Im just not sure how to do this and I think I would improve if I knew how to quickly
just need help figuring out how to identify them or is there a website to help?
I’ve noticed some cars have flags on the back, I’d guess the color, shape (from shadow) and even the quality.
Lisence plates help camera quality also helps but the biggest thing to me is understanding the general vibes of the game if you generally understand what some regions look like it really helps youll get better overtime just keep going also if you want to learn there’s websites
According to Plonkit’s Beginner Guide:
Camera Generation
Google has mainly released footage with 4 different types of cameras that produce a distinct image quality, these are known as camera generations within the community (usually shortened to Gen 1/2/3/4 ).
You can click on this image to enlarge it
- Generation 1 coverage has extremely low resolution and is not used in most community maps due to its low quality. You should not find this in your games.
- Generation 2 coverage can be easily distinguished by the wide circular blurs at both the bottom of the image (covering the car) and in the sky. Its resolution is still somewhat low and reading signs is often difficult.
- Generation 3 coverage has much better resolution than Gen 2, but the colours are generally rather unsaturated, making for dull-looking images. The sky will often look greyish even on sunny days.
- Generation 4 is the latest and highest quality available. It has the best resolution and vibrant colours, frequently resulting in slightly oversaturated images.
There is also another camera used by Google, it is a low cost camera operated only in a few countries. It is known by the community as “shitcam “ due to its low quality. Despite this, “shitcam“ coverage keeps being released as of 2024. This camera can be identified by its low resolution and the wide circular blur covering the car.
This camera is the main camera used in India , and can also commonly be found in countries like Nigeria, Cambodia, Lebanon and Ecuador. In the summer of 2025 Google also released coverage taken with this type of camera all over Europe. While it will very rare to encounter it as mappers prefer higher quality footage, it is important to know it exists.
Knowing the generations of camera that exist in each country can be a very powerful tool to narrow down the list of possible countries, but we only recommend learning this as an intermediate player.
Lowcam
In some countries, due to privacy concerns, the camera is mounted lower on the car, giving it a lower vantage point that can be easily recognized. This means that items around the ground will appear taller, and the blur on the Google car will be bigger than usual. The countries that use this camera exclusively are Liechtenstein, Switzerland and Japan. Sri Lanka uses this camera mounting in Generation 4 coverage.
An example location of lowcam in Switzerland, notice how the corn is almost higher than the camera, compared to the view from above you would see in countries with regular camera like Spain.
Sometimes people mistake the big circular blur from Generation 2 coverage with lowcam, to avoid this mistake you should try to confirm that you have indeed a lower vantage point than usual. Generation 2 coverage also has a circular top blur that you will not find in lowcam. Another common way to mistake lowcam for regular camera and vice versa is when the round is on a road with a high incline. Normal camera can look like lowcam looking uphill and lowcam can pass for normal camera when looking downhill.
Lastly, countries that use a big truck for their coverage have technically a lower camera mounting than usual, but they can be easily distinguished by the Google car (this topic will be discussed later on in this section) and that coverage is not referred to as lowcam by the community.
Smallcam
In late 2024 Google released the first images taken using a newer smaller camera, commonly referred by the community as “smallcam”. This camera has virtually the same image quality as the Generation 4 camera. It can be recognized by its circular blur, with a small protrusion at the front, resembling the shape of a ladybug or a water canteen. It is also mounted lower on the car than the standard Generation 4 camera.
Smallcam blur is usually solid, but you can also find a less jarring version that blends nicely with the road.
In some countries some parts of the car may be visible, for example an antenna is sometimes visible in South Africa, and the front of the car is usually visible in Hawaii.
Unofficial coverage
In Google Maps, you can also find coverage submitted by private users and companies. This is usually referred to as “Unofficial Coverage”. While this coverage will not appear on competitive maps, you can encounter it in some maps aimed towards showcasing the diversity of the world.
Unofficial coverage can be divided into two main categories:
- Vehicle coverage : In vehicle coverage it’s very common to see all of the car (or bike, boat, etc.), as no small company or user has the technology to blur the car in the way Google does. In this type of coverage you can move around in the same way as in official coverage. It also shows up on the map as a blue line.
- Photospheres : These are single 360Âş images that users have uploaded to Google Maps. They can range from professional pictures to very poor quality images taken with a cellphone. They will show up on the map as small blue dots.
Road coverage with a completely visible vehicle is very typical in unofficial coverage. Photospheres can showcase incredible places, such as drone panoramas over Kamchatka or coral reefs in the Red Sea.
Unofficial coverage can be a very interesting way to discover countries and territories that have not yet made its way into Google Street View. We have a section in our Map Directory showcasing our favourite maps based on unofficial coverage.
Street View Cars
In Generation 3 and 4, seeing parts of the Google Car is pretty frequent. In most places, this is just limited to the antenna or a small part at the back or front of the car, but in some countries you can see very big parts like the roof rack, a snorkel, or the entire front of the car.
A grey truck, often featuring a snorkel, can be found in Gen 4 coverage in Kenya. All of the coverage in Kyrgyzstan features a car with a visible roofrack and rear view mirrors. A black car with a long antenna is very common in Russia. All of the Gen 3 coverage in Argentina was taken with a black car where the back is visible. In Latin America this car also exists in Uruguay and Peru.
In countries that have limited coverage, knowing the car or cars Google used to map the country can be a very easy way to recognize the country. In countries that do not receive frequent coverage, subtle differences in the Google Car are used to guess the right region or even the exact road.
It is important to mention that sometimes the way the community talks about certain cars can be confusing at first. For example, when people say that a “white car” only exists in Bolivia, Chile and Peru within Latin America, they are referring to this specific car in Generation 3 coverage. You can find a white car in Generation 4, as well as different white cars in Generation 3 that are blurred differently or have an antenna.
Season of the coverage
Sometimes, specific regions or countries receive all or most of their coverage during a single season. This can give the place a specific look. As with all of the clues mentioned in the “meta” section, this is especially common in low coverage countries. Even without paying active attention to the season, these countries will have a unique look that is in big part determined by the season, and therefore becomes an unavoidable coverage meta.
All of the coverage in Kyrgyzstan was taken between October and December, and therefore features a winter or fall look throughout the country. Most coverage in Andorra was taken during fall. Generation 4 coverage with snow in Turkey is limited to few places, such as south-east of Kayseri and around Erzurum. Generation 3 coverage with snow in Finland can only be found in the far north-west of Lapland.
As you can see in the examples above, seasonal metas in well-covered countries are frequently linked to the camera generation and/or the car meta. This way of regionguessing is not really recommended for beginner and intermediate players, and is mostly used by top players and players that specialize in a single country.
It is very important to remember that the season can give a very different look to a round of Geoguessr. Countries in temperate climates with four distinct seasons can look depressing in winter and vibrant in spring and summer. Likewise, tropical countries can look drastically different between dry and wet seasons.
Check out Plonkit’s Beginner Guide section on Cameras and Car types for more great info!
“i not reading all dat” what about the short version?
holy textwall
Look at the pictures for basic differentiation
I already got tests… it feels like reading this is studying for another 1 
Theres lots of little tips like that that most people who aren’t rainbolt wouldn’t remember so I would focus more if i were a beginner on some other things before camera gen