Or maybe my questions aren’t that specific to iNatting, I don’t know. I’ve used my smartphones, + a few cheap additional lenses, for years, and I have no major complaints. I currently have a Google Pixel 8a, and the only real issue with it is that the screen gets hot in bright sun, and the phone automatically limits the brightness until it cools down, which makes it difficult to see in bright sun.
I’ve narrowed it down to an Olympus TG-7, but I have a few (probably silly) questions:
GPS/location data: The TG-7 has GPS capability, but there’s some concern that it significantly reduces battery time. Lots of cameras don’t even do GPS. I guess they somehow tether to a smartphone and use the GPS data from the phone. Do I have that right? Is that option available on the TG-7, if I want to preserve the battery? I like to take tons of pics of everything I see, so manually adding the location for each observation will add a lot of time to submitting that I’d like to avoid.
What is the workflow for submitting observations? Currently I go into my phone’s gallery app, share the pics directly to the iNat app, and it creates a new observation that includes the images, time, and location data. All I need to do is fill in the taxon and submit. If I’m using a standalone camera, is there an intermediate step where I need to transfer the pics to a phone or computer and create the observation from there, or is this another thing that can be done using the link between the camera and my phone?
Is the screen bright enough? As mentioned above, my phone’s screen isn’t quite up to the task on sunny days. Should I expect the same shortcoming with the camera?
Background, for those interested:
I’ve been contemplating buying a standalone camera for a while. I’m not a photographer; I’m more interested in taking pics that show the animal/plant I’m looking at with as much clarity as possible than I am in the best color/framing/whatever. I’m competent with tech gizmos, but in general I prefer manual/mechanical/simple things. I listen to music on records, drive an old stick shift car, and the last proper camera that I owned (decades ago) had a build date in the 1970s. I work in the tech industry, and in my free time I try to stay as far from it as I can. So that gives you an idea about me.
I just got invited on a snorkeling trip (I have zero experience snorkeling, not much of a water person). I’m looking forward to the trip, and it’s given me enough of a push to bite the bullet and buy a proper camera. Of course for snorkeling I want a waterproof camera, and the TG-7 seems to be very highly reviewed as an entry-level waterproof camera.
Any thoughts are appreciated, particularly from TG-7 users. I’m leaning in that direction pretty heavily, but if you think I should be considering another camera as an alternative please speak up.
I’ve only used a TG-7 for a little bit of moth photography so my experience is limited. I found the GPS to be fairly slow to lock in so you need to keep the camera logging coordinates while you are out. This does eat up the battery but you can get a3-pack + charger on Amazon for $20. It addressed my biggest issue.
the aftermarket flash ring and diffuser were good, inexpensive purchases IMO.
I don’t have an actual camera, so I can’t answer anything about that, but in my area, a lot of photographers take a picture of the camera with their phone right after they take a picture with the camera, which records the location of the area without the camera needing to do anything special
This is exactly the type of thing I want to avoid. I take hundreds of pics while I’m out, often of similar organisms, or multiple individuals of a certain species. Having to scroll through all those images on multiple devices to match them up would be a real headache.
See Geotagging Photos This is the method I use, even when I was using a TG-4, as its GPS took forever to get the right position and it drained battery at a pretty high rate.
This is what I’d recommend, and what I (and I assume most people with a dedicated camera) do. Then use the web uploader to post your photos to iNat.
I use the TG-7 with GPS turned on for the photos, but I don’t activate the permanent logging feature, which is what really drains the battery. The camera’s GPS doesnt work with my phone, but using GPS has never stopped me from using the camera on long hikes, even when taking 700+ photos in a day.
That said, I still recommend carrying a spare battery for peace of mind, I always have one, though I don’t always need it
For me the workflow is actually faster with the TG-7 than it was with my phone. I transfer the photos to my computer, delete the bad/duplicate shots, do a bit of cropping if needed, and then use the website’s bulk uploader that way I can create a lot of observations at once, add them to projects, add tags, and write notes that apply to several observations in one go. No need to add time or location manually since the metadata is already there, I only have to correct it occasionally.
I’ve never had issues with screen brightness. Even in full sun, it’s been perfectly usable for me.
Overall I’m very satisfied with the TG-7. I’m not a photographer and haven’t taken the time to learn, so the camera could definitely do more than what I ask of it, but for insects, plants, lichens… it does the job really well.
it’s small and fits in my pocket, it’s very sturdy drops on rocks or mud are no problem, waterproof, great tool if you don’t want to think about it too much and just want to be able to record your observations anytime
And there’s a huge ecosystem of accessories from Olympus and third-party brands if you want to upgrade the camera. I use the FD-1 flash diffuser for macro, and I’m planning to get a housing and a strobe for diving photos. For snorkeling, the housing isn’t necessary, though it’s always a good layer of protection.
The only real limitation for me is distance: as good as it is for macro, it’s not great for far-away subjects. My Pixel 6 phone actually takes better bird photos than the TG-7. That’s the only reason I’m considering getting a second camera to complement it.
I have a TG-6, I find the GPS feature frustrating enough to not use it other than a backup sometimes. It uses the battery fast, isn’t as reliable as a phone tracker app, and doesn’t work underwater which is the main thing I use the camera for.
I switch between it and a DSLR for hikes and for the DSLR I need to track my route for locations anyways, so I just end up using the same workflow. Transfer files to computer, minimal photo editing, add locations from a track file with Geosetter, then upload to the website.
I’m still figuring out the different setting options and what works best. Video is handy underwater because fish scare so easily, but the quality is noticeably lower and it’s a pain to trawl through videos after for stills to use for iNat. Usually I shoot JPG photos if it’s just for iNat to save SD card space, but after photographing in low visibility conditions underwater I usually want to do a bunch of editing to improve clarity and colour and JPGs don’t handle that editing as well. So I’ll set one of the custom settings on the dial to underwater mode + RAW images and switch to that for underwater.
