Vexcel Imaging Announces Newest UltraCam: Osprey 4.2

Building upon the success of the UltraCam Osprey 4.1, the new 4.2 model offers 27% greater flight line efficiency with a swath width of over 25,000 pixels in nadir, along with enhanced operational flexibility—reducing costs and improving coverage. It delivers the highest-detail photogrammetric image quality, ensuring maximum productivity for 3D city modeling, infrastructure monitoring, and high-precision urban mapping applications.

The UltraCam Osprey 4.2 is the first Vexcel system to feature the cutting-edge 247 MP Sony IMX811 CMOS sensor in combination with custom Vexcel lenses, fully resolving the new CMOS sensor. Built with an advanced panchromatic nadir channel, the system delivers precise measurements for superior feature extraction, providing the best foundation for creating demanding derivative data products like 3D city models.

Software-based Adaptive Motion Compensation (AMC) technology eliminates all translational and rotational motion blur in nadir and oblique imagery, preserving full detail at long exposures and low ISO settings in a scale-adaptive manner. This allows users to fully leverage the high dynamic range of the new CMOS sensor, consistently ensuring crisp, high-accuracy imagery even in challenging conditions.

The UltraCam Osprey 4.2 is available in two lens configurations for enhanced operational flexibility and minimized dependence on airspace restrictions. The standard lens system model enables data capture at higher altitudes while maintaining the same ground sample distance (GSD) as its predecessor, whereas the tele lens system model extends collection capabilities much further, enabling 10 cm GSD capture at flying heights above 4,200 m. Furthermore, operators can customize image collection or processing workflows with Oblique Imaging Modes—all-active (default), nadir-only, or corridor mapping—optimizing efficiency for various applications.