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PlaceTagger answers the 'where was this picture taken?' question

by Mel Martin May 12th 2009 at 2:30PM

I have a Canon 5D DSLR. It's a great camera, but one of the things I wished it had was an on-board GPS receiver to keep track of where my photos were taken. That would be especially nice since iPhoto and some other apps support reading location metadata embedded in the image.

I've looked at some of the outboard units, like the Amod GPS Logger, but didn't really want to shell out the cash or carry an extra device. Of course, you can take geotagged photos with the built in camera on the iPhone, but they aren't going to match a dedicated high quality DSLR.

Now there is a nice, fairly low cost solution that uses the iPhone you are probably already carrying. PlaceTagger [App Store link] keeps track of where you are from minute to minute, recording your latitude, longitude and altitude. When you unload your camera, an app running on your Mac finds your iPhone using Wi-Fi, and matches the time on the logger software to the time your images were taken. It then embeds the info into the image metadata.

It may sound confusing, but it is pretty simple. When the Mac app launches, it asks you to locate your images, and make sure your iPhone has been found. Your images show up as thumbnails, and when you are ready the software associates the GPS location to each file. The files then display a map of where the image was taken, as well as the specific numerical lat, long and altitude info. When I looked at the information in iPhoto, I saw the above data as well as the city, county, state and country I was in. Cool.

The app is on sale at an introductory price of $7.99US and that is a bargain compared to the outboard electronics packages you could buy. The developer is also doing a Windows version of the app for those that don't have a Mac. The Mac version requires Leopard, and of course an iPhone with GPS capability. Older iPhones will work, but the location won't be as accurate.

The software also includes an Aperture plug-in, and can export the data as XML via email. Of course, this app won't work in the background in the current iPhone software, so if you get a call or have to do something else you'll have to restart the software and get a fresh GPS fix.

All in all, these are a pair of clever applications. They worked as expected, and I liked the ability to see the photos I took with a displayed map and numerical location information all on my Mac.

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I have a Canon 5D DSLR. It's a great camera, but one of the things I wished it had was an on-board GPS receiver to keep track of where my...
 

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Michael

If you jailbreak your iPhone, turn off auto-lock, and run backgrounder, will this app continue to work?

Will it tag photos taken in RAW? Or only shots in JPG? If it does do RAW, will it handle the Canon XSi format for RAW?

And do we have an ETA on the Windows version of software?

May 14 2009 at 4:25 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
1 reply to Michael's comment
eugene

If you jailbreak it, you can use the excellent free xGPS (http://xgps.xwaves.net/) to record the tracks. I haven't tested it with Backgrounder yet, but it works greak with "Keep Awake" toggle for SBSettings. In that mode you can lock your screen, and the frequency of recorded points drops to one every few minutes - which is more than enough for geotagging plus it conserves battery power.

May 14 2009 at 2:31 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
massimo.berta

It's interesting... but... as pointed out by other commenters is not as effective as a dedicated GPS data logger.

I bought the AMOD AGL3080 (70$ on semsons) that run for over 16 hours with 3 AAA batteries!

In plus, you can geotag even WEEKS without need to donwload the logs.

I mean... this app can be usefull for casual geotagging... but... if (like me this summer) you go overseas and trip for 12 days... fight with iPhone battery life (and not use it as phone... because of the multitasking) is not as good ad it seems.

My suggestion is that if you NEED a GPS data logger, this app won't solve all your needs

IMHO!

May 14 2009 at 4:17 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Herm

Although I don't doubt that PlaceTagger does a good job, I prefer the iPhone app GeoLogTag. It serves the same purpose as PlaceTagger, but without the separate app that you have to install on your Mac to make PlaceTagger work.

