Geotagging Cameras

[+MountainWoods]

I'm posting this here because it is so apropos to Waymarking.

 

Do any of you have any experience with cameras that have GPS reception and automatically tag the photo's taken-from location in the EXIF data?

 

I'm not a big camera buff myself. I'm more of a point-and-shoot dude. But I would like to have all of my Waymarking photos geotagged; and rather than having to do that after-the-fact with Geosetter, I'd like to have the camera do it at the same time. Yes, the coordinates of the waymark itself may be different from the location of the photos, or the waymark's may only match one of several photos' coordinates. But I just like to be able to go back (perhaps in Google Earth or whatever) and say, "There's where I took that photo."

 

Let me know your experiences.

---

 

Couple things by way of an aside:

 

It was funny reading some of the consumer reviews of cameras with GPSrs. Some of them complained about all of the nuisance extra features like a built-in GPSr. Duh! Guess they didn't get it. There are far more cameras without GPSr available that they could have chosen to buy. Instead they buy a GPSr camera and then complain about it. (Like moving in next to the airport and then complaining about the noise. Always loved that.)

 

Some folks are worried about privacy. All of the GPSr cameras have the option of turning off the geotagging.

Or you can strip the coordinates from the EXIF data before uploading to sites that preserve it. By the way, I've used Geosetter to put coordinates into photos that I was just about to upload into Facebook, then used the EXIF Viewer extension of Chrome to try to get the coordinates from the photo in Facebook, but all of the EXIF data had been stripped. Even if you download the photo to a different name, no EXIF data is present. Facebook finally did something right w.r.t. privacy in stripping out the EXIF data.

Edited August 8, 2014 by MountainWoods

[+BruceS]

When I bought my current camera a Nikon 610, I purchased a gps attachment for it. Unfortunately the first gps did not function correctly and had to be returned. I didn't have the gps when I went on my last Waymarking trip in southwest Missouri. Since then life events have taken me away from getting out and getting many photos and testing the geotagging. I have played around with it a little and it works fairly well. I am not sure what cameras these attachments are available for. I know some of the upcoming models of Nikon cameras are supposed to have the gps built in but these are fairly high end cameras.

[+UMainah]

My phone geotags and it comes in handy. I also use a Canon point-and-shoot at work that has built in GPS. It takes a little while to acquire a signal.

[+silverquill]

The Garmin Oregon 550, and probably other models, geotag, but I never take photos with it so it is rather a useless feature. My Panasonic Lumix DMC-257 also has a GPS, but I have never been able to figure out how to get the coordinates when I download the pictures, much less import them into any kind of program where it would actually do some good. I would never use those coordinates for a waymark since they would be coordinates camera position NOT the object/site I was Waymarking -- unless I was very close to it. Still, it is a great point-and-shoot camera with wide angle and great zoom capabilities. And, it is almost as good as a dedicated video cam for taking short action scenes.

[+MountainWoods]

Right. As I mentioned, the coordinates are not for the waymark listing itself. It is just good documentation of the photo, just like the caption and description. And 'twould be nice if it were automatic.

 

It looks like the price of GPS cameras have come down quite a bit since I first started looking at them a year ago.

[+iconions]

I guess I like the look of the camera around my neck, the old Garmin Oregon 450 on the pouch on my belt, and the old, old etrex legend taking my coordinates. I just have that WAYMARKER look about me, especially in a downtown historical district!

[+sorabji]

I have a Panasonic Lumix ZS30 with a pretty capable GPS built in. It works best when the GPS is set to always be on, but that chews up batteries like nothing else so I have a few spares. Out of doors on a clear day I'd say it accurately tags about 80% of the images within a reasonable distance of the spot at which I took the picture. The rest are either untagged or tagged as being somewhere off the coast of Ghana. I don't necessarily expect it to accurately tag images taken indoors, but often times it does. An earlier Lumix (ZS7) had GPS but it was pretty bad. I have so many photos from years ago that I wish I could have geotagged, so I'd know more or less where they were taken.

 

-mt

[+MountainWoods]

Thanks for sharing your experience.

