Zerdly

Drone Image Count Calculator

How many photos a mission takes — by area estimate, rectangle geometry or a polygon plan — with separate front and side overlap.

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How to use this calculator

Inputs

How many photos a mission takes — by area estimate, rectangle geometry or a polygon plan, with separate front and side overlap.

Site
Footprint
Overlap
%

0 is valid; exactly 100 % is not (the aircraft would never advance).

%

0 is valid; exactly 100 % is not (the aircraft would never advance).

More options
Allowance and data
Timing

Enter the values and press Calculate.

Or load an example to see a worked result.

Footprints and photo centres (plan)
Schematic
Footprints and photo centres (plan)Schematic of parallel flight strips over a survey area.q = F_c × (1 − side overlap)
Photo centres sit on each flight line, one photo step apart; each footprint is F_a × F_c. The area estimate draws nothing because it has no geometry.
Calculate first: a stale result cannot be exported.

Batch from CSV

One row per calculation, with a header row. Values use the units currently selected in the form above. Up to 10,000 rows; nothing is uploaded.

Before you rely on this: First-pass guide only. Verify safety-critical or regulated work against the relevant standards, your project requirements and a qualified professional.

How to use this calculator

  1. Pick the model: area estimate, rectangle (length and width) or polygon (E, N vertices with a heading).
  2. Enter the along- and across-track footprints and separate front and side overlap.
  3. Optionally add a margin, an allowance (shown separately), your file size per photo, and speed for the trigger interval.
  4. Read the photo count, lines and photos per line, and for polygons the sampled coverage check.

How it works

Area estimate: ⌈area ÷ (p × q)⌉ with p = F_a(1 − front) and q = F_c(1 − side) — approximate, and not a coverage guarantee.

Rectangle: photos per line = max(1, ⌈max(0, A − F_a) ÷ p⌉ + 1) and lines = max(1, ⌈max(0, C − F_c) ÷ q⌉ + 1); total = their product. Exact for this edge-footprint model only.

Polygon: lines clipped to the polygon, footprints enumerated on each segment, then an independent sampled check that every point is inside a footprint. Data size is shown in decimal MB/GB and binary GiB separately.

Worked example

50 ha at 130 × 200 m footprints, 70 % front and side. Effective area per photo = 130 × 0.3 × 200 × 0.3 = 2,340 m², so ⌈500,000 ÷ 2,340⌉ = 214 photos by the area estimate. A 300 × 200 m rectangle with 100 m footprints at 50 % needs 5 photos per line × 3 lines = 15, where the area estimate says 24.

Frequently asked questions

Why do the area and rectangle answers differ?

The area method divides area by new ground per photo and ignores edges; the rectangle method places real footprints so the edges are covered.

Is the allowance included in the count?

No — it is shown beside the count so you can see both.

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Cite this tool

Zerdly. (2026). Drone Image Count Calculator. Retrieved from https://www.zerdly.com/tools/drone-image-count-calculator/

Tip: Enter any known values to calculate the remaining results.

Designed to run locally in your browser. Tool inputs are not intentionally stored by Zerdly unless stated otherwise.