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I am looking to use this feature for two purposes: scanning books (one camera pointed at each of a pair of pages), and for stereo 3D photography.

I would like to be able to preview and capture photos from two cameras simultaneously, and download them to my Mac (recent laptop, Mac OS X 10.8.x). Being able to keep track of which photos were from which camera is also a must.

I see a couple of packages that will do this via USB tethering on Windows, namely PSRemote Multi-Camera (which other than being on Windows, looks perfect for my needs) and StereoData Maker. I certainly could run Windows on my Mac somehow, but I'd rather avoid that, if possible.

I haven't bought the cameras yet, and I do not have any requirements as to which cameras are supported (it seems the packages above only support Canons), other than that they be relatively inexpensive. This is a hobby-type project, not a $3000 dSLR-type project.

However, even if all you have is a dSLR solution for this problem, I'd still like to hear about it. Perhaps it will lead to related solution.

Inventive hacky solutions welcome!

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    After digging around on Canon's website, they seem to offer a SDK for their EOS (read: expensive dSLR) cameras on both Windows and Mac, but the PowerShot (read: cheaper consumer cameras) SDK is Windows-only, which may explain the discrepancy.
    – swizzlevixen
    Mar 17, 2013 at 14:52

6 Answers 6

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You can use Smart-Shooter and write a custom script using their API. It looks pretty easy.

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  • It seems the app only supports pricey dSLRs, but otherwise looks good… I may give that a try if I can find some old cameras that it supports for cheap.
    – swizzlevixen
    Jun 18, 2014 at 17:57
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I was going to recommend onOne's DSLR Camera Remote because I believe it could handle two cameras at once and I had successfully used it to remotely trigger timed exposures (and, if not, their support folk were awesome).

Alas, the product has been discontinued!

Their "discontinuation notice" has references to a number of potential solutions.

Since you mentioned that the triggering part is easy, they seem to mostly focus on transfer. The CameraMator looks like a potential solution, but isn't yet shipping. Note that CamRanger appears to be focused on tablets/phones and only does ad-hoc networking, a complete non-starter for my purposes.

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  • Thanks for that. None of the solutions they list seem to offer multi-camera control, at least at first glance, but I'll dig into it more later. Perhaps manual triggering and a transfer solution would work for this, but a $300 wifi adapter (per camera) may be overkill for this project. A second, used laptop with software to sync them might be just as cost effective.
    – swizzlevixen
    Mar 17, 2013 at 15:43
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You might be able to get this done using gPhoto2 for OSX. Its a part of Macports so you can install it right through there. A complete list of supported cameras are listed here.

Lightroom 4 supports multiple cameras being tethered, but you have to select the camera you are shooting from for it to automatically download it sounds like here.

DLSR Remote Pro is only Windows (XP or greater) based but it does support multiple cameras at the same time. You could just run that in a virtual machine using a program like Parallels or Fusion and then have DSLR Remote save the images to a "local" directory that is a legit directory on OSX.

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I suggest evaluating webcams. Get two high quality webcams and some lights. With that the tethering is quite easy.

Of course, tethering with DSLRs is also possible but much more expensive.

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  • I don't think webcams have the resolution for good print. If OP is shooting 6x9 pages (common small hardcover book size) to get 300 dpi requires 1800 x 2700 pixels, and 300 DPI is the bottom end. Commercial printing now is done at effectively 1200 dpi. And even on a laser printer, the difference between 300 dpi and 1200 dpi is noticeable. Upper end webcams are 1080p, and aren't crystal clear even at that res.
    – Sherwood Botsford
    Jan 21, 2021 at 20:36
  • The answer is from 2013. On the other hand, upper end webcams are readily available in 4K. Thanks for doing the DPI calculations.
    – Unapiedra
    Jan 21, 2021 at 21:26
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Frankly, I do not know how to transfer the images to the mac. And there may eben be a solution that allows a simulanouse exposure controlled by your mac.

For a 'manual' synchronization you can connect to exposure cables and make one Y-cable of them or do one yourself from scratch.

Or you can use radio transmitters like Yongnou RF 502 which are not only for flash lights. They come with a cable adaptor for your bodies when you order the right one. One transmitter and two receivers will do.

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  • Right, triggering the cameras together is pretty easy. It's the Mac preview and transfer that's the tricky bit. Thanks, though.
    – swizzlevixen
    Mar 17, 2013 at 14:49
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CamRanger will go wireless to Mac. Here are a number of Tethering Software options. It looks like Breeze will handle multiple cameras.

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    Roger, are you affiliated with the tethertools company or web site? Please see the faq on self-promotion. (You are welcome to contribute, but please disclose connections.)
    – mattdm
    Mar 22, 2013 at 15:32
  • CamRanger seems to only support one camera, and I don't need wireless. Breeze has two Multi-Camera apps (for dSLR and PowerShot), but they are both Windows-only.
    – swizzlevixen
    May 30, 2014 at 16:40

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