Photogrammetry 1

Dr Hussein Harahsheh
Second Semester 2021/2022
Al AL Bayt University
 Chapter 4
Aerial Cameras
Introduction

Aerial photographs can be made with virtually any type of camera. Many successful applications have employed aerial
photographs made from light aircraft with handheld cameras. However, most aerial photographic for remote sensing
activities require the use of aerial photography made with precision-built aerial cameras. These cameras are specifically
designed to expose a large number of photographs in rapid succession with geometric fidelity.

There are many different models of aerial cameras currently in use. Here, we discuss single‐lens frame film cameras, and
small‐, medium‐, and large‐format digital cameras.
 Aerial Cameras
• Cameras are framing systems which acquire a near-instantaneous
”snapshot” of an area, of the surface.

• Camera systems are passive optical sensors that use a lens (or system
of lenses).

• They form an image at the focal plane, the plane at which an image is
sharply defined.
 Analog Photogrammetric Cameras
Single-Lens Frame Film Cameras

Single-lens frame cameras are by far the most common film cameras in use today for aerial photography for and
photogrammetric mapping purposes. Mapping cameras (often referred to as metric or cartographic cameras) are single-lens
frame cameras designed to provide extremely high geometric image quality.

They employ a low distortion lens system held in a fixed position relative to the plane of the film. The film format size (the
nominal size of each image) is commonly a square 230 mm on a side. The total width of the film used is 240 mm, and the film
magazine capacity ranges up to film lengths of 120 m. A frame of imagery is acquired with each opening of the camera shutter,
which is generally fallen automatically at a set frequency by an electronic device called an intervalometer. Figure 2.21
illustrates a typical aerial mapping camera and its associated gyrostabilized suspension mount.

Standard film size:

The available format sizes of film‐based aerial mapping
cameras have been standardized for many decades, That
is, film has been available in a limited number of widths
(e.g., 35 mm, 70 mm, and 240 mm). Large format analog
cameras typically employ an image format size of 230
mm X 230 mm recorded on 240‐mm film.
There is no such standardization in the case of digital
camera format sizes.
 Digital Camera Format Sizes
There is no format sizes standardization in the case of digital camera formats. They take on many shapes and
sizes. The across‐track and along‐track format dimensions of a digital camera sensor are determined by the
number and physical size of the pixels present in two-dimensional sensor array of CCD of millions of tiny light
cavities or "photosites" to record an image (detectors).
- CCD: Charge‐Coupled Device of silicon semiconductors
- The image is a grid of picture elements (pixels)

The image dimension is determined as follows:

• The across-track dimension of the sensor array:

• The along-track dimension of the sensor array:

Different classes of Digital Cameras:
Early in their development, digital cameras were classified as being small‐, medium‐, or large‐format based on the size
of their detector arrays.
Currently, there is a trend toward using the terms:
1. “large‐format” to refer loosely to any camera designed specifically for wide‐area mapping applications.
2. “Medium‐format” digital cameras are those that are generally used to collect images of moderate areas or to
enhance the data collected by another sensor, such as a lidar system.
3. “Small‐format” cameras are those used for small‐area mapping and might be operated from small aerial platforms.

Small-Format Digital Cameras

• The digital camera options for acquiring Small‐Format Aerial Photography (SFAP) are limitless.
• While many of these camera types produce images having spatial resolution that meets or exceeds that of the
traditional 35‐mm or 70‐mm film cameras, they often lack the geometric design and stability needed for precise
photogrammetric mapping and analysis.
• They are however useful in a broad range of applications in which precise positioning and measurement is not
required.
• Historically, the dominant platform options for collecting SFAP were small fixed‐wing aircraft and helicopters. Current
platforms include, but are not limited to, ultralight aircraft, sailplanes, UAVs, blimps, balloons, and kites.
• Stationary towers and poles are also used to collect small‐format aerial photography.
Medium-Format Digital Cameras
An example of a medium‐format digital camera used for aerial
photography is the Trimble Applanix Digital Sensor System (DSS), which
can be configured with two cameras to acquire both color and color‐IR
images.

DSS incorporates a GPS receiver to record the position from which each
image is acquired at the instant of exposure and an Inertial Measurement
Unit (IMU), which determines the angular orientation, or attitude, of each
exposure. The GPS and IMU observations permit direct georeferencing of
the image data in order to produce geometrically corrected orthophotos
and orthomosaics images.

The DSS was among the first medium format camera systems to employ
such technology. Most mapping‐quality aerial camera systems now afford
direct georeferencing capabilities through integration with a GPS receiver
and an IMU.
Large-Format Digital Cameras
Figure 2.29 illustrates an example of a large‐format digital aerial mapping camera, the Z/I DMCII250. This system incorporates
five synchronously operated CCD array cameras. One is a 250 megapixel panchromatic camera incorporating a 17,216314,656
array of 5.6 mm‐sized CCDs and a 112 mm‐focal‐length lens. The system uses 14‐bit data recording and has a Ground Sampling
Distance (GSD) of 2.5 cm when operated from 500 m above ground.