 

By the way, one of the things I've said several times is that I wish I had a geotagging camera many, many years ago (even before GPS! which is impossible). I've got so many photos that I can only guess where they were taken. In later years, I was a bit more careful to keep track and write something on the back. But it's too late for the earlier ones; and it's like: some of them I don't care, and some of them I really wish I did know where they were taken. The technology just wasn't up to my sloth!

 

I think that's one reason that I'd like a geotagging camera now. So I don't have to try to remember later on.

 

With today's technology, and the ability to use long file names, I usually put photos into a folder that is named after the date and general content (e.g. 2014-08-23 Visiting nearby historical sites), and then use either a number (usually) or time as the first part of the file name (01 ___ Church.jpg, 02 ___ School.jpg, 03 ___ Cemetery.jpg). I only use time if it is important to the "narrative flow" when I look back at them, since the file's EXIF data has the date/time that each photo was taken.

 

Point is, lost history in old photos makes me want to have a bit more automatic history in modern photos. It's really great that the date/time is recorded. Just need the where. That'll leave me to struggle with the whozzat? and whatsis?

[+MountainWoods]

Now I'm having second thoughts. Although they cost about twice as much, I'm thinking about getting a handheld GPSr with a built-in camera, rather than the other way around.

 

What got me thinking about this is that the camera I was looking at (1) was reviewed as being a heavy user of batteries, and (2) took a bunch of seconds to resync with satellites each time it was turned on. Point number 1 precludes the idea of just leaving the camera on all the time during your outing. But point 2 means that you might have to wait for a while before being able to take your geotagged photo, unless you could keep the camera on all the time. Some of the reviewers who bought such cameras for geotagging mentioned this downside.

 

Such a camera costs in the range of US$279 at Amazon.

 

On the other hand, a handheld GPSr with a built-in (auto-geotagging) camera, such as the Garmin Oregon 650, would be on all of the time anyway; thus ready to geotag your photo at all times.

 

But you're talking about US$439 for a Garmin 650 at Amazon. The cheaper Oregons do not have the camera built in.

 

Although smart phones don't cost much, because the price is folded into the wireless contract, I am not yet at a point where I can afford the monthly payments for data service and so on, which I understand from coworkers can run into a lot of monthly $$$. But a one-time expenditure on a good unit of either variety (camera with a GPSr or GPSr with a camera), is possibly do-able.

 

(Plus, the other thing that made me consider the Garmin Oregon is that I'm thinking about trying Wherigo. Don't know if I'd like it or not. But there are only so few GPSr units that support it, and the Oregon series happens to be Wherigo capable. But that's an aside.)

 

I am not nearly as much of a camera buff as I am a GPSr buff. Just give me point-and-shoot capability on a camera and I am happy. So a good GPSr with a camera seems like it's more of a natural fit to me, than a fancy camera with a GPSr.

 

Chime in with your experiences with either.

[+MountainWoods]

 

Unfortunately, the reviews both here and in Amazon.com indicate the same issues with all of the Garmin Oregons: they hang at the drop of a hiking boot. Sounds like Garmin does not have their act together in the device code.

 

My own eTrex 20 has hung several times, but it doesn't sound as bad as the reviews on the Oregons. And I had to do the same thing: remove the batteries to get it reset. I think every time that my unit hung was when I was navigating by Open Street Maps (yep, using a handheld to do road navigation), and I decided to take a different turn than the unit indicated. Sometimes it just recalculates based on my decision. Other times it just decides to "take its dollies and go home."

 

But it sounds like the Oregons hang even more frequently than my unit.

[+Tuena]

I own a Magellan 710 & it has geo-tagging for both photos & memos. I prefer a separate camera (no geotagging) but geo-tag memos to the waypoint I created for the waymark. This works fine providing its not too windy as wind interferes with the quality of the recording to a point it becomes impossible to understand. I then use the Cone of Silence (my UAV, Urban Assault Vehicle, a 4WD) if it is close by. The Magellan has been very good to me, far better than my previous Nuvi in navigating, doesn't hang up or otherwise cause me grief.

