UAV - GOPRO workflow

[Viking69]

I have been using a small quadcopter with a Hero 3 silver GoPro. I set the image capture from the wide frame to the narrow to reduce some of the fisheye effect on the photo margins but still think my results may be affected by some edge distortion in the photos.

Has anyone put together a good workflow using a gopro from an aerial platform and are you using agisoft lens to calibrate the camera? If so do you have settings already developed for the gopro?

If someone has a workflow process I would appreciate it. I am trying to map some different habitat features in a stream form the UAV.

Thanks!

[aphextwin]

First: The GoPro can't be used for Agisoft since it uses a rolling shutter.
Second: In order to work in low light conditions and still getting nice quick-shuttered videos, the GoPro increases the ISO to extreme values which introduces incredible noise.
Third: The GoPro has a fish-eye lens which can't be used for SfM.

And because I don't give much about theory, I tried it myself with the GoPro Hero 2 and my Octocopter, just for fun. last year.

And failed.

[chadfx]

There are a number of better small cameras that should fit where a GoPro would on a small UAV (DJI Phantom, etc).
The Sony RX100 would be a good example with its larger sensor.

I don't know if anyone has tried to use them for this type of work, though. Usually it seems to be cameras with APS-C or larger sensors and larger UAVs.

[aphextwin]

As I mentioned in another post:

Go with the Ricoh GR Digital IV as it quite a large sensor, fixed zoom lens with an acceptable focal length and global shutter. It supports RAW-Images and several interval-modes out of the box. You can link it to your analog fpv-equipment. And it only costs about 430 EUR at amazon.
Imho the best Cam for small and mid-size UAV.
For large UAV there are of course better cams with fixed zoom lenses. There is always a better product

[AlanMicallef]

Would a CamOne be good?

[gEEvEE]

Just some side notes:

• the very best camera for aerial imaging is the Ricoh GR. It is small, light (250 g) and features an APS-C sensor which delivers fantastic image quality. http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/ricoh-gr/17
• The goPro CAN be used for SFM+MVS. I did it on many occasions. You might consider to put its FOV on medium (wide covers the whole sensor and yields very distorted images, while narrow only takes a very small portion of the sensor into account and generates noise). Make sure you use all the lens distortion coefficients (k1 to k4 and p1 + p2) in PhotoScan. No need to use "Lens" beforehand. However, do not expect the resulting 3D model to be of the same quality as one generated even with a compact camera. The GoPro uses quite some lossy JPEG compression, which is detrimental for reconstruction of fine details. Also, as others said, low light conditions migh result in rolling shutter features, which might prevent a decent reconstruction. So, to conclude: a GoPro can be used in an SfM+MVS reconstruction chain, but it is not advised.

Cheers,

Geert