Currently Phenotyping is primarily performed using two-dimensional imaging techniques. While this yields interesting data about a plant, a lot of information is lost using regular cameras. Since a plant is three-dimensional, the use of dedicated 3D-imaging sensors provides a much more complete insight into the phenotype of the plant. Different methods for 3D-data acquisition are available, each with their inherent advantages and disadvantages. These have to be addressed depending on the particular application.

In this paper we demonstrate a number of representative methods each with a distinct set of features which make them suitable for particular applications. Each method is presented along with example setups. Simple guidelines are shown to help the researcher select the best technology for a given application. Sample data is presented gained from various real life applications to help understand the data quality that can be expected using a particular method.