Four multispectral cameras are also included in the system. All have 42‐megapixel arrays (684636096 pixels) of 7.2 mm‐sized
CCDs. Each has a dedicated filter for imaging in the blue, green, red, and near‐IR, respectively. These cameras have
45‐mm‐focal‐length lenses. The ground footprint for the multispectral and panchromatic cameras is approximately equivalent
because of the different focal length lenses used in each system.
 Geometric Elements of Area Array Digital Cameras
Figure 2.32 depicts a side view of a square pixel contained in a two‐dimensional digital camera sensor array and the
ground area within which this pixel collects incoming energy. From similar triangles,
EXAMPLE 2.5
Assume that a digital camera equipped with a 70‐mm‐focal‐length lens is being operated from a flying height above ground
of 1000 m. If the physical size of the pixels comprising the camera’s sensor is 6.9 mm (or 0.00069 cm), what is the GSD of
the resulting digital photographs?

Solution
From Eq. 2.14

For flight planning purposes, it is often necessary to determine what flying height above ground will yield photography
of a desired GSD for a given camera system. This can be done by simply rearranging Eq. 2.14 such that
Filed of View
Because area array sensors are often rectangular rather than
square, consideration must be given to the angular field of view
in both the across‐track and along‐track directions. With
reference to Figure 2.33, the angle θxt defines the total
across‐track angular field of view of a digital camera sensor.

The size of one‐half of this angle is related to one‐half of the

dimension of the sensor in the across‐track direction as follows.
EXAMPLE 2.7
If the dimensions of a digital camera sensor are 10.40 cm in the across‐track direction and 6.81 cm in the
along‐track direction, and the camera has a 80‐mm‐focal‐length lens, what are the across‐track and along‐track
total angular fields of view for the camera?
 Spatial Resolution of Film Camera Systems
• Spatial resolution is an expression of the visual quality of an Resolving Power
image produced by a particular camera system.

• The Spatial resolution of film camera systems is influenced

by a lot of parameters, such as:
1. the resolving power of the film
2. camera lens used to obtain an image,
3. any uncompensated image motion during exposure,
4. the atmospheric conditions present at the time of
image exposure,
5. the conditions of film processing, and so on.

• In the case of film‐based images, the key factor involved in

extrapolating an image resolution to a Ground Resolution
Distance (GRD) is the scale of the original image.
 Spatial Resolution of Digital Camera Systems
• The ground area covered by each pixel in a digital image does not
change as the scale of a digital display or printed image changes.

• Because of this, the ground resolution distance (GSD), rather than

the image scale, is the appropriate metric for determining the
interpretability of a digital image.

• A collection GSD is simply the linear dimension of a single pixel’s

footprint on the ground, it is equal to the native spatial resolution of
a given sensor (the ground resolution cell size).
• A product GSD is the linear dimension of a single pixel’s footprint in a
digital image product after all rectification and resampling
procedures have occurred.
• A display/printed GSD refers to the linear dimension of a single pixel
when printed using a digital printer or displayed on a computer
monitor.

• The size of pixels in one image represent the resolution of the image,
the smaller the pixel, the higher (better) the resolution.
Example:
What is the size of image of a camera that includes a CCD frame sensor, that is 1024 X1024
elements, if the size of a pixels is 5? How many megapixels are there?

Answer:

Image size = 1024 X 0.005 = 5.12 mm,

No of pixels = 1024X1024= 1,048,576 = 1 mega pixel

Example:

If a CCD array is 3000 pixels wide and a full‐scene image having a 0.4m collection GSD is printed at 300 dots
(pixels) per inch, the total width of the printed image would be 10 inches, which equals to 0.00333 inches per
pixel, or approximately 0.085 mm per pixel.

Given the above we can compute the printer display scale as:
 Detection, Recognition, and Identification of Objects

• We are interested not only in object detection but also in

object recognition and identification.

• At the detection level, the objective is to discern separate

objects discretely.
• At the recognition level, we attempt to determine what
objects are—for example, trees versus row crops.
• At the identification level, we more specifically identify
objects—for example, oak trees versus corn.

• In the above context, it is important to note that a GSD of 1 m

does not mean that one can identify or even recognize an
object on the ground that is 1 m in size on the ground. One
pixel might suffice to only indicate that something is present.

• For visual identification of a particular object, 5 to 10 or many

more pixels may be required (depending upon the GSD used
and the nature of the object).