Photo Management – Geo Tags update

By Dale Taylor (Intel) (47 posts) on January 21, 2009 at 9:52 am

I purchased the Dawn Technologies GPS Pro for use with my Nikon D300 and have found it to be a great solution for adding Geo-tag information to images. I want to share my experience using the device.

The device comes built with the cable and special 10-pin Nikon plug necessary to attach directly to my camera. This is a great convenience and makes a big difference in usability. It also saves the cost of an additional $70 Nikon cable (MC-35) and any worries about compatibilities. This first image shows it installed in my flash shoe. The second shows the front of the camera and how it plugs into the accessory plug. 

To use the GPS, you need to give it 30-60 seconds the first time you turn it on in a day. Once it’s got a fix internal memory keeps it updated and helps it make a lock in just seconds.

The Nikon D300 supports the GPS directly. There’s a BIOS update (v1.10) for the camera that improves the battery life when using the GPS. This update also adds a GPS info screen to the viewer when looking at your images. The screen image shows the location overlaid on an image in the image viewer.

The GPS has 3 states; On, Auto and Off. It’s powered via the camera battery, the auto power mode turns it on and off with the camera. I prefer to set the D300 GPS Setting “Auto meter off” to OFF. This allows the GPS to remain on anytime the camera is on, even if the meter has shut off.

Manually turning the GPS on and off can cause problems. If you turn the camera On first it won’t detect an EMEA signal and won’t include the GPS data in the images, even after the GPS has a lock. It’s a bit confusing because GPS data can show up in the camera screens but due to what is probably a BIOS shortcoming it won’t write it to the image unless it’s there when you turn the camera On. Auto mode keeps things working without issues.

While having the GPS built into the camera would still be nice, this device has really worked well for me and solved my complaints concerning the difficulty of Geo-Tagging my images… in Auto mode it’s totally automatic and works great! Too bad I didn’t have it last year when I spent 6 weeks in Europe and shot over 9300 outdoor images!!! Oh well, at least I have it for future travels, sounds like a road trip is in order!

In a future Blog I’ll cover how some of the popular applications use this geo-tag information. Here’s a link to an image posted on Flickr to see a sample.
http://flickr.com/photos/familyman5k/3214078691/

Here’s the link to learn more about the di-GPS Pro:
http://www.dawntech.hk/di-GPS/pro_1.htm

Here's the link to the blog where I mentioned my frustrations with geo-tags:

Photo Management Wish List – Geo Tags!

Categories: Cool Software, Mobility, Uncategorized

Comments (5)

January 21, 2009 5:23 PM PST


Dave Stewart		 It seems like a cool product. How much of an impact does it have on the camera's battery life? Do you find yourself running out of juice quicker?

And when you shoot inside, does it just supply the last known GPS coordinates or list the lat/lon as "undefined" ?
January 21, 2009 10:21 PM PST

Dale Taylor (Intel)
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 Dave,

I was previously getting over 1000 images from a single battery. I haven’t had a shoot long enough to go through an entire battery yet but after shooting a few hundred images I haven’t noticed a big difference so my initial guess is it won’t change much, maybe 750 images now. I have made a few changes to my normal operating methods though. I used to carry the camera On when backpacking or exploring a city and carrying it in my hands, but now will be turning it on and off to make sure the GPS is off too. It gets a signal lock so fast; it’s nearly instant after the first lock of the day.

If there’s no GPS lock, the data in that portion of the EXIF header is left empty just as it was when there’s no GPS attached at all. Thus, no lock is the same as no GPS. If you look at the first image in the Blog, just above the digit 4 in the top right screen you can see a small GPS symbol. If this symbol is there then the camera will be using the GPS data. All of these images were taken last night in my home on the counter and as you can see it had no problem with a lock in a home. One of the GPS data bits includes the number of Satellites in use at the moment a shot is taken. For that Diner shot as posted to Flickr it was 10. I was impressed to have my camera getting a lock on 10 satellites in a mountain valley.
February 9, 2009 9:58 AM PST


zero Fernandes		 Although the images generated by digital cameras is compatible with EXIF. The vast majority of users, not started, do not know what that means.
Still, considering that you can use geo tags for your location, the thing is even more obscure.
Fortunately for us, that knows what this is, are appearing on the market, a lot of machines that already incorporate - in manufacturing - the GPS equipment.
Currently, I use the Sony GPS-CSK1A device, associated with a Cyber-shot, also from Sony to introduce geo tags on my photos.
As PHP has the ability to read the EXIF tags, I use it, then, to publish my photos on a Google map.
I have an example of this in: http://www.geoticks.com/pt/gr/exif/
February 9, 2009 7:03 PM PST


SBLsoftware		 Is a pretty good thing

Regards
SBL Software
February 11, 2009 4:13 AM PST

zerof
Total Points:
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Registered User
 I like very much the devices with GPS that allow to embed geotags into EXIF.
Fortunately, already seeing cameras that have GPS originally from factory.
Personally, I use the GPS CSK1A device attached to a Cyber-shot camera.
Currently, I am buying a NIKON Coolpix 6000, exempting the use of external devices.
EXIF can be a very important tool, at least for those who know at least what represents.
The server language, PHP, has a set of functions that allows the reading and processing EXIF code. Based on it, I created a test application, designed to display photos on a Google map.
This application can be seen in:

http://www.geoticks.com/pt/gr/exif/

The geotags, were embedded in the EXIF code of these photos with the CSK1A device.

ex-corde,
zerof

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