Ever been looking through your photos, looked at one and thought ” That’s a great shot, where the hell did I take that?”. Ever wanted a record of exactly where you went on your holiday and in exactly which place your took a photo?  Well geotagging your photos is what you need to do.  Basically longitude and latitude information is put into your photo’s EXIF information and many programs or picture hosting sites can read this information and display where you took the photo on a map.

Some cameras these days come with GPS built into them, but you probably don’t really want to have to upgrade you camera gear just to get GPS information, and it doesn’t help if you’ve got multiple cameras (doesn’t everyone have multiple cameras? ). You could spend the extra money and buy a separate data logger however the good thing is that most smartphones or tablets have a GPS built into it these days, and using the right software you can use your device to geotag with the equipment you already have.  While this article is  based on Android devices, all you need is the right data logger program on your iOS or Windows or other OS device to make use of the tutorial.

There’s two software components to the process of geotagging your photos. You need a program that will talk to the GPS on your device and log GPS position data at specific time periods, and then a program that will be able to read and match the time stamp on your photo’s EXIF information with the longitude and latitude at that time and then write this information into the photo’s EXIF data. One important thing to note is that for the most accurate data, the time on your device needs to exactly match the time on your camera. The best thing is that you don’t have to spend big dollars on these packages; all the applications I’m using here are free.

GPS Status and Toolbox

Before I go into the two packages, if you’re playing with the GPS on your Android device then one of the most useful utilities you can have is GPS Status and Toolbox. This little app shows you a graphical representation of which GPS satellites you can see and which ones you’re locked onto. It can also help in managing A-GPS data,a small file that can assist in getting faster satellite locks. If I’m having GPS issues, this is always the first app I reach for. You can click on any of the pictures to see bigger versions

Open GPS Tracker

Open GPS Tracker is the data logging app that needs to be loaded onto your Android Device. When you start recording, your latitude and longitude is logged into a file at certain time intervals. Depending on your circumstances, Open GPS has 4 different logging intervals.  So if you’re walking or working in a small area, you can probably get away with larger time intervals; if you were taking pictures while in  a moving car you would want shorter intervals. Shorter intervals will give you more accurate tracking of path, but do note that it will also have an impact on the battery life of your device.

• Fine : GPS updates every second after at least 5 meters movement
• Normal : GPS updates every 15 seconds after at least 10 meters movement
• Coarse : GPS updates every 30 seconds after at least 25 meters movement
• Global : Use GPS and WiFi signals to triangulate every 5 minutes after at least 500 meter movement

If there’s no signal for a specified time, an alarm will sound so you know that you’re not logging anymore.  There’s a plethora of other options as well, but for the purposes of geotagging, it’s really only the logging interval that’s the important one. You can see that Open GPS can also make use of Google Maps on your device to display your path live (warning: this may involve data download charges on your device).

Test Rig and Procedure

 So I had to take one of the boys somewhere, so always the opportunist, I set up the above rig.  My HTC Desire running Open GPS Tracker, Swann Freestyle HD  and its remote all “securely” attached via a sticky pad to my dash. It’s no Google Map mobile, but it’ll do All I needed to do was make sure my phone and camera are synchronised, set the time interval to normal (15 sec), start the GPS on my phone, open the app , start tracking and drive away.  At random intervals I used the remote to safely take a picture.

Here’s the final trip shown on a Google Map overlay. While you’re travelling along, you can also use the app to do things like take notes, voice recordings or mark spots with recorded co-ordinates for future reference.  You can see on the picture that there’s even an indication of the speed I was doing at each stage, keyed to the legend on the right. The app can also tell you how far you’ve travelled (15.89km), maximum speed (71.1 km/h), elapsed time (26min) and total elevation (242m), again not information used in geotagging but may be useful just the same for other purposes.  The important thing is that the app logged 93 waypoints, which is the important information needed for geotagging.

Open GPS can export the waypoints in a GPX file format, a standardised format for input and output of waypoint files. The files are stored locally and can be exported and then  transferred off from the phone via standard file transfer, or the app has the ability to export using other installed apps such as Gmail or Dropbox.

So the results of my little trip, 49 photos (basically taken at random, don’t expect any Peter Dombrovskis here) and a GPX file containing 93 waypoints.

