[Nimrad]

Is there a way to get K20D to input GPS coordinates on images? I've heard about units you can put on the hot shoe and it will input coordinates, but I haven't found any for pentax. Only olympus.

[cupic]

mate has it on he's Ca&*n 40D so I believe one can be had any one


cheers

[octavmandru]

found one:
JOBO AG Showcases photoGPS at PMA 07 | Digital Camera Review

Will record time/gps, then usb the data to computer and let it compare.
I know there might be better, but...

[panoguy]

Is there a way to get K20D to input GPS coordinates on images? I've heard about units you can put on the hot shoe and it will input coordinates, but I haven't found any for pentax. Only olympus.

Not GPS, but if you are shooting in an urban area, you can use an Eye-Fi "Explore" SD card. It embeds Wi-Fi access point location data with each shot, and when you offload the images it includes that data with the file for geotagging. Not as "go anywhere" precise (or expensive) as true GPS, but it works with a K20D.

Eye-Fi Eye-Fi Explore

-Mark

[Entropy]

There are a few cameras with a dedicated GPS interface, the K20D isn't one of them.

You can geotag with any camera if you have a GPS logger and your camera's clock is accurate. Software compares the time the picture was taken with the GPS track log timestamps to figure out where the picture was taken. You can use any GPS capable of logging for this. Some people just use Garmin handhelds, others get dedicated trackers (somewhat more convenient).

That linked tracker for $150 seems to offer not much more than $60-70 units available from semsons.com, other than hotshoe mounting (it does not recieve power from the shoe or communicate with it as far as I can tell). I'm probably getting an AMOD AGL3080 soon, mainly because it is one of the better supported units in Linux.

[panoguy]

found one:
JOBO AG Showcases photoGPS at PMA 07 | Digital Camera Review

Will record time/gps, then usb the data to computer and let it compare.
I know there might be better, but...

Sweet.... this guy tried it with a Pentax DSLR and a Mac a few months ago. (But I'd never use iPhoto):

Diderot's Diary: A Look at the Jobo PhotoGPS

[Confused]

Hi all

Ermm, I'm probably being congenitally thick as usual and sorry to spoil the party somewhat, but if this JOBO device detects the pulse coming through the shoe, and takes that as its cue to store a GPS reading, precisely what happens to this data when using either a DSLR's inbuilt pop-up flash or a dedicated external flash-gun ? Firstly, would there be sufficient space to fully open an integral pop-up flash without it fouling the underside of this device and secondly what happens to the GPS data if an external flash-gun is sat in the camera's hot-shoe ?

Best regards
Richard

[dafiryde]

Is there a way to get K20D to input GPS coordinates on images? I've heard about units you can put on the hot shoe and it will input coordinates, but I haven't found any for pentax. Only olympus.

do you really need those cordinates to remember where you took that pic

Dave

[nostartnoend]

(But I'd never use iPhoto)

Out of curiosity, why wouldn't you? The new Places feature is ideal for geotagging, and the in-app editing options are getting better with each iteration (which isn't to say that you can't edit with an external app when you like).

Which photo library app do you prefer and why?

Firstly, would there be sufficient space to fully open an integral pop-up flash without it fouling the underside of this device?

No, there isn't enough space. You either use a flash or you use the Jobo.

And secondly what happens to the GPS data if an external flash-gun is sat in the camera's hot-shoe ?

You can take a manual GPS reading by pressing a button on the side of the device. I'd suggest reading the review panoguy linked to (yeah, it's mine); it answers these very questions.

do you really need those cordinates to remember where you took that pic?

As a matter of fact, yes. I was hiking in rural Latvia and ended up wandering well off the beaten path. I took photos of flora and fauna, caves and abandoned buildings, and I had no idea where or what they actually were. I tried retracing my route in Google Earth and it was hopeless, even with the advantage of the satellite view.

Geotagging is also more than about remembering where you took a photo. With GPS info, you can create interesting maps of your route and/or make use of sites like Locr. And it helps you correctly identify your subject, which is important to me, because I think of photos as being archival documents as much as they are art.

[panoguy]

(But I'd never use iPhoto):

Out of curiosity, why wouldn't you? The new Places feature is ideal for geotagging, and the in-app editing options are getting better with each iteration (which isn't to say that you can't edit with an external app when you like).

Which photo library app do you prefer and why?

I've used many different visual archives on my Macs before iPhoto came about (Canto Cumulus, iView MediaPro, etc.) and while my wife uses iPhoto, I prefer Adobe Bridge. It came with my creative suite and handles a lot more than just images (like my Flash files and Dreamweaver documents) with drag-and-drop integration into the OS (and the iApps). And the CS4 UI for Bridge is modeled after Lightroom, so previewing, "loupe-ing" (if that's a word), filtering, ranking and rejecting (but not deleting) images is really easy. Plus the raw converter in iPhoto '09 is frankly a toy, and I only shoot and archive raw then process with my saved camera and lens profiles for specific outputs.

Faces and Places and iBooks are nice every so often, but my workflow goes well beyond what iPhoto is even supposed to do. Aperture might be worth a look, but I think Lightroom would be more familiar to me. YMMV, but again, I'd never use iPhoto.

[Lowell Goudge]

if you have a gps unit, there is a program called geoSetter which can write the gps coordinates into the exif data as a post processing step.

I use this with my garmin GPS and both my *istD and K10D.

you need to be a little careful with insuring the camera time / date are correct.

[leaftye]

As a matter of fact, yes. I was hiking in rural Latvia and ended up wandering well off the beaten path. I took photos of flora and fauna, caves and abandoned buildings, and I had no idea where or what they actually were. I tried retracing my route in Google Earth and it was hopeless, even with the advantage of the satellite view.

I've been thinking along the same line. I'd like to document some of the hidden structures nearby. Right now they're pretty easy to find since most of the brush is still relatively short after the recent fires, but they'll be nearly impossible to find without gps when the brush gets thick and tall. It'd be great to have that gps info in the exif data to look up later and load into my handheld gps for hikes in the distant future.

[Eaglerapids]

I was of the same view that I know where I take my pictures. Then I bought a GPS unit, not to specifically tag my photos, but to keep from getting lost in the woods. I've spent a lot of time fishing the rivers but now I want to branch out with my photograhy into the woods and there are miles and miles of logging roads and such around here. If I make three turns I'm lost:-). I'm finding the GPS the coolest toy I've bought in a long time. So, since I had the GPS, I looked around at geotagging my images and came up with RoboGeo and bought it mainly because it geotags raw files. Now when I go out I track my little adventure with my GPS and convert the track to a .gpx file when I get home and put the file in the folder with the pictures I took. Then I use RoboGeo to add the coordinates to the exif of the images.
If I was shooting portraits in a studio this wouldn't make much sense but I routinely find myself a hundred miles from home, maybe in a place I've never been before.
Also, I posted some pics from a place called Steptoe Butte in another thread and the coordinates are in the exif data, so if anyone was curious about the place they could easily check it out in GoogleEarth.
I found a perfect camp spot on the Lochsa river one time years ago long before GPS units and I didn't have a camera at the time. I committed the spot to memory....I've never found it since.
Both my kids are overseas at this time and I'm getting old, there will be a day when I'm not around anymore but they will have the all the pics I've taken at some really cool places around here and if they want to take a little trip to see them, they will know how to get there.
In fact, I have the means now to document all my fishing spots on my two main home rivers, in pics and coordinates to leave to my kids but I'm still contemplating whether to do it or not, it's taken me years to learn these rivers and a great part of the learning is the exploring on your own. You know, I will do it now, just because I can.