A bit of history first. The thought came to me when I was running around with a tripod and a D200 trying to grab some night HDRs, and kept on stumbling into 30 seconds barrier with in-camera bracketing. It got me thinking… and I had an idea

Everybody, please meet the Promote Control. To my knowledge, it’s the first commercially available remote control for digital cameras that can talk to a camera over USB while staying portable. This means we can do external bracketing just like you could do with a tethered camera (i.e. by connecting it to your computer) – but this time you won’t need your computer! The whole unit is less than 6 oz and easily fits into your pocket. A backlit LCD screen will help you work even in complete darkness, while big keys can be easily used in gloves for those cold outdoor sessions.

Now for the interesting stuff. Add an optional shutter cord (in addition to the USB), and you can do exposure bracketing… with Mirror Lock-Up before each shot! It needs to be supported by the camera of course. You can even setup the MLU delay – anywhere from 1 to 20 seconds. And if your bracketing ends up jumping beyond that 30 second barrier, Promote Control will put your camera into Bulb mode and use shutter cable to time the exposure. Is this cute or what?

It also got more common modes like Time-Lapse (also with MLU if desired) and a “One Shot” mode where you can optionally set camera exposure from the remote control (starting from 1/4000s – we got USB control, remember?). There is a user setup menu with a bunch of settings, including variable display backlight intensity (and even backlight color in RGB!), all sorts of timers etc. The whole unit is powered from 2 AA batteries (and it likes them all, from NiMH to alkalines) – and if you are into astrophotography with hours worth of exposure times, hook it up to an AC adapter and forget about batteries.

I hope it’s going to be as much of a joy to use as it was to design it. I want to thank all our team at Promote Systems that spent nights making sure this baby sees the light. I want to thank everybody who was with us through this project, including my family and friends. You all have been a great support guys… we couldn’t have done it without your help and support.

I have a favorite Sci-Fi TV series – somehow I preferred it to others. It’s called “Babylon 5″. It started as a foster project with unclear future, and ended up having a bunch of fans. In its final season they’ve said some words that burned right into my mind, and I will remember those words forever.

“We dedicate this to all those who didn’t believe in the success of this project.

Faith manages.”

First off, let me introduce myself. I’m Arty, and I work for Promote Systems. I’m one of the guys behind the Promote GPS as well as a few other things we are cooking up for you all. This blog was put up by our team as a way of direct communication with the photography community. I will be blogging here once in a while about what’s going on (hopefully without breaking on the NDAs ). Stay tuned by using the RSS feed icon to sign up for upcoming news, and thanks for coming by!