There is a contradiction between field of view and spatial resolution in still-camera-based measurement when the motion range of object is large, and the corresponding calibration procedure is difficult when the object is in the sky or sea. Measuring equipment like photoelectric theodolite can resolve this problem, but its volume is big, it costs very much, and the operation is relatively complicated. To combine the advantages of still camera and photoelectric theodolite, CCD camera is fixed to the two-dimensional (2D) rotation platform as concentrically as possible, constructing a quasi-concentric general theodolite-camera, to conduct high-accuracy measurement. The 2D rotation platform can rotate horizontally and vertically to track object in real time, and provide camera with rotation angle information to update its extrinsic parameters in real time. Photoelectric theodolite requires its optical center and optical axis to coincide with its rotation center and rotation axis respectively. However, no such assembling requirement is imposed on the general theodolite-camera. Theodolite-camera imaging model is constructed based on reasonable hypotheses, and linear solution and adjustment strategy for camera parameters are proposed. The correctness and high accuracy of the proposed imaging model and calibration strategy have been proved by both simulation data and experimental data. Measurement system based on general theodolite-camera possesses many advantages, for example simple structure and assembly, relatively small volume, low costs, panoramic measurement capability and high measuring accuracy. It has a wide and important application prospect.