Ask Engadget: Best geotagging camera or solution?
By Darren Murph 
posted December 10th 2009 11:31PM
posted December 10th 2009 11:31PM
Short and sweet, precisely how we like it. We're also expanding the question to include geotagging accessories, being that it may actually be best to snag a well-respected standalone camera and then add something like the PhotoTrackr Mini -- besides, this will ensure that you can upgrade cameras whenever you darn well please without losing the geotagging abilities. Shout out your recommendations in comments below!"I am looking for the best geotagging camera currently available. The most important feature for me is the accuracy of the GPS module, so any hard specs on satellite receiver would be really useful. Thanks for your time!"
my iphone 3gs has worked pretty well so far...
and it uploads to the web right away...
@PyRo1509
Only problem is that your iPhone 3GS actually takes crappy pictures. The geotagging and uploading features don't help there.
If you want to use your phone as a geotagging camera, buy something like the Sony Ericsson Satio, which takes at least useable pictures.
But other phones, such as the HTC HD2, Samsung i8000, Somsung i8910 also take much better pictures than an iPhone and have the geotagging and uploading features.
However, I would not recommend a phone as your primary camera.
@PyRo1509
Crappy pictures and crappy GPS accuracy.
Crappy advice.
If Image quality is the main thing, get a Nikon DSLR with a GPS add on. If accuracy is the main issue, get a dedicated GPS receiver and use whatever camera you want, then sync the pictures up with the times on the GPS logger.
@(Unverified) Long on abuse, short on content. OP wanted specific advice, not generic.
If you are serious about getting photos, look at the Ricoh 500SE or the Nikon CoolPix. Both of these cameras have GPS built in. You can also get the GP-1 nikon GPS module which works with many of the nicer Nikon cameras. You will need software to map the photos, check out gps-photo link. Their website also has lots of good photo mapping information.
Camera phones are the easiest solution because many of us already have GPS and camera capabilities in our phones. I can automatically geotag photos with my samsung memoir which takes 8mp photos. Many of the high end Nokias and new blackberries have this as well. However, I have found the reliability to be poor. There is an explanation for this related to whether the phone uses GPS or A-GPS and if it is A-GPS if it has the option of falling back to standalone or autonomous GPS. But good luck finding anyone at iphone, blackberry, samsung or Nokia who actually knows these types of details about how specific phones work. I can just tell you that the percentage of photos that actually get geotagged with the Memoir is about 25%.
The PhotoTrackr Mini is garbage. Bought one after seeing it here, has issues with Windows 7, and is nowhere near as easy to use as my old Sony GPS-CS1. Instead of showing up as a removable drive with log files, the Mini installs a Serial-to-USB driver on your machine, and downloads the data pretty much the same way as your old 9600 baud modem from 1992 does.
Even worse, the company is completely unreachable.
@(Unverified)
sorry, can you elaborate more? i was interested in this too and have been looking around for reviews. I also have Win 7
I was under the impression that it has a program that will do everything you need it to without having to deal with anything other than telling it where you pictures are after you take them off your camera, and plugging it in your usb drive
Thanks!
Havent found anything decent that will do it, my android phone probably could but the camera quality is so terrible its better off to not even use the camera
@Hydra Hear ye! Hear ye!
@Hydra
MyTracks for Android allows you to record your path and then export the .kml file to be synced with your photos.
Please. Can you compile the answers? Like, tomorrow. Take an example from Lifehacker's top ten lists.
I was surprised at how few point and shoot cameras with geotagging built in are out there. My Blackberry supposedly does geotagging but I've never gotten it to work with iPhoto.
So I just got the Samsung CL65 and it's pretty sweet. Going on a vacation next week and will see how it does. The camera has WiFi, GPS/Geotagging, Bluetooth... Very geek...
http://www.samsung.com/us/consumer/photography/digital-cameras/compact/EC-CL65ZZBPBUS/index.idx?pagetype=prd_detail
@randomjackass
Just wondering what your review of camera after your trip?? Researching this for my boss.
I've only used one which is an Amod AGL 3080. It is a bit bulky, but inexpensive, uses ordinary AAA batteries, and shows up as a standard USB drive so it doesn't need any drivers (and should work with any OS.) Then I use Microsoft Pro Photo Tools 2 to tag my photos, which seems to read the GPS log files just fine.
I was surprised at how few point and shoot cameras with geotagging built in are out there. My Blackberry supposedly does geotagging but I've never gotten it to work with iPhoto.
