Hi Craig, sorry for having such delay in responding. It is not you to blame, but I am a bit fed-up with the poor implementation by camera manafacturers of positioning hardware capabilities. Not to mention that they should use hardware that provides for fusion with dead reckoning too.
- It is not a GPS chip, it is a GNSS chip. GPS is only one of the GNSS’. Refer Wikipedia.
- There is no separate licensing cost.
- It is a matter of software implementation on device with appropriate settings. Higher sampling frequency and using more networks may go at the expense of more power consumption. But, using X for mapping it will be on powerbank instead of internal battery.
- Yes, the other satellite networks cover all of the globe too.
- A Pixel 4a is a bit historic, it may not have support all networks, but likely not the new frequencies.
- What the camera spec says is not relevant. The uBlox ZOE-M8 is the hardware concerned that detemines the potential of position quality.
- No, it is up to Ricoh to implement all functionality and option settings in the camera software.
From a Giroptic, to Theta V, to Pilot Era, to Pilot One to Theta X. Lots of promises always for continued software improvement, but poor delivery. In the end, mapping for Google Street View, Mapillary and the like is a niche.
But, thanks for your attention Craig.