SONY Alpha Pro

One Saturday this past May, as I was preparing for a Wedding when  I received a call from my assistant informing me that she was unable to work with me that day.   I had her scheduled to work at the church to cover the Ceremony,  group and family shots.   But her absences left me with a problem.   I always set her camera position up in the balcony of the church for allot of the more dramatic shots and I squeak around for the more candid images.    In the past, I tried but unsuccessfully tried to use the SONY Alpha Infrared Remote, but either the distance or the amount of ambient light would make the Infrared Remote unusable.

Several Weeks before the Wedding, I needed a way to remotely trigger a SONY Alpha Camera from position across a small creek in town where my studio is located.  Then I found on eBay, the Aputure Pro Coworker Wireless Remote Kit for the SONY Alpha.   Not only is this device a Radio Remote for the SONY Alpha but an electronic cable release for the Alpha as well.

SONY Alpha A100 and a700 only?

When I received the package I was shocked to find that it would only work on the SONY Alpha a100 and the Alpha a700.   So now distressed, I called the Aputure Company, they had a 1-800 number that I could call, and talked to a very informative young lady who informed me that at the time the remote was designed only two SONY Alpha’s were available the SONY Alpha a100 and the Alpha a700.   But and this is important, the Aputure Company has tested the remote on all of the current SONY Alpha model DSLR’s and she was please to inform me that my Coworker Pro Radio Remote will work with my SONY Alpha a900 and my Alpha a850.   A quick Test confirmed that.   The secret to the successful of this radio remote unit is the cable.

This same radio will work with all models of the SONY Alpha and plugs into the Tabbed Remote plug.  Just lineup the nub on the top of the plug to the open tab in the Remote Socket, and you will get a perfect snug fit.    The other great part of this Radio Unit is that you can purchase additional adapter cables for other brand cameras, just in case you shoot with more than just the SONY Alpha, such as the Hasselblad H3.

Back to my Missing Assistant

So now I am at the church and setting up the camera that my assistant would normally be manning and I set the camera for the shots of the bride and her parents to be given away at the front of the church.   A few test shots with me as a stand in confirmed my lens, aperture, shutter speed and zoom settings.  Then I performed one more test to confirm that the radio was going to fire from directly under and in back of the Church.   Yes, Yes and Yes all of my test shots were a success.   Now I was ready for the Wedding.

A Flawless Results and added bonus.

As I was shooting the processional and capturing the Bride, her Mother and Father, about to go down the aisle for their ceremonial stroll to the front of the church.   A cold chill ran down my back as I was snapping images of the Bride and her parents from behind.  I forgot to set the focus to manual and pre-focus the lens to the point where the threesome would be.   I ascended up the stairs to the church balcony thinking to myself that I missed some very important shots due to my blunder.   I go to the camera, pulled the memory card and loaded it on the IMac and noticed that every image was in sharp focus.   I loaded a new memory card and shot a new test shot during the ceremony and watch through the view finder and to my shock, the autofocus kicked in.   Now knowing that the camera will properly focus, I set the camera and re-zoomed to my next objective, the unity candles.   I returned back to the main Church Level, and positioned myself to capture the Ring Exchange and the Bridal Blessing.   Now in position to capture from one angle at ground level, I used the Aputure Coworker to capture the images from the balcony of the couple lighting the unity candle.

Now I had some breathing time to reset the camera for the last of the images.  Again I pointed the SONY Alpha at the alter and fixed the zoom to capture the couple’s first kiss as a married couple and the ascending down the aisle from above.

The day was a success, but also more exhausting, because I was doing the work of two people, and I am just not as young as I would like to be.   But thanks to the Aputure Pro Coworker Wireless Remote, I would not have been able to capture any of these great images.

For more information about the Aputure Company

The Aputure Pro Coworker can also be purchased from:  Amazon,  Light in the box.com, or  search Ebay.

And for those of you who did or did not notice the Copywrite and not Copyright, you can read more about my Senior Fall Project here.  Copywrite or Copyright, who caught it?

~ by pthomaslambert on May 25, 2010.

Posted in Equipment, How Too
Tags: Aputure Pro Coworker Wireless Remote Kit