[+MountainWoods]

Does it have some of the other features that we Garmin owners are used to, like the ability to make tracks (also called breadcrumb trails), and handle geocaches as geocaches instead of just waypoints? I wouldn't mind switching to a different brand of GPSr to avoid going to the higher levels (I still have an entry level GPSr) and having the software in the darn things hang (get stuck) all the time.

 

It isn't, perhaps, a 100% necessity with me, but I'd also like to consider dabbling in Wherigo, which only certain devices handle. Is the Magellan one of them? If not, like I say, that's not a show stopper. I'd much rather get a good GPSr that can also take geotagged photos. And doesn't cost an arm and a leg. And can make waypoints, tracks, routes and paperless geocaching.

 

I'll take some time, when I get some time, to look up the description of the Magellan on their web site.

 

Thanks!

[+Tuena]

Does it have some of the other features that we Garmin owners are used to, like the ability to make tracks (also called breadcrumb trails), and handle geocaches as geocaches instead of just waypoints? I wouldn't mind switching to a different brand of GPSr to avoid going to the higher levels (I still have an entry level GPSr) and having the software in the darn things hang (get stuck) all the time.

 

It isn't, perhaps, a 100% necessity with me, but I'd also like to consider dabbling in Wherigo, which only certain devices handle. Is the Magellan one of them? If not, like I say, that's not a show stopper. I'd much rather get a good GPSr that can also take geotagged photos. And doesn't cost an arm and a leg. And can make waypoints, tracks, routes and paperless geocaching.

 

I'll take some time, when I get some time, to look up the description of the Magellan on their web site.

 

Thanks!

 

I'm a previous Garmin owner having had a GPS72 & the 60 CSx. Variety is the spice of life so I chose the 710 a couple of years ago as an upgrade rather than a Garmin. It has tracks you can follow if you get lost & handles Geocaches separately to Waypoints. Magellan doesn't handle Wherigo. The maps that come with it are very good however street maps are getting old & it seems that Magellan aren't overly interested in updating them. That doesn't worry me too much as I use a Hema In-Vehicle Navigator for street & off road navigation. The Magellan Explorist Forum http://www.explorist...he-world/#p7757 could be a warning to steer clear of handheld Magellan's. I still like mine though. If I need to replace it a Montana 650t appears to be the equivalent, apart from being more expensive, heavier & larger. Touch wood the Magellan keeps on going & going.

[+MountainWoods]

Thanks. I also looked up the Magellen 710 reviews on Amazon.com and they do not look any better. Oh it doesn't have the problem with software lock-ups. But the main complaints were that the touch screen is not always responsive, and that when you go to scroll, it instead thinks that you were selecting something; and that it takes a lot of scrolling to get to the next menu item that you want to select. Also, they did mention the out-of-date maps. But it looked like it was the city street maps that were old, and I wouldn't need them, so I could use the 610. (I would use my car GPSr for city street navigation.)

 

I may just wait a couple more years and see if/when one of the companies gets their act together.

 

Anyone else have experience with these GPSrs or cameras with respect to geotagging and Waymarking? Chime in.

[+The A-Team]

(Plus, the other thing that made me consider the Garmin Oregon is that I'm thinking about trying Wherigo. Don't know if I'd like it or not. But there are only so few GPSr units that support it, and the Oregon series happens to be Wherigo capable. But that's an aside.)

Be aware that not all Oregons have Wherigo capability. The newer 6xx series, which are the ones with the 8MP camera, do not have Wherigo capability. Only the 5xx and earlier do. Wherigo is pretty much dead, though, so I wouldn't use this as a determining factor when buying a device.

 

Unfortunately, the reviews both here and in Amazon.com indicate the same issues with all of the Garmin Oregons: they hang at the drop of a hiking boot. Sounds like Garmin does not have their act together in the device code.

While I've had some problems with my Oregon 450, it's been a long time since I had a hang. It took a long time, but Garmin did eventually improve that firmware and at least my 450 runs pretty well now. The 6xx series are newer, so they could still be bug-riddled, but Garmin will probably fix most of the bugs over time.

