Can Collector Use Different Camera Apps?

[BradBolton]

Hi,

I was wondering if anyone knows of a way to use a different camera app while collecting photos in the Collector app, on an iPad? I'm not finding much, other than iOS won't let stuff like that happen. Ideally, I would click the camera icon, click add, and it would give me the option of which camera app to choose. There are other apps that can put copyright, time/date stamps, etc, on a photo, that could be very helpful.

Curious to hear everyone's thoughts.

Thanks,
Brad

[GaryMorris1]

Collector currently can only take photos using the standard camera view.  However, you can also choose to attach photos from the photo library on the iPhone/iPad.  That allows you to attach photos taken by another app.

If you take a photo with your favorite camera app, save that photo in the Camera Roll on the device (or some other folder in the photo library).  Then switch back to Collector and add that photo from the photo library.  It would be nice if you could do this without switching apps, but that is not currently possible.

I just read about an interesting new app that could be very useful for doing exactly this, called Nav Camera.  It overlays information onto the photos you take, adding location, date/time, custom notes, etc.  I haven't used the app, but it looks worth checking into.

[JorgeOrellana]

I don't know enough about the Collector app on apple products but I do know on Android you could take pictures using 3rd party camera apps. Back when I had a Samsung SIII there was a bug with the stock camera and Collector so I was forced  to use a third party app to take my pictures

[LauraGiboo]

I know this hasn't been updated in a year, but I was wondering if there is any new technology within the last year that will allow someone to take a picture on a regular point and shoot camera and transfer the photo from the camera to the ipad photo library via Bluetooth?  Does anyone have camera suggestions of one that is capable of doing this?

[LauraGiboo]

I have found a solution for this issue recently.  Our office just acquired a new Fujifilm camera for the crews going out and doing inspections.  They need to be able to take higher quality pictures than the iPad allows with its internal camera.  We were looking for a way for our crews to be able to take pictures and have it automatically transferred to the iPad camera roll so that they don't have to switch between apps.  In researching this, we found that EyeFi Mobi allows users to do just that.

Automatically Save to Camera Roll on iPhone and iPad – Eyefi Customer Care

On EyeFi's website, they also have a list of compatible cameras (hundreds of them).

So with this solution or crews can now take pictures on the Fujifilm camera, have it sent directly to the camera roll on the iPad and by the time they are done filling out their inspection fields in collector, the image is transferred and they can add attachment from camera roll without exiting the collector app!

[JuanLuera]

Hola All!

I know this original post was a bit over a year, and I don’t recall if our Collector documentation at that time addressed this inquiry. I did want to point out to all, which within our current documentation for Collector does mentioned various camera apps working with Collector. I also wanted to point out in my own testing on cases for our customers here in Support Services. I have tested and used successfully various camera apps with Collector, from within both Android and the Apple version of our app without any issues. I hope this information will assist all communicating on this post.  Gracias, All!

Collector for ArcGIS

Work with attachments

Step #2 - Tap the attachment type to add, and create or
select the item to add.

http://doc.arcgis.com/en/collector/android/collect-data/work-with-attachments.htm

Juan