Would Mavic be suitable for photogrammetric purposes?

[Shammyh]

As someone who has actually done several dozen photogrammetry flights, and crunched thousands of total photos, I find the P3A to be the best flight platform.

One, it's cheap. Buy a P3A and 4 batteries for the price of a Mavic, let alone P4. Two, it's a very well proven/tested flight platform at this point. Three, the fewer photos you can take, yes, the more time you save later on. Technically, yes, the lens on the Mavic will produce better results, but that's given unlimited compute resources, which very few people really have. Plus, I've yet to be convinced the Mavic sensor is on par with the P3/P4. Personally, I have a very very fast i7 workstation, but I often have to use Amazon EC2, as I'm maxed out at 32 GB of RAM, and sometimes Photoscan needs several hundred gigs to get the job done. (I've 3D modeled an entire small town).

I actually own a P3P, but if I was looking for a machine just for photogrammetry flights, it'd be the P3A hands down.

 

[r62ewa]

As someone who has actually done several dozen photogrammetry flights, and crunched thousands of total photos, I find the P3A to be the best flight platform.

One, it's cheap. Buy a P3A and 4 batteries for the price of a Mavic, let alone P4. Two, it's a very well proven/tested flight platform at this point. Three, the fewer photos you can take, yes, the more time you save later on. Technically, yes, the lens on the Mavic will produce better results, but that's given unlimited compute resources, which very few people really have. Plus, I've yet to be convinced the Mavic sensor is on par with the P3/P4. Personally, I have a very very fast i7 workstation, but I often have to use Amazon EC2, as I'm maxed out at 32 GB of RAM, and sometimes Photoscan needs several hundred gigs to get the job done. (I've 3D modeled an entire small town).

I actually own a P3P, but if I was looking for a machine just for photogrammetry flights, it'd be the P3A hands down.

Have you tried Pix4D Mapper Pro in your photogrammetry or just Photoscan? Just curious as to what you think of them both.

 

[davcom1]

Google maps satellite view anyone?

 

[AlexSP]

As someone who has actually done several dozen photogrammetry flights, and crunched thousands of total photos, I find the P3A to be the best flight platform.

...

I actually own a P3P, but if I was looking for a machine just for photogrammetry flights, it'd be the P3A hands down.

+1 here. Haven´t tried too many others, but I got hired twice already to re-do surveys previously done with more advanced and even dedicated aerophotogrametry drones (fixed-wing) that came out with poor results, unusable later on for the client. And the P3P performed flawlessly both times. I prefer it to the I1, which I´m seriously considering selling.

I can´t honestly tell it was the drone´s problem in those instances, it could well be the operator but anyway... To me, Iit tells a lot about the P3´s capacity. And yes, it´s cheaper - that counts when we´re talking about business.

 

[Ohary]

P3 Advanced here as well for photogrammetry.

 

[With The Birds]

Google maps satellite view anyone?

You may have completely failed to appreciate what aerial mapping is about. Your suggestion is iof little, if any relavence. Suitability of Google Maps will vary from less than useful to totally useless. Google resolution will be poor in comparison (assuming you want more than a 2D street view) and if you need a depiction of what is on site at a particular time it is no help at all.

 

[bdsimmons2]

While you guys are burning this guy up.. there is a valid point here that the FOV being more narrow does limit the Mavic for photogrammetry... just sayin.

 

[Ohary]

While you guys are burning this guy up.. there is a valid point here that the FOV being more narrow does limit the Mavic for photogrammetry... just sayin.

I'm not sure it does. If the sensor is higher resolution, a higher flight will offset the wider angle. The upside being an increase in accuracy. Again, this all depends if the CCD/CMOS? sensor is more tightly packed.

 

[PeteM]

As soon as the Mavic will begin to arrive in people's homes, I hope that this topic will become a space to post feedbacks to give an answer to the opening question...

Google maps satellite view anyone?

From Google Earth you can extract, at best, DEM good just for (very) preliminary studies... even the expensive private satellite services have not acceptable accuracy for small-scale topographic purposes...

 

[davcom1]

Pete - fair point. I was being flippant as it was starting to get a bit heated.

As soon as the Mavic will begin to arrive in people's homes, I hope that this topic will become a space to post feedbacks to give an answer to the opening question...



From Google Earth you can extract, at best, DEM good just for (very) preliminary studies... even the expensive private satellite services have not acceptable accuracy for small-scale topographic purposes...