Photogrammetry Apps Comparison (by a noob)

[Dougcjohn]

I've tried most of the OpenSource stuff out there and many of the retail offerings. I use Pix4D for large accident sites, and I use Recap Pro photo for things that have shiny surfaces, like vehicles. It seems to do better for that type of thing that Pix does. The Pix4D price structure kinda got ridiculous there for a while, but their cheapest option, that only let you save things as meshes isn't as big a handicap as a lot of people think. I think that option was $40-45 US. Take the mesh, open it in CloudCompare, highlight the mesh and then hit the "sample" button and set your parameters and, voila!, instant point cloud. Set GCPs in the original capture and then you can use Cloud Compare to set the scale. It adds a step to the workflow and another 5 minutes, but with CloudCompare being OpenSource and Pix4D at $45 a month, who cares?

CloudCompare's probably the best OpenSource program, like ever. The stuff you can do with it is amazing. It's the Swiss Army knife of 3D programs. There are FARO filters, so I can integrate my FARO pointclouds with point clouds generated from Pix4D and Recap, etc.

Recap Pro and Recap Pro photo are a helluva bargain, also at the $40ish per month price tage. You get Recap Pro, that you can register point clouds with and create flythrough videos, etc, and you get Recap Pro Photo for the captures. It works great on vehicles, I run the photos through an HDR program first and give them a lot of grain, which seems to give me a better result.

Here's a Camaro that run up under an 18-wheeler that was done in RecapPhoto several years ago. They've gotten even better since then. This was about 130 photos...I was lazy with the image capture and didn't put the camera on the floor, ergo the occlusion on the undercarriage. Better photos would reduce that, if not eliminate it.

I've tried Recap Pro/Photo and experienced issues... my GPU wasn't great... in 2018. I found the product layout and process a bit confusing too.

Although, you've given incentive to take another strong look! Your 3D of Camero is outstanding! Very nice model! That's 130 photos of you walking around it with DSLR.. or aerial with drone?

I am impressed! I've been working with Metashape and Reality Capture products..

 

[4N6Guy]

I've tried Recap Pro/Photo and experienced issues... my GPU wasn't great... in 2018. I found the product layout and process a bit confusing too.

Although, you've given incentive to take another strong look! Your 3D of Camero is outstanding! Very nice model! That's 130 photos of you walking around it with DSLR.. or aerial with drone?

I am impressed! I've been working with Metashape and Reality Capture products..

The Camaro was done in 2017, if memory serves me correct. Recap has gotten a lot better. It was done with a point and shoot, about 10 feet away from the vehicle, moving around the vehicle, stopping at about 24 stations, every 15 degrees or so, and 4-5 photos at each station. Total capture time is less than 2 minutes. Ankle level, mid thigh, chest, head and as high as you can reach. I've tried lots of different camera configurations...4 GoPros on a stick, set at different heights, 4 older Canon 10D SLRs ($40 each from KEH, with pancake lenses (also about $40 each) set at different heights on a pole, triggered remotely, 3 10Ds configured in a triangle shape (which worked really well from a quality perspective) a single 70D, with a 28 mm pancake lens, and - finally - a simple all in one Nikon Cool Pix AW-100 series camera. If Memory serves me correctly, that one was captured on a AW-120. Fixed lens, fairly robust, waterproof, GPS enabled, etc.

Capturing Reality's product is awesome. I saw a Demo where a guy used 6 Canon DSLRs on a portable rig and the capture was amazing....I think he captured a castle with 7,000 terrestrial images...pretty awesome...

Check out how they have the cameras angled and the placement in the model.