Comparative evaluation of consumer grade cameras and mobile phone cameras for close range photogrammetry

The authors have been concentrating on developing convenient 3D measurement methods using consumer grade digital cameras, and it was concluded that consumer grade digital cameras are expected to become a useful photogrammetric device for the various close range application fields. On the other hand, mobile phone cameras which have 10 mega pixels were appeared on the market in Japan. In these circumstances, we are faced with alternative epoch-making problem whether mobile phone cameras are able to take the place of consumer grade digital cameras in close range photogrammetric applications. In order to evaluate potentials of mobile phone cameras in close range photogrammetry, comparative evaluation between mobile phone cameras and consumer grade digital cameras are investigated in this paper with respect to lens distortion, reliability, stability and robustness. The calibration tests for 16 mobile phone cameras and 50 consumer grade digital cameras were conducted indoors using test target. Furthermore, practability of mobile phone camera for close range photogrammetry was evaluated outdoors. This paper presents that mobile phone cameras have ability to take the place of consumer grade digital cameras, and develop the market in digital photogrammetric fields.