This is really helpful to know. If it’s ok with you, maybe I will ask you how to set this up once I get the camera, if I can’t figure it out myself. I track my hikes with Alltrails, so I definitely don’t need the camera to track my entire path. I just want it to geotag the photos.
I don’t always travel with a computer, so I’d likely run out of storage if I go days/weeks at a time without offloading my pics. You might not know this, but do you think there’s a way to follow this same basic workflow using the phone, perhaps transferring the pics by USB/bluetooth to my phone? I do very little editing beyond cropping and maybe very minor color correction. If it’s possible to do this using my phone’s current gallery app (or an app specific to the camera) this would be a huge plus. Especially if I can then share the pics directly with the iNat app, which is my current workflow, and one that I’m basically happy with.
This is a separate conversation, but I’m on Android. I sideloaded iNat Next quite a while ago, and found it to be really buggy, to the degree that taps didn’t consistently work and geotags in pictures were always ignored when creating observations. I chalked it up to the app basically being in alpha at that point. Is a newer alpha/beta available for Android that I should be trying out? Would it be helpful for me to submit bug reports for the issues I am seeing? I know the IOS app was the priority, so I figured you folks would get around to Android at some point and that any bug reports I submitted in the mean time would just be background noise.
Yes, that’s possible. Using the “OM Image Share” app, you can connect the tg7 to your phone wirelessly and browse the photos directly from your phone. You can then select which images you want to transfer to your phone’s gallery. After that, you can upload them to inat exactly the same way you would with photos taken on your phone
yes, you can add a telephoto lens to the tg7. Olympus makes the tcon t01teleconverter, which gives you more reach.
I considered buying it myself, but when I was considering it the reviews I saw were not that great and and in the end I decided it wouldn’t be a meaningful enough upgrade for my needs. instead of investing in this accessory, I prefer to save up for underwater gear for scuba diving with the tg7, and later for a camera with a truly powerful zoom that’s better suited for birding
i got a TG-7 earlier this year, and i love it for bug pics. landscape shots aren’t as impressive, so i’ll take those with my phone instead.
the size is great, all you need is a pocket.
i bought the light ring (LG-1) attachment which is useful for close-up subjects, though it will reflect in shiny surfaces (like many beetles, ants, etc.). i’ll probably buy the flash diffuser (FD-1) attachment–mentioned already in the thread–before the springtime.
i have never used the GPS logging feature, which is a battery drain and irrelevant to my usage, but i love the GPS tags in the metadata. it is a bit slow to grab the location, so usually the first several photos i take in a session don’t contain that (sometimes i’ll spend extra time with my first photo subject to counteract this, or take a photo with my phone and a note of which observation(s) were there)
an extra battery pack is worth picking up. i have yet to run out of juice, but i have started a walk with a dying battery and that’s a major buzzkill!
not sure about potential workflow, i’ve never used the bluetooth/wifi/whatever or the software. i copy the photos from the camera to my computer, then crop/resize/rename the ones i want to upload to iNat and do that through the website uploader. location info is automatically included, and the observation ID is derived from the filename (i like to ID before uploading).
it’s a fun camera, and i’ve barely messed with any of the settings that aren’t macro/microscope mode
There’s a physical switch on top of the camera that turns on the constant log, so don’t turn that switch on.
Without using that, as others have mentioned, it takes some time to find the location. And sometimes I’ve noticed the first photo has a different (wrong) location than later ones.
I usually don’t turn the camera off, so it doesn’t lose the location until it turns itself off after 1+5 minutes.
You can manually update the A-GPS data with their computer program or their app, which helps the camera to find the location faster. According to this thread, that only helps if you have the correct time, so you have to switch time zones manually as needed and turn on/off DST manually twice a year if applicable.
It’s not great for that. But it is great for bugs (or anything close-up).
I have a TG7 with a diffuser ring, a spare battery and a 64 GB card.
I would recommend you get a waterproof casing as well to take it under water. TG7 has dedicated underwater modes.
Once at the location, take a shot of the environment to prime the GPS. Logging drains the battery.
Deep gorges can block the GPS signal, so it does not work all the time.
It would be the same for phones as well.
My workflow is to load the photos to a laptop into separate folders by month. TG7 only creates a new folder on the card after 10000 photos.
I look at the photos to see what to keep, what to crop, any to duplicate for different cropping. Adjust white balance etc if needed.
Focus stacking creates two photos: one with a shallow and one with a deep field of view. I usually keep one.
Drag and drop photos into browser based iNat upload page.
The screen is bright enough
I opted for a two camera setup. I use Canon SX70 for birds, landscape and distant insects and anything else that needs manual focus. TG7 is for focus stacked macro shot of various grass bracts and mosses and for macro shots of moving small insects. It is also great for action shots of children playing.
You can get a telephoto extension for TG7. I haven’t tried it, I use a different camera for birds.
I looked at your photos. They are quite good. TG7, with focus stacking turned on, would give you better photos for anything small and static like mosses. It might have trouble focusing on free standing stems of grasses (no manual mode) but you could take those with your phone.
One of the best photographic features of the TG series is the supermacro autofocus mode, which when combined with some zoom can beat the closeup detail performance of a modern handphone.
But to achieve this will usually require an external flash with a diffuser, as mentioned earlier.
A Samsung S25 can get some pretty nice shots in appropriate modes, comparable to casual/un-flashed TG captures.
Another way to get geotagging is to use a smartwatch. A “workout” (e.g. “walking”) records a GPX file, which can be saved onto the phone (via the health app). Then a utility (like exiftool, via Termux) can automagically add location to jpg files downloaded to phone via OI Share.