How to alternate between 2 tethered cameras with triggers
Posted: 25 Feb 2012, 11:40
Hello! I'm a completely new member hoping to put together his first DIY book scanner. For now I want to stick to this basic setup, but with some important enhancements having to do with the cameras and software.
These are the modifications I want to make:
- Two tripod-mounted cameras instead of one (and two lamps, of course) -- I haven't yet bought the cameras and could use some suggestions.
- The cameras should be operated by remote shutter release (I believe this is what it is called), i.e., pedals. I assume I'll have to have one for each camera.
- The cameras should be tethered to my computer so that I can see what is on the viewfinder screen on my computer monitor.
- The tethering should also allow the shots to be saved quasi-instantaneously to my computer, preferably as jpegs with sequentially-numbered filenames.
- I want to have _both_ cameras tethered to the computer. This is the really tricky part, as far as I can see, since I don't know how to tether two cameras, and besides this I would want the software to alternate between the two cameras. Assuming a left-to-right book (actually, most of the books I'd want to scan are right-to-left), what would ideally happen is this:
1. The righthand camera is active. I press the trigger, and the image of lefthand page #1 is saved as 1.jpg. _Automatically_ the software switches to the lefthand camera.
2. The lefthand camera is active. I press the trigger, and the image of righthand page #2 is saved as 2.jpg. Automatically, the software switches back to the righthand camera.
3. Flip the page, replace the platen, and repeat above sequence to the end of the book.
4. Postprocessing.
Given all of the above, here are my questions for you folks:
1. What pair of cameras (optimal quality but moderate cost) should I buy? They must support tethering either with native or third-party software.
2. Is it possible to tether _two_ cameras to one computer at the same time, or to have the software automatically alternate input between the righthand and lefthand cameras after each shot?
3. If #2 is possible, is it feasible to have the software name the image files in sequence in spite of the input alternation? This would be nice as it would eliminate some postprocessing, but of course it isn't essential.
Thanks!
These are the modifications I want to make:
- Two tripod-mounted cameras instead of one (and two lamps, of course) -- I haven't yet bought the cameras and could use some suggestions.
- The cameras should be operated by remote shutter release (I believe this is what it is called), i.e., pedals. I assume I'll have to have one for each camera.
- The cameras should be tethered to my computer so that I can see what is on the viewfinder screen on my computer monitor.
- The tethering should also allow the shots to be saved quasi-instantaneously to my computer, preferably as jpegs with sequentially-numbered filenames.
- I want to have _both_ cameras tethered to the computer. This is the really tricky part, as far as I can see, since I don't know how to tether two cameras, and besides this I would want the software to alternate between the two cameras. Assuming a left-to-right book (actually, most of the books I'd want to scan are right-to-left), what would ideally happen is this:
1. The righthand camera is active. I press the trigger, and the image of lefthand page #1 is saved as 1.jpg. _Automatically_ the software switches to the lefthand camera.
2. The lefthand camera is active. I press the trigger, and the image of righthand page #2 is saved as 2.jpg. Automatically, the software switches back to the righthand camera.
3. Flip the page, replace the platen, and repeat above sequence to the end of the book.
4. Postprocessing.
Given all of the above, here are my questions for you folks:
1. What pair of cameras (optimal quality but moderate cost) should I buy? They must support tethering either with native or third-party software.
2. Is it possible to tether _two_ cameras to one computer at the same time, or to have the software automatically alternate input between the righthand and lefthand cameras after each shot?
3. If #2 is possible, is it feasible to have the software name the image files in sequence in spite of the input alternation? This would be nice as it would eliminate some postprocessing, but of course it isn't essential.
Thanks!