I have been using GeoPointer X from this site:
http://www.geoscanners.com/geop.htm
It does more or less the same as the one you posted, but you can control the camera as well. My main use was for linking the ground penetrating radar data to the photos and the GPS, but in your particular case that might not be necessary.
Regards,

It looks like the sony is no longer available.


"Model Number: GPS-CS1GPS Device
Always know when and where your pictures were taken with the GPS-CS1. Now you can keep track of your digital photos with satellite precision. This product is no longer available for purchase. "

I haven't heard that they discontinued it. I'm not in the U.S., but the Sony website links to this:
http://www.sonystyle.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/SearchCatalog
Perhaps you can buy it from there if you need it, it's about 149$. A bit less expensive than here in Sweden where I bought mine for 250$ approximately.
Regards,

Topcon know has a handheld data collector GPS camera unit. This unit has a number of configurations for accuracy and capabilities. You can run GIS software on the unit to incorporate your existing data. This is more that you asked for but i expext more technology like this from other makers. I also know that for a number of Digital SLR cameras you can get a GPS receiver to mount on the flash hotshoe mount. There are a number of after market softwares to combine photos with seperate GPS readings if you dont have a combined unit.

Below is a link to the spec sheet for the GMS2

http://www.topconpositioning.com/products/gps/mapping-and-gis/gms-2.html

I have used the GMS2 unit and it is quite nice it was perfect for the company i worked for because it could be used on pedestrian survey all in one unit then on excavation it is a data collector for a total station and or RTK GPS system.

What I found interesting about the Sony is that it doesn't attach to the camera in anyway and I can only assume it matches timestamps in the GPS files and photo files during post processing. That brings up accuracy questions for me, but also makes me wonder if this is possible using our existing GPS units and some software.

Yes, the Sony unit does match the timestamps in the jpg files with the GPS time. So, if you want a good synchronization you must make sure the clock in your camera is accurate. I haven't had much trouble with it, but it might not be accurate enough for you.

The software I posted before, GeoPointer X from Geoscanners AB, does exactly what you are asking for without the need for any special camera. The added bonus of loading your own paper or digital maps into the software might come in handy if you are using old maps. We used in one survey a webcam from Philips, it might sound cheap, but it turned out to be very good in bad light conditions. A friend of mine in Denmark uses the software with a Canon camera and a trigger unit, but then again he is using the software from a moving vehicle.

In general it depends completely on what you are trying to accomplish and what kind of features you want to have. For some people a GPS logger and a camera might be enough, for some others it might be not.
Regards,

I know it's probably not what you're looking for but we generally take the low tech route. We just log each frame # from our digital camera as a waypoint on our Garmin.

All of this data can then just be imported from the GPS into ArcMap as a shapefile.

It's a bit pricey but check out the Ricoh 500SE. It is a somewhat ruggedized digital camera which can have an intergrated GPS along with bluetooth or WiFi to make it easier to transfer pictures. You can also add short memos to the pictures using the buttons and screen or for repetitive memos, you can use the built in bar code reader. There is software that you can get that would even create a GIS shapefile with symbols demarkating the direction the camera was facing (and with a bit less reliability, will take into account camera settings to show what can be seen in the frame) when the picture was taken.

The software that does most of the cool post processing is a bit buggy but still very cool. I haven't yet used it for Archaeological work but I have used it under other circumstances with promissing results.

Another low-end solution... pick a gps device that has a built in camera, like the Magellan Triton series. If the 2 meg pictures aren't good enough for you, you can take the "real picture" with whatever camera you are using, and take a backup picture with gps info on the magellan. One thing I've noticed over the years, and this may be off the point here a bit, but why is it always Garmin, if not Trimble? Magellan also, apart from the consumer end GPSs, makes professional series devices that from some personal use on the job seem better to me than Trimble. Garmin doesn't. So, with the low-end solutions, why Garmin? Granted, I'm just a tech, a bit of a gearhead though, but in a lot of ways, I would prefer Magellan myself, especially with the current models. From what I've seen, companies that use garmins in the field only see them as data recording devices. Much more could be done though. You could actually use them for navigation instead of spending half a day to figure out where you are from paper maps. Some current Garmin models (Colorado series?) come with preloaded topo maps, but that's all you get with them, a certain map level that you can't manipulate to your own needs. The Magellan Triton series allows you to upload your own selection of topo maps, you just need additional software that costs around $50. So you can have a device that will tell you exactly where you are, take a photo, attach a waypoint and if you want to, even a MP3 dictation notes to it. All for less than $500.

Delenn,

You brought up several good points. My company uses primarily Garmin GPS's. We do this for a few reasons. The biggest reason is that there are tons of existing applications and scripts to control/communicate with Garmin handhelds directly within ArcMap. It might be easier with Magellans now but as of about 3 years ago, they were a bit of a pain and required importing/exporting files for use within GIS. We've also had very good luck with GPSMap 60CSx's running an older version of MapSource 1:100k topo base maps. It's also extremely convenient to upload shapefiles directly from ArcMap into the Garmins; whether it be project boundaries, 1 mile buffers, existing sites, structures, etc.

In terms of survey grade GPS's, we have three Trimbles (I think GeoXH) and use Pathfinder Office. I'm not a very big fan of either. The Trimble is extremely expensive, takes forever to get a decent signal that's good enough for post processing, and for on-the-fly coordinates really isn't much better than a Garmin. One big perk of the Trimbles is that you can upload raster imagery into them (DOQ, DRG's, historic topos, etc.) and they're very powerful once you have a good data dictionary. And some clients require them.

In terms of photo logging, we wrote a pretty good script for it. In the field, we have the photographer log waypoints in a set way to indicate the photo name and bearing; ie, P0001B160. We then download them into ArcMap and generate overview maps with directional arrows to indicate photo locations and direction.

KB,

Good point about the importing/exporting. Yeah, you would still have to do that with the “normal people” Magellan. You don’t need to do that with the professional Magellan though, you can just take out the SD card and copy the files on your computer. Where I worked with those, they were phasing out their old dying Trimbles and buying Magellans, for few reasons. They are a lot cheaper, more reliable, faster to acquire a good signal, and if something happens to the unit, Magellan will give you a replacement unit while they fix yours, while with Trimbles, you just have to wait until your unit is fixed. This might just be in their neck of the woods, though. We used them with ArcPad/ArcMap + GPSDifferential for ArcPad. They also support raster imagery, we had topo maps as SID files. They really are a cheaper, comparable product to Trimble.

Good idea of putting the bearing on the filename too, not just on your photo log.

How do you like ArcPad? I haven't used it in several years but it used to be pretty quirky. We run TerraSync on our Trimbles and it isn't too bad; it's just annoying to constantly have to import/export files between ArcView and Pathfinder Office.

I'd really like to either switch our office over to ArcPad or buy the GPS Analyst Extension (from Trimble) and not have to deal with Pathfinder Office. We've already invested so much money, I doubt we'll make any changes until our units become grossly obsolete (like our old Trimble GeoExplorers or a big project requires it). We also rented a Leica (running DataPro, I think) a few years ago and it was a pretty decent unit.

I think the survey grade GPS's are overkill for a lot of projects. For a typical phase I, a Garmin with a few control points tied to a sketch map are typically good enough to digitize. On a Phase III, I definitely prefer a transit with the datum and traverse points shot in on the survey GPS.

Another reason I've stuck with Garmins. I used to be pretty obsessed with Geocaching about 7 or 8 years ago and back then, all of the software was designed only for Garmin... :-)