GPicSync

GPicSync is another free, Open Source program that puts the GPS information into your pictures. It’s available for Windows, Linux, and OS X 10.5, supports both JPEG and RAW formats and it’s pretty easy to use. Point it at your picture folder, point it at your .GPX file and let it run. GPicSync will correlate the time stamps on your photos with the timestamps from the GPX file and then write the most relevant co-ordinates into the EXIF information for that photo. Once again GPicSync has the ability to do a whole lot more that’s outside the scope of this article.

Viewing

Here’s the details of one of my processed pictures. You can see that GPicSync has put in longitude, latitude and altitude.

Click on “View in Google Earth” in GPicSync and voila, a full picture of your trip and where each photo was taken. Click on the thumbnails and you’ll get a bigger thumbnail of the photo.  Cool huh !

If you zoom into the map, you’ll see what I mean about getting the correct time intervals.  Logging every 15 seconds has me driving through fences, backyards and houses.  If I wanted a more accurate path then I would have been better to use 1 second intervals (with the associated higher battery drain and larger output file).  It really depends on exactly how “accurate” you want the logging to be.

Here’s the photos being viewed in Picasa 3
And here as a Picasa Web picture via Google+

Many online photo-sharing websites now support geotagging, including Flickr and SmugMug. To me, being able to place and visualise a picture on a map gives my photo a bit more “relevance” both for myself and anyone else that views the photo.

Conclusion

Once you’ve set everything up and got a workflow going, it’s easy to geotag your photos.  No longer will you have to wonder where a photo was taken, or if that photo was in this city or that city.  Given that you’ve most likely already got GPS capability in your Android device, why pay more money for additional equipment and why not make use of it?

My only big disappointment? That I didn’t set this all up 1000s and 1000s of pictures earlier. I’ve got so many photos, including overseas holidays in Vietnam, Thailand, Ankar Wat, San Francisco… that don’t have geotagged information in them……guess I’ll just have to go back and retake them  :)

Final words/warnings

• Displaying live maps in Open GPS Tracker may incur data charges
• Using the GPS on your device will affect battery life
• Please do note that GPS positioning isn’t 100% accurate, and there will be some variation from your actual position
• If you are publishing geotagged photos on a public forum, be careful what you put up and what information you might be giving away!

Filed in categories: Android related, Articles, Digital Cameras and Gear, GPS

Tagged: Android, Geotagging, GPS

How to: Geotag your Photos with an Android Device originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on May 24, 2012 at 11:00 am.

I have a couple of Nikon DSLR cameras that I use for personal and Gadgeteer photography.  Nikon cameras aren’t cheap, but hey – not every camera is mentioned in song, either.  Accessories, especially the Nikon-branded ones, aren’t cheap, either.  I’ve been slowly collecting studio lights, flashes for the hot shoe, filters – you get the idea.  One accessory I was intrigued by was Nikon’s GPS accessory to add geographical coordinates into the EXIF information of the photos I take.  The GP-1 is expensive and there are things I need more, so I had forgotten about GPS info for my photos for the time being.  That is until EasyTag offered their EasyTagger for Nikon cameras to The Gadgeteer for review.  Let’s see how it worked for me.

The EasyTagger comes with a USB-to-proprietary-plug cable for charging, a Nikon-to-proprietary-plug cable for connection to the camera, a column for attaching to the hot shoe while still allowing the built-in flash to be used, a cable strap, a card reader, and a small CD with the manual.  When you order the EasyTagger, you select the appropriate cable for the camera you own.  Luckily, the N3 cable will work with both my Nikon D3100 and D5100.  Instead of using the undersized CD that never properly works with my MacBook Pro, I downloaded the manual from the EasyTag website.  The CD was labeled “Setup Software”, but I didn’t need any software to use the EasyTagger.

Specifications

• GPS Chipset SiRF Star III
• Frequency L1, 15 75.4 2 MHz
• C/A Code 1.0 23 MHz chip rate
• Channels 20 channel all-in-view tracking

The manual has a lot more technical information in it, but it has quite a few typos that I’m not sure how to correct.  If you really want to see more details, you can download the manual here.

The EasyTagger GPS unit is made of black plastic.  It measure 2″ X 1.25″ X about 0.85″ thick (including the hot shoe connector).  It weighs 1.4 ounces on my digital kitchen scale.

