Camera Settings

Angle 

The optimal camera angle will depend on the profile of your site. More details can be found here.

Image Settings 

Typically, your camera’s auto settings will work well enough to adequately collect data. We recommend you follow our recommended flight parameters table to ensure best results depending on the specifics of your site and your project. One important thing to note is that you should ensure GPS location is included in the metadata for every image you collect during your flight, which is typically done automatically for most cameras.  

Aperture 

This setting controls how much light comes into the lens of your camera, and usually refers to the length of the lens, F, over the diameter of the aperture, f/X. Having a larger aperture setting will yield brighter images, while a smaller aperture setting will result in darker images. We recommend setting your camera’s F-Stop at F/4 or F/5 to get light-filled images in which site details are more easily recognizable. Depending on the speed of the aircraft, one would increase aperture in order to reach an exposure value of 0.

Note: Use manual focus to avoid blurred images and issues with processing

ISO 

Your ISO setting determines how sensitive your camera’s sensor is to light. A high ISO increases the sensitivity of your sensor towards light, which results in a brighter image that also better displays visual distortions. A low ISO is the opposite and will result in darker images with obscured visual distortions. We recommend setting the ISO between 100 and 200 to reduce the number of visual distortions in the imagery. 

Shutter Speed 

The speed of your shutter controls the sensor’s exposure time, which also determines the amount of light that enters the lens as you are capturing an image. High shutter speed settings shorten the sensor’s exposure time, resulting in sharper but darker images. Low shutter speeds, on the other hand, lengthen the sensor’s exposure time, yielding lighter but blurrier images. We recommend a shutter speed of 1/250 or above (not to exceed 1/800) to get images that are crisper and show more details while still remaining light-filled. 

Global Shutter (Mechanical) VS. Rolling Shutter

Depending on the type of camera your drone is equipped with, you may need to double-check whether it is automatically using global or rolling shutter settings. Rolling shutter cameras will typically yield a vertical displacement/distortion that results from the shutter capturing the image in a frame-by-frame manner, causing the “rolling shutter effect”. Global shutters, on the other hand, capture the entire image frame at the exact same time, which eliminates distortion and creates more accurate images for the purposes of aerial mapping and CAD drafting. For best results, we recommend using global shutter cameras whenever possible to avoid image distortions.