[Tagging] Imagery variations/misalignments in iD - which to use?

[John Willis]

Another quick question:

Mapping in Japan. 


in iD, we have some imagery to choose from: 

-  Bing imagery (from very very good to meh),
- a Japanese government GIS render (which is okay, a patchwork of different vector illustrations) [Japan GSI standard Map]
- a Japanese “ortho” view, imagery with almost no off-angle tilt. [Japan GSI ortho imagery]

The issue I am facing is that, even after some adjustment of the angle of bing imagery, there seems to be some distortion. things don’t line up well between the Bing and ortho maps in some places, and are much closer in others.  a *lot* of the mapping aligns with the bing imagery, but there are areas of obvious 2-3m distortion in places (the road is wavy), but other areas of newer/clearer imagry align with the ortho imagry. 

It is a difference of only a few meters, but with the insane complexity of even farming roads, a clash of a few meters between different mappers looks bad. 

What do you guys do in such situations?