Now see, this is what gets me excited! GPS Digital Camera …
Ruggedized and “field-ready” which I real hope means splash proof. Built in GPS, Bluetooth and WiFi (WiFi version required, according to the brochure) and 8 Mega pixel.
This is obviously geared towards some types of professional user who needs to generate reports of oil spills, damn construction sites, radioactive toxic zombie breakouts and what-not. Not at all your off-the-shelf consumer model thing, I’m still looking for a price. However this is an indication of the gates being opened to imbedded GPS.
Developed for outdoor location-based photography, the 500SE boasts extreme ruggedization and high resolution to meet the image quality and all-weather usability demanded by the mobile GPS photographer. The camera’s integrated precision GPS module provides for an all-in-one, easy- to-use device for geo-coding images and video at the time of capture. For applications that require even greater precision, the camera is capable of receiving NMEA data streams from external GPS devices via its on-board Bluetooth(R) radio.
Which at the end of the day basically means that I’m still not sure if I should buy the digital SLR I really want, or to hold out for one that has GPS in. Errr, what I mean to say is, at the end of the day, this is a good thing for all geotaggers and potential geotaggers around the world, who don’t want to be messing with software solutions for the next two years.
[update] - Just phoned around, this is what I’ve got on the price.
Price: $899
GPS Unit: $130
+Wifi: $50
Total: $1,079
Link to press release
Link to web site
Link to Brochure
[Via Thomas Hawk's Blog]
Unfortunately, I suspect that the image quality does not justify the price, although I have to admit the price does not seem as outragous as previous gps cameras RIcoh offered…
And where is the “Flickr Integration” on their brochure? :)
Too bad about the price. For that amount of money these days I’d definitely want a DSLR in the bargain, with an ability to change lenses.
I’m actually waiting impatiently for the Nokia N95 to come out. Carl Zeiss zoom lens, 5 megapixel camera, full 30fps 640×480 video, 4GB storage, and GPS… for much less than that camera. Oh, yeah, and it’s a phone.
Heh, I’ve *touched* an N95 ;)
I think there’s still one kicking around the office here, but …
a) I’ve not played with it.
b) I know someone who has.
c) I’m not allowed to say anything more.
Let me tell you that the way RICOH has designed this solution is indeed really ground breaking.
Where the Nikon’s DSLR cameras connect to GPS only via cable (and the cost of this special connection cable is almost as high as the one of a GPS device) Ricoh uses Bluetooth technology. So basically you’re free to connect to any bluetooth gps mouse or Ricoh’s clip on GPS which you’ve seen on the image Ricoh has included in the press release.
I guess you may have to take a choice: either the ruggedized water proof shock resisitant 500SE from Ricoh (with fully proteced lense so you may drop the camera even with the lense zoomed and open) or a DSLR camera with exchangable lenses.
By the way, the camera is also available in Europe through alta4 Geoinformatik AG which ship the 500 SE together with a free Google Earth photo viewer called Fodysseus RE.
Ole
[...] Maybe, there is something really simple going on that makes geotagging easy. But until I can find out more (or they send me one, Canon, I know you’re reading!) I guess I’m still waiting for something that looks better than the Ricoh Ruggedized GPS Digital Camera we now all know and love. [...]
I think it is great to know the coordinates of the the camera was located when the picture was taken ……..But how do you determine the Direction the camera was pointed?
I AM LOOKING FOR A CAMERA THAT WILL ENABKE ME TO EASILY TRANSFER TRAVEL PHOTOS TO A MAP OF SOME SORT. THE GOAL IS TO RECORD EXTENSIVE AUYO TOURS IN ITALY WITH PHOTOS OF POINYS OF INTEREST, RESTAURANTS, ETC EMBEDDED ON THE MAP ALSO NEED A SIMPLE WAY TO MAP OUT PARTICULAR ROUTES