GSD & Drone Flight Calculator
Ground sample distance, image footprint, flight-line spacing, photo interval and the flight time a mapping mission needs — from your camera's own sensor figures. Works the other way too: enter the GSD the deliverable requires and it returns the altitude to fly.
Camera
Take these five numbers from your camera's own specification sheet. The presets are a starting point — confirm them against the body you actually fly.
Flight
How it is worked out. GSD = sensor pixel pitch × altitude ÷ focal length, computed separately across and along the flight direction; the wider of the two is reported, because that is the one a deliverable is judged on. Footprint is image size × GSD. Photo spacing and line spacing come straight from the overlaps. The blur limit is the speed at which the aircraft moves one allowed pixel of GSD during the exposure. Area figures assume parallel lines flown over a rectangle of the entered area with no terrain following, and the photo count adds a full line of margin at each end — real mission planners add turns, climb-out and a safety reserve, so treat the battery count as a floor, not a promise. Nothing here is drone-specific magic: change any camera number and every result follows it.
Drone survey delivered end to end
BTPL flies UAV photogrammetry and LiDAR with ground control and check points, and delivers orthomosaics, DSM/DTM, contours and CAD — with the accuracy documented.