Calculating Altitude for Pictures

M

Melvoid

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I've seen a reference or two, but does anyone have a formula to calculate how high I'd have to be to get a photo of a specific area size? I have a P3A with whatever camera comes with it (don't actually know the focal length).

I'm not positive on the size, but I'm thinking the area needed is going to be at about 100x100 feet.

This would come in handy because a nearby airport has been pretty receptive when I've called in the past to get an OK, but if I can be specific about my altitude, I think they'd appreciate it.

thanks
 
I've seen a reference or two, but does anyone have a formula to calculate how high I'd have to be to get a photo of a specific area size? I have a P3A with whatever camera comes with it (don't actually know the focal length).

I'm not positive on the size, but I'm thinking the area needed is going to be at about 100x100 feet.

This would come in handy because a nearby airport has been pretty receptive when I've called in the past to get an OK, but if I can be specific about my altitude, I think they'd appreciate it.

thanks
Google Earth would be a good place to start.
 
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Google Earth would be a good place to start.
If you mean to check the spot, we already did. It's changed since the pictures were taken. We have a roughly 100 x 100 foot area where we test things with wheels, and we want to have a pic of it to draw the route and other objects on for the people doing the testing. The area looks totally different from how it looked when the Google Earth pix were taken.
 
Is this not basic trigonometry? Not that I should talk... if I had to help out a ten year old kid with homework I'd be in deep yogurt.

The P3's camera reportedly features a 94 deg field of view (diagonal I think). Some searching shows the lens to be a 20mm focal length equivalent (in the 35mm sensor parlance on which most photography calculations are based).

Here are a few calculators that could help...

Camera Field of View Calculator (FOV)

http://www.tawbaware.com/maxlyons/calc.htm
 
I will check these. As far as basic trig? Well, I'll tell you anything you need to know about the French Horn, but trig? I think not. If there's a basic math formula, I can probably handle that, but otherwise, I'll just keep climbing until I can see it all... :)

But thanks for the reply. I shall see what I can learn.

ms

Is there such a thing as "basic" trigonometry?
 
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The iOS App "PhotoPills" has a drone planning function that will give you your field of view (looking straight down) with any given drone. PhotoPills is one of 2 very good photography planning tools. They are just beginning to add drone planning functions.
 
I will check these. As far as basic trig? Well, I'll tell you anything you need to know about the French Horn, but trig? I think not. If there's a basic math formula, I can probably handle that, but otherwise, I'll just keep climbing until I can see it all... :)

But thanks for the reply. I shall see what I can learn.

ms

Is there such a thing as "basic" trigonometry?

It is very basic trigonometry. If you know the sensor diagonal field of view, θ, in degrees, then at a height, h, above the ground, the diagonal field of view, d, on the ground is simply given by:

d = 2h.tan(θ/2)​
 
Well, I solved it. I just kept going up until I could see it all.
One thing I didn't mention was that the area (100x100') was a verbal estimate in the first place.
At the end, I wound up at 145' high.
Thanks for all the replies!! (I am going to try to understand the formulas and see if I can do this.)
 
Is this not basic trigonometry? Not that I should talk... if I had to help out a ten year old kid with homework I'd be in deep yogurt.

The P3's camera reportedly features a 94 deg field of view (diagonal I think). Some searching shows the lens to be a 20mm focal length equivalent (in the 35mm sensor parlance on which most photography calculations are based).

Here are a few calculators that could help...

Camera Field of View Calculator (FOV)

http://www.tawbaware.com/maxlyons/calc.htm
This is the answer.
 

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