By Evan Ackerman
Unlike other geotagging devices, the Ricoh 500SE digital camera (released today in Europe) has GPS built right in to the camera itself, and will attach GPS information to every picture or video it captures, no post-processing or external hardware required. Ricoh released a camera based on the same general idea about a year ago (the Caplio Pro G3), but the 500SE has packed a much larger and more varied smorgasbord of features into a sleeker (and water resistant) case.
For about $1100 US, the 500SE comes with 8 megapixels and a 2.5 inch LCD, WiFi and Bluetooth connectivity, customized image tagging, automatic GIS integration, and a 28mm wide angle zoom lens that can macro focus to 1cm. You can even use the Bluetooth to connect to an external GPS device if you need those extra few meters of where the heck am I.
Or, you could spend that $1100 on a pretty nice digital SLR. Unfortunately, like its predecessor, this camera will probably appeal primarily to a niche market of people who like to wander around in the rain taking georeferenced pictures.
[ Ricoh 500SE ] VIA [ Digital Photography Review ]
Photos taken with the 500 SE can be nicely viewed in Google Earth using the software Fodysseus http://www.fodysseus.com
alta4 ships the 500SE together with a free license of Fodysseus RE available at http://www.gps-camera.de in Europe for less than 900 EUR (including VAT) and around 730 EUR (not including VAT).
wow, i get the feeling that even I could take good photo’s with this camera, very impressive!