I just got the Samsung CL65 and it's pretty sweet. Going on a vacation next week and will see how it does. The camera has WiFi, GPS/Geotagging, Bluetooth... Very geek!
@randomjackass
Just wondering your opinion on it now after your trip... I'm researching this for my boss... so any feed back would be greatly appreciated!
Eye-Fi? I am still unclear as to how it works, but I understand that it does geotagging, although those details seem to be sketchy at best.
@Jeff It uses SkyHook, not GPS. It's only useful in areas where there are wifis around.
@Jeff
Right, so its great for city use, just not anywhere else? I read somewhere that it just locates wifi networks and doesn't need to connect to geotag. Does that sound right?
@Jeff
Eye-Fi uses a technology called WPS (WiFi Positioning System) and works only in areas where WiFi access points are available.
@Jeff The EyeFi geotagging is marginal, at best. As other indicate, it uses a database of wireless IP addresses and cell phone towers (in some places) to triangulate your location. If you are in a place with mapped wireless nodes - that's great. But you aren't going to find WiFi networks in the wilderness or in many rural areas.
I had a problem when I visited my brother - the EyeFi used the IP address of his wireless network to get his location, but didn't update the SkyNet database and kept listing his former address.
Then there is the write speed. My first generation EyeFi explorer (2Gb) card was a dog when writing to the card after photographing. I thought it was the wireless function, but when I turned off internet transfers there was no change.
@umijin
Ok, thanks!
I've had pretty good luck with the ATP Photo Finder Mini (the one with the base station) I don't really use the base anymore, but it came in handy a couple of times. Now, I just use Geosetter (freeware) to tag my photos via a computer, I geotag all the photos when I travel, but I rarely use it at home.
I just use my iPhone and PlaceSnap
Wait a few months for an iPod Touch with (Hopefully) GPS and a Camera.
@Apple Fan It's not going to happen, sorry
@Apple Fan Camera maybe, gps probably not.
How about the Nokia N86? It has a good 8-megapixel camera and a decent GPS module (with A-GPS functionality).
@(Unverified)
Agree , actually all modern N Series Devices have fantastic cameras with geo-tagging built in and it works brilliantly.
IDK where to ask this, but can someone reccomend a wireless keyboard and mouse that has a range of 15-20 feet? Doesn't need to have ANY multimedia features, I just need something that is cheap but works.
I have a nikon DSLR and got the di-gps pro from Dawntech. They many gps devices for many Nikon and Canon dSLRs. They work great and after you take photos it embeds your location into the metadata of the picture. This is a much better solution then using a separate gps device. (www.dawntech.hk)
Nikon also makes a gps for their cameras (nikon gps-1). Of the two, the di-gps connects night and day faster. Even though the company is located in Hong Kong, They are great to work with. I have ordered 2 items from them, and both times the price included overnight international shipping. A welcome surprise.
I also used to have a Nikon Coolpix P6000. It took nice photos although it took a fair amount of time to get a satellite lock. Once it did, it worked fine. After using the dSLR with the the di-gps, I would never go back to the P6000.
I recently found one that appears to be much better than the Nikon GP-1, on the paper at least.
http://dptnt.com/2009/12/easytagger-geotagging-gps-unit-for-nikon-dslr-cameras/
The company website:
http://www.e-geotag.com/products.aspx
Max
@picmax That looks real interesting. The benefits over the Nikon 1st party geotagger seem to be:
* Built In Battery - so it won't run down your camera's battery until the GPS unit's battery runs out
* Better GPS Chipset
* Built In SD Card - To log your GPS tracks, even when you're not taking photos
* Magnetic Sensor - Records which direction your camera is pointing when it takes a photo
Sounds really great, has anyone bought this?
@dgtlman So, which Dawntech units do you have? Do you have the Mini? I'm curious if these write directly to the exif data when you shoot, or if you have to synk it during importation of the photos.
And did you also get their separate software package?
@picmax
Wow, that looks awesome. Hopefully they make one for Canon next!
I have been looking for a solution to this for a while now. Unfortunately, the only on-camera GPS solutions that appear worthwhile are for DSLRs. While that is great, that is not usually the time when I need GPS tagging. I need GPS tagging when I am hiking or biking with a point and shoot camera. The problem is that from the second you turn on the camera, you need to be able to take a shot. If the gps takes even 10 seconds to lock then it is useless. From what I hear, most of them take as much as a minute. This is unacceptable as a solution, so I think an external GPS logger has to suffice. Besides, that allows you to actually choose a cam based on image quality, not on how many bells and whistles it has such as the Samsung CL65.
