Photo size limiting?

[PeterTimmers]

I think with Collector we're going to run into the whole photo size attachment issue.

Mobile it was an issue.  

I just noticed a photo attachment was 1.6MB.   That's going to cause grief with multiple photos and 100s of features.

I do like how you don't download attachments unless you click on photo in feature popup... unlike arcgis mobile which by default had download attachments ticked.

Is there any way of limiting photo size in Collector?

[MartinSirkovsky]

It is good to know that the images are compressed. But are they also resized (iOS).

I am not able to test it currently,  but I remember that sometimes images where quite large in pixel size and some were smaller. Is there any algorithm on how and when the images are resized? If they are resized what size are they resized to?

[MalcolmJ]

It seems like there is some compression of photos in Collector for iOS, but not really enough for me. We find that photos still come through at 1 to 1.5 megabytes. I'd like there to be an option to set the image resolution as well as compressing them, to make the photos a lot smaller in size. I've found that syncing when working offline regularly fails when trying to sync a large number of features with attachments (a couple of hundred). I suspect because the attachments are so big, as with each feature having a 1-1.5 MB attachment it makes it quite a big download... a few hundred MB's.

[PeterT_Brisbane]

I don't think there is a way around big photos in iOS.  Unless Russell or Jeff can update us all on some breakthrough.

I've been asked again here by our operational guys to track down whether anything has been happening re limiting attachment size.

We were collecting 3000+ points, many with photos in November (see below) and this problem raised it's head again. We were using mostly ArcGIS Mobile tried to use Collector but couldn't get a reliable sync (or more likely ArcGIS Server with attachments).

We're still trying to migrate to Collector from ArcGIS Mobile and we will need more testing with large numbers of attachments.

Might have to fire off a support request to see if there is a definitive answer.

Peter Timmers

[SamKrueger1]

I set up the collector for a project where we surveyed residential streets. We also took ALOT of pictures. A workaround I had our surveyors with iOS devices use was to download a 3rd party app called CP Pro Camera Plus Pro on the App Store on iTunes.

This app was able to get the photos down to 150KB each (https://services1.arcgis.com/E46xbxblkkNBM6FT/arcgis/rest/services/Ward21Streets/FeatureServer/0/909... ). Much more manageable than the ~1.5MB the default iOS camera takes. You can set the app to save images to your camera roll, so when our surveyors first arrived on site to survey a feature in the collector, they would use the CP Pro camera app first to take photos, then open the collector, fill out the form, and when it comes time to attach an image they would choose from the camera roll instead of taking a photo directly.

The workflow above may seem a little ass backwards but after a few times doing it I was told it wasn't an issue at all. Anyway, it definitely helps feature service size and attachment size issues down the road.

There may be other workarounds but this worked for us.

Sam

[PeterTimmers]

So if an app can be developed like Camera Plus Pro that allows reduction of resolution is it not possible to include that capability in Collector? 

I'm sure ESRI's mobile group have looked into it and it's obviously difficult.   I'd be interested to hear from the devs, Russ or Shane or anyone whether there is any light on the horizon. 

Your Camera Plus Pro workaround is fine, but our guys have 2-3 minutes per building to fill in 20+ questions and take a photo.  I've been told that getting out another app and then searching for the photo in the gallery is not acceptable.

[MartinSirkovsky]

We have setup a feature class for a municipality and the end users are guys who are not really high tech people. We were very glad that we were successful in implementing the system and they are really using it. So even though the workaround of saving images to camera roll and then attaching them to the features in collector is not a difficult task for many people on this forum, it might be a quite big complication for group of people in the field, which are not used to work with computers and tablets.

We really hope that there will be a solution for this. If it is not possible for collector to resize the images directly, could it be possible for collector to define which app will be used to take pictures. This way the Camera Plus could be used to take pictures, which would be automatically resized by the Camera Plus before they are attached to the feature in the collector. Just a thought.

[RussRoberts]

This is something we have looked into and it is an improvement we would like to make to Collector but it will not be coming in an update in the near future. I will update the thread if this changes.

Thanks for all the feedback everyone, keep it coming.

Russ

[MarkWallace3]

This is rather disappointing to say the least.

I agree the work around approach of dropping out of collector to access a 3rd party photo app to take a low res photo, to then go back into collector and look for it in a gallery is unacceptable.

The environment in which Peter's clients (the Queensland Fire and Emergency Service) are working is high tempo and high stress, often with many safety hazards to avoid where time is of the essence.  Network bandwidth is usually very limited due telecommunications infrastructure being damaged due to a large scale natural disaster.

The data collected needs to be of high quality as it is used by a wide range of organisations as the basis on which to deliver response, outreach and recovery to communities devastated by large scale disaster events.

This issue has now be around for long time and while Apple could solve the problem they do seem to provide the ability for iOS developers to provide the required functionality in apps (As is seen in apps such as the abovementioned Camera Plus). Public Safety‌

[JackZHANG]

Mark Wallace has spoken our thoughts exactly. Efficiency and safety is the key points here, at the end we'd like our field crews to spend more time on doing their field work and less time on jummping in and out apps on their iPads and waiting for uploading large photos. Please make this function as high priority if it's not too hard for the Collector dev team. thank you.

[MarkWallace3]

Hi Russ,

Is there any update on this?  I notice that the relevant ArcGIS Idea http://ideas.arcgis.com/ideaView?id=087E00000004eQm now has a status of "under consideration".