Inspection Photo date stamps! Do you guys do it? Is it a good idea to do it? or Not a good idea?
I don’t because anybody can set a date on their camera and claim it was taken that day but it wasn’t.
Looks good if you ever go to court to have date that matches your inspection l
I do not, it is in the file though
No reason you need it in the actual report since they are dated in your files anyhow.
No point.
I don’t think it’s any advantage, but I don’t think there’s any harm if it makes you feel better to include it (I don’t use image date stamps). The date is embedded in the EXIF data which is part of the image. This would probably carry more weight than an image date stamp if challenged, though neither are any more accurate than the date/time setting on your camera. I think it’s going to be the date on the report that carries the weight for any images used in the report.
Having it embedded in the EXIM file helps, but only for guys keeping the originals. But like others have said, your inspection is dated, and hopefully secured.
One good reason not to date them is gaps in time which would be photos not used or needed.
Many clients might start asking why all photos taken were not used ,etc.“Hi you did a job for me last year, so can I have extra pictures of the dining room ?”
There have been some very good points noted here. For home inspections I don’t think it matters a whole lot one way or the other. As others have noted the report is dated.
However for insurance inspections, I thinke it adds one more point of validity to your report. Although someone has pointed out you can set the date on your camera to any date you choose, it would take a lot more effort to falsefy pictures.
I do use dated photos because the camera I recently started using has that feature. My old camera had the date in the file name but not on the picture itself. You do need to be aware the date will appear and take your photos accordingly.
FYI, You should be able to turn the feature off
Personaly I don’t think it matters but I do it becuase I think it looks good to the owner. I send a CD with all the photos I took, weather used in the report or not, along with a thank you note.
John, of course I know you can turn the date feature off. Actually, with my camera you have to turn the date feature on to use it. My point was is that if you are going to use the date feature, you do need to keep mind when taking your photographs where in the photo the date will be printed, as not to degrade the intended subject of the photo. It doesn’t help you at lot if the roof to wall connection is covered by the date stamp.
Actually, for regular home inspection my old camera is great. It has a wide angle lens which makes elevation photos a breeze. It is feature packed light-weight and does a very good job. The “old” camera is now 3 years old and stills looks and works like new. The reason I bought that camera was that between 2007 and 2008 I had ruined 3 cameras due to weather conditions. I researched cameras looking rugged ones that were both shock and water resistent ones. It fits the bill and has been great.
My real reason for looking for a replacement really had to do with wind/mits. The problem with my old camera was related to the zoom ability. The way it obtains its great its water resistance ability is, the lens is contained within the body of the camera. However, this limits the zoom to a 5X optical zoom. Which sometimes makes taking detailed roof to wall connection pictures more of a challange or at least more time consuming. The current camera has a 15X times optical zoom which those type pictures much more smooth sailing.
I do date stamp the photos Manny. I didn’t use to but started doing utilities verification inspections for a firm that request this and I set the camera to do it and have just left it there on that setting. I can’t see any harm in doing so. In fact, if for any reason I need to go back and re-inspect something, I think it actually validates the fact that I returned to do so.
Just my opinion,
Bert
Not sure why you would spend time on doing a CD (what is that?)
but I do know there are a few guys still doing Matrix reports on paper which of course changes the whole conversation.
Allways a good idea to have the time and date stamped in your files at the very least in my opinion because as I have mentioned before it has saved my backside a couple times when accused of breaking something and I had it on video that things were OK on leaving.
I often even show myself resetting the thermostat back where it was.
Great points and opinions. Thank you all