Jesse's Hunting > Game Cams > Homebrew Cams > Modifying the Canon Sure Shot Owl Date Camera

Modifying the Canon Sure Shot Owl Date Camera

This is an older model of the Owl camera. This Owl AF camera had 2 versions so be sure to test the camera to see which version it is. To test the camera, turn it on a let it set for several hours. After 2 hours, pick up the camera while it's still on and try to take a pic. If the camera won't work until you turn it off and then back on, it's the early version that goes to sleep and needs the "On" switch reset. This version WILL NOT work with our game camera setup. If the camera fires after sitting for 2 hours you have the version that works in the game cameras here. MAKE SURE YOU DO THIS TEST BEFORE YOU WASTE YOUR TIME RIPPING THIS CAMERA OPEN!

TOOLS/MATERIALS NEEDED

The diagram on the left is for the Canon Sure Shot Owl Time/Date camera. You'll have to take apart the camera to wire/solder the camera shutter switch contacts to your game camera sensor board relay. If you need to learn how to solder, click here. It took me approximately 20 minutes to modify the camera.

Make sure and solder a jumper where it is shown in the diagram on the left. Be careful to avoid the flash unit when you have the camera open, you can get shocked here by the flash unit. You might want to put some electrical tape over the flash unit wire contact to avoid this while you have the camera open. Remember, Mr. Charged Flash Capacitor is NOT our friend.

Remove the small Phillips head screws on the outside of the camera case and the camera strap from camera body. Remove the black viewfinder shroud then pull the camera from the outer shell, (pull from the camera strap side). Now look at the front of the camera with the lens facing you. You will see 5 circuit board contacts (lllll, = 12345). 5 = timer, 4 = common/ground, 3 = shutter, 2 = focus/flash ready, 1 = early rewind.

Remove the rubber shutter button and small rubber film rewind button from the camera body. Use two strand flexible speaker wire or hook up wire, # 24 to 26 AWG, for the connections. Solder a bridge (short) to connect the #2 and #3 leads. There are 2 ways to rig the camera. If you only want this camera to work as a game trail camera only, solder the 2 wires to the locations marked in the pic and pull the wires up through the shutter button hole. If you don't want to scrape off the green coating over the circuit trace, solder your wires to the gold dots the are the same point electrically where it is marked in the pic, just follow the trace to the corresponding gold dot.

If you want to use the camera independent of your game trail monitor, solder 3 wires to the main front contacts # 2, #3 and #4, Instead of soldering a jumper inside the camera at pins #2 and #3 and running two wires out, run 3 wires out to a 1/8" stereo plug and jumper the two wires (#2 and #3), together at the sensor relay. That way, when the camera is unplugged from the sensor relay, you can still have full use of all the cameras functions, such as focus locking etc. (focus "locks and holds" with a half shutter press and hold). Thanks to Archilochus for this tip. WARNING - Be very careful once you solder the wires on the fragile circuit board contacts, the wires will pry loose if you wiggle them around before you anchor them with hot glue or epoxy. You don't want to have to repair the little tiny gold conductor runs, believe me.

If you don't want wires hanging off your camera you can mount a jack on the camera body and a plug on the 2 wires from the PIR sensor relay. JohnnyP uses Radio Shack #274-1567 coaxial DC power plugs and Radio Shack #274-1565 coaxial DC power jacks to make a quick disconnect on his camera with no wires hanging off the camera.

Run the wires through either a notch cut into the camera body next to the shutter button or a hole cut into the front of the camera body (see pic to left). You can also just remove the shutter button and pull the wires up through the shutter hole and reassemble the camera. If you want to use the camera independently, make sure to reinstall the small rubber film rewind button and the rubber shutter button you previously removed.

TESTING THE CAMERA

Test the camera out by putting the camera body back into the shell and putting the batteries back in. Don't put all the screws back in yet in case the wiring doesn't work. Turn the camera on and touch the 2 wires you just soldered in together for 1 second to short the shutter switch and take a pic. You don't need film in to do this.

