Surveying GPS Camera

Get an i phone, then the app " theodolite" a great tool for documenting photos.

Frank thanks for sharing about the "theodolite" app. I just downloaded it and am eager to try it out.

Not sure just what you are looking for but I just bought a used "Magellan eXplorist 610 Handheld GPS" on eBay. I bought it because it reads distances in feet up to 5280 feet (most only go 1/10 a mile). I can down load city maps, so it works as both a car GPS or hiking GPS. Plus it takes nice pictures, video or voice recordings linked to location.
Have only had it a few weeks but I think it will be a fun toy, oh I mean a great tool.

An amazing app, a great way to document photos for court. X, y, z, lat, long, time, tilt, az, and notes to boot. Best value out there!

Nikon Coolpix

Yea I bought a couple of GPS enabled cameras. I like them, but I have some complaints.

THE LIKES: The GPS coordinates seem to be accurate to within 10 feet. The camera has a display icon on the screen that lets you know how good of a fix you have. Another nice feature is the camera has a digital compass and it also records your heading or the direction the camera was looking when the picture was taken. It is water prof too. I tested this out; I went snorkeling with it. It took pictures and video underwater with no drama.

Dislikes: The naming convention for folders. I thought I could create a folder with a job name, and then synchronize the camera with our server. Nope! I wanted the cameras to be like our data collectors. We have a standardization with what we call jobs and it would be nice if the pictures could have been called the same name as the surveying job. So, when you do a search on our server all the pictures and job files come up. I think Pentax has a GPS enabled camera that will do this, but I have not used it. The second grip is not the camera's fault. The GPS coordinates are buried in the meta data of the picture file. This information is hard to access. I wish Carlson had a way of plotting the photos.

Here is a link to photos. Download them, then right click on the file and click the properties, then click the details and you will see the Lat and Log for the picture.

https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=0B4uF4seAz8QNM29jTklyd2pKVjQ&usp=sharing

Nikon Coolpix

I think all the magellan gps units(ecept the real cheap ones), will set to SPC and read feet below 1/10mile.

When you buy, read the instructions for user grid setup. For Ohio, I had to see if it allowed for Lambert conformal with 2 parallels.

I've used SPC on mine for years and it's a great aid with just a list of coordinates.

I only know of this camera, the Ricoh G700SE or a previous model, saw one demonstrated once. Definitely a high end product sold by a limited number of dealers in the U.S.

Pricing and technical information from one of the dealers:

http://www.geospatialexperts.com/ricoh-g700se-gps-camera-system-p-129.html

A review:

http://www.alta4.com/eng/geoimaging/camera/index.php

Nikon Coolpix

I am getting a Nikon Coolix today. Trashing my Olympus Tough.

The Iphone cameras are nice, but they don't meet what we need.

THANKS

The iPhone will geo-tag every photo if you have your privacy settings set accordingly. The Lat. Long is written into the EXIF header information. No need for a third party application.

I consider the iPhone's GPS to be every bit as accurate as the recreational grade handheld GPS as well as the Ricoh camera from Geospatial Experts.

I would expect that any smart phone would do the same, however the iPhone takes VERY good pictures in my opinion compared to many of the dedicated digital cameras.

Scott Partridge had suggested to me as a replacement for my Garmin, a new Garmin Oregon 650T with with ExpertGPS Pro http://www.expertgps.com/default.asp

Might that work for you ?

Cheers,

Derek

Thanks. I agree about the I-phone, but it won't work under the circumstances we are using it for. I will look into the GPS unit mentioned. Last night I bought a Nikon AW110. Maybe it will work for me.

I have the Nikon AW100 in orange and it is a great camera. Will also take HD movies.

Check out the Wasabi Power battery kit (2 batteries BTR-ENL 12-JWP and a recharger).

The GPS feature of any camera is a battery hog and the extra batteries will come in handy.

I just tried out a Nikon AW110. It does take great pics, but the coordinates are off from where I took the picture by about 250 feet in one case. Some are correct, but some are WAY OFF. Same for the Olympus Tough 1ihs

Make sure you are turning on the camera for a few minutes in the open so it gets a good signal and position.