ABSTRACT
Atmospheric haze, as caused by various forms of scattering due to atmospheric particles, reduces image contrast. Consequently, a low altitude is necessary for aerial survey work, and lenses with a very large field of view are required to give useful ground coverage in each frame of a series of overlapping photographs. An aerial lens is one especially designed for use on an aerial camera, which consists of essentially three parts–the lens cone, the body/mount and the film magazine–together with associated control equipment which may be linked to the navigation system. Aerial lenses are chromatically corrected from 500 to 850 nm or even 1100 nm as Infra-red film is also frequently used both for haze penetration and reconnaissance. For purposes of low oblique aerial photography and air-to-air photography a variety of conventional and special purpose hand-held cameras may be used. The largest application of civilian aerial photography is that of map-making and survey work using techniques of topographical photogrammetry.
