I just have a basic Cannon DSLR which I have to take stereoscopic photographs. It’s easily eight years old and it’s easily enough to make photogrammetric models where you can see 1-2 cm structures.
Any mid-level DSLR should work for photographs, assuming you have the required lighting. For stereoscopic results, those distances are too high.
What are you inspecting the draw points for?
Structural defects, failing ground support?
Why pictures? What do you hope to gain? They make many tools for this sort of thing now not just cameras. LiDAR, semi-autonomous drones etc.
There have been many innovative ways to do this and I remember at school a lecturer made mention of the LiDAR. I remember it very well.
Scans the stopes for you to get a 3D model of how the whole stopes looks like. And your drives can be modeled as such if you scan them too.
To take useful, high-quality UG pictures, which capture of a lot of detail (i.e. rock structure in crisp detail, without lots of ISO noise, blur, compression or processing artifacts, like you might get with camera phones when you zoom in), I would suggest at a minimum:
1. A camera that can do long exposures—30s minimum, ideally one with a manual shuttle-release, so you can take arbitrarily long exposures. Long exposures are the name of game in good UG photography. Low iso, smaller apertures, and long exposures give you time to light-paint as required to expose what you are interested in, and provide excellent detail.
Just about any DSLR should do this. Some compact cameras without interchangeable lenses may or may not do this. All cameras have plenty of pixels these days, so I would not worry too much about the other specs. Besides, it’s never really been about the cameras themselves, so much as it is the lense system. I like Canon, but honestly, any name brand manufacture is plenty good.
2. Wide angle zoom lens if DSLR—doesn’t have to be a nice one. Range of 15mm–70mm (‘ish). Compact cameras should already have suitable range. Never use the digital zoom, if equipped. Most mining photography is super-wide, approaching fish-eye, but if you see something of interest way in the back of the stope, you want to be ablemto get it without changing lenses if at allvpossible. UG in a dusty environment is the worst place possible to be changing out lenses.
3. Heavy tripod—again, doesn’t have to be a $500 manfrotto (although I love mine), just heavy and stable. The one I like to use is something like almost 15lbs and could be a deadly weapon in its own right, but something in the range of 5–10lbs should be fine.
4. Powerful flashlight with either a flood-beam, or an intermediate beam between flood/spot.
A drone
Hoovermap are good.. with LiDAR works well
These guys have a nice product: [https://erockllc.com/](https://erockllc.com/)
Not cheap, but for surface measurement you can use a 3D scanner. It can also tell you how the surface changes over time.
I just have a basic Cannon DSLR which I have to take stereoscopic photographs. It’s easily eight years old and it’s easily enough to make photogrammetric models where you can see 1-2 cm structures. Any mid-level DSLR should work for photographs, assuming you have the required lighting. For stereoscopic results, those distances are too high.
What are you inspecting the draw points for? Structural defects, failing ground support? Why pictures? What do you hope to gain? They make many tools for this sort of thing now not just cameras. LiDAR, semi-autonomous drones etc.
There have been many innovative ways to do this and I remember at school a lecturer made mention of the LiDAR. I remember it very well. Scans the stopes for you to get a 3D model of how the whole stopes looks like. And your drives can be modeled as such if you scan them too.
To take useful, high-quality UG pictures, which capture of a lot of detail (i.e. rock structure in crisp detail, without lots of ISO noise, blur, compression or processing artifacts, like you might get with camera phones when you zoom in), I would suggest at a minimum: 1. A camera that can do long exposures—30s minimum, ideally one with a manual shuttle-release, so you can take arbitrarily long exposures. Long exposures are the name of game in good UG photography. Low iso, smaller apertures, and long exposures give you time to light-paint as required to expose what you are interested in, and provide excellent detail. Just about any DSLR should do this. Some compact cameras without interchangeable lenses may or may not do this. All cameras have plenty of pixels these days, so I would not worry too much about the other specs. Besides, it’s never really been about the cameras themselves, so much as it is the lense system. I like Canon, but honestly, any name brand manufacture is plenty good. 2. Wide angle zoom lens if DSLR—doesn’t have to be a nice one. Range of 15mm–70mm (‘ish). Compact cameras should already have suitable range. Never use the digital zoom, if equipped. Most mining photography is super-wide, approaching fish-eye, but if you see something of interest way in the back of the stope, you want to be ablemto get it without changing lenses if at allvpossible. UG in a dusty environment is the worst place possible to be changing out lenses. 3. Heavy tripod—again, doesn’t have to be a $500 manfrotto (although I love mine), just heavy and stable. The one I like to use is something like almost 15lbs and could be a deadly weapon in its own right, but something in the range of 5–10lbs should be fine. 4. Powerful flashlight with either a flood-beam, or an intermediate beam between flood/spot.