[+MountainWoods]

Thanks! That's good to know. I don't think I'll bother with Wherigo. I kinda figured it was like the "video phones" of the early 1960s that never caught on. It's not worth making it a condition for approval of a candidate new unit. Whoosh! Out the door that goes.

 

I definitely would want a GPSr with the camera ability, since I can't afford monthly payments for a smart phone with data service and so on, but I could possibly afford a one-time expenditure for a good GPSr.

 

I think I might have to just wait until Garmin gets the code in the 600 series corrected before I jump up to a camera GPSr. Or Magellan. Problem is that the reviews from as late as 21 August 2014 on Amazon.com describe multiple hang issues with new Oregon 650s. Now that Wherigo is out of the picture, maybe I should consider a different "branch" of the Garmin tree -- with the camera, of course.

[+T0SHEA]

Couple of points to add here:

 

Silverquill, et all - here's how to make use of the EXIF in your geotagged pix.

Get yourself a little proggy called "BR's EXIF Extracter".

 

http://www.br-software.com/extracter.html

 

It's freeware, works like a charm and allows one to extract selected parts (or all) of the EXIF from a pic to a CSV, which can then be opened directly into EXCEL. That's how we do all of our coords for waymarks. Take a pic of the waymark with the Magellan 610 or the Montana 650, extract only lat. and long. (name is automatically included) to a CSV, open the CSV in Excel, apply my translation formulas, then simply copy & paste the coords into the waymark. It's far and away the quickest way we've found when dealing with thousands of pix. The looooooooongest part is renaming pix when we get home after a two week Waymarking trip. It's amazing how many pix two people can take in two weeks!!! Luckily, there's usually only one coords pic per waymark. Many of my actual waymark pix never do get renamed. The waymark gets done before all the pix in the folder get renamed.

 

ALSO - we have a Nikon P510, which has been, so far, totally reliable. Pic quality is the equivalent of the competing Canons - SX 20/30/40/50. We had one but B fell down a hill and the Canon worked no more. The P510's major problem is that it takes so long to get a fix that very few of my P510 pix end up geotagged. A reliable and accurate fix takes 4 or 5 minutes and I'm not usually shooting a waymark that long. Still, it can be a lifesaver in a pinch.

 

BH-Hunters

[+T0SHEA]

The Garmin Oregon 550, and probably other models, geotag, but I never take photos with it so it is rather a useless feature. My Panasonic Lumix DMC-257 also has a GPS, but I have never been able to figure out how to get the coordinates when I download the pictures, much less import them into any kind of program where it would actually do some good. I would never use those coordinates for a waymark since they would be coordinates camera position NOT the object/site I was Waymarking -- unless I was very close to it. Still, it is a great point-and-shoot camera with wide angle and great zoom capabilities. And, it is almost as good as a dedicated video cam for taking short action scenes.

 

I should have replied here - See my reply below re: geotagged pix and how to make use of them.

 

BK-Hunters

[+eremmel65]

I think the build in cameras of GPSrs are not good enough. I use a Cannon Powershot XS 260 for my photo's. But I've not always the patients to wait for GPS stability (esp when not much sky is visible). So most time I use my tracks from GPSr and tag my photos via exiftool and ExifToolGUI. Then I upload the tracks and photos in BaseCamp. I use this a basis for posting Waymarks.

 

I noticed that it is important to have the time of GPSr and camera equal, 'cause that is the common factor. Fortunate tools like exiftool can adjust the timing at second level to bring both in sync. I start my trip most of time with a reference photo with some traveling speed.

[+MountainWoods]

I hadn't heard of ExitToolGUI, but by the name it sounds just like GeoSetter, which is also a GUI "wrapped around" exiftool. No doubt they have similar features as far as synchronizing the picture taken date/time in the photo's EXIF data with the creation date/time in either the waypoints or the track points.

 

There's another topic I wrote, by way of a How To, for folks (such as myself) who are new to that synchronization feature. Of course, my How To is based on GeoSetter because that's what I'm familiar with.

 

If you have the time and energy, you might want to take some screen shots to document how that is done with ExifToolGUI for folks who use that. Just an idea.

 

Thanks!