[BrianK]

If you can create a GPX file, there are several programs that will write the location info into EXIF, using the time as reference.

Try Geosetter, RoboGeo, LocationStamper, GPicSync etc. etc.

Have a look at my website (signature) and album GPSTEST for a demo. Export to Google Earth and then start a Tour
Also the album Travel > Private Trips > Malaysia is fully Geotagged.

Ben:

What GPS did you use to track your images? BTW. I love the images of Malaysia, you captured some unique views of my favorite destination.

I have a Sony GPS CS1 dedicated for Photo tracking but have not been too happy with it. It has trouble locking on to the satellites and the software does not work on the PPC Mac, only the Intel Macs and PCs.

[Lowell Goudge]

It's more a case of cameramanufacturers stupidly creating new raw file types for almost every new camera (eg. Nikon D3/D300), and consumers stupidly buying these cameras.

You can probably count 50% of the pentax forum with being just as stupid, along with Pentax because that is exactly what they did with the K10.

[bimjo]

Thanks GPX is no problem, exports created from garmin map source. It just means I need my computer as the go between, and would need to do download daily to insure correct time sync with data points. Saving track logs compresses them and strips time of day data from them.

On my 60Cx if I shut the unit off at the end of the day it saves the Active Log file. Turning the unit on the next day starts a new Active Log file. If I never save the track file I have all the data intact.

Have you tried that? If it works you wouldn't have to d/l the Active Log every day.

hth

Jim

[Lowell Goudge]

If you can create a GPX file, there are several programs that will write the location info into EXIF, using the time as reference.

Try Geosetter, RoboGeo, LocationStamper, GPicSync etc. etc.

Have a look at my website (signature) and album GPSTEST for a demo. Export to Google Earth and then start a Tour
Also the album Travel > Private Trips > Malaysia is fully Geotagged.

Ben

Thanks, Downloaded Geosetter, and exported track data from my trip to france last summer.

I's impressed.

Fortunately when I go on trips, I usually have a GPS so this has not yet added anything to ly usual load.

[Lowell Goudge]

On my 60Cx if I shut the unit off at the end of the day it saves the Active Log file. Turning the unit on the next day starts a new Active Log file. If I never save the track file I have all the data intact.

Have you tried that? If it works you wouldn't have to d/l the Active Log every day.

hth

Jim

I will check into this, supposidly the 70Csx is essentually the same electroncis just in a bigger package so it will float. the 60's are smaller and even though it is waterproof, sinking to the bottom of the lake does not help much if you flip your kayak.

In principle, I have 10K points to play with in a track log.

Edit note, track log has a maximum of 10K points. each active log is a subset of that log, but the limit is 10K.

this is possibly OK because, if yoou set the track update to automatic, it stops recording when you are stationary, expanding the time out quite a bit.

[bimjo]

I will check into this, supposidly the 70Csx is essentually the same electroncis just in a bigger package so it will float. the 60's are smaller and even though it is waterproof, sinking to the bottom of the lake does not help much if you flip your kayak.

In principle, I have 10K points to play with in a track log.

Edit note, track log has a maximum of 10K points. each active log is a subset of that log, but the limit is 10K.

this is possibly OK because, if yoou set the track update to automatic, it stops recording when you are stationary, expanding the time out quite a bit.

Ahhhh..... I forgot that. You should be able to set the tracks to save to the card directly though & I think all the data stays intact. I've never messed with it because I've never needed to.

I'm playing with Bobcat at the moment to see if Garmin finally included us Mac wienies in the fun.

[baw]

You can probably count 50% of the pentax forum with being just as stupid, along with Pentax because that is exactly what they did with the K10.

I feel Pentax has seen the light, because on the K10D you at least have the option to shoot in DNG. Whether this ties you into Adobe is another discussion.

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Last edited by baw; 01-18-2008 at 04:31 PM.

[baw]

Ben:

What GPS did you use to track your images? BTW. I love the images of Malaysia, you captured some unique views of my favorite destination.