The top of the EasyTagger has an LED status light that tells you when calibration is complete, when a signal has been established, etc.

This end has a port, covered by a rubber door that broke off when I tried to connect the unit to my camera, with a non-standard connector type. This is where you connect the charging cable and also where you connect the camera cable.

The EasyTagger has a 500mAh Li-ion battery that recharges with any standard USB charger or a port on your computer.  This battery powers the GPS unit so that it doesn’t suck your camera battery dry.

The circular port is to connect a remote control unit that can fire the shutter of the Nikon camera.  I didn’t receive one with the review unit, and I don’t own a wired remote for either of my cameras.

The EasyTagger comes with a 2GB microSD card, already installed.  It stores GPS data in standard GPS log files on the disk.  EasyTag includes a USB card reader so you can access this data on your computer.

Best of all, the EasyTagger also writes GPS coordinates, altitude, and barometric readings directly into the photo file’s metadata if you’re using RAW, JPG, and TIFF formats (for most cameras). You don’t have to use the log files if your software can use the metadata information.

The power slider is here, too.  In the ON position, the EasyTagger “will track all visible satellites and receive GPS data. It will provide instant location information to the camera whether the camera is turned On or Off.”  In the OFF position, the unit is powered off, but the remote control will still work to control the camera if it’s plugged into the GPS unit.  The ALL position means the “Easytagger and the data logger are “On”. GPS signals will be logged every 10 seconds to the Micro SD card.”

This is the calibrate button.  Calibration was easy.  You simply slide the EasyTagger on to the hot shoe and connect the cable, press the calibrate button, then turn yourself through 360-degrees twice while holding the camera level and pointed at the horizon.  This should be done outdoors with an unobstructed sky view, so it may make your neighbors wonder what you’re doing.  My EasyTagger calibrated quickly, so I didn’t have time to attract an audience.

It took a few seconds before my Nikon D3100 recognized the presence of the EasyTagger GPS.  A GPS icon blinked on my camera’s status screen for a few moments before coming on steady.  At this point, I tried a test picture, and there was GPS information in the file’s data.

On the EasyTag website, the power connector on the GPS unit is shown to be on the same side as the camera’s GPS connection.  That wasn’t the case for my D3100 nor the D5100, but luckily enough, the cable was just long enough to reach the connector.  You can see here that the GPS unit hangs over the built-in flash unit, and it prevents the flash from opening.  You can see the flash unit is open, but it can’t lift into position in this picture and the topmost picture.  You can use the included hot shoe extender column to elevate the GPS unit so the flash can pop up.  I was going to be taking pictures outdoors, so I didn’t need the extender for this trial.

We decided to combine my daughter’s driving practice with some photography, so we drove around town snapping pictures.  Some pictures were taken while the car was stationary, others while the car was moving. Acquisition rates vary:  hot start 1 sec., average; warm start 38 sec., average; cold start 42 sec., average; reacquisition 0.1 sec., average.

Some of our pictures were missing GPS information, so I imagine most of those were taken while the car was moving and the GPS unit didn’t have time to get a new signal, or perhaps there was something overhead interfering with the signal acquisition.  Most of the pictures did have the information.

All of the following pictures can be clicked for an enlarged view.

This screen capture shows the part of the metadata where the GPS information is found.  I used Photoshop Elements 9 to open the file and show the information.  If you click on the above photo, you’ll also be able to see that the number of satellites the signal was collected from is also displayed.  Most pictures showed 6 satellites, but I saw as many as nine.

The GPS data in the photo is available to all geotagging software.  I don’t currently own any software designed to use this data, so I just uploaded some of my pictures to Flickr and added them to the map.

The photo of this sign was taken while the car was stationary.  You can’t possibly tell by looking at this map if the pin is in the correct position unless you’re familiar with this part of Greensboro.  I’m familiar with the area, and I can tell you that the pin is directly in front of the VF Corporation World Headquarters building, right about where the pictured sign is located.

You can tell by the photograph that this was taken at the Greensboro baseball stadium.  This photo was taken while the car was moving.  I’m not sure if the pin is exactly where those baseball “sculptures” are located.  Perhaps the car was moving a bit faster than the GPS data updated, but it’s close enough that you could certainly use the information to get back to the stadium.

