[photo-3d] Re: Twin rig - I need your opinion

[Tim Westwood <twestwoo@xxxxxxxx>]

Clement wrote: 

“  Date: Thu, 08 Mar 2001 17:53:16 -0000

   From: ve2cmt@xxxxxxxxxxxx

Subject: Twin rig - I need your opinion

 

Hi everybody,

 

I consider making a twin rig with 2 Olympus Stylus Epic and a remote 

control. The purpose is shooting full frame 3-D slides. A guy from 

the french equivalent of our group told me about this rig that he's 

using and he seems to be satisfied with it.

 

Wwhat do you think of such a rig?

 

Any suggestion will be welcome because I'm planning a 2 month trip to 

Alaska next June and I would like to make it a succesful 3-D 

expereience.”

 

 

Clement,

 

        I would be very interested in making such a rig for myself.  I bought two Epics and a remote over a year ago to make such a rig but I have no instructions on how to do it.  I was prompted to make such a new rig based on a twin XA2 rig I made before.  I really like the XA2 rig but I was frustrated with it because the shutter in one of the cameras would stick fairly often causing improper (or no) exposure and many ruined slides (and opportunities).  (I had already purchased 3 XA2’s and it was getting harder and more expensive to find more).

 

        Right after I bought the Epics I came across Gabriel’s posting on twinning two Ricoh 35Rs (you can view the camera at http://ricohcamera.com/ricoh_35R.htm).  The original twinning instructions were developed by Wlad Reksc and can be found at: http://www.generation.net/~jacob/35r/35R_mods_for_3D.htm 

These instructions will produce an elegant rig but they were a bit more complex than I had in mind.  A colleague of mine and I found a very simple way of getting good synchronization between the two cameras that did not require any modification of the cameras at all.  We simply took a single separate electronic button switch and attached two sets of wires to it.  A mini-plug was attached to each wire and the switch was mounted on a wooden dowel/handle affixed to a board holding the two cameras.  The mini-plugs are then inserted into the remote cable release sockets in the back of each camera.  I am very happy with the camera synch and it is at least good enough for most moving objects (people, regular car traffic, birds flying, etc.).

        The rig takes great pictures and the optics appear to be at least as good as the XA2.  Some of the advantages of this rig are: 30mm fixed focal length lenses so depth of field is very good; aperture-priority auto exposure; both auto and manual focus (I usually use manual focus and focus one camera on my closest subject and the other on infinity.  The autofocus setting, as far as I can tell, is just an intermediate focus setting that relies on depth of field for the picture to be in focus).  The auto exposure is very accurate and under “normal” lighting conditions I have yet to have a bad exposure using Fuji Sensia 100 slide film.  One of the big advantages for me is being able to getting the film developed and mounted like any other camera so I can view them right away using my 2x2 stereo viewer.  Disadvantages: the camera is fairly big so the inter-lens distance (approx. 14 cm between lens centers) is bigger than the XA2 or Stylus Epic would be.  However, I have not found this to be a major disadvantage and for most landscape shots this allows more of subject matter to be in stereo.

        The last I heard this camera was still not being sold in the U.S.  I live in Canada so it was not a problem.  I bought the cameras for a $139 Cdn. each (about $95 USD) plus taxes about 1 year ago. The place I purchased them from (Downtown Camera in Toronto, http://www.downtowncamera.com/) still has them listed for that price. When I got them said they would be willing to ship to the U.S. 



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