New Ricoh GPS-Ready Camera in Photo-Mapping Product Bundle

GeoSpatial Experts (CO, USA) has made available the Ricoh 500SE GPS-digital camera in a new photo-mapping product bundle. Available through GeoSpatial Experts and its distributors, this bundle includes the GPS-Photo Link photo-mapping software, the Ricoh 500SE camera with attached GPS module, a 1GB memory card and a camera bag.

In addition to an all-weather body, 8-megapixel resolution, and add-on lenses, the Ricoh 500SE comes with a detachable GPS module that automatically embeds GPS coordinates with the captured photographic images. The position of the GPS module on the top of the camera provides superior GPS signal reception compared with slide-in GPS cards. The new camera also offers a “GPS lock” function which records the location of the object being photographed instead of where the photographer is standing.

The Ricoh 500SE is an all-in-one GIS data collection device, as it enables users to directly enter up to five data attributes which will be seamlessly attached to the digital photograph along with the location coordinates. The camera can even snap a picture of a barcode and store it as a photo attribute. These attribute fields remain with the photos as GIS layers when the files are downloaded into the GPS-Photo Link software for georeferenced display in a GIS.

GPS-Photo Link is a digital image mapping software that automatically links digital photographic images to GPS location data in the GIS environment. GPS-Photo Link creates web pages in which the watermarked photographs are integrated with satellite imagery, street maps, or other GIS-based mapping layer. New functionality added in the most recent software version enables users to display their photo locations as icons in a Google Earth map layer and add an arrow indicating the direction in which the photo was taken.

Another new function found in the Ricoh 500SE that will be beneficial to photo-mapping users is the built-in Bluetooth and optional WiFi wireless capability. This will allow users to instantly transfer images and attributes acquired in the camera to other handheld mobile devices, such as PDAs or GIS data collectors. Data can also be transmitted wirelessly from these external devices to the camera. GIS users can also utilise the Bluetooth connection to communicate with an external GPS receiver if they choose not to use the Ricoh GPS module attachment.