Although software methods of photo rectification offer pictures and 3D-objects without perspective distortion, every day experience shows that the accuracy of rectified pictures improves dramatically with the height of the position of camera.
Bumps and dips in the pavement do not have an influence, when pictures are made nearly perpendicular to the surface. Only a few mesurements are sufficent to scale the rectified picture perfectly.
- camera high up in thin air
pictures of accident sites
An effective use of the tripod affords a short handling phase, good mobility, reliable remote maintenance of the photo equipment even in bad operating conditions and a check of results (pictures) before taking down the whole equipment. All that is provided by a Nikon D80 on top of this tripod. Comparable digital cameras can be used in the same way. The wide angle objective (Tamron FR 17mm without distortion) enables you to capture a 10 x 15 m large lane section at one time. Even small objects can easily be seen in the pictures.
special pictures of vehicles
Vehicles (especially big ones..) are 3D-objects, that cannot be broken down to 2D-pictures without perspective effects. On the other hand, with the tripod you can choose the location of camera wisely to avoid perspective distortion for special areas of a vehicle. By putting those areas together like a puzzle, you can create proper 2D pictures for vehicle drawings.
- collage of 207, done from two positions of camera
