Camera Presets Panel
The Camera Presets panels are accessed by clicking the button (1) at the bottom-left of the PFTrack interface:
The buttons (2) can be used to switch between the Movie Camera Presets and Photo Camera Presets panels:
: This will display the Movie Camera Presets panel, where camera presets can be constructed for use in the Clip Input node to assist with matchmoving.
: This will display the Photo Camera Presets panel, where camera presets can be constructed for use in the Photo Input node to assist with photogrammetry.
Camera Presets
Camera presets describe the particular properties of a combination of a camera body and lens, and are used to assist with both matchmoving and photogrammetry. The main information they provide is:
The size of the camera sensor (or equivalently, the film-back) used to capture images.
The focal length of the camera lens for prime lenses, or the focal range for zoom lenses.
The distortion characteristics of the lens.
When available, metadata present in your media files can be used to help construct a camera preset by automatically populating the sensor and lens information.
Combining this information into a preset for a specific camera and lens can greatly help both matchmoving and photogrammetry. Further details of how camera presets are applied to footage is available in the Clip Input and Photo Input nodes.
Lens Distortion Calibration
Accounting for lens distortion is an important part of both the matchmoving and photogrammetry pipelines. By shooting a calibration pattern consisting of either a checkerboard or regular grid of dots, PFTrack is able to determine the particular characteristics of lens distortion and include them in the camera preset. As well as normal types of lens distortion, this also includes anamorphic lenses (for matchmoving) and wide-angle lenses (for photogrammetry).
As well as support for standard checkerboard patterns, PFTrack is also able to estimate lens distortion from a regular grid of dots which can often provide better accuracy when compared to checkerboard patterns. An on-screen calibration image can be displayed to assist with the capture of image data, which is especially useful for photogrammetry when using a digital stills camera.