This map shows pins and small thumbnails for each of the photos I uploaded.

The GPS data collected by the EasyTagger is accurate, as you can tell from the maps.  I don’t know about the altimeter and the barometric pressure readings collected by the GPS unit, because I have no way to check their accuracy.

I think the EasyTagger is a great accessory for my Nikon cameras.  It costs less than half the price of the GP-1 ($120 for the EasyTagger vs. $265 for the Nikon GP-1).  Luckily, the cable I got works for both my cameras, but I can buy a new cable from EasyTag for $10 if I get a new Nikon in the future.  I could add a shutter release for $4-29, depending on the features I want for the release cable.  You might even be interested to know that a user named retiredPhil left a bad review for the Nikon GP-1 at the Nikon website and said he “would have been much better off buying a 3rd party geo locator, such as the Easytagger GPS.”  I think you’d agree with retiredPhil and me that the EasyTagger is a great, inexpensive GPS unit for your Nikon camera.

Filed in categories: Digital Cameras and Gear, GPS, Reviews

Tagged: Digital camera accessory, Geotagging

EasyTag EasyTagger GPS Unit for Nikon Cameras Review originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on March 27, 2012 at 11:00 am.

If you like to share your photographs and you don’t have an Eye-Fi card, you are missing out.  I just bought my first one about a month ago, and I love it.

Fortunately for us mobile shutterbugs, Eye-Fi just announced their latest model, the Pro X2.  At 8GB, it doubles the max capacity of their previous high-end models, adds 802.11n support, and sports a new feature called “Endless Memory”.  This allows the card to remove images automatically as they are uploaded, so you can shoot and shoot and shoot and never have to worry about filling up the card.  Like previous models, the Pro X2 still includes features like lifetime geotagging and Selective Transfer, and all for a ridiculously low $150.  The Pro X2 is available for pre-order on Eye-Fi’s website or through Amazon.

Filed in categories: Digital Cameras and Gear, News, Wireless

Tagged: Geotagging, Storage, Wireless

Eye-Fi Pro X2 adds 802.11n, 8GB capacity, Endless Memory originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on January 5, 2010 at 11:45 am.

Here’s a tiny Bluetooth GPS module from Brando that you can wear on your keychain or your arm (with the included holder), to geotag your photos as you travel, or use with included software to record and analyze all your daily/weekly/monthly activities such as cycling, running, climbing, skiing, etc.

Filed in categories: Digital Cameras and Gear, GPS, Travel Gear

Tagged: Fitness, Geotagging, GPS

Bluetooth GPS for sports and geotagging originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on June 24, 2009 at 8:29 am.

I enjoy reviewing GPS photo tagging gadgets here on The Gadgeteer, so I will be interested to see how ATP’s latest PhotoFinder device compares to their previous models. They are hailing it as the answer to Sony’s GPS-CS3KA. The PhotoFinder Pro does sound like it has the upper hand due to the fact that it can support an external battery pack, external GPS antenna, POI (Point of Interest) recording. It will be available at the end of July for around $119.

Filed in categories: Digital Cameras and Gear, Travel Gear

Tagged: Geotagging, GPS, Photo tagging, Photography, Spotlight Gadgets

Tag, you’re it with the ATP PhotoFinder Pro originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on May 27, 2009 at 7:54 am.

I recently reviewed the ATP GPS PhotoFinder mini photo geotagging module. I liked the concept, but found some issues with usability. Today I have a similar product for you. It’s the i-gotU USB GPS Travel Logger GT-120 from Mobile Action. It’s smaller and even easier to use than the PhotoFinder. Let’s take a look.

If you are not familiar with this type of geotagging product, it interfaces with any camera or mobile phone, so that the images that you snap can be tagged with the GPS longitude and latitude coordinates where they were taken. The i-gotU goes a step farther in that it will allow you to upload your trips to a special free online server, create nifty little animated movies of your travels and share them with anyone.

