Filed under: Macworld, Accessories, iLife, Multimedia, Peripherals
Hardware that supports iPhoto '09's geotagging
I spent yesterday afternoon like many of you: Hunched over my keyboard in a posture-defying mound, my eyes locked on 1440 x 900 pixels of real-time information and fingers tapping keys like so many coked-up woodpeckers. A Mountain Dew and Cinnabun stood at the ready, should I need refueling. I was a gold-encrusted invitation to hypertension if you ever saw one.As Phil Schiller gave his demonstration of iPhoto '09, with its face recognition, fancy travel books, themes and "Places" feature, I was most impressed by the geotagging.
I don't have single piece of hardware that can do this.
It's what I call a Mario Batali Moment. I'm a real Mario fan, but every time I watch his show, I get a little depressed. As Mario sits down to a small family table in Umbria, olive trees and screeching cicadas in the background, I think, "There's another incredible Italian salami I'll never get to try."
A brief Google search turned up good news. I didn't have to spend several hundred dollars on a GPS-aware camera. Here are several devices that will get the job done without breaking the bank.
- The Wolverine GEO connects to several Nikon and Fuji DSLR's and embeds GPS coordinates in an image's metadata (EXIF) during exposure. Just click and you're done. The Wolverine GEO costs $149.99US.
- The GiSTEQ PhotoTrackr is a small GPS device that you carry around as you shoot photos. As you take pictures, you camera records the time. The PhotoTrackr also records the time and the GPS location. The included software merges the two. Small, tidy and $129US (the "lite" version is $99US).
- Similarly, the Amod AGL3080 GPS Data Logger connects to your Mac via USB port, allowing you to grab the recorded log in standard NMEA format. Mac-compatible software is included. The AGL3080 will run you about $70US.
iPhoto geotagging needn't be your forbidden salami.
Update: Our readers continue to offer additional suggestions. Keep them coming, folks! Here are a few from the comments.
- David notes that "...the GISTEQ product does NOT support geotagging of RAW images," so keep that in mind. His solution: "I ended up using the iTU4l.pl perl scripts from http://www.schimmelnetz.de/projekte/iTU4l/ and HoudahGeo ($30US)."
- jadam points out another solution: "If you have a standalone GPS that supports track logging, turn tracking on and bring it along with you on your next photo shoot. Then once you are finished, use the free GPSPhotoLinker (Free) to geotag your photos."
- Tim suggests the SD GPS Data Logger ($125).
- John Fischetti and a couple of others suggested the Eye-Fi Explore Wireless card ($99US).
- John suggested the Jobo photoGPS (couldn't find a price for some unknown, frustrating reason), which mounts on your camera's hotshoe.
![TUAW [Cafepress]](http://www.blogsmithmedia.com/www.tuaw.com/media/tuaw-cafepress-promo.png)
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)
Le Big Mac said 1:21PM on 1-07-2009
Great post! I was looking around for such items as well. How about a playtest or reviews of these? My quick search suggested a lot of the GPS dataloggers didn't play nice with Macs.
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david said 10:27AM on 1-25-2009
this camera should work well:
http://www.general-imaging.com/us/E1050tw.html
it's only one device and it doesn't look ulgy
Bruce said 1:29PM on 1-07-2009
I've been geotagging phtoos for a while and the AMOD data logger is great. It saves NMEA data as a *.log text file. Plugging the unit into a USB port makes it appear as a drive. Drag and drop the log file to your Mac. Convert to GPX format with GPSBabel. Then take this file, and tag your images with GPSPhotoLinker
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Übermind said 7:41PM on 1-19-2009
Hey all,
I just wanted to chime in on your discussion about geotagging your images...
We are testing Maperture Pro BETA currently which allows you to visually geotag your images, import tracklog data from a GPS device, reverse geocode location information, save location bookmarks, copy & paste location information as well as several others. If you are interested in testing it out and providing feedback...
Go to http://www.ubermind.com/beta, take it for a spin, and tell us what you think.
Thanks!
david said 1:30PM on 1-07-2009
FYI, the GISTEQ product does NOT support geotagging of RAW images. you also have to deal with some pretty awful software to get the data off the device and tag your photos. I ended up using the iTU4l.pl perl scripts from http://www.schimmelnetz.de/projekte/iTU4l/ and HoudahGeo to tag the images off my Nikon D70.
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CL said 4:35PM on 1-07-2009
I have the GISTEQ unit (the exact unit in picture). While the official software is hopeless, I use the script that you mentioned to pull the .gpx file off then I use GPSPhotoLink (http://www.earlyinnovations.com/gpsphotolinker/) to attach the .gpx file to my photos. I've done it with the Canon .CR2 raw files and it worked perfectly, although you still can't flash or change the settings on the GISTEQ unit with this method. The latest GISTEQ software supposed be able to work on a Mac again, but frankly I didn't even bother to try it.
