How much does Camera Calibration help in regards to quality?

[JohnyJoe]

Hello
I have camera Nikon D3200 with default kit lens (18-55mm), i useto scan smaller objects (like around 20x20 cm for example) (nothing TINY (insect) nothing HUGE).
I shoot around 50-150 photos per scan lets say. I use studio lights (cheap) and a cheap tripod.

I have NEVER done any camera calibration... I dont know anything about it

My question is simple - how much does camera calibration help in regards to increasing the final quality of the scan? (the dense point cloud, the resulting mesh, the texture)...?

THank you

[JohnyJoe]

Nobody knows; can answer that please ?

[Alexey Pasumansky]

Hello JohnyJoe,

Usually you can rely on the autocalibration procedure, if the provided overlap is good and the texture pattern of the scanned object/scene contains many unique features.

Pre-calibration may be reasonable, if you are planning to work on the low-textured models, where the autocalibration would not work.

[JohnyJoe]

Ah interesting... so if im a scanning a "normal object" = rich texture and a lot of photos, theres really no reason the use the camera calibration?

BUT... if i have a model that failed to allign the photos (for reason that i have few photos or that the texture of the object is rather "plain" (missing details) than i could think about the camera calibration and it might help to allign the photos (that didnt allign originally).

Do i understand this correctly?

Thank you

[Alexey Pasumansky]

Hello JohnyJoe,

Yes, that's the common idea of using (or not using) pre-calibrated data for consumer grade cameras.