Hardware Specifications

Dimension: 44.5 x 28.5 x 13 mm
Weight: 20g
Built-in SiRF StarIII 65nm low-power chipset
Built-in GPS patch antenna.
Built-in flash memory. 65000 waypoints for 30 days( when the logging interval is 15 seconds and use it 8 hours per day)
Built-in 230mAh Lithium-ion battery.
Operation time: Up to 30 hours ( when the logging interval is 15 seconds)
2 LED for tracking and battery/charger status indication.
Average acquisition time for cold start: < 35 seconds, hot start: < 1 seconds.
USB 1.1 interface for PC connection
Operation temperature: -10 to + 50 degrees centigrade

Package Contents

i-gotU module
USB cable
Mini CD with software and manual

The i-gotU module is a very small White plastic rectangle, with one button. The Blue silicone skin is removable. There are two LEDs (not visible in this photo) located on either side of the power button. One is Blue and one is Red. When the module is powered on, the Blue LED will blink every 15 or so seconds. If there is a GPS signal, the Red LED will also blink.

One end has the proprietary USB connector and a lanyard attachment eyelet. Surprisingly, no lanyard or keychain was included in the package.

Before you use the i-gotU, you must first charge it using the included USB cable. The initial charge requires 4hrs and subsequent charges will require 2hrs.

Operating this device is about as simple as it can be. Just hold down the only button for a couple of seconds till you see the Blue LED blink. Then go outside to allow it to get a GPS lock. You will know when you have a signal, when you see the Red LED blinking along with the Blue one. Most of the time, this only requires a minute or so. Now all you have to do is carry the i-gotU along with you, while snapping pictures with a camera that has the correct time set. I used my cellphone during the review. Since mobile phones typically set the time via the carrier, I didn’t need to worry about that aspect.

When you’re finished for the day, load up the included software on a Windows PC and launch it.

The @Trip software has an easy user friendly interface. Clicking the Import GPS Track button in the upper Left corner will guide you through the steps of retrieving info off the i-gotU module. Click on screenshots for full size images.

You will be prompted to connect the i-gotU to your PC with the included USB cable. Once you do, it will automatically start downloading the info.

You will then be presented with a list of trips. In the screenshot above, I have 3 separate trips for that day as I had powered the i-gotU on and off at the start and end of each trip. The software will automatically select multiple trips for that day. If you want to combine them all together, click Next, otherwise, you can uncheck the trips you don’t want to include.

You then have the option of three different trip styles. More about that in a bit.

The next step is to import the images that you took while the i-gotU was powered on. The images that were taken during the same time that the module powered was on and receiving a GPS signal, will have a G next to them.

After the images are imported, your trip will be shown using Google Maps, complete with start and end points. Depending on the style that you selected, imported images will show up on the sidebar. If you combined multiple trips into one, each leg of the trip will be a different color.

If you picked the sport style, you will see some some cool info such as distance traveled during the trip, max speed, altitude, etc. All three styles allow you to ‘play’ the trip and if you want to share it with your friends, you can upload it to the @Trip website for free.

It’s pretty fun to watch the animated trips. Here are two examples. The images aren’t that great since I snapped them really quickly with my phone. But it gives you an idea of what you could do with this device and your camera.

http://www.a-trip.com/tracks/view/16297 – Sport style trip

http://www.a-trip.com/tracks/view/16202 – Classic style trip

There are two things is one thing that I found missing with this product. It does not have the ability for imported images to automatically map to the last known coordinates for those times when the module did not have a GPS signal. For example, if you are driving to a museum and have the i-gotU on your car’s dash, it will record your trip and the images that you snapped along the way. But, if you take the i-gotU inside a building where it can’t get a signal and you continue to snap pix, the trip won’t include those photos. It would be great if the software would automatically allow you to map images to the last known location. That said, the software will allow you to manually map an image to a specific waypoint. But, it’s not very convenient or straightforward as to which waypoint you should pick.

The other issue is that the software does not add the longitude and latitude coordinates to the image EXIF data. It does add that data to the imported images that make up the trip, so you can view your trip through the web interface and then copy the images back out. But that’s a pretty annoying way to do it. There really needs to be an option to geotag your original images. **Update 04/11/08 This product does add longitude and latitude info to images.

I found this module and software to be much easier to use than the ATP PhotoFinder mini. You don’t have to worry about missing the time zone setting as you only need to set once the first time you import data from the i-gotU module. There’s even a daylight savings time switch. It’s also a lot faster at exporting data than the PhotoFinder.

I didn’t have problems with it keeping a GPS signal even while driving over 60MPH. The images that I took matched up very well with the locations where I snapped them, even if I was driving at the time.

