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Drone Coverage Calculator

Enter the altitude and the horizontal and vertical fields of view to get the ground width, height and coverage area.

Result

147.99 m
99.72 m
14,757.24 m²

How it is calculated

The tool treats the camera as pointing straight down at flat ground. The ground width is W = 2 × altitude × tan(HFOV / 2), the ground height is H = 2 × altitude × tan(VFOV / 2) and the footprint area is W × H. Altitude is entered in metres above the ground and results are given in metres and square metres. Both field-of-view angles are in degrees and must be above 0 and below 180; altitude must be above 0. Because the tangent is used, footprint grows in direct proportion to altitude (double the height, double each side, four times the area). The tool does not model tilted cameras, sloping terrain, lens distortion or image overlap. Use the manufacturer's field of view for the lens mode you actually fly.

Worked example

Flying at 100 m with a camera whose horizontal FOV is 73° and vertical FOV is 53°. Width = 2 × 100 × tan(36.5°) = 200 × 0.7399 = 147.99 m. Height = 2 × 100 × tan(26.5°) = 200 × 0.4986 = 99.72 m. Area = 147.99 × 99.72 = 14,757.24 m², about 1.48 hectares per photo. At 50 m each side would be half as large, so one photo would cover about a quarter of the area.

Try this example →

Common mistakes

  • Entering the diagonal field of view that camera specs often advertise. The tool needs the horizontal and vertical angles separately.
  • Entering altitude in feet while results are labelled in metres. Convert first.
  • Swapping horizontal and vertical FOV. The image is wider than tall, so check which side of the photo each angle belongs to.
  • Confusing altitude above sea level with height above the ground. The formula needs height above the terrain being photographed.
  • Treating the footprint as the area you can map per photo. Real surveys need overlap between photos, so the effective new ground per photo is smaller.

About this calculator

A drone camera's ground footprint depends on flight altitude and the camera's angular field of view (FOV): at a given height, a wider FOV or a higher altitude both capture more ground per photo. The footprint dimensions follow ground width = 2 × altitude × tan(HFOV/2) and the equivalent formula for ground height using the vertical FOV, with coverage area as their product.

Survey and mapping pilots use this to plan flight altitude for a required ground sample distance and to calculate the flight-line spacing needed for a target image overlap — critical for stitching aerial photos into an accurate orthomosaic.

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