Collecting images for digital capture of real world environments, and associated systems and methods are disclosed. A representative method for digitally capturing the environment includes scanning an environment with a laser scanner from at least one fixed point to obtain scan data and, based at least in part on the scan data, creating a view capture route corresponding to a path in the environment. The method can further include receiving optical data from a human operator carrying an optical sensor as the human operator travels along the view capture route. The method can still further include generating a virtual (or other) representation of the environment, based at least in part on the optical data.