Existing methods of 3-D object modeling and recovering 3-D data from uncalibrated 2-D images are subject to errors introduced by assumptions about camera parameters and mismatches in finding point pairs in the images. In this study, we experimentally evaluate the effect of each of these assumptions together with the inaccuracy in the measurements in the images. Sensitivity of reconstruction errors to inaccuracies in the estimation of camera parameters and mismatches due to noise in input data is measured using a linear and two nonlinear autocalibration methods for a projective camera. Our experimental results show that some assumptions such as a vanishing skew can be safely made; however, other parameters such as principal point location are quite sensitive to wrong assumptions. (c) 2006 Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers.