Photogrammetry Camera

[sabbe]

I’m looking for suggestions for camera for photogrammetry. Ideally housing and camera will be under $2000 total.

The wife is probably pulling the trigger on a TG6 but I understand it has the same size sensor as a GoPro.

I’m looking for a larger sensor to give me better low light capability. Photogrammetry hates shadows so I’d really like to use ambient light and some of my target locations have massive sediment.

I’ve been doing photogrammetry for five years with a GoPro 5, 6, 7, 8, and 9, and have really struggled with the fisheye lens distorting my 3D model. Sometimes my underwater schoolbus gets wrapped up like a NY pretzel. Agisoft strongly recommends using a frame lens camera instead of fisheye.

I have no interest in macro, I need to take hundreds of pictures of a wreck from a few feet to 15’ away and a lens that behaves as much like a surface frame lens as possible.

The Olympus E-PL10 package at $1250 seems like a good price point. A friend recommended APS-C but those packages quickly exceed my $2000 budget.

Will I notice much change saving up for 20MP four thirds camera vs the current 16MP?

Suggestions?

Thanks in advance.
Sam

 

[Chris Ross]

A lot of things scale with sensor size in underwater photography, including system cost and for rectilinear lens (low distortion) the size of dome needed to get sharp corners and with that the f stop needed for sufficient depth of field to get those corners sharp.

I would suggest in your situation you might want to go wide but not too wide - corner problems get worse as you go to wider and wider lenses have more requirements to produce acceptable images.

I would think something in a m43 type camera with a zoom in the range of 24-28mm full frame equivalent behind a dome port would be the first choice. If you are prepared to take more images to compensate for lack of coverage one of the faster primes behind a flat port might be worth considering. Even with m43 a 24-28mm equivalent lens would need to be shot at f5.6- f8 for best quality.

If you are prepared to go second hand for your budget you could probably pickup a Nauticam housing, m43 camera, 14-42 lens with a small dome package if you were patient and get a much nicer setup for your $. Look in the classifieds here and on wetpixel. UW photo gear depreciates quite significantly and used price is often 50-60% of new.

 

[weeksd]

I have a nikon d60 in aquatica housing. Nikon d60 body, aquatica housing, extension, 6 inch dome port, ikelite AI strobe and ikelite 100A strobe, arms for strobe. All items in good condition. You just would need a lens $2000 To see samples of what this camera does.
Red Sea - reefscenics

 

[M DeM]

I’m looking for suggestions for camera for photogrammetry. Ideally housing and camera will be under $2000 total.

Hi there - can I ask how photogrammetry differs from photography? I looked up photogrammetry, but it just gave me a whole bunch of links about scientific use....

 

[stuartv]

Hi there - can I ask how photogrammetry differs from photography? I looked up photogrammetry, but it just gave me a whole bunch of links about scientific use....

Photogrammetry is taking a whole bunch of pictures of the same wreck and then using special software to stitch them all together into a 3D model.

 

[sabbe]

Hi there - can I ask how photogrammetry differs from photography? I looked up photogrammetry, but it just gave me a whole bunch of links about scientific use....

Photogrammetry is hard to do with strobes. Even lighting is needed across 100s to 1000s of photos. Therefore a large sensor is very desirable for photogrammetry.

 

[M DeM]

Photogrammetry is taking a whole bunch of pictures of the same wreck and then using special software to stitch them all together into a 3D model.

Oh wow... do you have any examples I can see?

 

[barth]

Oh wow... do you have any examples I can see?

Wreck

cave/mine

 

[weeksd]

Aquatica housing, Nikon d60 body, extension $100th plus shipping

 

[weeksd]

Aquatica housing, Nikon d60 body, extension $1200 usd plus shipping