You should hear the camera shutter fire and the flash should also fire if you set the camera to "Autoflash" and it's dark enough. If you left the rubber shutter button in to use the camera independently, test the shutter button out. Test the rewind and timer buttons out too. The camera will go through a rewind sequence for a few seconds during which you'll hear the film drive. Once you have tested the camera, finish putting the screws back in being VERY careful with the shutter wires, and test it one last time before you hot glue or epoxy glue the protruding wires from the shutter button hole.

TROUBLESHOOTING.

In order to take a pic: pins 2 & 3 must be shorted together then, when pin 4 gets connected to them, a pic is taken. If pin 4 gets connected to pin 3 only, you will get one flash then the camera locks up, have to open the battery door momentarily to reboot the camera. If pin 4 gets connected to pin 2 only, in about a second, the flash will come on like a flashlight but no pic will be taken. If you are experiencing one of these problems, look very closely at your soldering where you connected the wires to make sure you haven't shorted the pins together.

HOOKING THE CAMERA UP TO THE SENSOR

Now you are ready to connect camera to the relay. You can solder in a 1/8" mono phono jack and plug connector between the wires from the PIR sensor relay to the camera to make it easier to change out the camera if there is a problem and you have a spare or want to take pics independently of the unit. See pic above for what the 1/8" phono jack looks like. When you wire these 2 wires to a sensor relay contacts, there is no polarity on these wires, they are just shorted together by the relay to make the camera take a pic, just like if you pushed the shutter button. There is no voltage present on these wires, the wires are basically a switch circuit with the relay being the switch. When your PIR sensor detects movement it sends the relay coil a small DC voltage, the relay coil energizes and the normally open contacts close which connects the camera shutter contacts you wired up and a pic is then taken.

If your camera took a pic when you shorted your wiring together but doesn't with the connectors installed, you probably have a bad connector or shorted wires inside the conector. To make sure, take the connector off on the camera side and short the wires together to test the camera, just like you did above when you first wired the camera. If the camera works okay without the connector, the camera is fine and you have connector problems.

CANON OWL CAMERA SPECIFICATIONS

Fully automatic 35mm lens shutter camera. Autofocus (AF): 3-step active Autofocus system, 2.6 ft./0.8m to infinity. Lens: Canon 35mm f/4.5, 3 elements in 3 groups. Viewfinder: 0.68x magnification; 18.8mm eye-point; LED OK-to-shoot indicator. Shutter: Program-type electromagnetic 4-speed; serves as aperture diaphragm. Auto Exposure (AE) Control: Program AE using CdS light receptor; range (at ISO 100) EV10.5-EV16. Film Load/Advance/ Rewind/ISO Setting: Automatic; mid-roll rewind capability; auto film speed setting by DX code. Built-in flash strong enough to take shots up to 25 feet away at ISO 400. Flash Auto mode for automatic firing below EV10.5; Flash ON/OFF modes provided; recycling time: approx. 5.0 seconds; Red-eye Reduction featured. Self timer: Electronically controlled with 10-second delay. Battery: Two AA-size batteries (NiCd and lithium batteries cannot be used). Date Imprint: Four date/time imprints available. You can find these cameras on Ebay, type in "Canon Owl" and "Canon Sure Shot" in the search entry. Also check camera swap meets and pawn shops. Street prices are around $25.00 for a used camera in good condition.

This camera has a AA battery life rating of 50 rolls of film using the flash 50% of the time. The flash recharge time is 5 seconds with good batteries. There is also a lithium battery that powers the date display. This battery should last several years.

TrailTimer TT-500, TT-1000 and Trailmaster TM500 and TM550 owners.

You can interface the Owl camera to your TM500 or TM550 sensor by using a 2 conductor cord with 2 mono phono plugs on the ends. Here is a pic of Mike's TM500 using the Canon Owl camera. Mike's TM500 pic. Also, TrailTimer makes the TT-500 and TT-1000 sensors which can be interfaced to use the Canon Owl camera.

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