P3D Re: twin-camera 'gizmo'

[jacob@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx (Gabriel Jacob)]

>Thanks.  I was thinking something more in the range of 89 cents,
>rather than 89 dollars, but it's worth considering.  Any pictures
>anywhere?
>
>Peter Davis

Okay, here is the 89 cents solution. One ruler and two rubber bands.
Okay just kidding. Here is a solution that works great for me. It
has the added advantage of being practically invisible, (some people
wonder how I can seemingly hold two cameras and press the shutter 
buttons, at the same time!) light in weight, horizontal or vertical
mounting, can be put on a tripod (horizontally only), variable base,
easy access to battery and film compartement, and last but not least
cheap and easy to make!

Okay now that I got you attention, :-) here are the details. I use
metal hinges (commonly sold in hardware stores) as a novel hinged
bar. These come in 4 to 6 feet lengths and are about 3/4 inch wide
on each side of the hinge. Along the length of the hinge there are
holes already drilled, and spaced about every inch or so. Some of
these holes can be widened to adapt to the spacing required or new
holes can be drilled as desired. After the holes are made to
accomodate the cameras for horizontal and vertical setups, the bar
is used as follows.

USING BAR HORIZONTALLY
 
The crude ascii picture belows shows a side view of the horizontal
setup. The cameras are screwed in at the bottom hinge. The back of
the hinge serves to hold the camera secure and in line with the other
camera. Note, the hinge pivot point is on the outside. This is so the
pivot point doesn't intefere with the back of the camera and also
so that the hinge doesn't close in on itself, to keep the cameras in
line as mentioned above. The screws are not shown in the picture that
secure the cameras on the hinge. These go in from the bottom and two
flat head screws are used. Though not commonly used these screws are
available in hardware stores and the heads are really flat. Slightly
thicker than a quarter. These screws are used because they are handy
when using the hinge (bar) in the vertical format. Between the two
cameras, it is quite easy to use one of the holes for a tripod. A
special bolt that is flange like is used to secure the hinge to the
tripod. This also, can be found at the hardware store.

 Side-View for Horizontal set-up 
        
                 Hinge and Camera
                      _____
                     |     |
                     |  c  |
                     |  a  |-
   Hinge             |  m  | |
                     |  e  | |            
 |                  ||  r  |-          
 |                  ||  a  |                
 |                  ||_____|
 |------            |-------
 o                  o           


USING BAR VERTICALLY

For using the bar with the cameras vertically, the screws are inserted
in the appropriate holes (as determined for the particular make of
camera) with the screws facing out of a closed hinge. 
The hinge can be opened while securing the camera to hinge with the
screws. After the cameras are secured the cameras can be pivoted so
that the cameras are side by side vertically, ready for picture taking.
See accompanying ascii pics below.

Enlarged front-view of hinge with flat head screws.

Hinge         Closed Hinge with screws inserted

|   |                     |   |
|   |                     |   |
|   |                     |   |
|   |                     |   |  
|   |                     |   | 
|   |                     |   |
|   |                     |   |
|   |                     | ||| 
|                         | |||||||
|   |                     | |||
|   |                     |   |
|   |                     |   |
|   |                     ||| | 
    |                 ||||||| |   
|   |                     ||| |          
|   |                     |   |       Note: Hinge (bar) will be longer than

|   |                     |   |       length of cameras if hinge is also
                                      used as a horizontal bar.        


 Top-View for Vertical Set-up. (screws not shown)

   Hinge              Hinge and Camera

     o                       o  
    / \       _____________ / \ _____________
    | |      |             || ||             |    
    | |      |             || ||             |   
    | |      |_____________|| ||_____________|
                  |___|             |___|  

Finally, with the particular P&S Yashicas that I use, the stereo
base is 120mm or 150mm in the horizontal format and 62mm in the
vertical format. It was mentioned that this is about the same
as a Realist, but the advantage with this is particularly for
prints, whereby they can be developped much cheaper and readily
at any 1 hour film developer.

Total cost of all this, about $3. Actually the bar cost over $7 
but I can make about 10 more with the left over material.

P.S. If all the above still doesn't make sense I can post a
few pics on the net that will be self explanatory.

Gabriel


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