What Is The Best Camera For My Project?
When choosing a camera, you should consider your project requirements and your budget. The most common choice, among customers who are able to choose, is a consumer digital camera. In some fields, such as forensics and accident reconstruction, film is the only choice because that is the evidence at hand. PhotoModeler can also work with photos such as these, often taken with unknown cameras, providing there is some known information about the scene. See InverseCamera.

Consumer Digital Cameras are a great match for PhotoModeler. A typical project might require 1 part in 2000 accuracy or less or you may need a good 3D model with high quality photo textures. Consumer grade digital cameras are convenient, affordable and produce good results. You can expect to pay anywhere from $300-$1000 US for a new consumer digital camera.

Nikon D80

Canon Rebel XT

There are a number of quality consumer digital cameras around the $1000 US price point, such as the Nikon D80 or Canon Rebel XT, sold pre-calibrated by Eos Systems and bundled with PhotoModeler software.

Film Cameras, along with a print scanning on a good flatbed scanner, can provide images suitable for medium accuracy projects. Negative scanners can also be used with film cameras for better results than using prints. You will want to ensure your negative scanner produces stable results. With film cameras the trade-off is less convenience (getting film developed, scanning into your computer, etc.) for potentially higher resolution and detailed imagery. You may have a film camera already available. A quality flatbed scanner can be purchased for between $500 to $900 US. A suitable negative scanner will cost between $1000 and $3000. Kodak's PhotoCD can also scan your negatives.

Video Cameras are also compatible with PhotoModeler. Images can be digitized with a frame buffer and used in PhotoModeler. Video cameras provide low resolution images and the resulting PhotoModeler projects are usually accurate to 1 part in 500 or less.

High-End Cameras, such as professional digital cameras or metric film cameras can be used with PhotoModeler when the highest possible accuracy is required. With a sub-pixel target marked project these cameras have shown accuracy in PhotoModeler of 1 part in 20,000 and better. For high accuracy industrial measurement projects where all or a large percentage of the points are circular targets, a high resolution, monochrome pro digital camera (such as the Kodak DCS 760M (special order monochrome version of DCS 760)) is a good choice.

High-end digital cameras such as the Canon 1Ds or the Kodak DCS 14n cost between $4000 and $8,000 US. You can view the Digital Camera Resource List, Steve's Digicams, or Digital Photography Review for reviews and price comparisons.

Can I Use A Camera With A Zoom Lens?
We normally recommend fixed lenses with PhotoModeler (i.e., no zoom) but zoom lenses can be used with PhotoModeler if extra care is taken. PhotoModeler needs to know the focal length of the lens for each picture taken. Some cameras do not store focal length information, so you will want to fix the zoom at a known focal length - such as the widest angle, the most telephoto or the power-on-default zoom - before you start shooting. Be careful not to change the zoom during the photo shoot or your accuracy will be affected.

Will I Need To Modify My Camera?
In most cases, no. If you are using a film camera with a film scanner that crops the edges of the frames (such as Kodak PhotoCD) and you need high accuracy, you can optionally place an Eos Film Plane Insert in your camera. This insert is a small piece of transparent plastic film that attaches inside the back of the camera and extends a short distance into the image plane. The insert has two fiducial marks that appear on each photograph and allow PhotoModeler to orient itself to the lens and camera body in a consistent manner.

What Is Camera Calibration?
When you require the good accuracy, you can use PhotoModeler's Camera Calibration software to calibrate your camera. Eight photos are taken of a supplied grid pattern, imported into the Camera Calibrator software and processed automatically. The program calculates the camera's focal length, lens distortion, format aspect ratio, and principal point. The resulting calibration data file can be saved on disk for use in all PhotoModeler projects that involve photos taken by that camera, at the same settings. PhotoModeler also includes self-calibration and field calibration modes to improve camera parameters further when accuracy is your prime concern. Further information on calibration can be found in our Knowledge Base.