Questions about geotagging with GPSmap 62s

[glbtrekker]

Hi all, as the title suggests I have some questions about the appropriate settings on a Garmin 62s for geotagging. I've read a few other threads on the topic, but I'm still a bit confused. I live in the US and will soon be traveling overseas on a 11 day trip. During this trip I plan to take a lot of photos with my Canon 50D and was hoping to geotag the photos as accurately as possible. I'm still new to this, but plan to use Adobe Lightroom to geotag the raw files once I return home.

 

Here's my question, what are the best settings to use? I will be crossing a number of times zones and want to record my location every 2-3 seconds. Also, my itinerary means that I may travel 12-14 hours per day. I thought I would simply match the time on the Camera to the GPSr each morning, and set the device to auto archive when full, but someone mentioned that the GPS only records time as UTC and I need to set my camera to UTC instead? Also, I read that the unit will not archive the files to the 16gb micro sd card that I installed and will only use internal memory...will there be enough memory to make it through a day without downloading?

 

Finally, should I set the device to archive when full or daily? If daily, will I run out of data and the device stop recording (or overwrite) my tracks? Thanks!

[+T.D.M.22]

Wouldn't the 50d do the tagging? Or am I thinking of another camera?

[glbtrekker]

You must be thinking of a different camera...no gps on this one

[glbtrekker]

duplicate post

Edited April 19, 2014 by glbtrekker

[MtnHermit]

Hi all, as the title suggests I have some questions about the appropriate settings on a Garmin 62s for geotagging. I've read a few other threads on the topic, but I'm still a bit confused. I live in the US and will soon be traveling overseas on a 11 day trip. During this trip I plan to take a lot of photos with my Canon 50D and was hoping to geotag the photos as accurately as possible. I'm still new to this, but plan to use Adobe Lightroom to geotag the raw files once I return home.

 

Here's my question, what are the best settings to use? I will be crossing a number of times zones and want to record my location every 2-3 seconds. Also, my itinerary means that I may travel 12-14 hours per day. I thought I would simply match the time on the Camera to the GPSr each morning, and set the device to auto archive when full, but someone mentioned that the GPS only records time as UTC and I need to set my camera to UTC instead? Also, I read that the unit will not archive the files to the 16gb micro sd card that I installed and will only use internal memory...will there be enough memory to make it through a day without downloading?

 

Finally, should I set the device to archive when full or daily? If daily, will I run out of data and the device stop recording (or overwrite) my tracks? Thanks!

Personally I've had great luck with BaseCamp geotagging. It will do +/- time offset in case you mis-set either clock. I'd also set your 50D for RAW + JPEG, if an option the smallest JPEG possible. That way you can use the photo viewer in BC. The viewer is map linked, index a photo and the map moves to match. I use Irfanview's batch function to create re-sized (800x600) JPEG's just for BC. You can then put those smaller images on your 62s for viewing, like this from an OR 450:

 

 

The first screenshot shows the map view with over a dozen geotagged photos. Touching any of the photo symbols, #2, shows the red pin and a image banner at the top. Touching that banner, brings up the associated image, #3.

 

Strongly suggest some testing before you leave. Oh, set your 62s to archive dalily, not when full, that way you'll have a series of dated files, much easier to wrap your mind around dates than multiple obscure tracks.

Edited April 19, 2014 by MtnHermit

[MtnHermit]

Wouldn't the 50d do the tagging? Or am I thinking of another camera?

I suspect you're thinking of the Canon GPS addon, it plugs into the camera and mounts to the flash holder. I would expect it to works faultlessly and cost a good deal more than a 62s.

[+Mineral2]

Do you use Adobe Lightroom to organize an process your RAW files? Lightroom lets you import your tracks and tag files according to time stamps.

[+EScout]

I would set the camera time to UTC.

I would set gps tracking to auto archive. Also save each at the end of each day.

I would not set track point interval to 2 or 3 seconds. Try auto, most often. You will probably be stopped for a little time before each photo, which is enough time for the gps to record a point.

[Sgt_Strider]

Hi all, as the title suggests I have some questions about the appropriate settings on a Garmin 62s for geotagging. I've read a few other threads on the topic, but I'm still a bit confused. I live in the US and will soon be traveling overseas on a 11 day trip. During this trip I plan to take a lot of photos with my Canon 50D and was hoping to geotag the photos as accurately as possible. I'm still new to this, but plan to use Adobe Lightroom to geotag the raw files once I return home.

 

Here's my question, what are the best settings to use? I will be crossing a number of times zones and want to record my location every 2-3 seconds. Also, my itinerary means that I may travel 12-14 hours per day. I thought I would simply match the time on the Camera to the GPSr each morning, and set the device to auto archive when full, but someone mentioned that the GPS only records time as UTC and I need to set my camera to UTC instead? Also, I read that the unit will not archive the files to the 16gb micro sd card that I installed and will only use internal memory...will there be enough memory to make it through a day without downloading?

