I wish Canon followed in Nikon’s footsteps and included an intervalometer right in the camera. Unfortunately, Canon doesn’t care about my opinion on such things so they sell it as an accessory. I’ve never been a big fan of the Canon TC80N3 Timer. It’s expensive and hard to program for some people.

I’ve been looking for a more elegant solution that works at least as well and costs less. Enter the ioShutter Shutter Release Cable for Canon (N3) Connector Canon Cameras & iPhone. This device costs less than $70 and works with your choice of a free smart phone application or a $9.99 app that offers programability and more flexibility. Both run on your iPhone or iPad. There is currently no Android version available but the company expects one soon.

The combo (even if you buy the $9.99 app) is significantly less expensive than the TC80N3, takes up less room in your camera bag (assuming you’re carrying an iPhone anyway) and offers an easier-to-use solution with lots of neat bells and whistles thrown in. Right off the bat I figured some crazy stuff you could do with this. The timer is completely programmable. You could schedule your iPhone or iPad’s calendar and clock to schedule your camera’s shutter, or other ioShutter™ functions!

You can simply use this device as a remote device to fire one shot or a burst of shots – as a self timer – as a time lapse controller (Timelapse can be set to any interval and duration) – as a bulb, etc. You can trigger it any number of interesting ways such as shaking the phone/or iPad, movement trigger, clapping or just pressing a button on the app.

What I really like is that you can combine these modes. You could for instance trigger a time lapse by clapping.

The interface is very intuitive. The unit does exactly what it says it will with no muss or fuss.

The ioShutter™ app is compatible with all iPhones from 3 onwards, including iPhone 4S, iPhone 4, iPhone 3GS, iPhone 3, all iPod touch from gen4 onwards and all iPads. There is currently no Nikon version but the company is working on one which should be available very soon.

Highly Recommended.

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