9.3.3 Camera calibration

In principle, simultaneous calibration of photogrammetric systems leads to the highest accuracy, as all local and momentary influences of the camera, of the atmosphere, of film development, of CCD-sensor deformation and of image measurement can be considered. For that purpose, however, an appropriate exposure arrangement must be chosen. A minimum of photos and image measurements must also be available.

Simultaneous calibration often cannot be applied, for economic reasons, especially in terrestrial photogrammetry with very small objects. For such cases, either the results of a preceding simultaneous calibration may be adopted for the adjustment, or a test-field calibration must be performed. Relevant examples are located e.g. in the directories \Bingo\DemoData\Simple_AT\, ...\Fairfield\ and ...\UCX_Deventer\.

For aerial cameras, BINGO can define the camera constant, the principal point, and the systematic image errors. When using terrestrial cameras, an eccentricity vector e' may be added (see Section 2.1.2).

As soon as kinematic GPS-observations of the exposure stations are included in the adjustment, the principal point of the camera should take part in the adjustment as observed unknown in every case.