Norcross, Ga. – Leica Geosystems announced that Midwest Aerial Photography has purchased a third Leica Z/I Imaging DMC II 140 digital mapping camera. Midwest Aerial is now the only commercial imaging firm to own and operate three DMC II systems.

“We’ve seen the demand for DMC II imagery increase steadily ever since we bought our first one in 2010,” said Ken Scruggs, Midwest Aerial president and founder. “Image clarity, geometric accuracy and color resolution set the Leica Z/I Imaging DMC II apart from other systems, and clients ask for it by name.”

Originally introduced by Intergraph and now part of the Leica Geosystems family of airborne digital cameras and LiDAR systems, the Z/I Imaging DMC II 140 is a large-format, square-frame camera. Designed specifically as an aerial photogrammetric sensor, it is capable of capturing digital imagery of high geometric quality. All sensors in the DMC II line collect four-band multispectral (Red, Green, Blue, Near Infrared) and panchromatic imagery at low altitude for large-scale survey applications and at higher altitudes for small-scale regional projects.

“The Leica Z/I Imaging DMC II provides a competitive edge to our clients and business partners by making them more successful with their customers, regardless of the application,” said Scruggs.

Based in Ohio, Midwest Aerial has focused exclusively on airborne acquisition of high-quality digital imagery and photography for both public and private organizations since 1989. The firm has deployed its DMC II’s in projects of all scales – even in less-than-ideal light conditions – and has collected digital imagery with spatial resolution as high as 5 centimeters. Midwest Aerial took delivery of its third Leica Z/I Imaging DMC II 140 in late 2012 and has already had the sensor successfully validated in rigorous flight tests for inclusion in the 2013 North Carolina Statewide Orthoimagery Project.

“The Z/I Imaging DMC II has made mapping more efficient by enabling aerial acquisition firms to collect digital imagery at higher resolution and greater speeds,” said Jean Gardiner, general manager of Leica Geospatial Solutions.

When the original Z/I Imaging DMC was introduced as the first digital large-format frame mapping camera in 2003, photogrammetry firms were able to cut three to four weeks from their processing time because there was no film to develop and scan. Data can now be downloaded from the camera’s Solid State Disk (SSD) storage directly into processing software for a completely digital workflow. No special sensor model is required because the data can be processed with standard photogrammetry software.

The DMC II has a single monolithic panchromatic (PAN) camera head to produce extreme wide-ground coverage for capturing large-scale, high-resolution imagery. This improves overall geometric accuracy and radiometric quality, eliminating the need for image mosaicking during post-processing. The PAN-to-multispectral pixel ratio is 1:2, resulting in extremely crisp pan-sharpened imagery.