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IMatch Discussion Boards => General Discussion and Questions => Topic started by: Mario on May 12, 2018, 07:04:27 PM

Title: PLEASE COMMENT: IMatch 2018 Map Panel - Unknown camera workflow
Post by: Mario on May 12, 2018, 07:04:27 PM
The IMatch 2018 Map Panel can display camera direction, field of view (FOV) and destination points. See https://www.photools.com/community/index.php?topic=7934.0 for details.

In order to render the field of view triangle correctly it needs to know the crop factor of the camera used to take the image. The crop factor for a full-frame is 1.
I have now finished the entire machinery which allows the Map Panel to connect to the photools.com database and retrieve the camera information, to log unknown cameras, notify me etc.

When the Map Panel processes images from a camera which is not in the photools.com database and the user has enabled FOV display, it needs to do several things:

1. Inform the user. Because it can only assume a crop factor of 1 for unknown cameras and hence the FOV display may not be accurate
2. Ask the user for help gathering the information about his/her camera.

After several attempts I've settled to something that is (hopefully) as simple as possible. This has to work for normal users who don't participate in this community (which is the majority) and which may not know a lot about things like camera sensors or crop factors or what a full-frame sensor is.

Let me know what you think. Suggestions about wording etc. welcome as usual.


When the Map Panel detects an unknown camera, it displays a message at the top of the panel:

(https://www.photools.com/community/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=7989.0;attach=19116;image)

This message can be dismissed and is shown only once per session.

When the user clicks on the "Learn more..." link in the warning, the Map Panel displays more information:

(https://www.photools.com/community/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=7989.0;attach=19122;image)

When the user clicks on the "Send" button, the Map Panel creates an email with data for the unknown camera models and asks the user to fill it out and send.
For users who have only web mail (no installed email client), the same information is also copied into the clipboard, for pasting into the web browser.

This is how the email looks:

(https://www.photools.com/community/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=7989.0;attach=19120;image)
Title: Re: PLEASE COMMENT: IMatch 2018 Map Panel - Unknown camera workflow
Post by: Jingo on May 12, 2018, 09:14:43 PM
Looks good Mario... I would only suggest the following wording modifications:

One (or more) of your cameras cannot be found in the photools.com camera database.  The Map Panel will use a default crop factor of 1 to render the field of view indicator for these cameras.  If you wish to help improve the database, please click here to learn more....


Looking forward to all these improvements!!
Title: Re: PLEASE COMMENT: IMatch 2018 Map Panel - Unknown camera workflow
Post by: jch2103 on May 12, 2018, 09:48:19 PM
Quote from: Jingo on May 12, 2018, 09:14:43 PM
Looks good Mario... I would only suggest the following wording modifications:

One (or more) of your cameras cannot be found in the photools.com camera database.  The Map Panel will use a default crop factor of 1 to render the field of view indicator for these cameras.  If you wish to help improve the database, please click here to learn more....


Looking forward to all these improvements!!
+1
Title: Re: PLEASE COMMENT: IMatch 2018 Map Panel - Unknown camera workflow
Post by: pmbvw on May 13, 2018, 12:27:15 PM
It is (was) a lot of work for you to realize:  "The IMatch 2018 Map Panel can display camera direction, field of view (FOV) and destination points."

I like your effort and way to register new Cams.
For me it would be a great improvement in the IM 2018 Map Panel !!!

Title: Re: PLEASE COMMENT: IMatch 2018 Map Panel - Unknown camera workflow
Post by: sinus on May 14, 2018, 09:45:20 AM
Looks very good!
Excellent work.