Thanks Rob for this suggestion. I found a RS-2001 made by the same mob as yours and it also works fine. Not sure but based on this experience my guess is that any cable release with a sub-mini connection may work fine with this beast. Now this is solved I am just happy the problem I had turned out to be a dead OEM Contax cable release that could be replaced for a few dollars rather than some fault with the electronic innards of the camera.