Camera Match Drone Photography

[Dave Buckley]

So more and more these days I'm camera matching drone footage/stills.

 

Normally they're quite high, but I've got one at the minute that's quite low down.

 

To be honest I normally eyeball the match but this requires accurate date.

 

The only thing I'm struggling with is replicating the drones camera settings into 3ds max.

 

I've inserted what I think, but the camera seems way off so I think I've missed something.

 

I've attached the drone data, if anyone knows what I should be putting in Max that would awesome.

[Chris MacDonald]

Have you taken into account sensor size? I find it a lot easier to set the actual sensor size and focal length than working out crop factors.

[Andres Saarnak]

Have you taken into account sensor size? I find it a lot easier to set the actual sensor size and focal length than working out crop factors.

+1

 

And I eyeball it anyway, I get poor results most of the time with max camera matching tools. Large building and drone panoramas are specially difficult for me when all straight lines are curved and weird. I have used PS to correct lens and distort both photo and rendering to match them...only minor corrections, though, it can get bad pretty quick.

[Dave Buckley]

Yeh, this is why I asked, I don't actually know the true focal length, I only have a 35mm equivalent.

 

The closest I'm getting is by using a film gate of 36 and focal length of 20. That does get me pretty close, I'm starting to think my context model is out though. It's the only thing I have to camera match to though, so I think I'm gonna stick with where I'm at and tweak in post from there.

[Scott Dombrowski]

I've always found the "35mm equivalent" focal lengths to be approximations. On this thread, someone says the focal length of a Phantom 3 (which your provided specs seem to match) is 3.61mm with a sensor size of 6.16mm x 4.62mm.

 

With a Max Physical Camera, try a sensor width of 6.16mm and a focal length of 3.61mm. That gives a horizontal FOV of 80.936 degrees if you're using the a Max Free/Targeted Camera.

[Dave Buckley]

Yeh cheers, I got pretty close with the approximations of 36 sensor width and 20.7 focal length. Gave me a FOV of roughly 81 degrees so both pretty similar.