HANDHELD photogrammetry, high ISO, AI denoise... Doable/Advisable...?

Development Asset Creation Photogrammetry
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Hello, is doing photogrammetry with Handheld Mirrorless DSLR (Cannon EOS M200), handheld, high ISO (800 lets say) and using newest AI denoise in Lightroom Classic possible…? Like will it look good? NO tripod involved (thus the need for high ISO setting in order to get at least 1/100s+ shutter speeds to hopefully NOT get blurry images) …?
I have currently Nikon D3200 which i use at home “studio” with tripod for photogrammetry for various objects/props i bring home. I was few times (like 2x times over the span of like 7 years (!)) in the terrain/outside with the camera and tripod… Only like 2x times over 7 years (!!). I always tell myself i will go exclusively a on photoscanning “journey”/trip to the city (i live in village) with the camera and tripod to scan objects i cannot bring home, but over the 7 years (!) i just never went, never “had the time” etc…

SO… i was thinking of getting a 2nd camera (Cannon EOS M200), PURELY for the purpose of “photogrammetry on the go” - to have a camera with me whenever i leave home for the city/outside. Its a smaller camera, so i can have it always with me and if i see something worth scanning (or just shooting for texture purposes) i will pull out the camera and “handheld” scan it… No more telling myself - “Oh… this is nice… ill come later back here with my Nikon and tripod and scan it”… Guess what - i NEVER DID, and thus “lost” the model/scan opportunity… (Few times I tried using a cheap smartphone i always have on me , but the scans are just not good…)

My question is: Is it worth it…? Like will the resulting scans be any good and more or less comparable with my nikon D3200 tripod scans…? Cause with the Cannon EOS M200 i will have to shoot without tripod (and even monopod), just handheld… Can you get a good looking scan handheld with such mirrorless camera…? Depending on the lighting, i will have to probably take majority of shoots with ISO 800, F8-F11, in order to prevent blurry images due to handholding the camera… I should be able to get at least shutter speeds of 1/100 sec and higher (1/125 etc.)… This should be enough to prevent blury images right…? I will denoise the high (800) ISO in lightroom classic using the newest AI denoise feature…

So could it be done, will the final scan be “any good” and comparable/ more or less the same quality as if done with a tripod at home…?

(will use agisoft metashape probably for the photogrammetry)

EDIT:

OR… can i shoot in full sun now these days? It was adviced that you should do scanning in shadow or when the sky is cloudy to get even lighting on your model… This is what i have always done, the downside is that there is LESS light entering the camera in these conditions, so you have to use tripod or high ISO settings… OR… did the “delighting” technology got so good over the years (i started 3d scanning like in 2015 or 2017 (?)), that you can now scan in full sun and auto remove the shadows later on with specialized tech ( i know agisoft metashape has some delighiting tools (2 seperate i think), Unity has some delighting tools, and there are probably others)… Did the delighting got so good over the years, that you can now shoot in full sun?

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Hi there,
loads of questions you have there. That is probably one of the reasons nobody answered them. Maybe also the fact that you went to a Reality Capture forum to then say you do your photogrammetry in agisoft metashape.
:wink:
The only thing I can answer here is the high ISO question. I made some tests about it myself some time ago and found, that it isn’t a good idea. Reason being, that no matter how good or smart the denoising is in any of the apps (Lightroom, Topaz Labs Denoise AI, ect.) no software is clever enough to only remove true noise. They all also remove features that where actually not noise. Because of that you actually blur your images slightly. I fould that comparing the same scanned object with ISO 100 vs. IS) 800 or higher and denoising always resulted in the ISO 100 scan being much better. The textures alone where a lot better, since I didn’t have to “blur” my images to get rid of the noise.
It simply isn’t worth it if quality is what you are after.

I also don’t recomend delighting textures of scans done in direct sun light. I used agisoft delighter in the past, and it does a fairly good job, but if the shadows are too dark, i.e. nearly black, then the resulting texture in those areas tends to suck big time, as there is just not enough information left in the shadows, for the software to be able to bring back the details. So if possible, do not shoot in direct sunlight.

Cheers

Guillaume

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Personally I’ve had usable results with higher noise images, I often reduce the resolution of source images to get cheaper exports and Reality Capture seems to deal with it well.

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I have one experiments with a nice handheld kit. You have to look for a camera with a great fullframe sensor. Dynamic range should be as good as possible. Then shooting at ISO 800 should be no problem and you can even denoise ISO 1600 images with great result. Shoot with a 28 mm lens at f8 or even f5.6. At f11 diffraction starts softening many lenses anyways. With a wide lens you can take a step back and still get everything in focus. The widest you can shoot is 24mm, but you will need a great lens for that because distortion can ruin the results. Choosing a sensor around 24 megapixels with great lowlight capabilities is key, 24mp is enough to create a 100 million poly mesh. Lastly get a camera with amazing stabilization, it has to be physical stab though not digital. Works fantastic, you can then shoot at 30th or even 15th.