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GPS Tagging

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Anaxagoras

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I've recently scanned around 30,000 of my old negatives/slides. Great. But for a great many of them I don't know WHEN they were taken nor WHERE they were taken.

Digital photography has cracked the WHEN problem but not the WHERE problem.

I've been using a Sony CS1 but it's a bit clunky and very battery hungry. Plus, it sadly died last week.

The obvious answer is the Nikon GP-1. However, I cannot believe what poor design it is: a great loop of cable sticking out the side (which is guaranteed to snag on something within a few weeks) and leaving the connector cover open (i.e. broken off within a few weeks). And it's quite pricey.

What do you use? And are you happy with it?

Posted 3 years ago #
jonnyapple

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Sorry, John. The only geotagging I've done is in post processing and was just for fun in some picasaweb albums.

Posted 3 years ago #
waffles123

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I have an Eye-Fi sd card, which has "partial" geotagging built in. This means that it looks at nearby wi-fi networks and triangulates, (for lack of a better word) the position. I find it very accurate. If you have an iPod Touch, you can see this same technology in the Google Maps application. I would recommend it.

Posted 3 years ago #
Panamon_Creel

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Personally been using a Foolography unleashed BT module with a BT GPS receiver for some time and been happy with it.

Posted 3 years ago #
Sandpiper

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If you have a GPS unit that you carry with you, and you can extract a GPX file from it, then you can use the correlator function in digiKam to read the image times, check where you were from the GPS data, and determine the photo GPS location from the GPS you carried along. That make it not necessary to connect the GPS to the camera, you can do it in post processing. Ideally you would have your camera time be correct, but you can enter an offset into DigiKam in case it is not.

I have not actually done this, I don't know if I can get a GPX file from my old GPS. But I have used the Google Maps feature in digiKam to geolocate pictures.

Posted 3 years ago #
Anaxagoras

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Thanks, folks, you've given me a LOT to think about. Foolography came as a complete shock - never knew anything like this existed.

Posted 3 years ago #
NikoDoby

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Nikon has a GPS/GP-1 mircosite. It's pretty basic but might help some of you understand what exactly the GP-1 is and how it works.

http://imaging.nikon.com/products/imaging/lineup/microsite/gp-1/en/

I'm pretty sure we will soon see a DSLR with built-in GPS. Though It'll probably show up in a high end model first.

Oh and I always thought "Foolography" was what Jonnyapple called his portfolio :^)

Posted 3 years ago #
jonnyapple

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I'm crushed that the name has been taken—that's exactly what I was going to name my next exhibit.

Posted 3 years ago #
Anaxagoras

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NikoDoby said:

I'm pretty sure we will soon see a DSLR with built-in GPS. Though It'll probably show up in a high end model first.

Oh and I always thought "Foolography" was what Jonnyapple called his portfolio :^)

True, GPS is already built into the iPhone's camera and I believe it's built into my Nokia smartphone (tho' I very rarely use it as a camera so haven't investigated much). I suspect it will be pretty much standard in just a few years.

Having said that, the European Galileo system is due to come on-stream in a couple of years, offering substantially better accuracy than GPS, which could shake things up a bit.

Foolography is an excellent name - one of those 'so obvious' when someone else claims it. You shouldn't have hesitated, Jonny!

On the GPS front, I'm leaning towards the Solmeta Pro. Embeds the data directly into the camera AND doubles up as a general purpose data-logger; has it's own internal battery but, if that goes flat, it draws power from the camera; built-in compass
http://gps-nikon.com/

Posted 3 years ago #
Anaxagoras

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For the benefit of those looking for a geotagging solution

I've looked into Foolography a bit more. Their current device doesn't support the D90/D5000. I've emailed them and had the following reply:-

We're working on a D90/D5000 version. Prototypes are already working well, but we're still finalizing layout and design, so that it works best on both cameras, before we begin production.

We hope to have the first few units ready in summer, and to have plenty in stock at photokina in September.

Posted 3 years ago #
clillja

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I use a Red Hen bluetooth adapter on my D300 and a cheap BT GPS unit. It works fine once it's up and running, but the camera and GPS unit need to be re-paired (I mean communications wise - not fixed) fairly often as I walk around shooting buildings.

The GPS is attached to my bag, that way I can leave the bag near the object being photographed (but out of the frame). Thus the photo is tagged with the location of the subject, not the location of the photographer. That was the plan, anyway. The BT is only good for about 25' range, so I don't use that option very often.

I've logged about 17,000 geo-tagged photos in 3 years this way, my archive is integrated with our GIS system.

Definitely investing in the GP-1 for my personal work....

The Red Hen + GPS solution was almost $400 back in the day....

Thanks for the foolography and the solmeta tips - will be looking around.

Posted 3 years ago #
gelu88

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@ Anaxagoras: Thanks a lot for your investigations.

Their product is great,

i had a Columbus V-900
http://digital-photography-school.com/columbus-v-900-gps-voice-photo-data-logger-review

It was a amazing product, and pretty expensive and i had to tag it on the PC after the fact. But as it had a tendency to not connect in cars i had to leave it next to windows... Next thing you know i leave it in a taxi, never to be seen again.

So next time im getting a more "attached solution"

Posted 3 years ago #