus point and then triggering. If I get that fixed, I'll move on to finding a waterproof cable connection. 

[Barmaglot]

If it's just under the surface, have you checked whether or not wifi from a smartphone will reach?

[Fabian]

Not yet, but the wifi wasn't to stable on the surface already, so I don't think it will make it trough 50cm of water. Maybe worth a try for remote contoled splitshots.

[Nikolausz]

11 hours ago, Barmaglot said:

If it's just under the surface, have you checked whether or not wifi from a smartphone will reach?

Maybe 10 cm, but if your camera was deeper, the wifi signal wouldn't penetrate.