Shooting two cameras simultaneously

[mtomalty]

I have a friend who has been shooting 'street' images with an Xpan 35mm panoramic camera for an ongoing project.
Scanning/film handling is becoming a burden for him so he is looking for a digital solution.

He's a bit of an 'eccentric' so walking around NYC with a funky rig will not be a problem.

Kind of jokingly I suggested he get an adapter made to mount two 5DMkll's side by side and add a 45mm tilt shift to each (to match the perspective of
the Xpan 45mm).
Shift the left camera/lens to the left and the right  camera/lens to the right to end up with two easy stitch files of the exact moment.

My question is, does anyone know of a way that exposing the scene with one camera will simultaneously trigger the second camera ?

Secondly, to make the rig more compact I suggested mounting the cameras 'over-under' so that the base plates effectively touch.
Any reason to consider that using a 35mm DSLR upside down will be problematic for the camera?


Thanks,
Mark

www.marktomalty.com

[feppe]

Not sure what the point of such a cumbersome and heavy rig would be. Is he shooting handheld street shots and doesn't feel 21 megapixels is enough? Even if he crops it to panoramic aspect ratio he'd end up with more resolution than a scanned film shot. If he's going for eccentricity I'm sure such a rig would do the job and make some gallery owners ecstatic due to its edginess

Anyway. Get a wireless remote and use that to release the shutters. Not sure if that works since I've never tried, but the things are passive so I can't imagine why it wouldn't.

[Gary Brown]

Secondly, to make the rig more compact I suggested mounting the cameras 'over-under' so that the base plates effectively touch.

Here's a homemade rig that looks similar to your idea: Using Two Nikon D90s to Shoot 3D Portraits

[feppe]

This is, precisely, his concern once the file is cropped to the aspect ratio he wants.

It would be worthwhile to make an actual comparison before buying a second 5DII and building the rig...

[elf]

If he's shooting 3d images, the dual camera setup will work fine. If he's going to stitch to a single panorama, there will be parallax errors.  Whether or not the parallax errors will be troublesome can be tested before buying the second camera and building the rig.  Just shoot the first image, then move the camera to the position (and angle) where the second camera would be.  If the subjects are going to be within 20 feet, (as a general rule)it will probably not be possible to get a good parallax free image. In this case it will depend on how much post processing he's willing to do.

Using a single infrared remote to trigger the cameras should work fine. Infrared is easy to reflect, so getting it directed to each camera should be easy.  If the subjects are moving fast, there may be enough differences between the actual shutter times to see movement of the subject between both images.

Print size and viewing distance also affect how much precision is required.

[BobFisher]

Pocket Wizards will let you trip the shutter of a second camera remotely.

Something like the Phottix Plato or Cleon might be a less expensive solution.