This paper presents a critical analysis of image-based 3D reconstruction using neural radiance fields (NeRFs), with a focus on quantitative comparisons with respect to traditional photogrammetry. The aim is, therefore, to objectively evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of NeRFs and provide insights into their applicability to different real-life scenarios, from small objects to heritage and industrial scenes. After a comprehensive overview of photogrammetry and NeRF methods, highlighting their respective advantages and disadvantages, various NeRF methods are compared using diverse objects with varying sizes and surface characteristics, including texture-less, metallic, translucent, and transparent surfaces. We evaluated the quality of the resulting 3D reconstructions using multiple criteria, such as noise level, geometric accuracy, and the number of required images (i.e., image baselines). The results show that NeRFs exhibit superior performance over photogrammetry in terms of non-collaborative objects with texture-less, reflective, and refractive surfaces. Conversely, photogrammetry outperforms NeRFs in cases where the object’s surface possesses cooperative texture. Such complementarity should be further exploited in future works.

Neural Radiance Field methods are innovative solutions to derive 3D data from a set of oriented images. This paper introduces new real and synthetic image datasets - called NeRFBK - specifically designed for testing and comparing NeRF-based 3D reconstruction algorithms. More and more reconstruction algorithms and techniques are available nowadays, raising the need to evaluate and compare the quality of derived 3D products currently used in various domains and applications. However, gathering diverse data with precise ground truth is challenging and may not encompass all relevant applications. The NeRFBK dataset addresses this issue by providing multi-scale, indoor and outdoor datasets with high-resolution images and videos and camera parameters for testing and comparing NeRF-based algorithms. This paper presents the design and creation of the NeRFBK set of data, various examples and application scenarios, and highlights its potential for advancing the field of 3D reconstruction.