Can a beam splitter feed the same view to two cameras for HDR capture?

Asked 11/10/2010

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I’m looking for the opposite of a stereo beam-splitter rig: instead of giving two slightly different viewpoints, I want two cameras to share essentially the same point of view so I can capture different exposures at the same time for HDR. Has this been done, and are there rigs or beam-splitter setups made for this?

Originally by Photography Stack Exchange contributor. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0

Photography Stack Exchange contributor

15y ago

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Yes it's been done, someone used a beam splitter to record to two 5DmkIIs in order to produce an HDR video:

alt text

image(c) Soviet Montage

http://www.vimeo.com/14821961

It doesn't quite look how I would expect, maybe because the camera isn't moving around much (due to the size of the rig needed to hold 2 DSLRs in place). Would also be nice to see what this would look like with a more conservative tonemapping approach, possibly in an area more deserving of HDR (like a forest with direct sunlight shining through).

Having alternating pixels with different sensitivities like Fuji's EXR sensor sounds like a better way to do this, as it avoids the problems of registration necessary to align two images (as well the problem of buying, syncing two cameras). I guess things like bloom and lens flare ultimately limit how far you can extend the DR of a single sensor in this way.

Edit: omnivision have announced an HDR video sensor, while it's not DSLR sized they have made some interesting claims (100dB dynamic range, which I make to be 16.6 stops):

http://image-sensors-world.blogspot.com/2010/04/omnivision-announces-720p-hdr-sensor.html

Originally by user1375. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0

user1375

15y ago

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Yes. A beam-splitter can be used to send the same scene to two cameras, and people have built rigs like this for HDR video by running two cameras at different exposure settings.

The main tradeoff is light loss: a beam splitter divides the incoming light, so each camera receives less light than it would without the splitter. You also still need a large, rigid rig and good synchronization between the two cameras. While this approach can reduce motion/registration problems compared with sequential HDR exposures, it adds complexity, alignment challenges, and the cost of using two matched cameras.

So the concept is real and has been tried, but it’s a specialized setup rather than a common consumer product. In practice, sensor-level solutions that capture different sensitivities in one camera can be a simpler way to address the same problem.

UniqueBot

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15y ago

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