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Would prefer free but under a couple hundred dollars is also doable.

It would be nice to have actual tif, sid, etc. files but a WMS would also work... using ArcGIS 10

Would also consider any of the free open source GIS as possible solution.

The WMS (bing and esri) I have been able to locate have holes and poor resolution in many areas of our 24k scale Turkey project. aerial problem areas here

Have attempted to use the trial versions of ArcBruTile and Global Mapper. Both of which don't provide what we need without spending too much on what looks like overpriced convoluted products.

It seems there has to be some high resolution aerials for Turkey that are free/inexpensive and user friendly to download/use.

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Global Mapper is not an overpriced product compared to other commercial software. It all depends on what you want to do with it. GeoEye has high quality imagery for Turkey at cost - geoeye.com/CorpSite – Mapperz♦ Jun 1 '12 at 13:56
What is the learning curve on extracting 1m imagery from Global Mapper after paying for the license? It's download interface looks terribly complicated and doesn't fill one with confidence it will provide what we need. We need this imagery yesterday of course. – user3396 Jun 1 '12 at 14:14
learning curve is dependent on the user - some pick it up very quickly - other are not s quick. but you have to start somewhere. The more you use it the faster it is to learn. – Mapperz♦ Jun 1 '12 at 14:27
other than geoeye, what other high resolution companies do you recommend? – user3396 Jun 1 '12 at 15:15
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Thanks for all the insights. I have just purchased a month of arc2earth for $50. They provide the Google imagery backgrounds which are good resolution but... new problem .... they have these triangular cuts into them as seen here: i.imgur.com/sFofM.jpg ... anyone ever worked with arc2earth before and seen this? – user3396 Jun 1 '12 at 19:23
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3 Answers

up vote 0 down vote

Did you try to get free OrbView images from GeoEye catalog? There are nice satellite imagens with spatial resolution 1 meter - just submit a KML file to search database: http://www.processamentodigital.com.br/?p=2455

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thanks Jorge, i'll give this a shot – user3396 Jun 3 '12 at 22:37
unfortunately, OrbView from GeoEye via usgs was lacking coverage and was probably too old (2003) for this project, thanks for the free source though. – user3396 Jun 3 '12 at 23:51
up vote -1 down vote

use universal map downloader software . i use the software and download high resolution images .

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has universal map downloader improved lately? the last time i tried using it a few years ago it did not work very well. – user3396 Jun 3 '12 at 22:35
yes . you can select your zoom and server ( google,microsoft,...) . – wetland Jun 4 '12 at 9:00
how do the PDF exports turn out? i do not want a repeat of this arc2earth mess. – user3396 Jun 4 '12 at 12:48
just downloaded the trial version of universal map downloader and "Error: may be your IP is banned. Please try again later." pops up repeatedly when running the tool... is that supposed to infer they want the $60 before allowing the tool to run correctly? i'll email their support and see if they care anymore about their product than arc2earth does. – user3396 Jun 4 '12 at 13:17
Screen shot here: i.imgur.com/y3xFf.png – user3396 Jun 4 '12 at 13:23
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up vote 1 down vote

Digital Globe has a pretty good coverage of Turkey. (see below) This only includes existing archival imagery so if you see any holes in the coverage it means that DG has not collected any imagery there. When you enable the DigitalGlobe coverage layer in Google Earth and zoom in you can click on the DG icons which will expose the caltalog ID and basic information about cloud cover and quality. You can then order the existing archival imagery directly from Digital Globe. The minimum order of any archival imagery from DG is 25km2. the cost depends on whether you want the image to be precisely orthorectified or not. The 25km2 can be had for about $400. Orthorectified is a few hundred more.

You can custom order any area on earth and the order starts at minimum 100km2. When I priced it out several years ago it was roughly $10,000 for a minimum custom order. Also want to point out that in order to purchase imagery from DG dirrect our company had to be screened by the Homeland Security to whom we had to provide a lot detailed information about our company. This processed might be more difficult depending where you are. It's been a few years since I have done this so I am not sure if these rules still apply.

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Just a suggestion: if you have a high-resolution image like a screenshot directly embedded in your post, you might want to make a thumbnail version of it for quick viewing and then link to the full-resolution image so when someone clicks the thumbnail they are taken to the full image. At least for me on Firefox the downscaled screenshot is aliased and illegible, until I right-click and do "View Image". – blah238 Jun 1 '12 at 17:18
would like to avoid using digital globe if possible, there customer service leaves a lot to be desired imho. – user3396 Jun 3 '12 at 22:38

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