Aelver said 10:51AM on 1-08-2009
Yeah, HoudahGeo is definitely the easiest way also if you have a standard GPS. Just turn on tracking and sync your camera clock.
iHarley said 1:31PM on 1-07-2009
Wow, I'm glad I wasn't the only one who realized that. I just bought an SX10 is and was kicking myself for not seeing if GPS tagging was one of its many features. Sadly it's not one of its features. But, are there cameras with this feature? Maybe Apple (or someone) should have a list of cameras with built in GPS tagging, or is the iPhone the only one they're interested in?
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jadam said 1:31PM on 1-07-2009
If you have a standalone GPS that supports track logging, turn tracking on and bring it along with you on your next photo shoot. Then once you are finished, use the free GPSPhotoLinker (http://www.earlyinnovations.com/gpsphotolinker/) to geotag your photos.
I've used it a few times before and it works great! Maybe not as simple as buying a hardware GPS for your camera, but if you already have the GPS and the camera, you can't beat the price.
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THJ said 1:41PM on 1-07-2009
Wow, what a great site. Everything from 'what do I buy/what works with macs' to free automatic geotagging.
Thanks for the link!
tim said 1:34PM on 1-07-2009
cheaper, more memory, and better GPS resolution (ie- location is recorded 5 times a second!)... I have two of these; throw one in my pack when out hiking and forget about it... dump the tracks using a card reader when I get home and use GPSPhotolinker for the final hook-up. Easy!
http://www.ohararp.com/products.html
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THJ said 1:35PM on 1-07-2009
Any word on if eye-fi SD cards will work?
http://www.eye.fi/
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gorfgorf said 1:56PM on 1-07-2009
It should, as long as you use the newer ones that include geotagging. It won't be perfect though, especially if you're nowhere near a wifi network since it uses SkyHook (or something like it) instead of GPS.
Tim said 4:30PM on 1-07-2009
If it doesn't work yet, I imagine the Eye-Fi people will make it work. This could very well be their killer app. Plus, I imagine they might be able to talk Apple into letting it download "real GPS" info from the iPhone 3G via Wifi for places without hotspots indexed by Skyhook. Both companies win, as Eye-Fi sells their device to more Mac users, and people use and show off iLife 09, which gets their friends interested in iLife and OSX in general.
bigdilvey said 1:42PM on 1-07-2009
Someone should write an iPhone app that would merge the gps data from your iphone with the pictures you've taken on your regular camera. Who needs another hardware solution when people with an iPhone already have the extra hardware? Any programmers out there willing to take it up?
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khirbat said 1:51PM on 1-07-2009
That's exactly what I was thinking. I wouldn't be too surprised if there already was an app that did this.
ambimb said 5:32PM on 1-07-2009
An app called "iMarkMySpot" claims it does exactly this. You take a pic w/your regular digicam, then fire up this app on your iPhone and tell it to mark this spot. You then email yourself the record and somehow match the data to your photos by timestamp or something. I've downloaded it but haven't tried it. I don't really understand how you apply its data to your pics...
theseep said 8:49PM on 1-07-2009
You're spot on. Why should we pay $70-$150 for another gadget to forget/run out of batteries/lug along when there's the perfectly good iPhone with GPS in our pocket anyway? Someone just needs to come up with the right interface to record when/where shots are taken and the appropriate export file to sync with iPhoto. I'd pay $5 for that app - any takers?
dcist said 1:47PM on 1-07-2009
The GisTeq Phototraker series does not support the mac platform in any stable form yet, despite their advertisement and web site claims. Check the forums on GisTeq's site:
No Mac firmware flasher (need latest firmware to enable the flakey software support)
Once you have the latest firmware, the actual ability to download tracks and logs is hit or miss. I have yet to be able to pull logs or tracks of it using their "updated" mac software. I have bricked my device a few times using it though, and had to use BootCamp to reload the latest firmware to get it functional again.
The PC software doesn't work with the hardware under Parallels 3.X.
a bluetooth GPS logger is a great idea, but GisTeq has not yet produced solid software support for the Mac platform.
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amradelamin said 1:48PM on 1-07-2009
This was an informative post but we're also forgetting that you can geotag photos in iPhoto '09 AFTER they've been shot. Those using old-school digital cameras can get in on the action too. So while not as cool or automated as having built-in GPS into your camera, you can nevertheless achieve the goal of all of this, which as you stated is:
"...iPhoto recognizes where a given photo was taken, and places it on a Google map. If the photos in an event span several locations, it notices that, also. The built-in maps are very attractive and handy, as you can search your entire library by geographic location."
Again, thanks for the informative post! :)
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