different Cameras for one Project?

[Bjarne_Roscher]

Hallo,
I am planning a aireal photo shoot (PAP) of some historic metal mines next week. After I come back I want to try Photoscan in order to generate a 3D model.

Main Question upfront before I shoot the images:

Can I use different Cameras for one and the same shoot?
I want to use my EOS 550D for the shoots on the ground with a wide angle lens with ca. 10 to 14 mm.
For the shoots frome the Pole (9 m hight) I plan to use a Canon PS 3300 IS because of low weight and the possibility to use CHDK Scripts for Intervallometer Shots every 2 seconds.

For shots down into the mines I plan to use a goPro HD1 as it is light and I can let it down by a rope to the water level. In addition it has a wide angle lens that covers more.

Do you have any experience with using 2 or 3 different cameras in one Project?

I place ground markers around in the area in order to get better results for the software and if I need to do manual allignment of the Photos.

Thank you for your advice and Opinions up-front.

Best Regards

Bjarne

[Infinite]

Yes it should be possible. I worked on a project recently with 64 Cameras, all various types from Canon 5DMKII, 7D, 550D, 450D to 50D all with different types of lenses and MP sizes.

Try some tests to see?

[Pyramid]

Hi guys,

I currently have a multi camera setup mixing Canon t2i 's with canon 1000D's (rebel xs).  All the lenses are the same but ofcourse the models have different resolutions (12 MP vs 18 MP). They are set up as stereo pairs and all triggered simultaneously.

I'm having some alignment issues and am wandering if there is a workflow to consider when using different resolutions. Do the photos need to be aligned separately (grouping like resolutions)? Should they be processed in chunks? Or should they all play nicely together and I just need to keep my attention on lighting and sharp focus.

Thanks in advance,
Dean

[Wishgranter]

Can show how are they placed in space ? with resolution of that cam......

[RalfH]

Hi Bjarne,

different cameras or different resolutions shouldn't be a big problem; zooming between photos also works.

Issues which I find can be problematic in a project like yours are:
- very shallow incidence angles (as usually happens in the far field when using wide-angle lens)
- large differences between incidence angles (e.g. combining near-vertical aerial images with shallow incidence angle ground-based images)
- extreme differences in field of view (e.g., combining aerial overview images with close-up images)

I am not much of a wide-angle fan; actually, after some tests with moderate wide angle (24 mm equivalent), I prefer to work in the 35-80 mm equivalent range when I want to create 3D models. Of course I have to take more pictures to cover the same area, but resolution is higher and incidence angles are more similar between images.

Also, the letting-down-the-camera-into-the-mines part sounds like you require artificial light. Especially with relatively close-up and wide-angle images in narrow spaces with a lot of surface roughness (which I assume for mines), images taken with a built-in flash will likely cause problems due to shadowing and extreme illumination differences between images. How deep and narrow are the mines? I would try to create a relatively homogenous illumination which should be constant for the whole series of images (i.e., install a setup with several lights - e.g. on a tripod or on your PAP pole).

Working with different chunks for the different project parts (PAP, ground, inside) and later combining them based on ground control may be a good idea.