Accessories - Cable to parallel 2 cameras

It is possible to use a cable to connect some cameras together, when this is done both cameras fire at the same time. This was done historically with film cameras so as to shoot black and white and colour or to shoot colour negative and transparencies.

I use a cable that allows two Nikon D300's to be fired together in order to take live action 3D photographs. I could use any 2 Nikon cameras that have a 10 pin socket including the D100, D200, D300, D2, D2X, D3, D3X and D700, but I really need two cameras that are the same for my application. You can take 3D photos with one camera but as you have to move the camera to take a second picture you can't use this technique to photograph moving items, so two cameras side by side is the option.

The two cameras fire very closely together, but not exactly at the same fraction of a second. For outside applications this is not a problem, but inside when using flash it takes a little more sorting out, so that the flash goes off when both cameras have their shutters open. In reality it is not a holding factor, just a case of getting the techniques and settings on the two cameras right.

Nikon produce a cable the MC23, this is priced at £75.99 in the UK, (03/2009), quite a price for two plugs and a short piece of cable. You can find other makes considerably cheaper if you hunt around, I found 2 on eBay at under £20 including postage from China.


Nikon MC23 cable at £75.99	Cable from China that cost £13.50 + £6.50 postage from China on eBay

Below is a series of images of two Nikon D300 cameras connected up using one of these cables for producing live action stereo at Camera Images

training centre. These were first published in the newsletter on the 18th January 2008. See also the article on the Multi camera bracket

shown.

3 Pictures of the system set up to take 3D pictures using 2 Nikon D300 cameras. Images can be taken landscape or view and capture moving subjects. The D300 has Liveview on the rear panel which allows accurate alignment, as shown in the lower picture. In Liveview the image can be zoomed in on a section to help with focusing or in this case accurate alignment of images. The two cameras are connected with a wire so that they both go off at exactly the same time. They are both fitted with 18-200VR lenses.

The photographs were taken with a D200.

Click on any of these images to see a larger image.

Since these images were taken both cameras have been fitted with Delkin professional pop-up shades and a matching set of filter holders, grads, polarizer's and other filters added.

Cable to Fire 2 Cameras Together