Photogrammetry vs Scanning pt II: Andrew's Head

Continuing comparison studies between using scanner hardware and camera... spoiler, DSLR camera is still winning.


I have started doing scanning portraits for anyone who will sit for me. It's pretty fun! At first I thought that human captures would be the only use case where the scanning hardware would work better than photographs. I figured the because of the live preview and generally faster capture time, it would turn out better results.

However! That doesn't seem to be the case.


First image was the photogrammetry reconstruction in 3DF Zephyr. The second was the scan reconstruction in Artec studio. The scan didn't align as well (noticeably around his nose and center of face) and failed to capture the back of his head (see the large hump).

Another issue was the scanner uses a strobing LED ring as part of its capture which makes for a seizure inducing capture session (even with the subjects eyes closed).

I used a Sony RX10 (20 megapixels) and used continuous shooting (aka photoburst). The capture took about five minutes, and yielded ~400 photos. The process was about an hour in 3DF Zephyr.

Once again, cleaner mesh and crisper color. The camera is more portable, affordable, faster, and more accurate.