My geotagging workflow is very simple:
1. GeoLogTag tracks my location while shooting with my Nikon DSLR
2. GeoLogTag geotags my photos in a Mac shared folder over WiFi
3. I import the geotagged photos in iPhoto and they show up in Places

All this for $4.99!

http://www.galarina.eu/GeoLogTag/Home.html

May 14 2009 at 2:57 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
jmello

Does the mac side of this app play well with iPhoto?
Ideally, it would scan my Last Import folder in iPhoto for matching pictures, and if that fails, let me select an album or event to tag.
Double bonus points if it's all automated, so I'd just have to run a menu bar app, tell the iPhone app to sync, then let it do it's magic for a few minutes. My photo import workflow is already way too long as it is, between importing with iPhoto, sorting out the bad shots, cleaning up the good ones, cropping those, then throwing it all into RapidWeaver to update my website.

May 14 2009 at 12:05 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Todd

Arg - damn you 1password (moderators please remove comment 16, I posted it by mistake)

This looks interesting, as I've never been plussed by the dorky gps hardware add-ons for DSLRs, though I suspect the one I own now is the last that won't have GPS built in.

One question I have is whether the screen can be locked against accidental input so I can drop it in my pocket while it retains a fix on coordinates? I noticed that the screen is turned off, but does this make it pocket-safe? Thanks in advance, amro for being so responsive here. This sounds like a great desktop/mobile combo.

May 13 2009 at 11:28 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
1 reply to Todd's comment
amro

@Todd - My pleasure. Yep, as long as the screen is off, input is ignored. If you happen to put it in a shirt pocket and _somehow_ the proximity sensor is not triggered, then it's possible for there to be accidental input. This is very unlikely though.

May 13 2009 at 11:46 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Todd

I totally agree. AppleTV has so much of what a good game platform needs: mac-like processing power, built in hard-drive, wifi, hd output and a tie-in to an online store. And it doesn't have to compete with video playing hardware, since it already does that well. I do think the iphone/ipod touch as the primary controller doesn't fly very well, but as an ad-hoc guest controller there is potential.

May 13 2009 at 11:24 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Ed Husar

If you are a flickr user then your best options is an app called PhotoLocatr. This app rocks. You run the app while you are out on your photo shoot. You can start and stop it as you like so it doesn't need to keep running while you are not shooting. The cool think I really like about this app is that it geotags your photos AFTER you upload them to flickr. No additional software is needed. Just upload to flickr and then click a button (Tag Photos) and the app goes to your flickr account and tags based on the timestamp. Works like a charm for me!

May 13 2009 at 9:59 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
umijin

I was just thinking that such an app would be a great tool, wondered if I could get someone to code it. It could also work using the WiFi triangulation available for the EyeFi Explorer or in Google Earth for iPhone on non-GPS iPod Touches.

Almost makes me want an iPhone now...

May 12 2009 at 11:51 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
LifeSux

question for the placetagger dude- let's say I take some pictures with the app running. And then I take some more with it off. Will it use the last known location, or will it just not tag the ones where the iphone isn't running?

May 12 2009 at 11:26 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
1 reply to LifeSux's comment
amro

@ak - That depends on how long after you shut off PlaceTagger you take the additional picture(s). There's a 15 minute grace period (our reasoning is if you've traveled > 15 minutes then you're probably at a significantly different location.

Sorry for the double post -- the threading made it such that you might not notice my response.

May 13 2009 at 10:00 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Tristan

@ Justin: If your iPhone is in Aeroplane mode, will this still work? - I ask because if I am overseas using this software, I don't want to have to use internet (roaming charges) just to use this program, If it doesn't require internet, you've got yourself a sale!

May 12 2009 at 10:44 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
2 replies to Tristan's comment
amro

@Tristan - PlaceTagger cannot work with AirPlane Mode enabled since it disabled GPS. Having said that, you CAN turn off data roaming and 3G on your iPhone since PlaceTagger will work without an internet connection. The only drawback is maps will not be displayed, but this is inconsequential. :)

@ak - That depends on how long after you shut off PlaceTagger you take the additional picture(s). There's a 15 minute grace period (our reasoning is if you've traveled > 15 minutes then you're probably at a significantly different location.

May 13 2009 at 9:58 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Tristan

Thanks for that! Forgot about aeroplane mode disabling ALL wireless (long day)...

Purchasing the app as we speak!

May 13 2009 at 9:44 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
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