Beginner Looking for a camera with an image reference / number display

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Skins11

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Hi all,

I'm new here, well actually I'm new to photography in general, and am looking for some advice on a camera - this seems as good a place as any to direct my queries.

I'm a surveyor, and regularly have to undertake schedules of condition of properties, which involves dictating the condition whilst photographing every single nook and cranny inside. The dictated survey gets typed up for us, and then I need to go through and note the photo reference of each defect next to the description.

Now this can be quite problematic as several zoomed in photos showing cracks can all look very similar, and they won't always be taken in the same order as they are dictated - so when it comes to marrying up the photos with the description, it can be very time consuming.

One way I thought this could be resolved is if I had a camera that could provide a photo reference as I take the photograph (which I could then include in the dictation). I seem to recall seeing some cameras previously that have a small LCD display on the top that I wondered if this showed the photo number (or perhaps they just display the number of photos left available on the memory card). Alternatively, when the photo is taken if it could flash up the photo reference on the display screen, that would be fine. And finally, it would be useful if the photo reference could be reset to zero at the beginning of each survey. What I don't really want to be doing is going into the viewing mode to get the photo reference after capturing each photo, as there can often be around 500 photos taken, so the time to do this can really add up.

I may be wrong, and a camera with such a feature may not even exist - however if one did, it would prove very helpful. Other features that would be beneficial - I have something called an essential tremor which means my hands shake a fair bit (especially when trying to keep them steady), so often my photos come out slightly blurry. If there was a feature that countered this that would be great. And finally, having the ability to take several photos in quick succession would also assist - my existing camera is fairly slow, and takes a few seconds to process each photo before I can take the next, which also delays things.

Probably not your average camera query I know, but if anybody knows of such a camera that matches the criteria above, I'd really appreciate it if you could point me in the right direction.

Many thanks for reading.
 
There are cameras that can do this for you and more but what is your budget and what make of cameras are you familiar with at the present?
 
Thanks for your response admirable - my budget would be lower end, probably up to £200 (if this is realistic - if not I suppose I could go higher within reason) - bearing in mind it would largely be used for work and I'm not sure if I'd be able to recover any of the costs for it I'd prefer to keep it low. It doesn't need to be able to produce amazing quality photos, just so long as they are clear enough to identify defects. At present I just have a little Samsung ST200 which was about £60 (it's not great though in my opinion). I don't really mind if the camera is a little rectangular one or one of the bigger ones with projecting lenses (apologies, that's probably a majorly newby way to differentiate between the different types of cameras, but I'm not too sure what you actually call them). I don't have a great deal of familiarity with any particular make of camera, so I guess that leaves me fairly open to different brands. Thanks again.
 
you could just write down in a book picture number and what it is a picture of. When displayed on a computer they come up in order anyway. So any small compact camera would do and well within budget
That is the cheapest way I would think

Something like

Picture 1 - crack in chimney stack
picture 2 = crack and movement on side wall

That type of thing
 
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Maybe use a video - you can then speak at the same time as capturing video and then grab stills from it later
 
Hi realspeed - thanks for the suggestion. That's pretty much what I'm trying to avoid - at present on my current camera, I have no way of obtaining the picture number without going back into gallery / view mode which takes a bit of time. If I had a camera that displayed the image reference easily then I would just dictate the reference number with the description, and then I would not need to do any editing at all once I received the survey back (as it would already have the image references included). Also, we can sometimes have around 500 photos per property, and sometimes I'll end up doing 4 or 5 of these in a day, so writing down that many image descriptions would simply take too long. I appreciate the consideration however.
 
drounding said:
Maybe use a video - you can then speak at the same time as capturing video and then grab stills from it later
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Thanks drounding - that is actually something that some practices are actually starting to do; however isn't something that our company currently approves of. The schedules are for inclusion in party wall Awards, legal documents, and the photos taken before and after works being carried out largely establishes what, if any, damage was attributable to the works which then dictates what remedies or compensation are due - I've heard of video schedules being produced that didn't show the required level of detail close up (probably more down to user error). Thanks for the suggestion.
 
