P3D Re: Shooting with Twin rigs

[Michael Watters <mwatters@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

gccampos@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx writes:

>I have some general questions for those who are shooting with twin rigs.

>What kinds of cameras are you using?
   Either a pair of Minolta X-370's or pairs of little Olympus XA-2's

>What cameras would you recommend to keep my total kit under $1000? 

   Well, assuming you're talking about SLR twins, most used cameras will bring you under  
that amount for a rig and some lenses to go with it.  XA-2 rigs are fixed lens of course, but  
they come in considerably below that amount.  I'd stick with cameras that have electrical  
shutter releases.  The sync is more consistant and generally better with them.  Although,  
my X-370's would never sync critically (not good enough for flash anyway)

>What lenses should I start with (50mm)?
  My favorite lenses on the SLRs were 28mm's and 45mm's.  I had telephoto's but only  
rarely used them.

>What about Zoom lenses, are they too hard to sync?
  Yeah.  RBT syncs theirs using little cross-bars.  That works OK for a siamese rig, but in a  
twin it's just not gonna hack it.

>I saw the posting on diodes for splicing the shutter release wires; any
>comments?
  I didn't do this.  Maybe it explains my crapola sync though.  :)

>How is flash sync?
  Varies.  My esperience with the SLRs was a poor one.  Others have done well.  The  
XA-2's however were great at syncing for flash.  Go figure...

>What do you do for flash photography, did you make a special bracket?
My bar was build by entending a large "L" bracket.  The handle was great for holding that  
monster AND had a cold-shoe on top.  I'd put the flash on the handle and wire it over to the  
left camera (well... did it once till I realized they weren't syncing.)

>Do you do handheld or mostly Tripod work?
With a decent bar (I strongly suggest something with a side handle) it's easy to hand-hold  
twin SLRs.

>Any comments regarding pictures being too Hyperstereo?
SLRs can only get SO close together.  In landscape format, the closest seperation is about  
7-8 inches.  That's about three times normal.  The hyperstereo was easily noticable under  
those conditions no matter what lens I was using.  As long as you keep things at a distance  
it's not too much depth in the photo, but it's still gonna be obviously hyper.


>Do you mostly do base to base or side by side twinning?
Since I was always mounting in Realist format slides at the time, I kept it horizontal.  Makes  
the mounting a lot simpler.

>Any other advice, suggestions, recommended articles?
Think long and hard about what kind of pictures you want to be taking with the thing, what  
the advantages and disadvantages are to various cameras to YOU (gonna be different for  
different people depending on what's important to them).  What is it that attracts you to a  
twin rig vs something else etc.   After you've gone through that process, THEN start  
comparing different cameras/rigs to decide which is best under your circumstances.  I've  
ended up having several different cameras, all of which get hauled out and used at  
different times depending on what I'm shooting.  If I'm gonna be working tight and can live  
with automatic exposures, I use a FED.  More general shooting, an XA-2 rig.  If I want a  
normal interoccular and want manual exposure, it's a Siamese rig built from a pair of Argus  
C3's.  If I want the best optics, modern camera control and figure I can live with the  
increased interoccular, THEN I haul out the twin SLRs.  Of those 4, the twin rig sees the  
least use.  It's heavy and the wide base has been limiting for my use.  I've been using the  
FED the most lately.  That might change though since I just finished making some changes  
to the Argus that make it more handy AND I'm working on an improved version of the XA-2  
rig too.  The FED IS a little quirky, so if either of those work out well the FED will likely see  
little use.

mike
watters


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