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GPS + Digital Camera


Guest JeepCache

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Guest JeepCache

I've been shopping for a nice digital camera, and you would totally dig the feature I've found -

 

The Nikon D1x (a professional camera) allows for a GPS hook-up, and it stores coordinates of the location that each picture was taken, in the JPEG, in the form of a watermark imprint, and EXIF data.

 

How cool is that? icon_smile.gif The bad news is, the Nikon D1x is a $6,000 camera. Not worth it, for most of us - nevertheless, perhaps that feature is a sign of things to come for "Prosumer" and "Consumer" digital cameras in the near future.

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Guest Zenabi

Wow! That does sound cool. I've been thinking of getting a digital camera too. Nearly every cache I've been to has had some great scenery.

 

I'd like to be able to upload a picture or two with my log entries. On my last hunt I saw an albino squirrel!

 

Any digital camera owners have any advice/recommendations? There seems to be so many to choose from now.

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Guest makaio

This came up last year when D.U. was still involved with the game. It was another of his pet projects along with Geographing, wonderts, etc. I believe there was a camera already on the market at the time, but it was so new, it probably wasn't popular. Glad to see some camera manufacturers are implementing the functionality now.

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Guest JeepCache

I'm going with the Canon Powershot G2. Seems to be the best output for the money (at the moment), $800-ish, and falls into the "prosumer" category. Unfortunately, doesn't offer GPS hook-up, but plug in an IBM 1-Gig Microdrive, and the camera can store 2,900 pictures at 1024x678.

 

Yes, 2,900! Of course, the 1-Gig Microdrive itself is $300, but that can be purchased later.

 

I'm scrounging around for pennies to buy all this stuff, and now the Garmin GPS V is tempting me as well. icon_smile.gif

 

In the near future, I want to document all of my adventures on the web, which is why I have such a strong attraction to these gadgets.

 

Anyhow, if you're looking for Digi Cams, check out www.dpreview.com - this site is awesome, and I soak up info on it like a sponge. Its where I found out about the GPS hook-up thing.

 

I wish there was a GPS site that went over various GPS models with the same amount of anal scrutiny that dpreview does with cameras.

 

- Chris (JeepCache)

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Guest Choberiba

I love my 2.0 megapixel Kodak 3400.

 

I've taken about 5000 photo's since I bought it last X-mas. Paid $500 at the time but you can find them for about half that now.

 

Compact Flash memory is a lot cheaper now as well.

 

Here's a cropped example of an image. Originally 1760x1168

 

eTrex.jpg

 

Who is it?

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falls into the "prosumer" category. Unfortunately, doesn't offer GPS hook-up, but plug in an IBM 1-Gig Microdrive, and the camera can store 2,900 pictures at 1024x678.

 

Yes, 2,900! Of course, the 1-Gig Microdrive itself is $300, but that can be purchased later.

 

- Chris (JeepCache)


 

Good choice, Chris... I'm a big fan of Canon cameras and fell in love with the G2... When I can afford to replace my trusty old Olympus, it'll probably be with a G2. As for the Microdrive, I saw the smaller Microdrive (340M?) selling for under $200 online last week. Its not 1G, but it still pretty cool! I'n considering one for my iPaq.

 

...ron

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Guest jeremy

In case you're interested, I was contacted once by a guy who said he was working on a program that could extract date and time information from a JPG image and coordinate it with track data on a GPS unit to geolocate each image (well, as long as the GPS was on and you were taking a photo in the same spot, that is icon_smile.gif

 

I was then contacted several months later by a company that claimed they could do the same thing and offered me the application (for a huge fee, anyway). They also claimed they had a patent on the technology.

 

So there are ways to do it outside of the expensive $6k camera.

 

I suppose another idea would be to snap a picture then a waypoint wherever you go, then figure it out later.

 

Jeremy

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We purchased a Kodak DC290 GPS package which included the camera, a Garmin GPS III Plus, cables, and a bracket to mount both items on. I believe we spent under $800 bucks for the package and that was a year ago. Here is a sample of the output.

 

The camera takes better quality to photos than this one. It was taken upside down, in the rain, and the flash washed out the marker. I touched up the photo to the marker legible.

 

plague.gif

 

[This message has been edited by Qman (edited 02 October 2001).]

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Guest rebobbitt

quote:
Originally posted by jeremy:

In case you're interested, I was contacted once by a guy who said he was working on a program that could extract date and time information from a JPG image and coordinate it with track data on a GPS unit to geolocate each image


 

I was the guy that contacted Jeremy. I wrote software for the Kodak DC290 like the Kodak GPS software called GPStag. But since the 290 is discontinued, I had to come up with something different.

 

My new software available in the next couple weeks is GPS-Photo Link. It will link almost any digital camera to a GARMIN gps (others to follow, hopefully).

 

Check out my home page for examples (look under GPStag for Geocaching examples)

 

http://www.GeoSpatialExperts.com

 

Rick

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Guest Choberiba

quote:
Originally posted by rebobbitt:

It will link almost any digital camera to a GARMIN gps (others to follow, hopefully).


 

I can see practicle uses in an idustrial setting, but for the average geocacher, how does your software differ from a cut-n-paste from EasyGPS?

 

Inquiring minds and all that.

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navdog - It's actually a marker placed by the folks from the National Geodetic Survey. The Census Bureau calculates it's location. The Census Bureau tracks population centers which show the population trends since the 1790 Census. The center of population in 1790 was east of Baltimore. It's a PR effort and gives the small towns selected as the center a source of pride and a local attraction.

 

You can view a map of all of the population centers at:

http://www.census.gov/geo/www/cenpop/meanctr.pdf

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Guest martinp13

quote:
Originally posted by rebobbitt:

I was the guy that contacted Jeremy. I wrote software for the Kodak DC290 like the Kodak GPS software called GPStag. But since the 290 is discontinued, I had to come up with something different.

 

My new software available in the next couple weeks is GPS-Photo Link. It will link almost any digital camera to a GARMIN gps (others to follow, hopefully).

 

Check out my home page for examples (look under GPStag for Geocaching examples)

 

http://www.GeoSpatialExperts.com

 

Rick


 

That link didn't seem to go anywhere... did anyone get it to work?

 

------------------

> Martin

Magellan 330 (1.56/WAAS enabled!)

Don't have time to program and record your shows while geocaching? Get a TiVo !

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Guest rebobbitt

quote:
Originally posted by Choberiba:

I can see practicle uses in an idustrial setting, but for the average geocacher, how does your software differ from a cut-n-paste from EasyGPS?

 

Inquiring minds and all that.


 

The value of the software is that it automatically links all of your photos to the GPS, whether its one photo or a hundred (see my Rocky Mountain National Park example with 31 photos)

 

But you're right, if you only have one photo to do, it would be easier to do it manually.

 

There are many formatting options for the watermark that goes on the photo, including font, color, placement, size, units, lat/lon/date/time format, etc.

 

Web pages are automatically created with overview maps and detail maps. Plus GIS files are created to import into desktop mapping software like ArcView.

 

It's great for vacation photos, hiking, trail mapping, and yes, Geocaching! More business type uses would be real estate, weed mapping, asset management, crime scene mapping, etc.

 

Rick Bobbitt

http://www.GeoSpatialExperts.com

 

[This message has been edited by rebobbitt (edited 05 October 2001).]

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