[RNLD: ] Summary: Camera + GPS

[Cindy Schneider]

Thanks to all who responded to my query about finding a
good-quality-but-not-too-expensive camera with a GPS built in. Here¹s a
summary of responses.



Aidan Wilson:
A low-cost option that's retrofittable but adds one photo management step is
the photrackr mini:

http://www.gisteq.com/PhotoTrackr/PhotoTrackrDPL900.php#fragment-2

Which is basically gps tracker, but the way it works is you sync your
digital 
camera's clock with its own, and then sort of, have it around when you take
photos. Then later, when you transfer photos onto a computer, the included
software (Mac and PC compatible) uses the timecodes to find the correct
lat/long coords and inputs them into the EXIF metadata.

This led me to ring the Gisteq rep in Australia, who said he still has a few
Gisteqs in stock, but he now deals with Qstarz, which is a much higher
quality product:
http://www.qstarz.com/

Margaret Carew:
An iphone would work, they take really good photos and have the gps
capability.

Anthony Jukes:
I have a Sony DSC-HX9v. It does unexpectedly good video as well as good
pictures, and has GPS (though I rarely use it as it seems to reduce battery
life). I can highly recommend it.

Pascal Roth:
http://www.teds.com.au/fuji-fp-f550-exr
or
http://www.teds.com.au/canon-powershot-sx230-hs

Are going to be your cheapest options, I believe.
Shop around for prices.

Reuben Brown:
I used the Panasonic Lumix TMZ20 for my field work in Arnhem Land. It
takes great pictures and also has HD video if you need it as a
back-up. However, the battery life is not that great when it is used
for filming, so I recommend carrying a spare charged battery and
charger so that you can film for longer than 30-45 minutes! GPS also
drains the battery a bit so you can turn it off when not using the
camera. I'm still getting used to using it, but I found the still
pictures to be fantastic just using the 'Intelligent Auto' function.
It does have very good optical zoom too for a compact camera.

I bought it in 2011 from a camera store in Darwin for $500 or so - it
has probably come down in price since then as it had just been
released.

Anna Ash:
A couple of thoughts: An iphone has a camera, and you can download an App
³Camera GPS². This may not provide good enough photos, although I¹ve found
my Iphone camera pretty good. I guess coverage could also be an issue in the
field.

Jimmy Huang:
In the last two years I've been suing a SONY DSC-HX7V (and they have HX9V
now) to document tombstones in hot and humid southern Taiwan and in Manila.
I also use its built-in video for interviews - recording pronunciations of
person and place names. actually, I've accidentally dropped the camera a
couple of times and it's still working!

before SONY, the tombstone project i worked with had several samsung
equivalents (i forgot the model). Samsung is cheaper but it doesn't last
long. I remember we had to replace two samsungs that were good for only a
year... then we switched to sony.

SONY also captures the geo info - including directions - better (faster, and
fewer errors) than samsung, which had sent some of our tombs into the ocean
when we collated its images with google earth...

overall, i'd say the most important considerations when choosing a gps
camera would be: (1) accuracy of geo info, and (2) reaction time. e.g., in
the field, you take a photo, you walk two steps to the north and turn your
body slightly to the east to take another photo... here you'd probably need
to remind yourself to pause - 5 secs, 10 secs, 30 secs, depending on the
camera - before pushing the button. Pausing between photo-taking may seem
counter-intuitive, and i always feel robotic, but if you just move from one
spot to another and take shots smoothly and seamlessly, the camera may not
get enough time to renew/rewrite the gps information.

 

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