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Dual camera head for photomapping (visible and IR) - probably world's first civilian installation

Posted by Krzysztof Bosak on May 10, 2011 at 6:30am

Hi,

I couldn't resist to share the close-ups of our custom delivery of Pteryx PRO for AGROCOM Polska (precision agriculture consulting services).

This is most probably the only operational setup in the world that can do simultaneous mapping of both visible and full spectrum (including near IR) photos.

We have used mechanical triggering (scheduled automatically by the autopilot) that allows using different cameras with the same metal mount. The head is a part of Pteryx UAV and is made of kevlar+carbon fiber, it is also roll stabilised for guaranteed ground photo overlap.

ir, pteryx, agriculture, ortophoto, precision

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Comments

Thomas Nilsen May 10, 2011 at 10:14am

You could probably set a specific focus, zoom and timer value so that both are equal using the CHDK kit for Canon. Then you could probably get two photos taken at exactly same time with same parameters.
T3

Rory Paul May 10, 2011 at 9:53am

I found that with the two camera system I could not get the images aligned. The cameras would never capture the same image as the focus on the NIR camera took longer (even after putting in a servo delay on the visual camera). The result was you needed to align the images in software and with hundreds of high resolution images this would take forever.
Thomas Nilsen May 10, 2011 at 7:50am

I found this site which converts stock canon cameras etc to IR and other bands.

http://www.maxmax.com
T3

Krzysztof Bosak May 10, 2011 at 7:46am

Those are Agrocom's cameras and they will have to decide what to reveal, not sure if they will go public. It is too early to speculate yet

The camera was modified by renowned Polish IR photographer that is working for us.

But you can get similarly modified cameras on ebay also (much cheaper).
I.S. May 10, 2011 at 7:23am

It would be nice to watch some pictures taken by the cameras.
Thomas Nilsen May 10, 2011 at 7:22am

Very cool! Can we see a sample picture from IR and non-IR?

Where did you get the lens/optics changed?
Moderator

Gary Mortimer May 10, 2011 at 7:12am

Way to go Chris thats quite a payload.
T3

Krzysztof Bosak May 10, 2011 at 7:07am

Both cameras are triggered at the same time and the IR version has changed optics.

Triggering is mechanical, thus the user is free to change camera brand (CHDK is canon only).
Ritchie May 10, 2011 at 6:58am

So you've hacked one camera to run the CHDK so its near IR and added it to the nose. Do you trigger both cameras at once or separately?