[OSM-talk] Geolocation photos - what software/hardware do I need?

[Mike Collinson]

At 02:24 PM 28/12/2007, Gregory wrote:
>Hi all,
>
>I'm buying/getting a digital camera for my birthday/christmas. What would be really cool if I can start doing stuff with photos tagged with their lat/lon, but I'm unsure what exactly I need to do this easily. 
>
>Are there any cameras out there that aren't incredibly expensive and have something that would work with my bluetooth GPS reciever? (or have a built in reciever?)
>Or do I just need some software that I can point to a folder of time stamped jpegs and add all the lat/lons from a gps log file? Where would I get such software that is free or worth paying for? 


I've gone the software route as other have commented but looked at hardware too.  As I recall, some of the Nikon SLRs (i.e. not the low end!) had a GPS option as did one of the Fuji range, the S2?  There was also device that sat in a the external flash shoe that some cameras have - an overkill for just GPS but allowed recording not only of position but where the camera was pointing.  The HP iPaq HW6965 PDA also takes gps-stamped photos but the quality and time it takes to take the photo and store it makes in impractical for more than occassional OSM use.

The software route means you can buy the best camera you can afford as camera and likewise for the GPS device.  The downside is it does add a bit of a chore to process the photos each time and you have to be a bit anal of tracking any  camera clock drift if you want to do things like record the position of a road junction or pub while passing in a car or bus.  I keep my PC synced to atomic time using a time server and then periodically take pictures of the PC clock screen using the camera.

BTW, for OSM use, I recommend a pocket-size lower end digital camera (taking lots of pictures quickly is more useful than high resolution) but with a optical (not digital) 3x or higher zoom so that you can take pictures of street signs on the other side of the road.  I use Nikon Coolpix L4 point-and-shoot and am very happy with it. There was also a Canon with a similar spec, but it was over a year ago.


Mike