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Level 9

GPS Coordinates for Street View from Samsung Gear 360 (2017)

Question from reading the specs on the GPS settings in the Samsung Gear 360 (2017), they say "Geo Tagging (via Smartphone)". So when you move out of the view of the camera and hide in the same place then all the pictures are going to show as the hiding place to stay out of the view. So how do others handle this? Does each picture need to get placed manually after uploading?  Hard to go back and tell each one's position. Not sure how to do that step of plotting each location. 

 

Does the the RICOH THETA handle this better?s

 

I am starting to think that I need to stand by the 360 for each shot and take a cell phone shot just to get exact GPS coordinates of each set up then put the lat and long on the photo in light room then back to the phone and upload. Would be faster than clicking on a map to try and calculate each 10' move. Or indoors even smaller.

14 comments
Level 10

Re: GPS Coordinates for Street View from Samsung Gear 360 (2017)

Hi @davidcox one thing you need to know about these cameras in general is the wireless range is not far, I would say if you are lucky 2M. You have to be pretty strategic where you place your camera.

 

In case you don't know the 2017 is not Streetview compatible. For Streetview capable ones e.g. the LG, Ricohs you can add the location after the fact via Streetview. The LG GPS gets it from the smartphone but the software is borked, no matter you go, you are always in Mountain view (i.e. Google's hq).

 

My suggestion is if you are really serious about 360.. get a older APC camera e.g. Nikon D300, or even 4/3 Panasonic G series ~$300USD.. a 360 mount from Aliexpress $100. You can easily get a decent day time setup for under $500USD.. then use the shareware like PTGui.

Level 9

Re: GPS Coordinates for Street View from Samsung Gear 360 (2017)

@WetCoastCanuck Boy, you are really preaching to the choir on this one. I have about 10-12 hours of work into getting the 360 (2017) to publish street view shots tied together to form a tour outside, let alone indoor. Single 360 shots are easy. It is all sorts of work a-rounds. I can see the logic in what you are saying better and better every day. I have a Nikon D7100 and wanted to test the waters before getting a Sigma lens and the rotator. Now if think I would add GPS to the Nikon when I make the move. 

 

I think Google is making a big mistake by leaving the Samsung listed on the Streetview publish page because the details section links over to the current specs and as you said and I am finding out it really does not work.  It is miss leading. 

Working with the Samsung 360 I can see that the quality of the pictures is going to be fair at best.  Lots of grain but not way worse than street view images from Google. 

I wanted to get started and learn Streetview, get Trusted Status and be able to do low-cost work for small business, virtual tours and then offer better shots after I move up to DSLR capture. I now am seeing a lot of limitations to the point and shoot 360 concepts I THOUGHT I was buying.  then move up.  Now I find the time involved may be just as easy to use the DSLR and get top results.  Question I have

I could not find a lens ring for my wide angle Nikon lens so went with the starter kit idea.  I thought you needed the precision of a nodalninja.com rotator.  If I use a Nikkor 12-24mm lens and a good ball head bracket with multiple shots would PTGui make up for the lack of a Sigma 8?  How many shots are usually taken with a Sigma 8 lens per single finised 360 photo. How much more would it take with a wide angle 4-6 more?

What time factor is it to stitch the pictures after they are taken to make one good 360?

 

Thanks in advance for any input

Level 10

Re: GPS Coordinates for Street View from Samsung Gear 360 (2017)

@davidcox  Someone screwed up with Streetview interoperatability but I am not sure it is Google or Samsung or both. Well I thought the 2016 is still in production, so technically it is still Streetview compatible. I am just personally tired of buying closed source "cheap" electronics that relies on the whim of the manufacturers just to get features they promised.

 

There are many ways of mounting a dSLR for 360 or 720 they like to call it, I prefer the cheap ones from AliExpress. Ones that mounts the dSLR itself instead of clamping on the lens (to me the nodal design makes no sense and inflexible because the wide angle lens are typically light). You are lugging quite a bit if you do 360 with the SLR, an extra pound doesn't matter. If you are planning to do tours, get a dolley for your tripod, so you don't need to setup every time you move. I suggest fashion it out of wood with ball casters underneath to give you good directionality.

 

As I had mentioned a while back to LucioV, Nikon compatible GPS receiver is about $50, they are just GPS chips with a wire to plug into the USB port on the Nikon body, so it is not and doesn't need to be fancy. Software like PTGui gets the coordinates from the exif of the spheres and takes an average. I think 12mm is fine and most of the time you will be using f22 so you don't really need a fast lens.

 

The advantage of this is you get HDR and looks better, but you trade off with fast and maybe cheap.. you know the engineer maxim, fast, good and cheap pick 2.

Level 9

Re: GPS Coordinates for Street View from Samsung Gear 360 (2017)

With the 12 mm how many shots in the full rotation would you say it would take to get a good stitch with PTIgui is 6-8 different positions a fair starting point?

Level 1

Re: GPS Coordinates for Street View from Samsung Gear 360 (2017)

@davidcox, @WetCoastCanuck there is no need to carry around tripod and rotator. It is possible to make dslr photospheres without them  

Level 2

Re: GPS Coordinates for Street View from Samsung Gear 360 (2017)

Not sure the Theta will do any better- I don't believe either camera has built-in GPS.

I use a selfie stick held high above my head (and a hat) so I'm in the same place as the camera BUT as somebody else here as mentioned, the Street View app has a major flaw and doesn't actually register the correct location.

As a result you have to locate every image yourself, after the fact.

This might work for single shots, but if you take multiple images (Eg 100 images in a walking tour) then it's horrendously laborious to tag them all later. Nay impossible.

The Theta app also seems to have a bug in its "continuous" mode- set it to take a shot every 8 seconds and it only takes one then reverts to single shot.

I'm baffled how anybody can create a good tour without an unrealistic amount of work... or perhaps I'm missing a trick?

Peter

Level 8

Re: GPS Coordinates for Street View from Samsung Gear 360 (2017)

I keep seeing this pop up, and you CAN NOT expect that GPS can accurately position your panos.

Please read this document

-

The information you want starts on page 21, and the table on page 22, lists accuracy in very readable form.

The bottom line is that you can only expect the GPS to locate your images to within 6.0 meters (19.3 feet.) And, this accuracy can only be expected outside, on a clear, cloudless day..  .

Level 2

Re: GPS Coordinates for Street View from Samsung Gear 360 (2017)

It's not about accuracy- there is a bug in the Street View app so everything is located somewhere in the US (google HQ I think).

 

Level 9

Re: GPS Coordinates for Street View from Samsung Gear 360 (2017)

@Perran3D  I am now using the Theta S and it accurately records GPS coordinates of the phone's location when the shot is taken. It uses the phones GPS, not the cameras. I post via the StreetView App and found some need to adjust location slightly.  It accurately finds locations in Connecticut never shows anything in California for my shots yet. You may have a setting wrong or be messing up the metadata on the photo that has the GPS coordinates.