Hi Brian
I use the GPSlim236 by Holux. It was one of the first receivers with the Sirf Star III chipset, which is way better than older chipsets, especially in sensitivity.
Via Bluetooth i feed the data to my GSM / PDA, where SunsetGPSLogger writes the data into a GPX file.
I use the same devices for car navigation etc.
I also use the Geotagger script from within iMatch for manual geotagging.
I have my own webpage, where i select the location, which is automatically copied into the Clipbord, and then into the image.

Malaysia is indeed fantastic. This was the first time I took my wife there. She wanted to see Pangkor Laut herself
Next time you go include Pangkor Laut. I have some images on my website.

[Confused]

Hi Ben

I love the idea of being able to automatically 'encode' GPS location data to the Exif files of my K10D and believe that some digital cameras already have this inbuilt capability ? Excuse me for being congenitally thick, but in order to provide accurate location data, wouldn't what you propose involve removing the SD card each time you stopped taking photos at a particular location before moving on to the next spot ? Am I missing something obvious here and apologise in advance for my naivety !

Best regards
Richard

[Lowell Goudge]

Hi Ben

I love the idea of being able to automatically 'encode' GPS location data to the Exif files of my K10D and believe that some digital cameras already have this inbuilt capability ? Excuse me for being congenitally thick, but in order to provide accurate location data, wouldn't what you propose involve removing the SD card each time you stopped taking photos at a particular location before moving on to the next spot ? Am I missing something obvious here and apologise in advance for my naivety !

Best regards
Richard

The "obvious thing you are missing is the need to have the time accurately set in your camera, including to the same time zone as your GPS.

I leave both set for Eastern Standard time,

Then all that matters is having the camera pring the time to the EXIF file when the picture is taken.

[baw]

Hi Richard

the setup I use creates a GPX file while i'm taking images. I can record every so many seconds, or after every so many meters movement. Each "record"in the GPX file has a timemark and the position info.
On your computer, when writing the position info into the EXIF field, you use one of the mentioned programs to match the time the image was taken with the nearest available position info AT THAT TIME.
Ideally the clock of your camera and the recording device are synchronised, but the programs allow to use a time offset.
Simple trick is to take a shot of the clock on your recording device. This gives you the time offset needed.

[Confused]

Hi again Ben

So if I've understood you correctly, you have to add the positional info 'individually' into the EXIF field of each photo afterwards ? That would involve an awful LOT of time later on, if typically sorting through the many thousands of images that I usually take whilst on extended vacations. Just out of interest and in simple layman's language, how do the cameras which have built-in GPS circuitry work ?

Best regards
Richard

[Lowell Goudge]

Richard

the software ben pointed me to takes a download file from my gps,

It, as ben says, looks at the time stamp on the picture (you can select any or all in a single directory folder) and compares the date and time to the data in the gps file, it automatically updates every one it can find a suitable file match for. A suitable match is data points on either side of the time the photo was taken, within a preselected time window, and then it interpolates between these points based on the time of your shot.

I did all my photos from france with this last night, (I had kept my GPS download from the trip) and it took about 40 minutes to automatically update EVERY single photo. ALL@@)) of them!

I had to click the mouse a few times, 3 or 4 as I recall. That was not a lot of work.

Cameras can have built in GPS units also, and they would write the position coordinates when you push the shutter.

A gps calculates position by receiving accurate times from at least 3 satelites, once per second. By looking accurately at when they receive each time (down to the micro second) or more specifically the differences, and knowint the paths of the satelites, they can geometrically calculate exactly where you are at amy time.

[Ramitt]

I thought you meant it's weight, lol.

Me too. Regardless it is a cool toy, but I just can't see me stoping after I take photos, pulling the card and using this device. I am sure some will find it super, mostly if you take lots of photos in one spot, I tend to keep moving. It is cool none the less, thanks for posting it.

[baw]

Hi again Ben

So if I've understood you correctly, you have to add the positional info 'individually' into the EXIF field of each photo afterwards ?

Hi Richard

I've attached a zipped GPX log of my last foto outing. Just unzip it and in Google Earth open the GPX file. This will make more sense than a thousand words.

I started the datarecording when getting my camera for the first shot, and stopped after parking the car in the parking garage. All images shot that day could be automatically geotagged using one of the programs i mentioned.

You can also open the GPX file in one of the programs to play with