[Taxacom] two new tools with potential in taxonomy and beyond

[Richard Pyle]

I think such a camera may have somewhat limited value for
professional/expert field taxonomists/naturalists who, for the most part,
capture georef data for their imaged organisms anyway.  However, a camera of
the sort Donat described could have enormous potential in the realm of the
"Citizen Scientist".  I hope it catches on!

Aloha,
Rich

> -----Original Message-----
> From: taxacom-bounces at mailman.nhm.ku.edu 
> [mailto:taxacom-bounces at mailman.nhm.ku.edu] On Behalf Of Donat Agosti
> Sent: Thursday, September 04, 2008 9:52 PM
> To: TAXACOM at mailman.nhm.ku.edu
> Subject: Re: [Taxacom] two new tools with potential in 
> taxonomy and beyond
> 
> The point is not, that you could do things better (not 
> doubt), but that there is a first compact camera in the prize 
> range (USD500) that many more people can afford to get it and 
> use it. Clearly, there are limitations regarding Zoom and 
> macro, but a huge amount of information does not depend on 
> them, and often is observed when you do not have your special 
> equipment at hand. The future will give us such gadgets.
> 
> Furthermore, the camera is has Wlan access, and thus you 
> could just go home upload your images, add some little 
> metadata (eg what you see) and send it to a web site where it 
> can be viewed. No need to type in coordinates from you GPS, 
> if you have one at all, and copy it from the camera to the pc 
> and from there onwards
> 
> Donat
> 
> 
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: taxacom-bounces at mailman.nhm.ku.edu
> [mailto:taxacom-bounces at mailman.nhm.ku.edu] On Behalf Of Fabian Haas
> Sent: Friday, September 05, 2008 9:19 AM
> To: Karl Magnacca
> Cc: TAXACOM at mailman.nhm.ku.edu
> Subject: Re: [Taxacom] two new tools with potential in 
> taxonomy and beyond
> 
> well the kind we do in biology and systematics needs some 
> more specialised equipment with macro capabilities, saying a 
> good macro-tulip-setting or a filter screw so you can 
> attached good close up lenses (I take the Nikon T series 
> lenses, excellent quality!). So probably the P6000 wont make us happy.
> 
> I would rather go for a DSLR and an attached GPS device, such 
> as the one from www.Solmeta.com, I think there are others on 
> the market. Ricoh has another camera with built in chip set.
> 
> In any case the connection between coordinates and photos is 
> obvious and there is a large community out there doing that 
> (www.locr.com, just another example). I think the fusion will 
> come, and there is no reason why not to use it! I am looking 
> forward to do so.
> 
> 
> Fabian
> 
> Karl Magnacca wrote:
> > On Thu, September 4, 2008 10:08 pm, Donat Agosti wrote:
> >   
> >> I assume that these two new tools will have a tremendous 
> effect the 
> >> way we work.
> >>
> >> The New Nikon P6000, the first small compact 13.5Megapixel camera 
> >> with GPS built in and thus allowing to GPS every image.
> >> http://www.dpreview.com/news/0808/08080702nikonp6000.asp
> >>     
> >
> > I kind of wonder what kind of reception such a small GPS 
> receiver will 
> > get, considering how much trouble a dedicated one has.  On 
> the camera 
> > side, the lens only goes to f5.9.  Not gonna cut it for taking any 
> > kind of closeup; my Canon does f8.0 and that's barely 
> tolerable, not 
> > good enough for anything serious, and there's a big 
> difference in that step.
> > I also wonder about having a 13.5Mp sensor in a compact camera as 
> > well; mine is 10.0, but pixel-for-pixel it's considerably 
> noisier than 
> > my old 4Mp camera, so overall the quality isn't that much better.
> >
> > Sorry for sounding like a naysayer.  It is a good idea!
> >
> > Karl
> > =====================
> > Karl Magnacca
> > Postdoctoral Researcher
> > Department of Zoology
> > Trinity College, Dublin 2
> > Ireland
> >
> >
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> -- 
> 
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> 
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