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Mapping and Pano altitudes

R.Perry

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The job on on I do monthly mapping and bi weekly panos and progressions.
I have 140 acre job site, and do the mapping from 300 feet.
I have 13 panos that I do at 200 feet.

The Superintendent attempts to zoom in and get fine detail from both mapping and panos. I'm also dealing with three 225 foot cranes.

My question is, what altitudes to you guys do your mapping and how much overlay do you use, my mapping is running about 640 photos. Each pano is 34 photos.

Also what lens are you using. I'm flying the Inspire 2
 
The job on on I do monthly mapping and bi weekly panos and progressions.
I have 140 acre job site, and do the mapping from 300 feet.
I have 13 panos that I do at 200 feet.

The Superintendent attempts to zoom in and get fine detail from both mapping and panos. I'm also dealing with three 225 foot cranes.

My question is, what altitudes to you guys do your mapping and how much overlay do you use, my mapping is running about 640 photos. Each pano is 34 photos.

Also what lens are you using. I'm flying the Inspire 2

Personally I fly at whatever altitude gives me better than a GSD of 0.5 (which for the Inspire 1v2 with an X3 Zenmuse is 90 ft AGL. That is the recommendation from Propeller to gain optimal use from my Aeropoints. Also, I can easily identify and digitize anything 3/4" of larger in pipe size. With the I2 I suspect that your camera is somewhat better than mine (12MP for me; 20MP for you?) so that could equate to a bit more altitude.
I don't fly panos. I am solely interested in potential sub-surface work that we are going to have to maintain in the future. I feel you on operating around cranes. I generally coordinate flights with the General contractor in our weekly meetings and fly at or around lunch time when the site shuts down. I've gotten the best results that way.
 
I can understand a low attitude for sub surfaces documentation. However I have 200 foot cranes, buildings and I don't need the detail you are speaking of. The quality of pictures coming from the Inspire 2 is outstanding in my opinion, they rival my Nikon cameras.
 
I can understand a low attitude for sub surfaces documentation. However I have 200 foot cranes, buildings and I don't need the detail you are speaking of. The quality of pictures coming from the Inspire 2 is outstanding in my opinion, they rival my Nikon cameras.
The 0.5 GSD is an Aeropoint recommendation. I can fly higher. The post-processing just gets a little tougher ID'ing the control points. The accuracy is survey-grade though. For your application results may vary.
 
The job on on I do monthly mapping and bi weekly panos and progressions.
I have 140 acre job site, and do the mapping from 300 feet.
I have 13 panos that I do at 200 feet.

The Superintendent attempts to zoom in and get fine detail from both mapping and panos. I'm also dealing with three 225 foot cranes.

My question is, what altitudes to you guys do your mapping and how much overlay do you use, my mapping is running about 640 photos. Each pano is 34 photos.

Also what lens are you using. I'm flying the Inspire 2
"Fine detail" is a pretty nebulous term. And you don't say if your boss is seeing what he wants from 300 ft. Even with my P3A I get sub-inch resolution from that altitude. I usually fly 75% overlap, but have gotten reasonable results at 60%.
 
"Fine detail" is a pretty nebulous term. And you don't say if your boss is seeing what he wants from 300 ft. Even with my P3A I get sub-inch resolution from that altitude. I usually fly 75% overlap, but have gotten reasonable results at 60%.
Whatever altitude gives me 0.5 GSD; usually 90 feet but sometimes due to obstacles I have to increase to 110 feet using the 12MP X3 on the Inspire. Not the best solution but it works for now. I would think that with an Sony A7R II you would be able to approach 300-400 feet and still be at or around 0.5 GSD.
My front and side lap are normally set to 85% on both for 3D work.
 
Ok, this comes from relying on faulty memory! Just went back and reviewed some of my maps. I had to fly at 50 ft agl to get .5 in GSD. Overlap isn't going to affect gsdcthatvmuch, I would try going down as low as 50% and evaluate the results.
 
Ok, this comes from relying on faulty memory! Just went back and reviewed some of my maps. I had to fly at 50 ft agl to get .5 in GSD. Overlap isn't going to affect gsdcthatvmuch, I would try going down as low as 50% and evaluate the results.
The better your camera the higher you can fly. Mine is not the best by far.
 
If you are using the X4S on the i2, you will probably get .7 px/inch from 200' agl. and 1.4 px/inch at 400' BTW, the X4S is actually better than the X5S for ortho work due to the mechanical shutter on the X4S.
 
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