The i-gotU is a fun and relatively inexpensive little gadget to play with if your camera does not already have geotagging features. You can find this USB version and a Bluetooth version at eXpansys. And FYI.. if you want to skip the whole separate module thing and you already own a Symbian, Windows Mobile or a phone that supports Java, you can download the free @Trip software for your phone. It will upload your images to the @Trip website.

How many of you out there use a geotagging phone or camera for your photos?

Filed in categories: Digital Cameras and Gear, GPS, Travel Gear

Tagged: Geotagging, GPS, Photo tagging, Photography

i-gotU USB GPS Travel Logger (GT-120) Review originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on March 19, 2009 at 7:51 pm.

The i-gotU GPS Logger and Receiver is a 2-in-1 device that is compatible with all digital cameras & camera phones. It includes Travel Blog Software that will show you trip routes, Auto-adds photo GPS locations, creates an animated trip journal that brings back live trip memory by plotting the route and playing back the photos / YouTube videos with the exact location on 3D maps.

Filed in categories: Uncategorized

Tagged: Geotagging, GPS, Spotlight Gadgets

Spotlight Gadget – i-gotU GPS Logger originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on January 22, 2009 at 10:38 am.

I have a nifty little gadget for avid photographers that have a less than stellar memory. If you’ve ever looked back at your old photos and wondered where you were when you shot them, the PhotoFinder Mini from ATP will cause you to wonder no more.

These days a lot of the newer cameras and even cellphones have the ability to geotag images. What is geotagging? It’s a method of writing the longitude and latitude coordinates into a JPEG image’s EXIF-data. With this extra bit of information, you will never have to remember where you were when you shot that perfect sunset because the image itself will have that information embedded in it.

A little over a year ago, William Ray reviewed the first version of this product. He had a few complaints with it, so I was curious if this new version would work better for me than the old one did for him.

Specifications

Chipset: SiRF Star III
Channels: 20
Sensitivity (Tracking): -155dBm
Reacquisition: 0.1 sec typical
Maximum Altitude: 18000 m
Maximum Velocity: 514 m/s
Update rate: Continuous operation: 1Hz
GPS Frequency Response: 1575.42 MHz (L1 Band, C/A code)
Operating Time: More than 16hrs
Memory card: 128MB MMC Micro memory card

Package Contents

PhotoFinder mini GPS device
Dock
AC Adapter with plug adapter
User Manual
CD with user manual

The PhotoFinder mini is a small block shaped fob with an attached metal carbiner. It doesn’t have a display, but has three status LEDs and one button on the side that toggles power.

A rubber flap on one end covers (badly) a mini USB connector and an MMC micro memory card slot. I have no clue why ATP decided to go with an MMC micro card instead of the much easier to find microSD card.

The mini USB connector is used to charge the internal batteries and for connecting to the dock.

Three LEDs on the face of the module show the status of power, GPS and memory.

To use this product to geotag your images, all you need to do is to correctly set the time on your camera. It doesn’t have to be set to UTC time, which was required for the original PhotoFinder device.

Then you power on the PhotoFinder mini by pressing the side button. After  a few seconds, it will start trying to acquire a GPS signal. That means that you’ll need to be outside, with a view of the sky. Sorry, this device won’t work inside a building. It should work fine in a car as long as you put it on  the dash and don’t have heavily tinted windows.

Approximately every 10 seconds, the PhotoFinder will check the current GPS coordinates and write a log entry to the MMC micro card. The card can hold approximately 1000 hours of log entries. When you return home, you connect the PhotoFinder mini to the dock.

The dock has a small backlit LCD display and four buttons to navigate menu options.

It uses USB for power and has a cord built right in, that be stored in the bottom.

If you don’t want to use a USB slot on your computer, you can use the included AC adapter to power the dock.

The PhotoFinder connects easily to the dock. Just lift the flap and plug it in.

On the Right side of the dock is a SD/MMC/MS card slot and a CF card slot.

Take the memory card out of your camera and plug it into the appropriate slot.

