Accuracy of GPS cameras? Recommendations?

[morkus64]

Pretty much as the title says, I'm wondering how accurate GPS enabled cameras are as far as specifically locating the camera location. 3 feet? 1 foot?

TIA!

 

[Gooberlx2]

I think it depends on the camera and GPS module.

IIRC, dpreview did a travelzoom group test where a couple of the cams had GPS. One's was crap and struggled to consistently get a working signal, the other was reliable and accurate.

The other option would be to carry a dedicated GPS unit on you and use software to sync the closest timestamps of the GPS log and exif of the pictures to add the tags.

like here

 

[IronWing]

If you have the patience to dwell on a location for a few minutes, a SIRF chipped consumer grade GPS unit can get down to about two meters. Internally the GPS might be more accurate but you run out of saved significant digits so two meters is about it.

I would expect somewhat less accuracy out of a camera mounted system.

The US National Park Service had a pretty good paper on GPS accuracy, comparing various units to a surveyed marker. I'll see if I can find it again and add a link.

 

[Viper GTS]

I think you're expecting WAY too much. Look at the accuracy cell phones can do (3-5m, sometimes worse). I wouldn't expect any better than that but I'm sure someone will have a better answer than my guess.

Viper GTS

 

[morkus64]

I think you're probably right, Viper. I might just have to wait for a proper survey of the site. Yargh.

 

[Mark R]

Given a good signal - GPS should give better than 10 meter precision 90% of the time.

This is enhanced over mainland US and Europe by additional corrections transmitted by regular communications satellites. With correction and a good signal 2-3 meter precision is possible most of the time. The correction sats aren't as strong as the primary sats, and are geostationary, so reception is highly position dependent.

All reception is antenna dependent - unfortunately the best GPS antenna design is a quadrifilar helical which is about 2 inches high (hence the shark fin designs on cars). Compact antennas are significantly less good.

 

[IronWing]

I think you're probably right, Viper. I might just have to wait for a proper survey of the site. Yargh.

Yeah, if you're wanting to survey site boundaries for any legal reason or dispute then you need a surveyor anyway. In my work I use a handheld GPS and camera to gather site data almost every time I'm out in the field but if I need a survey or have any question where the exact location of a parcel boundary is of concern, I need a real surveyor.

 

[morkus64]

Yeah, if you're wanting to survey site boundaries for any legal reason or dispute then you need a surveyor anyway. In my work I use a handheld GPS and camera to gather site data almost every time I'm out in the field but if I need a survey or have any question where the exact location of a parcel boundary is of concern, I need a real surveyor.

Yeah, it's more for some preliminary landscape design work, so I don't need it to be legal, but I do need it to be pretty precise.