This article provides instructions on processing images taken by a spherical camera and which cameras are already in PIX4Dmapper's camera database.
PIX4Dmapper can process images captured with spherical (full 360-degree) cameras. These cameras have many advantages because it is easy to achieve high overlap with fewer images. It is faster to capture a complete dataset. It is also efficient to process since the manufacturer calibrates the camera, and calibrating the model takes less time.
On the other hand, some disadvantages should be taken into account: the quality of the calibration of the manufacturer affects the reconstruction very much since the remaining distortions are not considered. At the same time, large parts of the images can be covered by sky or undesired objects due to the wide field of view, adding noise in the reconstruction, and the images may need pre-processing to be converted to the required format (equirectangular).
Some spherical cameras are already included in the camera database of PIX4Dmapper, and they will be automatically detected for processing:
- Ladybug 5: All versions of the Ladybug camera can be exported in the equirectangular image format.
- NCTech iStar
- Ricoh Theta
- Ricoh Theta S
Important:
Any spherical camera that supports the equirectangular format is also supported. For more information about the equirectangular format:
What is the equirectangular Image format?
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To process a spherical project in PIX4Dmapper:
1. Create a project: Step 2. Creating a Project.
2. Import the equirectangular spherical images or video and click Next.
3. (optional) If a video is imported, select the frames to be extracted in the Video Extraction Options pop-up.
4. In the Selected Camera Model section of the Image Properties window, click Edit....
5. In the Edit Camera Model window that appears, in the Camera Model Parameters section, make sure that Spherical Camera is selected and click OK.
6. Click Next.
7. In the Select Output Coordinate System window, select the output coordinate system: Select Image / GCP / Output Coordinate System and click Next.
8. In the Processing Options Template window, select 3D Models.
9. Click Finish.
10. Process the project.