Zoom Lens Calibration for Consumer Grade Digital Camera in Digital Close-Range Photogrammetry

Zoom lenses are widely accepted in vision system. However, the use of zoom lenses is not general in close range photogrammetry from the view point of instability by zooming. With the spread of consumer grade digital cameras with integrated zoom lenses, in particular high zooming lens such as 35× were appeared on the market in Japan. In these circumstances, digital photogrammetry using the consumer grade digital cameras is enormously expected in various application fields.There is a large body of literature on the calibration of zoom lenses. However, there is still problem for effective digital photogrammetry using the consumer grade digital cameras. The problem is practical calibration technique of zoom lens. In this paper, a newly calibration technique is proposed based on correction of zoom lens misalignment. In order to evaluate the newly calibration technique of zoom lens, calibration tests were conducted using 5 kinds of consumer grade digital camera (3-5×), 3 kinds of high zooming consumer grade digital camera (12-30×) and digital SLR camera with zoom lens (11×). The results show that the newly calibration technique is simple and stable for all zoom setting.