Discussions

Agisoft Photoscan vs Pix4uav

Posted by Mark Brown on November 20, 2013 at 2:07am

Hello,

I was wondering if anyone has any experience using the different types of image processing software.

I'm particularly interested in the creation of DEMs for terrain/surface mapping.

I've been looking at the options out there. Something I'm confused about is why Pix4uav is so expensive compared to AgiSoft Photoscan.

Pix4UAV is $21000 (15500 euro)

Agisoft Photoscan is $3499 (2600 euro)

Is it really worth the extra cost?

EDIT: Hello I should edit this now as the new Pix4DMapper is cheaper and they have montly and yearly rental options

http://pix4d.com/buy_rent/

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Replies

- - - - Enrique Toro Lira > David Kovar January 6, 2015 at 11:02am
        
        It is a sum of many aspects. if you are modeling an object with terrestrial and oblique images, I suggest to process photos In Photoshop, do masking removing everything else that is not the object in the photo, and if the picture has been taken with fish eye lens, then correct the fish eye distortion.
        If you are using it for NADIR and terrain modeling it is better using Ground control points with a high accuracy gps in order to correct error.
        
        Regards,
        Enrique Toro Lira Q.
        http://etlaudiovisual.com
Frank Boston July 8, 2014 at 7:07am

Have any of you ever looked into PhotoModeler? (http://www.photomodeler.com/index.html) It isn't made specifically for UAV imagery, but will work equally well with hand-held cameras and air-borne UAV cameras. I have a friend who is using this to do 3d models of homes and some terrain modelling. I can't find a good feature comparison between the software packages. One thing it does do is automatically extract images out of a video stream, to select the best overlap between imagery.
cmiser May 10, 2014 at 6:17am

My two cents but know in advance that I run Falcon UAV and we are a vendor for Agisoft Photoscan. Why do we use Photoscan? Well it was and is the best image processing that I have seen for local use (not cloud based). We started using it because we had some associates in the US Federal Government that are long time photogrammetry experts and they use it for their work and they do some amazing stuff with it. Pix4 is trying to play catch up and I don't think they have made it their and their cost is still much more expensive than photoscan and their image products still aren't as capable as photoscan. Note with photoscan and any good non cloud based system you need a monster computer if you intend to run big jobs. At a minimum 64 GB of RAM if you are doing very high resolution DEMs. I have a 128GB of ram on my current system. So in addition to the software cost be ready to drop 4-8K in hardware costs on the computer to crunch it. Again this is if you want a local capability. If you were ok with a pay by the job cloud service I would recommend Dronemapper.
- Steve Markofsky > cmiser May 10, 2014 at 9:05am
  
  Hey, Cmiser--
  
  What are you defining as a 'big job'? In terms of image number, and resolution? I'm looking into generating DEMS of roughly 1 sq. km areas, most images around around 5 MB jpgs or so. Probably around 150-250 images per area. Trying to suss out what my hardware requirements would be (and also want to experiment with Photoscan, Pix4 and the open source packages)
  
  Thanks--
  
  -s
  - Developer
    
    Jaime Machuca > Steve Markofsky May 10, 2014 at 10:14am
    
    This is from the Pix4D website, it's a little hidden but it's great info.
    
    Minimum:
    
    Windows Vista, 7, 8, Server 2008, Server 2012, 64 bits ( PC or Mac computers using Boot Camp).
    Any CPU (Intel i5/i7/Xeon recommended).
    Small projects (under 100 images at 14MP): 4GB RAM, 10GB HDD.
    Medium projects (between 100 and 500 images at 14MP): 8GB RAM, 250GB HDD.
    Large projects (over 500 images at 14MP): 16GB RAM, 1TB HDD.
    Recommended:
    
    Windows Vista, 7, 8 64 bits.
    CPU quad-core or hexa-core Intel i7/Xeon.
    Small projects (under 100 images at 14MP): 8GB RAM, 50GB HDD.
    Medium projects (between 100 and 500 images at 14MP): 32GB RAM, 500GB HDD.
    Large projects (over 500 images at 14MP): 64GB RAM, 1TB HDD.
    - Steve Markofsky > Jaime Machuca May 12, 2014 at 1:01am
      
      Thanks, Jaime--
      
      That's great info! Much appreciated.
      
      --s
- Jaime > cmiser May 10, 2014 at 8:36am
  
  I was also a supporter of Photoscan, but in the past few weeks I have used Pix4D Mapper and I have done things that are impossible to do with photoscan. If all you need is a pretty stitched picture, maybe Photoscan is enough for you, but the new features of Pix4d that allow you to create 3D models using the ray cloud, measure distances, volumes, and analyze NDVI put it on a completely different level. The only thing I am missing now from Pix4D is the point cloud classification.
  - Fouad Mahmud > Jaime June 6, 2014 at 1:28pm
    
    We use Photoscan together with Global Mapper and Virtual Surveyor and get the same capability at much less cost.
  - cmiser > Jaime May 10, 2014 at 8:46am
    
    You can export models in Photoscan if you have the professional edition. In fact I just 3D printed a model that I generated in Photoscan. As for the quantitative measurement tools you are correct photoscan doesn't specialize in that, they special in generating the products. We use Global Mapper 15 for image product analysis. Global Mappers bread and butter is analyzing this type of data. It does the distance measurement, volume calcs, countour maps, flow analysis, and even comparison of DEMs for change detection. Global Mapper costs $500. So again $3500 (Photoscan) + $500 (Global Mapper 15+) gets you better image products and better analytical tools.
    - Fouad Mahmud > cmiser June 6, 2014 at 1:30pm
      
      agree with you...