Some digital cameras have the facility to "print" the date and time on the photo like film cameras used to do.
 
Or simply review the image on the back screen and just take a note of the file number?
 
odd jim said:
Or simply review the image on the back screen and just take a note of the file number?
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^ that

I can't think of a single digital camera that can't be set to display the file number as part of a data overlay when reviewing the image on the reverse screen. Unless you're shooting an awful lot of photos you's just need to dictate the last three numbers for the benefit of the person transcribing the dictation.
 
I have a Nikon D3. This has a dictation function so you can record reminders. I've never used it though as I feel loony talking to my camera!

On a serious note, the D3 re-sell market has dropped massively this year. Although not within your budget, I've seen them going for £5/600.
 
boliston said:
im sure my old d2x had a "memo" button where i could embed a short voice memo into each image - not sure if new cameras still do this
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^^This^^
The old Nikon D2X can be had secondhand at a well known auction site for around budget.
Camera records the image file, e.g. DSC_123456.jpg and the audio file, (memo), DSC_123456.wav
Description of the memo facility here: http://www.cleanimages.com/tips-d2x-recordingvoicememos.asp
 
Jesus Quintana said:
I have a Nikon D3. This has a dictation function so you can record reminders. I've never used it though as I feel loony talking to my camera!

On a serious note, the D3 re-sell market has dropped massively this year. Although not within your budget, I've seen them going for £5/600.
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Of course you then need a lens too so even taking a cheap second hand third party lens we are way above the OPs budget.

I have done this sort of stuff for years and can say that video doesn't usually make the job any quicker. (Tried that many years ago).

The OPs thoughts are on the right lines but the budget is way out unfortunately. Working for an outfit that requires that throughput means they should provide the tools, but unfortunately commonly don't.

Try using an iPhone or similar, geotagging, and voice memos come as standard, though budget would still be a problem, as would the useless flash.
 
boliston said:
im sure my old d2x had a "memo" button where i could embed a short voice memo into each image - not sure if new cameras still do this
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Doesn't really help with matching the image taken to the transcribed dictation. He needs to be able to say into his survey dictation the reference of the photo relevant to the observation he's just made, "... damp on ceiling bedroom 1, see DSC01234. ..."

@Skins11 with your Samsung ST200, go into Playback mode and use the Disp button to cycle through the display options. The manual isn't clear but I would expect one of the modes to show the file name of the image you're looking at on the screen.
 
Canon EOS-M small and compact, large rear touch screen and you can slide through the images taken, similar to an Iphone, with the image numbers on the screen as you go. Choose the image required and record on your recording device
 
Alastair said:
Doesn't really help with matching the image taken to the transcribed dictation. He needs to be able to say into his survey dictation the reference of the photo relevant to the observation he's just made, "... damp on ceiling bedroom 1, see DSC01234. ..."
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It will record the audio (.wav) file with the same number as the image file, supplying both to the person who does the matching should make it easy.
 
Modern cameras operate quite quickly. So to finding the number via review is instant. Press Play. There it is.

Resetting the numbering for each job is easy on my Olympus. Pressing menu takes you directly to Number Reset if that was the last thing you used. You can even add different letters for each house. But it's not within your budget. It's possible that a cheaper camera will have the same function.

Regarding camera shake, many cameras have good image stabilisation. The Olympus EPM1 has effective in-body stabilisation and costs £150 ish including kit lens, for example.

These are things you can try out in a shop to see how fast they are. You should expect instant operation. Beforehand, you could download the camera manual to see if what's possible, and what to press when you are in the shop.
 
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gramps said:
It will record the audio (.wav) file with the same number as the image file, supplying both to the person who does the matching should make it easy.
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Except you now require the transcriber to have to use a bunch of audio files instead of just one. A great leap backwards for the efficiency of the office workflow!
 
Alastair said:
Except you now require the transcriber to have to use a bunch of audio files instead of just one. A great leap backwards for the efficiency of the office workflow!
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Why?
He/she checks the photo on the PC and types from the audio file alongside it ... seems a no-brainer to me!
 
