Geotagging Options

[Seight_Returns]

I'd like to start geotagging all my photos and would be grateful for opinions of how best to do this.

I have an excessive number of cameras - current line up is:

Canon 7D - my "serious" camera
Canon EOS-M - travel "serious" camera
Canon s100 - always with me camera
2 x Canon 400D - nominally my daughters' cameras but I sometimes borrow one when I want a DSLR but don't want the bulk and weight of the 7D
Kodak Easyshare Waterproof - beach, snorkelling and stuff
IPhone 5

I still use iPhoto on a Mac to edit/catalogue/organise but keep meaning to move to something more serious - undecided between Lightroom, Apperture or DXO.

The s100 has built in GPS and geotagging but irritatingly only puts position in the exif when it has a fix rather than last known position - and can sometimes takes a few minutes from power up to get a fix - which limits its value.

Canon sell an external GPS receiver (GP-E2) which will work with my eos-m and with limited functionality with my 7D - but is 200 quid or so which seems a lot for what it does.

I have a couple of eye-if cards which I use with all the cameras (using a SD to CF adapter for 7D and 400D) to sync photos to my phone whilst I'm out and about. The native eye-fi functionality at embedded position information from wireless hotspots was pretty useless and has been discontinued. More interestingly the eye-if Android app now has a function to use the phone as a position logger and syncs position data to photos on upload which seems like exactly what I need - but the iOS app doesn't support this - my phone is getting a bit old and I'm getting disillusioned with Apple anyway - so changing my phone to a Samsung and buying eye-if cards for all the cameras seems like an option.

I know some people carry standalone GPS dataloggers and sync the position files when they upload to Lightroom - but don't know how well this works in practice.

I suspect there may well be other phone apps for iOS and/or Android that do what I want but not aware of any.

Grateful for opinions and advice from anyone who does what I'm looking to do.

Edited by Seight_Returns on Friday 30th October 09:10

Edited by Seight_Returns on Friday 30th October 09:14

[LongQ]

Can't help with the GPS stuff but thought it worth mentioning that Apple Aperture software is now discontinued. So one future option off the list.

[DIW35]

I have a handheld GPS that I used to use for Geocaching which I used to use to add GPS data to my photos. Just had to make sure the time on the GPS and camera were close and used a piece of free software called Geosync to put the info on the images.

Parameters in Geosync allowed you to specify how closely matched the time needed to be for the data to be added to the image file, but it worked quite well.

[Colin RedGriff]

I do it in Lightroom. There's a map module so you can search for the location and zoom in and add the location to the selected photos

[_rubinho_]

I use an app for Android called gps4cam. At the when you begin shooting you start a "trip" in the app, when you finish the trip it generates a QR code image on the phone screen which you take a photo of. When you download the camera you point a PC app to the directory it has downloaded into, it recognises the photo of the QR code and then uses the data in that to synchronise the camera and phone clocks to enable the photos to be geotagged accurately.

According to the website it also supports iPhone and has Dropbox and Lightroom integration now.

The app cost £1.99 from the Android Play store. I found it simple and intuitive.

Some trips where I forgot to use it or my phone battery was low so I couldn't, I used the Lightroom drag onto the map approach which gets things pretty close too.

[A900ss]

Agree with the above.

I use GPS4CAM on my phone and then have the desktop version on my MAC. It works great and only costs a few quid. Very little impact on the phone battery as well if set in normal mode.

I geo tag before I edit the RAW images in DXO Optics Pro 10 (which is excellent by the way).

Good luck.

[markmullen]

I have the same situation, several camera systems over different formats. What works for me, and has for the past 5 years, is a standalone GPS logger clipped onto my bag and Houdah software on the Mac. It works a treat.

[Craikeybaby]

I use an app called GPX Logger on my iPhone to log a GPS track, then I can upload that to the Lightroom Map module to sync with the photos I've taken. As long as the times on the camera and iPhone are in sync they match up automatically.