Geotag Photos

[msullivan57]

This was an interesting topic brought up by ACC member c8mb under the recreational category recently. c8mb introduced everytrail.com software that is used by Iphones, blackberry, and android phones to geotag photos. There is a free version and a version with more features which can be purchased. It appealed to me to be able to geotag my camera photos. There are point and shoot cameras by panasonic, samsung, and sony which have gps receivers and photo tagging built into the camera. I wanted something to work with the cameras I currently use. Which are two Canon point and shoot cameras. I found several gps track or travel loggers which have software to geotag jpeg photos (None I found work with RAW photos. For D-slr users). The products I ended up liking the most were Mobile Action gps travel loggers. They are expensive which I guess is a result of having a gps receiver in the product. Here are the models and cost:

I-gotu gt-120 $70
I-gotu gt-600 $120

To use these devices you have to synchronize the clocks on your camera and the gps tracker. When you load the photos and attach the tracker they add the geotag to your photo EXIF data. This appears to be a terrific enhancement with personal and business use of photos. I liked the Mobile Action products for the following reasons:

Works with any camera
Rechargeable Lithium batteries
Water Resistant
Compatible with Windows 7, 64 bit operating system
Interacts with Google maps, Google Earth, and Picasa

The difference in the models is the 600 has more memory, larger battery, and motion sensor. Some reviewers indicated the 120 would not work with Windows 7, 64 bit and the software was inferior. However, the Mobile Action web site has Windows 7 64 bit drivers and the software available for download. I ordered the gt-600 because it is the newer product and I wanted to make sure it worked with my operating system without problems. But that's a big difference in price for the added features. Probably not all that good of a decision. I have not used the product yet but posted this anyway to see what others were using for geotagging photos. Got to be some interest in this topic with outdoors folks.

Here is the Mobile Action Web site link to get more information on these products:

http://global.mobileaction.com/product/ ... i-gotU.jsp


Mike

[Bob Miller]

GPicSync from google is free and works fine if you don't mind doing the tagging on a computer after you retrieve the pictures from the camera.
It's at: http://code.google.com/p/gpicsync/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
I set my camera to Greenwich time because that's the time the Garmin receiver sets in trackpoints, regardless of the time zone used for display. Using local time in the camera can get confusing because you have to remember whether it's set for daylight savings or standard and adjust the offset in gpicsync accordingly. That's the only hitch I've had to deal with. Note that it uses a track not waypoints and finds the closest trackpoint in time to your picture's time.