A minimal camera that records where you stood and which way you faced — burned into every photo, plotted on a map.
Field Camera is a minimal position-and-bearing camera app for iPhone. Every photo you take has its GPS coordinates and compass heading burned directly into the image, and is named in a running sequence — field-001.jpg, field-002.jpg — so a filename always matches its numbered pin on the map. It plots each capture on an offline map with a numbered pin and a direction cone showing which way the camera was pointed. You can print the map, a data table of coordinates and bearings, and a contact sheet of the photos, and back the whole workspace up as a single JSON file or export a CSV. It is a Progressive Web App: it installs to your iPhone home screen from Safari, works offline, and needs no account. Built by Backfield, a small software studio, for site documentation, surveying, real-estate, trail mapping, and anyone who needs to remember exactly where they stood and which way they were facing.
Field Camera is for people who take photos in the field and need to know, later, exactly where each one was taken and which way it was pointed. Every shot records its GPS position and compass bearing and burns them right into the image. That's the whole idea.
Each photo is numbered in a running sequence — field-001, field-002 — and that same number is the pin on the map. The number never resets, so a filename always points to one place on one map. Built by someone who documents sites for a living.
Point, shoot. The photo saves with GPS coordinates, compass bearing, and a timestamp burned into a strip along the bottom. Nothing to fill in.
Every capture gets the next number in line. The number is permanent — deleting a shot leaves a gap rather than renumbering — so field-014 always means the same photo and the same pin.
Every located capture plots on an offline map as a numbered pin with a cone showing which way the camera faced. Tap a pin to review or delete it.
Print the map, a data table of every coordinate and bearing, and a contact sheet of the photos — any combination. Preview the sheet on screen first.
Export the whole workspace as one JSON file to restore later, or a CSV to open in Excel, Numbers, or Sheets. Your call, your file.
Field Camera is a Progressive Web App — it runs in your iPhone's browser, but you can install it to your home screen so it opens like a native app. Nothing to download from the App Store, and it works offline once installed.
It appears as a regular app icon, opens full-screen, and asks for camera, location, and compass access the first time — all three are needed to record a photo with its position and bearing.
Some things this app does not do, on purpose — and a couple of real limits worth knowing:
Free to use. Made by Dan at Backfield, a small studio.