ANALYTICAL VERSUS DIGITAL PHOTOGRAMMETRIC TECHNIQUES AND SYSTEMS 
BRANKO MAKAROVIC 
International Institute for Aerospace Survey and 
Earth Sciences 
350 Boulevard 1945 
7500 AA Enschede, 
Netherlands 
ABSTRACT: 
A comparative study has been carried out on the advantages and 
limitations of the analytical and digital photogrammetric systems. 
Attention is given to the context of such systems and to the 
criteria for a comparative evaluation. The evaluation addresses the 
common properties of each basic technique as well as its 
production-specific properties. 
Digital systems are very flexible, can be versatile and fast. Their 
geometric and semantic performances are, with few exceptions, 
inferior to those of analytical systems. The reduced quality of 
digital images seriously impairs the semantic content, and thus the 
economics of the geo- information (GI) production. Digital 
techniques are, however, feasible for automation, though they 
require high- performance digital hardware. Their main limitation 
concerns automatic image interpretation. 
The photogrammetric hardware of digital systems is relatively 
simple, but the software is more extensive and complex than that of 
the analytical systems. Hence, the hardware requires less support 
and the software requires more. 
The acquisition cost of digital systems is high because of the 
special digital hardware and the extensive software for image 
processing. 
KEY WORDS: Context, criteria, semantic/geometric domains, analogue/ 
digital images, automation, advantages/ limitations. 
1. INTRODUCTION 
The current transition from analytical to digital photogrammetric 
techniques and systems calls for a comparative study of their 
advantages and limitations. Because this evolution is continuing, 
the conclusions of such a study are tentative. 
The study can be structured according to the common features of each 
technique or system type, and according to their specific features. 
The scope is to assess both techniques with emphasis on geo 
information (GI) production and the corresponding support. 
Analytical techniques use analogue images, digitally controlled 
mechanical positioning, and digital geometric transformations and