One surprising thing about the dock is that it can NOT function as a card reader when plugged into  your computer. Although you can use the USB cable to plug it into a free port, it will not be recognized by the OS. It just uses the connection for power. Kind of a bummer…

Once everything is plugged in and connected to power, you can start geotagging your photos. Pressing the mode button will cycle between options for Mapping GPS Data, Self-Test, Format System, and Generate KML Data. I’ll talk about KML data later. At this point you want to select is the Mapping GPS Data option. The dock will then check the PhotoFinder mini’s MMC micro card for log files and will check for an inserted memory card from your camera in the dock.

It will then show you the message shown above. This is a VERY important step. You must set the correct GMT offset for your time zone. This wouldn’t be any big deal except for the fact that this message only stays on the screen for about 10-15 seconds. Once that time has elapsed, the message disappears and it will use default setting of GMT+0. Why is that important? Because this is how the dock will match the images on camera’s memory card with the log files in the PhotoFinder mini. If the times aren’t set correctly, you’ll have images with the wrong GPS longitude and latitude settings added to the EXIF-data. I learned this lesson the hard way… I took the PhotoFinder mini with me on vacation to Florida last October. I thought it would be cool to be able to include some fun images showing the places I visited. But when I came home and did this process, I got distracted and didn’t set the Time Zone setting. As a result, I ended up with .jpgs that had the wrong locations associated with them. (

Assuming that you didn’t screw up like I did, the next step in the mapping process shows the number of files that the dock will try to map GPS data to.

It will then begin the process of writing the EXIF-data into each image on the card that you plugged into the dock. This is a surprisingly slow process. Too slow I would say. I think it took about 15-20 minutes to tag 70 images. Maybe I’m just impatient…

You’ll receive a message telling you how many images were successfully and unsuccessfully tagged. What would cause an image to be unsuccessfully tagged? No log file with a time that also matches the time an image was saved. This can easily happen when the PhotoFinder mini loses its GPS signal acquisition. If you go into a building and take pictures, they won’t be tagged. That’s the nature of this type of product though.

When the tagging operation has completed, you can remove the card and view the EXIF-data.

Click thumbnail to see full size image

I just googled for an OS X EXIF viewer and found a free tool that shows the info that you can see in the image above. That data is all well and good, but unless you’re some kind of GPS savant, seeing longitude and latitude coordinates are not going to mean all that much to you. That’s where Google Earth, Picasa and a service called Locr come in.

Click thumbnail to see full size image

These services will allow you to upload your  photos and view their location on a map.

The PhotoFinder mini dock has another feature that will create KML files from the logs. KML files (Keyhole Markup Language files) are special files that Google Earth and other applications can read to show the path that you’ve traveled with the PhotoFinder mini.

Click thumbnail to see full size image

Hmmmm, looks like I was busy walking all over my property. Pretty cool…

While it isn’t perfect, I think that the PhotoFinder mini has been improved from the previous version that Bill reviewed. I really only have two main complaints about it. The mapping operation and KML file creation processes are too slow and need to be sped up considerably. My only other complaint is that the Time Zone setting part of the process needs to stop and wait for you to enter something instead of timing out. It would be nice if it saved your time zone setting as well. Other than that, the PhotoFinder mini is easy to use and will make your photos remember things that you will never remember on your own.

Right now the PhotoFinder mini is only available in Europe at Amazon.co.uk and soon Expansys.

Filed in categories: Digital Cameras and Gear, GPS, Travel Gear

Tagged: Geotagging, GPS, Photo tagging, Photography

ATP GPS PhotoFinder mini Photo Geotagger Review originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on January 21, 2009 at 9:00 pm.

I got a chance to try out the new Photo Finder from ATP Inc.. When Julie asked me if I would be interested in reviewing a product that geotags photos, I said of course. Now… please tell me what that means…

It turns out that geotagging is the act of embedding GPS location data in the header or EXIF data portion of an image file. Here is sample EXIF data from one of the shots I used in my test of this device.

Note that it includes latitude and longitude information (circled in red). This data was not included in the original jpg file as it came from my camera – it was added later by the ATP Photo Finder. We will discuss this in greater detail shortly.

For more information about Geotagging and Geocoding, check out the following links:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geocoded_photo
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GeoTagging

The Photo Finder is an unassuming device. It is a bit smaller than a typical cell phone with a two line text LCD screen, three LEDs and three buttons.

The device runs on two AAA batteries. It comes with a mini-USB cable, as well as a mini-USB male to full size USB female adapter. The mini-USB cable allows you to connect the Photo Finder to a computer to view the GPS data log files. For a sample log file, view this text file: atp-photo-finder.log.

