New UltraCam Sales for Microsoft’s Vexcel Imaging

29 April 2009, 10:06am

Graz, Austria — April 28, 2009 — Vexcel Imaging GmbH, Microsoft’s Photogrammetry division, today announced another flurry of recent sales for its UltraCam large and medium digital aerial mapping cameras. The newly reported sales have occurred since an early March announcement from the company speaking to multiple sales of the systems for the first quarter of the calendar year. These latest sales bring the number of UltraCam large format systems sold worldwide—which includes the UltraCamD, UltraCamX,UltraCamXp and UltraCamL models—to 123, making the UltraCam arguably the leading selling large format aerial camera on the market. Meanwhile, two orders were placed for the UltraCamL medium format system just eight months after its development was announced from the XXIst International Society for Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing (ISPRS) Congress in Beijing and two months before it is scheduled for actual production.

The sales breakdown is as follows:

UltraCamX—Foto Havacilik A.S (Turkey); Swiss Flight Services (Switzerland)

UltraCamXp—IMAO (France); Eurosense (Europe); IGN (France); BSF Swissphoto (Switzerland); Aerodata (Belgium)

UltraCamL—Bergman Photography Services (USA); SEPRET (Monocco); Cartodata (Argentina)

Additionally, the National Remote Sensing Industry in India purchased an UltraCamD with a CX/DX upgrade that allows the camera to take full advantage of the storage enhancements made possible with the launch of the UltraCamX system.

“Once again we are able to report healthy sales in spite of a historically challenging economic climate,” said Alexander Wiechert, Business Director of Microsoft and Managing Director for Vexcel Imaging GmbH. “We are pleased to be able to provide solutions that deliver such value that they enable customers to make the decision to purchase now.”

The first model of the UltraCam family of digital aerial mapping cameras, the UltraCamD, was introduced in 2004 delivering the largest image footprint of the digital aerial sensors on the market. Since that time, Vexcel Imaging has released the UltraCamX followed by the UltraCamXp featuring even larger image formats (the UCXp boasts a 196 megapixel image footprint) reducing the amount of flight lines necessary for mapping projects and an enhanced storage system with removable storage units for longer flight missions and minimal ground time.

The UtraCamL digital medium format photogrammetric camera delivers many of the same technical capabilities of the UltraCam large format systems but in a smaller and lighter package design for use in smaller aircraft. It offers a 64 megapixel image format, a 1:2.2 pan sharpen ratio and collects RGB and NIR in parallel, all with forward motion compensation by TDI, allowing it to deliver brilliant true-color and color-infrared (CIR) image quality with unmatched radiometric range, and making it ideal for smaller large-scale and photogrammetric projects, high-resolution (true) orthophoto production, multi-ray photogrammetry, corridor mapping, and lidar integration. Following very closely on the heels of the recently released UltraCamL, the just announced UltraCamLp bests its predecessor by providing data collection at 92 megapixels (11,704 x 7,920 pixels pan) making it the largest-footprint medium format camera system on the market. Both models take advantage of the computing and storage subsystems introduced with the UltraCamXp. The UltraCamLp will be available for flying season 2010 with deliveries beginning in November 2009. Existing UltraCamL customers will be upgraded to the UltraCamLp free of charge.

About Vexcel Imaging, GmbH
Acquired by Microsoft Corporation in May 2006, Vexcel Imaging GmbH brings 20 years of photogrammetry expertise to Microsoft’s Virtual Earth business unit and is at the heart of the burgeoning Microsoft Photogrammetry business. The company’s offerings include its series of UltraCam large and medium format digital aerial mapping cameras and related software tools that include the UltraMap workflow software and Office Processing Center software (OPC).

Vexcel Corporation

Geo: International