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Author Topic: software/hardware/remote control for multi camera?  (Read 11530 times)

Kms1

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software/hardware/remote control for multi camera?
« on: May 27, 2014, 02:05:24 PM »
Apologies if this has been addressed before but I have searched the forums a lot and cannot find a direct answer.

I have had great success using 1 or two cameras and now want to go for an 8 camera facial scan until i can get more cameras. All the cameras I have access to are canon EOS dslr, some full frame, some not.

My question is this and I have searched the forum but there does not seem to be a direct answer. I want to know the best software or hardware solution to trigger all the cameras together without delay.

On here I see people mention sharpshooter and I have read the FAQ its says you can trigger multiple cameras but there is a 150ms delay between triggering cameras, as other people are saying even the slightest movement from the model is not good I am not sure if 150ms delay would be satisfactory across multiple cameras as surely the subject even very still would move in a second or so, and for larger setups this would surely be troublesome. Is there other software that could trigger with less delay? I have access to phase one capture one but do not think that supports multi camAm i better off using some kind of remote control triggered system ? can anyone using a large rig suggest a particular model?

Thanks for any info


FLuca

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Re: software/hardware/remote control for multi camera?
« Reply #1 on: May 27, 2014, 06:48:52 PM »
Hi,
It is a good idea to share configurations, as it seems that everybody it developping its own control system.
I have now a rig with 15 canon 600D that works quite fine and I hope will grow with time.

I use smartshooter for camera settings and automatic download of images to the computer.
It works very well but the hard part is to get all cams with stable usb connection to the computer.
As already said in the forum, good cables are required. usb 3 cables have a better screen and allow more length than usb 2 cables.

for the cam triggering I don't use smartshooter because of the delay between cams which increase with each additional cam. it works if you are in an almost black room with the shutter open a very long time (2-5s for 10cams) and trigger manually the flash when you have eard that all mirrors ar up.
possible but not very convenient and very un-confortable for the model that go from full black to big flash lights

instead I have developped a small electronic board piloted by an arduino that drive relays. contacts of relays are wired to the remote control of each camera.
one additional relay is driving the flash remote control. that way it is easy to automatically fire the cam and the flash after a predefined timer (120ms in my case).
connected to the arduino, a wireless remote control from adafruit allow firing from where you want.

with this config I manage to get sync at 1/5s without any black images

the bottleneck is the download of pictures to the computer that takes between 20s and 30s (for 15 pics) even with a SSD. it is a very long time when searching for a nice pose
Fred Lucazeau - Body Scan - www.another-me.fr
Sketchfab gallery: https://sketchfab.com/fredlucazeau

Kms1

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Re: software/hardware/remote control for multi camera?
« Reply #2 on: May 28, 2014, 12:59:52 AM »
I have access to some 600ds, 550s and 5dmk2's, I have heard soldering shutter release cables works, the arduino idea sounds interesting I will look into that...

Lambo

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Re: software/hardware/remote control for multi camera?
« Reply #3 on: May 29, 2014, 08:29:18 PM »
Smartshooter works beautifully. I am using 60 cameras and it is handling them without any problems.
As for the shutter release, I know that the arduino systems are very powerful but if you don't want to mess too much with them or have no time to, you can use something like these that are much cheaper than the pocket wizard:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004YW79F4/ref=oh_details_o03_s00_i00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

I am also using them with all my cameras (granted I am using Nikons that are easier to synchronize) but they work fine with 1/5 shutter speed and no black lines appear on the pictures.
Leo

Kms1

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Re: software/hardware/remote control for multi camera?
« Reply #4 on: June 09, 2014, 12:50:05 AM »
thanks lambo and fluca, bought smart shooter the other day and tried it with 4 cams, also used the remotes and it all seems to work pretty well, need to learn a little about smartshooter first tho, had about 5 mins to explore it before the shoot, an excellent piece of software though, going to push into 20-25 cameras in a few months once i have all the remotes, cables, hubs and ac adaptors required for a full rig, imagine its going to take a fairly long time to setup  :)

oxid

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Re: software/hardware/remote control for multi camera?
« Reply #5 on: July 04, 2014, 09:56:46 AM »
I'll have a month software for remote control and download pictures from eos cameras. For questions, please contact us by email: 88oxid@gmail.com

Kms1

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Re: software/hardware/remote control for multi camera?
« Reply #6 on: July 08, 2014, 03:58:01 AM »
if you can fire the cameras without delay let me know , if its as affordable and useful as smartshooter i am sure many others will also be interested...

Kms1

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Re: software/hardware/remote control for multi camera?
« Reply #7 on: July 08, 2014, 04:02:44 AM »
right now the issue is synching all the cameras of differing types and delays with the flash. The 5d mk2s are in time witheach other, the 700ds have a delay...

Have read about these problems users were having before and was wondering if there was a workaround other than changing my triggers for more expensive pocket wizards? i am using the RF603iis as linked above. Basically some cameras show black bars others maybe 1 out of every 10 images it has synched with the flash. Everything appears to be triggering in different timings. I am using 1/125 on them all, should i slow this down on cameras that show black bars?

Is the best solution to remove the flash?

mala

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Re: software/hardware/remote control for multi camera?
« Reply #8 on: July 08, 2014, 11:42:26 AM »
triggering multiple cameras via their USB connections will always create delays, it is an inherent problem with usb.

If you are working with multiple different cameras then I would have thought that you would need to slow all the shutters down to try and compensate for the different "reaction" times... even working with identical DSLR cameras it is very hard to get perfect sync at high shutters speeds due to tiny differences in shutter lag.

If you could get enough constant light on your subject (without blinding them!) then yes removing the flash would maybe work for higher shutter speeds.

Or you need to work out the differences in shutter lag and find a way to compensate for these delays when triggering...