
Triggertrap was an
England
England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...
-based
company that created hardware and software products centred on triggering
single-lens reflex (SLR) cameras. Products included several
Arduino
Arduino () is an Italian open-source hardware and open-source software, software company, project, and user community that designs and manufactures single-board microcontrollers and microcontroller kits for building digital devices. Its hardwar ...
-based camera triggers, along with mobile apps which interfaced with cameras using a device that plugs into the headphone socket of the smartphone or tablet. In May 2012, Triggertrap introduced Triggertrap Mobile for iOS, followed by a version for Android in September 2012.
Triggertrap Mobile utilized the sensors and processing power of a smartphone or tablet running IOS to trigger cameras based on sound, motion, vibration, or location, in addition to
timelapse, bulb ramping, and other features. Triggertrap ceased trading on 31 January 2017. The founder and CEO was the Dutch photographer
Haje Jan Kamps
Haje Jan Kamps is a Dutch photographer, author, awards photo judge, freelance writer, businessperson, journalist, inventor, and editor. Jan Kamps was the director of portfolio at Bolt VC, a hardware-focused pre-seed and seed-stage venture capital ...
.
Background
The story of Triggertrap started in July 2011, when
Haje Jan Kamps
Haje Jan Kamps is a Dutch photographer, author, awards photo judge, freelance writer, businessperson, journalist, inventor, and editor. Jan Kamps was the director of portfolio at Bolt VC, a hardware-focused pre-seed and seed-stage venture capital ...
started a
Kickstarter
Kickstarter, PBC is an American Benefit corporation, public benefit corporation based in Brooklyn, New York City, that maintains a global crowdfunding platform focused on creativity. The company's stated mission is to "help bring creative project ...
campaign aiming to raise support for a new type of camera trigger. The project asked for $25,000, but within a month nearly 900 supporters had pledged more than $77,000 in exchange for more than 950 Triggertrap v1 products - which is nearly three times more than what they wanted for the project.
Arduino-based products

The Triggertrap v1 is a programmable trigger based on
Arduino
Arduino () is an Italian open-source hardware and open-source software, software company, project, and user community that designs and manufactures single-board microcontrollers and microcontroller kits for building digital devices. Its hardwar ...
open-source
architecture
Architecture is the art and technique of designing and building, as distinguished from the skills associated with construction. It is both the process and the product of sketching, conceiving, planning, designing, and construction, constructi ...
, and the source-code for the product is downloadable from
GitHub
GitHub () is a Proprietary software, proprietary developer platform that allows developers to create, store, manage, and share their code. It uses Git to provide distributed version control and GitHub itself provides access control, bug trackin ...
. It has a built-in ambient light sensor, laser sensor, and sound sensor. In addition, it has an auxiliary port, which enables Triggertrap v1 to trigger a camera based on anything that generates an electric signal.
The Triggertrap v1 is classed as a high-speed device, able to use the ambient light sensor to respond and fire the external flash such that it would correctly sync at
shutter speeds down to 1/640th of a second- that's a response time of less than 1.6 milliseconds.
In addition to the Triggertrap v1, the Triggertrap company marketed a Triggertrap Shield for Arduino. This was a feature-compatible version of the Triggertrap v1. After a user-configurable change in the config files, it runs on the same source code. The Shield for Arduino is cheaper, and aimed more at the hacking crowd.
Triggertrap Ada
In November 2013, the ''Triggertrap Ada'' was successfully crowd-funded via
Kickstarter
Kickstarter, PBC is an American Benefit corporation, public benefit corporation based in Brooklyn, New York City, that maintains a global crowdfunding platform focused on creativity. The company's stated mission is to "help bring creative project ...
, raising £290,386 though the original goal was £50,000. On 2 March 2015, Triggertrap announced that they had failed to bring the product into production and that the remaining 20% of the funds from the Kickstarter campaign was going to be returned to the original backers.
Triggertrap and CEO
Haje Jan Kamps
Haje Jan Kamps is a Dutch photographer, author, awards photo judge, freelance writer, businessperson, journalist, inventor, and editor. Jan Kamps was the director of portfolio at Bolt VC, a hardware-focused pre-seed and seed-stage venture capital ...
received criticism from backers of the failed Triggertrap Ada project. Some backers have questioned the accuracy of the updates during the course of the campaign. Less than three months before the project was cancelled, Triggertrap announced that the shipping date would be May 2015, exactly 12 months after the original shipping estimate. Others have questioned the allocation of funds by Triggertrap and their interpretation of the Terms of Service that Triggertrap entered into when the project was created. Some have threatened legal action.
[Triggertrap Ada Kickstarter https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/triggertrap/triggertrap-redsnap-modular-camera-trigger/comments April 15, 2015]
References
{{Reflist, 30em
External links
Official Website
Film and video technology
Photography equipment
Image processing
Digital media
Digital technology
Defunct companies based in London
Electronics companies established in 2011
Companies based in Bristol
Kickstarter-funded products
Electronics companies disestablished in 2017
2011 establishments in England
2017 disestablishments in England
British companies established in 2011
British companies disestablished in 2017