Practical zoom camera calibration method for close-range photogrammetry

Compared to a conventional fixed focus lens, a zoom lens is more flexible and adaptable. However, the challenges involved in precise calibration for a zoom camera prevent its widespread use in close-range photogrammetry. A practical calibration method for a zoom camera is proposed. The zoom-focus model is established through dimension reduction of the setting variables, which is represented as a set of functions of the zoom setting. The zoom and focus settings are updated in real time for objects at different measurement depths. The calibration process only requires the zoom camera to observe the control points distributed in the designed calibration field with several combinations of zoom and focus settings. All the coefficients of the zoom-focus model can be solved by a nonlinear joint optimization. Experimental results have proved that the proposed method is effective for close-range photogrammetry.