Small Format Digital Sensors for Aerial Imaging Applications

Small format aerial imaging sensors are important data acquisition tools, but their positive attributes are too often overlooked. Nowadays, as the number of users of spatial data are dramatically increasing, the use of small format sensors is becoming more common. It is therefore important to rigorously assess small format sensors to ensure they are providing quality spatial data. Mostly small format sensors are used for topographic mapping, terrain modelling or multispectral imaging. This paper addresses the last of these three applications, multispectral imaging. The paper compares two different types of small format multispectral sensors, one a commercially available system, and the other a custom built system. It is found that the custom built system, which incorporates consumer grade digital SLR cameras, offers significant advantages over the commercial system.