The diagram on the left is for the
Canon Sure Shot Owl
PF Time/Date camera and the Canon Sure Shot Owl BF camera. It took me
approximately 20 minutes to modify this camera.
You'll have to take apart the camera to
wire/solder the
camera shutter switch contacts to the PIR sensor board relay. If you
need to learn how to solder, click
here.
WARNING
- Be very
careful soldering the wires on the fragile circuit board contacts, use
the smallest needle point soldering tip you can get your hands on and
don't hold the solder tip on the contacts very long, the heat will
cause the circuit runs to peel up. You don't want to have to repair the
little tiny gold conductor runs, believe me. If the thought of doing
this makes parts of your body shrink up real tight, find someone who
works in electronics to do the soldering for you.
First, make sure there are no
batteries in the camera.
Remove the 4 screws that hold the gray viewfinder shroud to the main
camera body. 1 short screw is just to the left of the viewfinder, 1 is
on the battery cover door nearest the back and 2 long screws on the
right side of camera as viewed from behind, next to the handstrap
tiedown. Once you remove the screws, open the film loading door and
then gently pry up the gray viewfinder shroud, it has prongs that fit
into the camera body so be careful which way you pry. Now remove the
shutter button/pic indicator window assembly by sliding it back towards
the rear of the camera. It has 3 tangs that hold it into the silver
body of the camera.
Be careful if you take the front
case off 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. (See diagram for the flash contacts to watch out for). Remember,
Mr. Charged Flash Capacitor is NOT our friend.
2 WIRE INSTRUCTIONS (YOU CANNOT USE CAMERA
INDEPENDENTLY OF GAME CAMERA)
Now look at the
green circuit board with the gold circuit traces. You will see 17
contacts from left to right toward the front of the camera. Looking
from the rear of the camera, the #1 contact is on the right (see pic).
Use telco cord or two strand flexible speaker wire # 24 to 26 AWG or
hookup wire for the connections. Do yourself a favor and use this small
wire, bigger wire is a pain to solder to the small contacts on the
camera circuit board. Solder a bridge (short) to connect the #5 and #6
contacts together.
To make a solder bridge between #5
and # 6,
bead some solder on your tip and put the solder tip in between the
contacts. The solder should wick or jump to the contacts forming a
bridge or short. Now solder the two wires to the #4 and #6 contacts.
You can solder the wire to the #5 contact or follow the trace out to
the gold dot where it shows the shutter contact in the pic and solder
your wire there. There are 2 ways to rig the camera. If you only want
this camera to only work as a game trail camera, solder the wires to
the silver contacts and pull the wires up through the rubber shutter
button hole.
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 relay. JohnnyP uses Radio Shack
#274-1568 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. You can use submini 2
conductor (mono), phono jacks like in the pic. Radio Shack part
#274-292 is the 2 conductor (mono), submini jack in the pic. Radio Shack part
#274-289 is the 2 conductor (mono), submini plug.
If you don't
want to mess with the little solder contacts on top of the camera that
are so fragile, you can pull the camera body out of the gray shell and
wire to the same contacts on the front of the camera body (see pic on
right). To get the camera body out of the gray outer shell you'll have
to spread the gray shell out with you fingers and pull on the body on
one end. It's a tight fit but it does come out. I find it easiest to
feed the end with the film door latch out first. I also feed that same
end in first when putting it back together.
Watch out for the flash capacitor when
you have the
camera body out, it's exposed and will shock you if you grab it.
3 WIRE INSTRUCTIONS (YOU CAN USE CAMERA
INDEPENDENTLY OF GAME CAMERA)
If you want to use this camera
independent of this game
trail monitor, solder 3 wires to contacts #4 common, #5 shutter and # 6
autofocus/flash. You can mount a submini (2.5 mm) stereo jack on the
gray viewfinder shroud to the left of the viewfinder, (see pic). You
can also run the 3 wires out to a 1/8" stereo jack.
Instead of soldering a jumper inside
the camera
at pins #5 and #6 and running two wires out, run 3 wires out to a 1/8"
stereo plug and jumper the two wires (5 and 6), together at the sensor
relay side. 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.
If you don't
want wires hanging off your camera you can mount a jack on the camera
to the left of the viewfinder, (see pic). You can use 2.5mm submini 3
conductor phono jacks like in the pic. Radio Shack part
#274-245 is the 3 conductor (stereo), submini jack in the pic. Radio Shack
doesn't list a 2.5 mm 3 conductor (stereo), submini plug so you'll have
to find one somewhere else.
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.
TESTING AND TROUBLESHOOTING THE CAMERA
TESTING
Test the camera out by putting the
camera back together
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 or
3 wires, depending on your setup 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 shutter button in to use the camera
independently, test the shutter button out, then test the film rewind
and flash setting buttons out too. 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 5 & 6
must be shorted
together then, when pin 4 gets connected to them, a pic is taken. If
pin 4 gets connected to pin 5 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 6 only, in about a second,
the flash will come on like a flashlight but no pix 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 SURE SHOT OWL PF CAMERA SPECS
This camera has a AA battery
life rating of 18
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
(#CR2025), that powers the date display. This battery should last
several years.
CANON SURE SHOT OWL PF
SPECIFICATIONS - camera
(model CZ2-3095), is replaced the Canon Sure Shot Owl Date camera
(model CZ2-2670) as of 12-2000. The "PF" stands for "Power Flash", a
better flash system out to 33 feet. Fully automatic 35mm lens shutter
AF camera with built-in flash • The Owl PF has a built-in Power Flash
strong enough to take great shots up to 33 feet away at ISO 400. Three
flash modes, Flash ON, Flash OFF and Auto Flash. Autofocus: 3-step
active Autofocus system • Lens: 35mm f/3.8 • Shooting Distance Range:
2.6ft. to infinity, 3.3ft. to infinity (Flash OFF Mode) • Built-in
Flash: Fires automatically in low-light conditions. Red-Eye Reduction
featured • Viewfinder: .68x magnification, LED status indicator • LED
pic frame indicator instead of counter wheel on old Owl camera• LED
battery status meter • Shutter: Combination aperture and program
electromagnetic drive shutter • Film Loading/Advance/ Rewind:
Automatic. Also, button-activated mid-roll rewind • Self-Timer:
Electronically controlled with 10-second delay • Batteries: Two AA-size
alkaline or lithium batteries • Date Imprint (Date Model only): Five
date/time imprints available including no imprint; automatic calendar
runs through 2049 • Dimensions: 4.9"(W) x 2.9" (H) x 2.0" (D) • Weight:
8.1 oz. without batteries.
TRAILTIMER INTERFACE
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.
WHERE TO GET A CANON OWL PF OR BF CAMERA
The Canon Owl PF was discontinued July 1,
2003.
Wal-Mart, Ritz Camera, Service
Merchandise, Sears and
Circuit City had the Canon Sure Shot Owl PF cameras and you can check Ebay for these cameras
too. Amazon.com is reported to carry the Owl PF camera too.
Street price is $40.00 to $59.00. As of 4/2001 many WalMarts have
pulled this camera from their shelves. If you can find any of the Owl
PF cameras, grab them because they are getting scarce. No word yet from
Canon on a replacement camera.
Please vote for JHO by clicking the banners below each time you visit us
TOOLS/MATERIALS
NEEDED
