I tend to write this article, or at worst, a variation of it, every couple of years or so. It is usually triggered when I drag out some tech gizmo or another I haven’t used in a while and must refresh my brain about its operation.
Today, this trigger is the Pluto Trigger.
In our backyard, we have a selection of different variations of kangaroo paw plants – a yellow one, a pink one, a red one and an orange one (we haven’t yet stumped up the $ to get the new blue one). These plants are in full flower right now, and as a result, are very attractive to a whole range of birds.
I spent a few days trying in vain to get close up shots with my Fujifilm X-S10; but these birdies were just too timid and flighty, sadly. So I thought “Why not? Let’s drag out the Pluto Trigger and let it to its thing.”
Unfortunately, the Pluto Trigger is not compatible with the Fujifilm X-S10, so I also needed to charge up my Canon 5Ds.
If you are not familiar with a Pluto Trigger, it is a small – and very clever – Bluetooth device that connects via a dedicated cable to your camera’s comms port and uses the aforementioned Bluetooth with an app on your smartphone. Once it is all setup, you can use the Pluto Trigger to fire off the camera based on all sorts of triggers such as sound, lightning, vibration, voice etc, as well as creating imagery of star trails, slow motion, infrared and much, much more. You can read my full review here.
In my case, I wanted to use its motion sensor so that when a bird landed on a kangaroo paw flower, it would fire off the shutter release of the Canon 5DS.
So, the setup is the Canon 5DS with the Pluto Trigger connected to the cold show and with a cable to the comms port on my Miller Air 75 tripod and a spare smartphone – a old Huawei as it turns out inside a Sennheiser phone holder on aa Joby tripod. The smartphone and app are used to monitor the scene, and when any motion is detected, it sends the Bluetooth signal to the Pluto Trigger to fire off the camera.
Where is all this going in terms of an article?
I am luckier than most as due to what I do, I get to play with a LOT of tech and therefore there is a huge amount to remember about setup and functionality. If I haven’t used something for a while, I need to drag out the manual(s) and reacquaint myself.
Using a specific filing system I can always find a paper based manual when required and also I upload the PDF versions, as well the PDFs for that stuff that has no paper-based documentation, to be stored in my One Drive allowing me access at any time I have internet capability.
My point is that a manual is your best friend and can save you heaps of time. So many times I see questions in forums on very basic subjects that a quick glance at the documentation would answer in seconds.
The other advantage of reading the manual on a piece of tech is that more often than not, you’ll discover it is capable of a feature or function of which you had no previous idea!
The beauty of this is that it makes no difference whether it be a camera, smartphone, or other device as varied as a mouse to a modem or a GoPro to a drone.
So, when you have a spare 10 minutes, have a leaf through a manual. I bet you find something new!
