To relay, or not to relay?

Projects General Guidance
1

Hello All!
I'm a bit new to the Arduino (but not new to electronics) so forgive me if this question seems elementary. I am building a device for my camera that searches for certain parameters and then activates the shutter when specified situations are detected.

My camera's "cable release" is merely a button-type switch that connects a circuit and triggers the shutter. My question revolves around this principle. Is it possible to program two of the pins to become continuous, or do I have to add a relay to the circuit? If a relay is the answer, what type should I use? The voltage running through the switch is less than 3v, and very low amps as well, so I don't need anything too beefy.

Thanks in advance!

2

A relay is probably your best choice here. There might be other things you can do, but a relay exactly replcates a swtch. And if you ever get a different camera that uses the same kind of simple-switch trigger, the same setup would work with the new camera.

3

A simple reed relay operates relatively quickly, and you may be able to find one that could be driven directly from an AVR pin, though I'd recommend using a transistor.