...but as I already suggested, why not just make note of the file number? They're unique, automatically added and visible on review straight away? It's all done for you and TBH I can't really make sense why this is being debated, lol!
 
@gramps Jim's way is the "no brainer" as it involves no change to the current transcription workflow, requires only a low cost camera (possibly the OPs current Samsung is OK) and doesn't require the typist to open and listen to the memo against every image separately. If I suggested your way to a commercial client as an improvement I'd get laughed out of the office! Rough guess is that it could double the transcription time, whereas Jim's way makes no change to the transcription time.
 
I think with a faster camera the problem will be solved using review. And speaking the number into the existing dictation. And no extra faffing around on the computer. The more faff, the more chance of errors when dealing with thousands of pictures a day.
 
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If I'm understanding this right then there's no short cut if you want to marry up shots that aren't in the right order with your dictation. The easiest way has already been mentioned, and that is to write down the shot number and what it relates to. Obviously you say you don't want to do this, so the only other option I can think of it to write the number on a post it note and stick it next to the crack or whatever you're taking a picture of. That way you have a way of seeing the number with the photo, and also post its won't damage any of the property.
 
But then it would look like a crime scene ☺.

The other way is to find a single smartphone app that does the dictation and pictures all in one. In a smartphone with one of those cameras attached like the Sony or Olympus. It might also be able to transcribe the speech to text automatically at the same time.
 
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ianp5a said:
But then it would look like a crime scene ☺.
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And what's wrong with that? :p Could add a few little blood splatters to make it look more authentic :LOL:

In all seriousness it's for documentation purposes not for aesthetics so shouldn't matter, but if it did he could place them in the corner of the frame and then crop them out when they're in order and documented.
 
Hi,

Really appreciate all the comments and suggestions. As @ianp5a suggested, I'm going to go into a shop to try a few out. And as many of you alluded to, it looks like flicking back into the playback mode to retrieve the image number as I go may be the best solution. My current camera takes a few seconds to do this, so doing it repeatedly can really add up - imagine taking 500 photos per survey, and it taking 4 seconds each time I go into the playback mode - that would add up to over half an hour per survey just in waiting time. Of course I wouldn't do it for every photo because hopefully I should be able to just do it every few photos and I'd remember which number I was up to half of the time. I'll just look for one that operates a little faster. @admirable - I do quite like the look of the Canon EOS-M, although I'm not basing that on solid facts and stats, just a feeling. As @Alastair states, having separate audio would really not be possible in this case, although I can see how it may be beneficial in other situations.

Thanks again for all the input.
 
Many cameras allow custom file numbering settings. So a little time spent with the camera reseting the file numbering at the start of each job and using a seperate memory card will do the trick. You will have file numbering you can work with for each job.
 
Apologies if this sounds stupid, but is it possible to get small ring bound flip/note book with the numbers 1-500 written on each page? As you take the photo, lean/stick the book next to the defect so it's part of the picture, then add the number to the dictation? A blob of blu-tack on it would be enough to hold it to most surfaces.
 
Ok bit of clarity here. on the EOS-M there is the option to display the images on the rear screen with the image number displayed indefinitely. So you would take the image, note the image number and then dictate it into your voice recorder. There is no delay and the image will be on view until you take the next shot. Rinse and repeat.
 
Harlequin565 said:
Apologies if this sounds stupid, but is it possible to get small ring bound flip/note book with the numbers 1-500 written on each page? As you take the photo, lean/stick the book next to the defect so it's part of the picture, then add the number to the dictation? A blob of blu-tack on it would be enough to hold it to most surfaces.
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Recording the actual file number onto the dictation means you don't have to open the image to see the number. You could say that resetting the file number at the start would cover that, but you may take a photo and decide not to use it, or lose your place in the notebook, etc.. You may not want the number note in the photo so that if you choose not to use a photo it's not obvious and there's no doubt in the mind of the person reading the survey report about what the missing photo may have shown.

Think in terms of the whole process..

(Observation.. comment.. photo) .. repeat .. repeat .. --> transcription of audio dictation --> match up photo to transcript --> report --> client


This is not a photography problem, it's a business process efficiency problem
 
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