The mini to full size adapter allows you to connect a card reader to the Photo Finder for geotagging photos on cards other than SD, MMC, or MS – which are supported through integrated slots in the device (theoretically).

The Photo Finder also comes with a carabineer for clipping the device to your belt.

This helps to keep the device properly oriented with the antenna facing straight up.

When you turn on the Photo Finder, the center blue LED begins to flash indicating that it is attempting to find a GPS signal. Just in case you failed to read the manual and are unable to decipher this flashing blue signal, the LCD screen also indicates that it is Searching GPS Signal.

I was never able to get a signal lock indoors, but it did work pretty well hanging from the rear view mirror in the front windshield of my car. When you get a GPS signal lock, the device records the time stamp along with latitude and longitude information in its 128MB of memory (good for as much as 550 hours of log files). Every five minutes it checks location and records another time stamp/location entry in the log file.

In order to make this work, you have to set your camera to UTC time – Coordinated Universal Time as measured at longitude 00 00 00. You obtain this from the Photo Finder when it first obtains a GPS lock. The latitude and longitude data will alternate on the LCD screen with the UTC time. I was not overly thrilled to time stamp my photos for some other time zone, but acquiesced for the purposes of this review.

One of the main issues I have with this device is its tendency to shut down when it does not get a GPS signal for a few minutes. This means that if I step inside for five minutes, the Photo Finder will most likely shut down. If I don’t notice (and that happened several times during testing), I will have no GPS data to apply to my photos.

After I finished shooting several test shots during the course of a weekend following my son around North East Indiana to his various basketball games, I attempted to attach my card reader using the included adapter. My Canon 30D does not use one of the three directly supported card formats (SD, MMC, or MS), but the device is supposed to work through a card reader to geotag other formats.

I never could get this function to work. I tried connecting my card reader first and then powering on the device – both with and without a Compact Flash card inserted. I also tried powering on the Photo Finder followed by plugging in the card reader – both with and without a Compact Flash card inserted. All attempts ended with failure. Either the device simply powered down or it emitted a disturbing squeaky noise.

Pretty disappointing.

Ultimately, I ended up transferring a sample of twenty-four pictures onto an SD card and inserting it into Photo Finder’s integrated slot. This yielded more satisfying results, although still less than perfect. It failed to tag six of the files – probably due to a shut down and failure to log a GPS location within a reasonable time frame in relation to these six pics.

Using Google’s Picasa software, I uploaded my pics to a web album. This part of my testing worked pretty well. The Picasa Web album is a fairly standard interface for sharing photos online, but it adds a map on the left side of the screen with push pins indicating the locations where photos were taken. Here is my Picasa test album: http://picasaweb.google.com/bill.ray/ATPPhotoFinder.

I also used the Google Earth pick on the Tools menu to use Google Earth to view a map with markers for photo locations marked against satellite images. I don’t know how useful this is, but it really looks pretty cool. The following are screen captures from Google Earth:

I did a fair amount of driving over the weekend.

Here is a tagged photo of the front of my gym, Total Fitness of Columbus, Indiana, taken from the parking lot.

Several different shots taken in Wabash, Indiana. The two of the capital building are incorrectly tagged about two blocks away from where they were actually taken. This is probably due to the five minute gap between GPS log entries.

Okay, what do I make of Geotagging? I guess my experience tells me it isn’t quite ready for prime time. I don’t like the way it times out and powers off. I would prefer a button that lets me manually initiate a GPS log entry, rather than depend on the device to take a reading every five minutes. This would conserve batteries and memory space, as I would only need to take a single reading at any given location. Perhaps the device could add a manual mode?

I have three Canon DSLRs that all use Compact Flash media, so I need a device that actually works with more than SD, MMC, and MS media. That could be solved by making the card reader connection work, or by adding more card slots.

At this point, I cannot recommend this device, but I like the concept. I could envision providing my iphotosports.com customers another way to visually index my offerings.

Available Q1 2008

Filed in categories: Digital Cameras and Gear, GPS, Travel Gear

Tagged: Geotagging, GPS, Photo tagging, Photography

ATP Photo Finder originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on December 31, 2007 at 1:18 pm.