I’m busy exploring twiddly tucked-away trails and over the course of a few hours it’s hard to remember exactly which were the good bits and which weren’t so good.

Ideally I’d like to have a photo taken every minute or so (or even better, every 100m or so) which I can then flick through on a map when I get back. (I don’t want to be fannying about with video.)

However I also want something unobtrusive (ie preferably not a phone mounted upright, and definitely not a compact camera) and I also can’t justify spending much money on it. And it needs to be able to charge from USB while recording as I’ll want a few hours’ runtime out of it.

I realise that a camera that ticks all these boxes with GPS on board is too optimistic, so I’ll live with having to merge a GPX into the photos after the ride.

Question is: is there an affordable (under £100, ideally quite a bit under) action camera that ticks my small/cheap/interval recording boxes? I have a Polaroid Cube+ which would be great apart from I don’t think it can do interval shooting.

Anyone doing anything like this and have any recommendations?

gopro hero 2014 + hacked firmware?
https://github.com/TechWizTime/GoProHero-2014

There are other action cameras around with hacked firmwares that may do this sort of thing

Also aware that there’s this kind of thing being used in conservation work using drones (but primarily with compact cameras)
e.g.
https://conservationdrones.files.wordpress.com/2013/01/dronemapper_chdk_settings-screenshots.pdf

More gopro hacking of interval capabilities
https://konradit.github.io/hacking.html

I think all GoPros have a timelapse mode built in, no need for any hacking.

Most of them will last a couple of hours on the internal battery. Just get a couple of spare batteries, easy to swap them over.

Then can download to your PC, and use GeoSetter to sync with the GPS track afterwards. Just make sure the time is set accurately on the GoPro.

Sony AS30 off eBay. Time lapse and GPS built in.

I know you said no video but a go pro would be the easiest. Set it to record at the same time as setting something like strava to record on a phone or other gps.

Watch the video back and when you find a good bit, e.g. 20 mins in, look at the route on strava 20 mins in.

Interval photos might miss the best bits.

Try and find one of these?

Sony AS30 off eBay. Time lapse and GPS built in.

Try and find one of these?

Cheers both, a quick Google suggests they’re pretty much exactly what I was after. I’ll keep an eye out.

I know you said no video

Indeed I did, and I even pointed out that I already have a video camera 🙂

Just picked up an unused, boxed AS30 on eBay for £40 posted. Thanks for the tips, folks 🙂