Geotagging app

"PeterN" wrote

| I do it the easy way. I take a snap of the location with my iPhone. All
| relevant information is recorded.
|

For what it's worth, I got curious and looked at
some photos a friend took at Mt Desert Island last
year, on an iPhone 6. The lat/long seems to be
very close, within yards. The altitude, however,
is not so accurate. A photo of me looking at a rock
on the beach recorded altitude 4.53 meters
(14.8 feet). Another shot taken in the same
spot (within a few feet on a nearly flat beach)
shows 6.6 meters (21.6 feet).
This photo...

http://www.jsware.net/Files2/cliff1.jpg

....shows 58.84 meters (193 feet). We were probably
30-40 feet above the water. There may be variation,
accounting for tides, but it still seems to be inflated
by about 500% and/or to some extent arbitrary. How
can it vary by 50% in the same spot with pictures
taken a few minutes apart? I don't know. Perhaps
different info sources? Maybe a change in cell towers
that caused variations in location?

It might be worthwhile to check some known altitudes
and maybe check those against Google before depending
on the stats. (Though I don't know what one depends on
them for. Why does anyone care about altitude stats
except, maybe, when mountain climbing?)