Street View is finally here!

Street View is finally here! It was released on  May 15th. All panorama photos were taken last summer.



View Larger Map

I was worried that there will be no Old Town panoramas, but it seems that almost all of Old Town is now in  Google Street View. Only few places are absent : Kohtuotsa platform, Patkuli platform/stairs and Pikk jalg street.

There are also some strange blank spots on Järvevana street.

Old Photos of Tallinn - Part 2

pianoman4Jesus has scanned some postcards of Tallinn from 1976.



latitude 59.498973, longitude 24.928533

Click on Read More to see where the photos were taken:

Webcam

This webcam from www.tallinn.info shows last 24 hours.



Click on Read More to see the webcam:

Red Army Map of Tallinn (1939)

Red Army's (RKKA) map of Tallinn. Created by cartographers Zdrogov and Shestakov and draftsman Kondrat'ev.

Information gathered: between October 5th and December 31st 1938
Map published: January 1939



Full map with Zoom.it


Click on the map to download:

Street View update

As it turns out, panoramas taken last October were just a test. Starting from June 19th, Regio is taking Street View images in Tallinn and other parts of Estonia.

There are several photos of Google cars on Delfi ( link) and Postimees ( link):

On Pae street ( Location on Google Maps)


5th Generation camera


In other news, Regio opened a non Street View panorama website 360.tallinn.ee.

Panoramas were created by panographer and web developer Andrei Bodrov (his 360cities account).

Bing: Bird's-eye view of Tallinn

Bing maps added Bird's-eye view for Tallinn. Bird's-eye view is a name used by Bing for oblique imagery (aerial photography that is captured at approximately a 45 degree angle with the ground). It is interesting to note that Tallinn is not mentioned in Bing Maps Updates.

Bird's-eye view near Stockmann (from north, south and east)

View in Bing Maps (zoom in to see Bird's-eye view)

Added: May??? 2011
Image Date: 11-23 Sep 2008
Resolution: 12-18 cm
Provider: Pictometry

Subdistricts of Tallinn

Finally finished subdistricts KML.



View Tallinn Subdistricts in Google Maps        KML Link

U.S. Army Map of Tallinn (1953)

This map of Tallinn was part of U.S. Army Maps of Eastern Europe compiled in 1953 from Soviet World War II maps (1940).



Full map with Zoom.it


Click on the map to download:

I'm back!

I'm back. Still no image update for Tallinn and there is no new information about Street View. But there is some old information that I haven't mentioned:

• Street View in Estonia is organised by Regio
  (Link to Street View page)
  
  
• The project started on 28 October 2010
  
  
• Delfi has some photos of Street View car near Tallinn
  (other photos here)
  
  
  
  
• Regio uses 4th Generation cameras
  
  
  
  
• Surprisingly my last blog post became very popular. It is on the 1st page for the search with terms "Tallinn street view"

Google Street View is coming to Tallinn

According to Delfi and some other media (Link 1, Link 2, Link 3), Google cars have been spotted on a parking lot near Peterburi tee.



If everything goes fine, Tallinn should get Street View somewhere between 2011 and 2012. I have to say I am a bit surprised that they are starting to take panoramas now and not in the summer. I really hope that they could use Street View bikes in the Old Town.

P.S. Riga already has a non-Google Street View - www.1188.lv

Panoramio Photos Update

Uploaded more photos to Panoramio.




Map view:

Arcades in Tallinn - Part 2

It seems that the only arcades left in Tallinn are in Ida-keskus.

Photos were taken on 2 August 2010.


                          The Last Blade 2                                  Aero Fighters 2



    Waku Waku 7                      Ninja Commando               Super Sidekicks



              Soul Edge Ver.II


Map of places that had arcades in the past is in the part 1.

Nuclear Blast on Google Maps

Here's how a nuclear blast would look like in Tallinn. You can really see the difference between Little Boy and Tsar Bomba...

Little Boy (USA, 1945,   15 Kilotons)


Tsar Bomba (USSR, 1961,  50 000 Kilotons)


Links:
Ground Zero
Ground Zero II (better version)

Panoramio Photos Update

I am starting to upload 2009 photos to Panoramio.




Map view:

Map of Tallinn (1942)

Only information I have about this map, is that it was supposedly created in 1942.



Full map with Zoom.it


Click on map pieces to download the original version:

Satellite imagery - Part 2

Update from the part 1.

Bing
After closely looking at Bing and Google Maps imagery of Tallinn, I noticed that they are the same, just have different filters:




They were both created using 2008 Apr 21 and Jun 01 DigitalGlobe imagery. Bing looks a bit better in cities, but worse in an area with a lot of trees.

There is also now Bing Maps Silverlight (compare with old Bing Maps) wich lets you look at fake bird’s eye views (somewhat similar to Earth view in Google Maps, but with les control).


Yahoo! Maps
between 2003 and 2004 Apr??? - not in Google Earth Historical Imagery!

Yandex maps
2006 May 07 - same as Google Earth Historical Imagery, but has different filters.

Flash Earth
Uses imagery from Bing Maps and Yahoo! Maps. Link

DigitalGlobe
latest - 2010 May 03 - this will probably be the next default satellite image in Google Maps, because it's the first image since June 2008, which wasn't made in winter and doesn't have too many clouds.


It was created with WorldView-2 (resolution 46cm-52cm)
2008 Apr 21 and Jun 01 images were created with QuickBird (resolution 61cm)

GeoEye
from 2004 Apr 09 to 2009 Sep 20 - 23 images for maximum 25% cloud cover (area search results).
Images were created with Ikonos-2, OrbView-3 and GeoEye-1.


Estonian Land Board (Maa-amet)
Maaamet latest imagery of Tallinn was shoot on 03 May 2009.

Maa-amet uses aerial photography, so image quality is higher then on Google Maps.

Used Equipment: aerial camera Leica ADS40.

Maa-amet's airplane Cessna Grand Caravan 208B
(PDF Report - in Estonian).


How Maa-amet creates aerial photography
(PDF Report - in Estonian)


List of services using Maa-amet imagery of Tallinn:
maaamet.ee (slow, but has more options and highest zoom)
eomap.ee (fast)
kaart.delfi.ee (new engine - now fast)
kaart.tallinn.ee (slow)
kaart.postimees.ee (fast - eomap based)
register.metsad.ee (slow - old delfi based)

Maa-amet Historical Imagery

Date	Resolution
2009 May 03	25 cm
2008 Apr 25	16 cm
2007 May 17	40 cm
2006 Aug 23	25 cm
2002 May 11	40 cm
1995	100 cm

Comparison between resolutions

Towns and villages near Tallinn

Towns and villages near Tallinn:


View towns and villages near Tallinn in Google Maps        KML Link

Administrative districts of Tallinn

Created a map of Tallinn's administrative districts.



View Tallinn Districts in Google Maps        KML Link

How BP Oil Spill would look near Estonia

IfItWasMyHome.com via Google Maps Mania

Panoramio Photos Update

Finally took the time to name all my 2008 Panoramio photos:



Here are all Tallinn photos on one map (using PhotoViewer by ☆Tomoaki Ueda☆):



View in PhotoViewer