Meshroom has for some time been one of my top choices for open-source or free photogrammetry software, offering a really deep amount of customization and tinkering. However, while this blog made a big splash early on reviewing all the different open-source photogrammetry software, I've found they haven't really kept up with Metashape or RealityScan, and... Continue Reading →
RealityScan 2.0 Released (formerly RealityCapture)
As I’d previously noted, RealityCapture has been re-branded to RealityScan, to align branding across desktop and mobile applications. With the rebrand come some major new changes: AI Masking Smarter Alignment Aeriel LiDAR Support Quality Analysis To install it, you need to fire up Epic Games Launcher, then I had to wait a while until the... Continue Reading →
Modern image formats – which is best? Experimenting with .AVIF and .JXL
Despite having a terabyte of OneDrive storage (which I've been enjoying for years, though I'm starting to look at Proton as an alternative - that's for another post), it's very nearly full, and a big portion of that is photos: normal snaps of holidays, family, and so forth, but also hundreds and hundreds of gigs... Continue Reading →
No more Agisoft? Turn to Reality Capture with this guide
I’ve had multiple emails now from different people working at US government agencies – Agisoft Metashape is no longer available nor allowed because it’s made by a Russian company. Below, I’ll provide a run through of Reality Capture as it stands today. The main competitor to Metashape is Reality Capture, now owned by Epic Games. ... Continue Reading →
Focus stacking and photogrammetry
I experimented with macro photogrammetry using a small fossil and a Nikon Z8 camera with MC105 VR S lens. I used focus-shift and focus-stack with shallow depth of field. Reality Capture produced a good model from the focus-stacked images, but using the lens at f51 also yielded a great result. Both methods have their benefits.
An Excellent Free and Open Source focus-stacking solution
I struggled with merging focus-shifted images using Photoshop and Affinity Photo but found success with Helicon Focus, though with some limitations. I then discovered focus-stack on GitHub, a simple command-line tool, which was comparable to Helicon Focus.
Reality Capture going free for everyone*
The other day, I saw that Capturing reality announced a new pricing plan for their photogrammetry software Reality Capture: https://twitter.com/peterfalkingham/status/1767573164614103112?s=20 Reality Captured wormed it's way into my heart as my favourite photogrammetry software. Initially, while I was blown away by the speed of Reality Capture, I had a bit of a rough first impression due... Continue Reading →
Beholder Vision Desktop
I reviewed Beholder Vision back in 2022, and then it was a web-based service, where you upload your photos, it produces a model, and you then download it. That service is still available, but Beholder have now released a desktop version. Best of all, it’s complete free for personal use. It’s technically ad-supported, though so... Continue Reading →
RealityScan – Photogrammetry on Android
As with so much of my gadget life, I've been looking longingly over at the Apple ecosystem, in this context specifically for the amazing 3D scanning apps that are available for the iPhone and iPad. Because those devices have lidar on the back, 3D scanning apps work really well - using the camera to texture... Continue Reading →
Reality Capture v1.3: The fastest just got faster
Yesterday Capturing Reality released Reality Capture 1.3. Key among the change log was "faster model reconstruction and texturing", as well as some improved UV unwrapping. I've enjoyed the speed of Reality Capture for a while, and last year declared myself a reality capture convert. In fact, I now use Reality Capture as a matter of... Continue Reading →