 

Finally, should I set the device to archive when full or daily? If daily, will I run out of data and the device stop recording (or overwrite) my tracks? Thanks!

Personally I've had great luck with BaseCamp geotagging. It will do +/- time offset in case you mis-set either clock. I'd also set your 50D for RAW + JPEG, if an option the smallest JPEG possible. That way you can use the photo viewer in BC. The viewer is map linked, index a photo and the map moves to match. I use Irfanview's batch function to create re-sized (800x600) JPEG's just for BC. You can then put those smaller images on your 62s for viewing, like this from an OR 450:

 

 

The first screenshot shows the map view with over a dozen geotagged photos. Touching any of the photo symbols, #2, shows the red pin and a image banner at the top. Touching that banner, brings up the associated image, #3.

 

Strongly suggest some testing before you leave. Oh, set your 62s to archive dalily, not when full, that way you'll have a series of dated files, much easier to wrap your mind around dates than multiple obscure tracks.

 

Do you know if the Monterra have a similar app to what you're using on your 62s to view your geotagged photos?

[+Mineral2]

It's not an app. You just load photos onto your GPS, and if they are geotagged, they'll appear as waypoints on the map.

[39_Steps]

I live in the US and will soon be traveling overseas on a 11 day trip. During this trip I plan to take a lot of photos with my Canon 50D and was hoping to geotag the photos as accurately as possible. I'm still new to this, but plan to use Adobe Lightroom to geotag the raw files once I return home.

 

You may want to consider taking a picture of the Time display on the gps, whichever brand/model is in use, at least once a day for future offset reference.

 

Edited: I just looked at a recent gpx track file from a Delorme PN-60 gps device in Wordpad. It seems that the time is already recorded in Zulu time,and incremental speed of travel is also shown for each point. Speed seems to be in meters/sec,although my setting was in Miles/feet. Time display was set to display for local time zone in USA, not UTC. So a little practice before the trip might be a good idea.

Edited April 22, 2014 by 39_Steps

[Sgt_Strider]

It's not an app. You just load photos onto your GPS, and if they are geotagged, they'll appear as waypoints on the map.

 

Does the Monterra have that base map though?

[+Mineral2]

you have to install maps. There are plenty of good free maps for garmin GPS's if you look around.

 

two common resources:

http://garmin.openstreetmap.nl

http://www.gpsfiledepot.com

[39_Steps]

I would set the camera time to UTC.

I would set gps tracking to auto archive. Also save each at the end of each day.

I would not set track point interval to 2 or 3 seconds. Try auto, most often. You will probably be stopped for a little time before each photo, which is enough time for the gps to record a point.

Bump to emphasize setting the Camera time to UTC, as the gpx track log points will probably be recorded in UTC (Zulu) time regardless of the gps device settings.

 

Note: I totally missed EScout's reason for doing so on the first reading, because I have not been actively geotagging photos. This thread has made me think that I may start carrying a gps track recording device in my camera bag at all times - and use it. Then I might consider putting a copy of the dated track files in the "My Pictures" folder for future reference by my descendants. I'm certain that I will never get around to editing the image file exif data fields myself.

[+splashy]

Just to unconfuse:

 

Geotagging is giving the photo a geolocation coordinate.

This is done by making a photo and having a device registering the geolocation either in camera ** or post processing after a trip.

 

The device for the geolocation can be a Gps or a so called tracker, this unit should record a so called track. Track time + time stamp of the photo should be the same.

 

Therefore set your camera on the time of the geotracking device not other way around.

 

There are many programs that will put the geolocation in the picture ( if the camera didn't do so)

 

If you don't have the Monterra already, you better wait until that model is stable.

 

** some Garmin models come with a camera.

Edited April 23, 2014 by splashy

[39_Steps]

To further confuse, geotagging does not necessarily need to involve modifying the original image (i.e. jpg) file, either in the camera maker's exif fields or with appended/prepended meta data Photo Editor App hacks that can be very difficult to search for coordinates.

 

Here is some info for the Delorme Topo Geotagger utility, as copied from the Topo9 User Guide. (Although gpx files are not directly mentioned, they are supported.)

 

Getting Started with GeoTagger

Use the GeoTagger Wizard to:

 

Sync digital photos with GPS log files (.gpl) and track files (.an2) and tag them to the location you took them. You can place images as an actual image on the map, a MapNote with a hyperlink, or a symbol with a hyperlink.

 

Match GPS logs and tracks to time-related information downloaded from supported devices. For example, you can download a track that includes your heart rate from an athletic device and view the data in the Profile tab. The program uses the following file formats: Suunto (*.sdf), Timex Trainer CSV (*.csv), or Generic CSV File (*.csv).