For Nikon DSLR users, there is a new product that looks very promising. For about the same price as the Nikon GP-1, you get the direct tagging via camera and it can also be used as a GPS logger.
http://dptnt.com/2009/12/easytagger-geotagging-gps-unit-for-nikon-dslr-cameras/
Max
Someone else mentioned it but the Amod AGL3080 is probably your best bet, its platform independent and you can go ahead and keep using whatever camera you have. It logs your location and then you use a computer later to match your photos to the logged location based on the time in the exif info, so you have to make sure to set the time on your camera correctly.
Even though Nokia N900 has some shortcomings in using it as a "phone" - especially when driving, it has by far the coolest and smoothly working geotagging solution. In addition it allows the user to create own tags (family / friends / etc.) which are easy to add to pictures afterwards. I was surprised to note that even Windows 7 showed the tags in the default file manager view.
Check out my iPhone app GeoLogTag. It turns your iPhone into a GPS data logger and geotags your photos too (Mac, Flickr). As a bonus the exported GPX file can be used with any popular tracking or geotagging application (Windows, Mac).
Compatible with all Point & Shoot and DSLR cameras.
App Store: http://www.itunes.com/apps/geologtag
Website: http://www.galarina.eu/GeoLogTag/Home.html
go out and buy a good smartphone, done.
@ImDaIllest
with GPS constantly on, the battery doesnt long many hours on smartphones
For me I use Geotag log on my iPhone 3GS. It has some cool features that allow it to continue logging all day without draining the battery and it leaves my camera hotshoe free for a flash gun.
When you are finished logging, for up to 30 days after records began, it will email a GPX file with all the logging. Next you merge the photos EXIF data with the GPX data using a freeware program like flikr or googlemaps.
The software looks at the photo's created timestamp and compares it to the nearest GPS timestamp.
With Geotag logging set to record every 10 minutes, you can use the logger all day and get your GPS data to the nearest few metres. It's about £2.
@Joylove
Thank you for mentioning my GeoLogTag app.
Your description is pretty accurate except that GeoLogTag keeps locations for 90 days instead of 30 days.
@Chris from Galarina Hey, no prblem, I'm impressed with the application. I used it on a holiday and it was nice to get home and have one GPX from the whole trip.
While I have you here, could you explain if the GeoTagLog continues to log if you press the iPhone screen lock button?
It wasn't that clear to me on the iTunes store details.
@Joylove
I assume with "screen lock button" you mean the button at the top right. The iPhone will automatically turn off it's GPS receiver when you use that button which is not a good idea when you are tracking locations. GeoLogTag uses the iPhone's proximity sensor to blank out the screen when you put it in your pocket or bag.
I also have a FAQ page explaining all this:
http://www.galarina.eu/GeoLogTag/FAQ_sleep_wake_button.html
I love my AMOD AGL3080. It's $60. You put three AAA batteries in it and clip it to your bag or put it in your pocket. I writes your GPS coordinates every 10 seconds to the onboard flash. It takes about 30 hours to run down the batteries and the flash memory will take like 1,000 hours to get full. When you get back to a computer use the program they give you to write the GPS coordinates to the exif data of the jpg. I used mine in Tibet to tag all my photos because I knew that if I didn't I'd never know where they were taken
www.picasaweb.com/cekonrad/tibetnepal09
and I'm totally happy with how it worked out. Check out the pics on Picasa and click the "View on Map" link on the right side to see them spread out on a map. Cool! c
I use an old handheld Garmin in my pocket and GPSPhotoLinker afterwards. I would love something more 'automatic' but I would worry about bulk and battery usage.
I have had two "Jelbert GeoTagger" setups for a couple years now.
Its big claim to fame is accuracy, plus, it will mark the DIRECTION you were pointing the camera. To my knowledge its the only device that can do that.
Its a little more expensive than other setups but the results are flawless if you need to do a lot of professional geo tagging, this is the way to go. (if your needs are more casual, then there are about 100 products out there)
But seriously kids, this setup combined with robogeo.com software can't be beat.
geotagger.co.uk is the place to get the geotaggger.
Personally I haven't used it, but the Eyefi Geo SD card has great reviews (most are 9/10 and up)
http://www.eye.fi/products/geo
The downside is it's only 2GB, but it doesn't hang outside of your camera either. So you can get any camera that takes an SD card(most do, except Sony... And a few others) and this eyefi card. That's my idea. Hope you find what you need.