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rmasonHNSource author
Lessons learnedExperience excerpt · English

I started out doing aerial infrared photography for farmers in 1983 when it meant storing film in …

I started out doing aerial infrared photography for farmers in 1983 when it meant storing film in the refrigerator and renting a Cessna. Then in the nineties I moved on to buying satellite photos. But there was a fundamental disconnect between how a fertilizer company wanted to buy photos and how the satellite company wanted to sell them. We ideally wanted to buy them by the field, the section or township at worst. The satellite company wanted to sell you a 'scene' which was 10-12 counties. Most farmers trying technology as a test would give you 5-10% of their acreage. Try telling your boss you wanted to buy photos where you weren't going to use 99%+ of them. Then to make it worse here in Michigan it is quite cloudy. You get your photos and 50-60% of them are ruined by cloud cover. When it worked the photos were a godsend. Getting three or four flyovers a season allowed you to spot trends as well. I personally think drones will win the ag market. …

Original discussionBuy Hi-Resolution Satellite Images of Any Place on Earth337 source comments · at import
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joferHN

What's interesting to me is that the pricing isn't that unique. That's pretty normal for a list price. $7 sq km + 25 sq km min (basically the size of the image). That's probably because they're (I think?) buying tasking capacity from other companies, so the pricing can't be below the rate they negotiate. That probably results in then negotiating a below list price from a few companies and then setting prices that wind up being close to the average list price for the industry. The difference is two very key things: 1) no minimum overall buy 2) fully public pricing That price is pretty normal, but usually you have to commit to at least a few thousand dollars worth. 25 sq km min per target is also pretty normal, but the contracts usually require you committing to at least a few hundred of those. Next is public list pricing. Every company has list pricing, and that's basically what smaller c…

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larsiusprimeHN

What about balloons? Have you seen Urban Sky? https://www.urbansky.com (I'm not affiliated with them, fwiw)

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HA
hammockHN

> here in Michigan it is quite cloudy. You get your photos and 50-60% of them are ruined by cloud cover Why would an aerial photo plane fly when it's cloudy? Makes no sense

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