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PHOTOGRAMMETRIC INVESTIGATION OF A 3000 x 2000 PIXEL HIGH RESOLUTION
STILL VIDEO CAMERA
Jürgen Peipe
Universität der Bundeswehr München
Institut für Photogrammetrie und Kartographie
D-85577 Neubiberg, Germany
Tel: ++49-89-6004-3454 Fax: ++49-89-6004-4090
KEY WORDS: Close range photogrammetry, Still video camera, High resolution digital image acquisition
ABSTRACT
Recently still video cameras have gained importance as image acquisition devices in close range photogrammetry.
They are able to take and store digital images without being connected to a computer. Used as off-line single-sensor
system, a still video camera provides a high grade of mobility and user friendly handling, e.g. for object recording in
multi-station convergent image blocks for high precision applications of photogrammetry to dimensional inspection in
industry.
The Kodak DCS 460 still video camera developed very recently is equipped with a large CCD chip of approximately
3000 x 2000 pixel opening up a new dimension of resolution and accuracy. In this paper, a first performance test using
the DCS 460 is described resulting in a relative accuracy of 1 : 180000 of the 3-D object reconstruction achieved from
multi-station self-calibrating bundle adjustment.
1. DIRECT DIGITAL IMAGE ACQUISITION WITH CCD CAMERAS
During the last years, digital techniques have been increasingly used for close range photogrammetric metrology in a
number of application areas such as industrial inspection and quality control, robotics, architecture and medicine. A
series of measurement systems has been developed comprising different digital cameras as direct image acquisition
devices. Standard CCD cameras with a matrix sensor of 750 x 580 pixel connected with a computer for data transfer
and storage are suitable for on-line or even real-time processing. Due to their relatively small image format the achiev-
able accuracy of 3-D object reconstruction is limited.
The resolution can be increased by enlarging the number of pixels. Large CCD imagers of up to 5K x 5K pixel are being
produced (Lenz and Lenz, 1993). High resolution digital imaging can also be achieved by sequential recording, e.g.
with micro- or macro- or micro & macro-scanning cameras. These techniques allow to acquire images of 3000 x 2300
pixel up to 11000 x 14000 pixel (Lenz and Lenz, 1993) or even 20000 x 20000 pixel (Lenz et al., 1994) but only non-
moving objects can be recorded and the time required for data transfer and storage increases.
A new type of digital camera, the still video camera, is not necessarily linked to a computer during image acquisition.
This independent and easy portable device can be operated like a modern photographic small format camera. The
image data are stored on an internal memory and can be transferred to a computer later on. Still video camera anda
portable computer (laptop) with image measurement and processing software constitute a mobile and flexible off-line
single-sensor vision metrology system for fast object recording and object reconstruction, e.g. in an industrial envi-
ronment.
Several still video cameras are commercially available, produced by Canon (ION RC560 with 760 x 552 pixel), Kodak
(DCS 200 and DCS 420 (Fig. 2) with 1524 x 1012 pixel), Nikon (E2 with 1280 x 1000 pixel), Olympus (DELTIS VC-1100
with 480 x 768 pixel) etc.. Cameras with low resolution are relatively inexpensive but high accuracy cannot be
achieved (Peipe and Schneider, 1994).
High resolution cameras are still expensive. Several photogrammetric performance tests exist for the Kodak DCS 200
(van den Heuvel, 1993; Bósemann et al., 1994; Fraser and Shortis, 1994; Kersten and Maas, 1994; Peipe and Schnei-
IAPRS, Vol. 30, Part 5W1, ISPRS Intercommission Workshop "From Pixels to Sequences’, Zurich, March 22-24 1995
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