Table highlighting some differences and similarities among spectrophotometry, multispectral photography, and hyperspectral imaging, with respect to spectral resolution, spatial resolution, sample selection, animal vision models, and cost.

Not included in the table is temporal resolution because the amount of time required to sample an individual animal is highly variable both within and among techniques. For spectrophotometry, individual measurements are collected in under a second, but typically several measurements per patch and several patches per animal are collected, resulting in a temporal resolution spanning from several seconds to minutes. For multispectral photography, capture with limited spectral sensitivity (e.g., omitting ultraviolet light) can allow for video-speed capture, but increasing spectral sensitivity typically slows capture to the range of minutes per image (but see [7] for multispectral video including ultraviolet light). For hyperspectral imaging, a similar trade-off can occur: full-frame hyperspectral imagers with limited spatial and spectral sensitivity can capture images at video-speed. The hyperspectral imager used in the current paper has high spatial and spectral resolution, but each image takes several minutes to capture.