I am using the M2 to trigger a camera where there is no option on getting feedback from the camera (Hotshoe) . As of now I have been using the camera trigger setup in Reach view 3 app. I have two questions:
The option there is only to trigger the camera by time but not by distance, only by time why is that? Triggering by distance would be way better in our case.
Does the M2 not save to a file the exact coordinate when it triggered the camera (commanded the camera to trigger), that is can it only save the coordinate when it has received the feedback (that we don’t have in our case)?
I am aware that the feedback from the camera is important for accurate geolocation but being able to get the coordinates when the camera was commanded to trigger is still better than having no coordinates at all.
The stated error of the M2 is +/- 7mm+1mm/km of baseline, the position is calculated and inferred and will always have position error built in, and in 3 dimensions.
The clock is synced to the atomic clocks on the satellites, and only has one dimension to be calculated. It can be error checked by each satellite that the receiver can see as well.
So time is magnitudes less error prone as a trigger. RTK is really really accurate but it is not perfect.
Reach M2 saves time marks only when it gets the shutter signal. That’s why a hot shoe is required for such integration. If you know how to get the camera’s feedback another way, you can use the Time mark 1 pin to save events. It requires creating a custom cable.
@PotatoFarmer shared a good point on why the time triggers can be more accurate. For more flexibility, you can consider triggering the camera with autopilot and setting waypoints.
