GPS / digital photo utility?

[Michael J]

BTW, the software package I use for my everyday job cost me ?12,000+vat for a single user, plus an annual update fee of ?2k ! - but the single disc did arrive in a nice box

You have to love those vertical markets. I was an AutoCAD user - thankfully, my company picked up the tab for that. Not nearly as expensive as what you're using, but bad enough.

[tim]

Michael, I'd be interested in your Holux thingy. Any chance you could bring it over with you?

[Michael J]

Michael, I'd be interested in your Holux thingy. Any chance you could bring it over with you?

It depends on how well my short-term memory is working - but I've put it on the list of things to pack.

[tim]

Thanks. It's obviously not a matter of life or death

[Ballast]

QSTARZ Platinum tagger
If anyone is still interested - I don?t know if the thread is still alive, but I thought I would attach an example of the file created by the geotagger we use. ? I did attach a link to a video but it was quite long-winded and so maybe you didn?t bother. Or maybe you just weren't interested

This gadget can record up to 200,000 GPS positions which trace your route.
It has an additional ?press now? button if you want to create a special GPS location
A claimed battery life of 32 Hours if I remember correctly
It has three speed settings ? walking, cycling and driving
You can set it to log a point every second, or less often according to your needs
Synchronise your camera and the tagger before you begin.
Turn it on when you begin your trip, pop it in your pocket, hang it round your neck, dangle it from the camera strap or in our case pop it in the map pocket of the tank-bag.
Turn it off when you get back
Download the file (using the software that it comes with)
It then asks for images and using the time on the image, matches it to the GPS tag and adds the info to the photo details.
If you are using a compact and SLR camera you may want to combine the images in one folder to direct the software at so it picks them all up.
You can then link these images to your route
You can name and add a description to any image.
You can then create a KMZ file for emailing to bore your friends and family with.
The file needs to be viewed in Google Earth and unless you switch off the show pictures option you will see a zillion images not just the ones tagged to the route.
I only tagged a few to demonstrate the concept.
As it was in the tank-bag not a jacket pocket, the GPS tags are static when we parked the bike but as we were never far from it we were OK with that.
We also forgot to change the setting from walking to cycling (probably more appropriate speed for passes than the car setting) This means that the route is slightly ?off? route.

If you can be bothered you can zoom right in and find a scrambled mess which shows you EXACTLY where we came a cropper.

The only negative thing about it is that you will need something to download it on ? we took a netbook ? maybe some mobiles would be able to cope with saving the route files then when you get back home you do the photograph bit.

Also it doesn't cope with RAW files so I put the Nikon on NEF with JPG and slpit out the files before linking the GPS info

Hope nobody has died from TMI

[ChrisN]

Ballast,

That looks a really neat way of presenting a route with photos.

Maybe Tim would like to tag his route photos to the upgraded AR Google Earth routes ?

Expanding the idea, we could perhaps find a way for forum members to post route photos directly onto the AlpineRoads route and Tim could review from time to time to edit/remove as he sees fit.

Sorry Tim - I know you really don't have enough time as it is to fully manage the website. Still, it's food for thought.

[tim]

Ballast: how far/long can you drive with it for the 200,000 points to be used up, on say driving setting?

Maybe Tim would like to tag his route photos to the upgraded AR Google Earth rout

The thought had crossed my mind.
But it would make the "where am I?" thread a bit easy

Expanding the idea, we could perhaps find a way for forum members to post route photos directly onto the AlpineRoads route and Tim could review from time to time to edit/remove as he sees fit.

That'd be a lot of work, as you say. That and allowing members to post reports/reviews/updates directly to the routes is something I've been thinking about for ages, but it'll invlove more sophisticated (=expensive) forum software than I have now. The idea's not dead, I just need time to get around to researching it properly.

[Michael J]

Also it doesn't cope with RAW files...

That would be due to the fact that RAW files do not use the EXIF data format, which is where the GPS data is stored in JPEGs.

If you're using a Nikon DSLR, Nikon has (sorry, but "Nikon have" just sounds WRONG to my ear, collective noun notwithstanding) a small GPS unit that clips to the hotshoe and automagically records the data to the picture.

I suspect that it will have the same shortcoming that my Coolpix P6000 has, in that it takes a few minutes to determine where it is when you turn it on to take a picture. Annoying if you're just pulling to the side of the road to grab a quick pic.

[Ballast]

Also it doesn't cope with RAW files...

That would be due to the fact that RAW files do not use the EXIF data format, which is where the GPS data is stored in JPEGs.

If you're using a Nikon DSLR, Nikon has (sorry, but "Nikon have" just sounds WRONG to my ear, collective noun notwithstanding) a small GPS unit that clips to the hotshoe and automagically records the data to the picture.

I suspect that it will have the same shortcoming that my Coolpix P6000 has, in that it takes a few minutes to determine where it is when you turn it on to take a picture. Annoying if you're just pulling to the side of the road to grab a quick pic.

Yes you can get a geotagger for the Nikon - sits on the hotshoe - trouble is A) it's much more expensive B) it only works with the Nikon it is sitting on. The QSTARZ device is completely independent (I don't have it with me but I think it is about 4cm x 6cm x 1.5cm - visit my link earlier in this thread to see it's size and a detailed review) so you can use it with any camera - and I think you can use it to turn your nobile into a Satnav but as we have one we didn't explore that - again see the review. Another thing is that because it is on all the time you don't have to wait for it to find the signal. It is pretty good at that too - finds one inside our house and even when thrown into a pocket with other stuff it seemed to cope well although I would suggest playing safe and put it somewhere reasonable.

As for how long it lasts - well there are 3,600 seconds in an hour so on the log once per second that would mean about 55 hours but the battery only claims to last 32 hours. But only lunatics like Michael J would contemplate a 32 hour ride. So I guess charging it is more of an issue. It certainly lasted as long as we ever needed it betwen charges. Obviously a less frequent setting of say every 5 seconds would mean the memory would last longer.

Although it doesn't do RAW files it does cope with several types as well as JPG - TIFF for example. I don't know about other SLRs but the Nikon can do RAW (NEF) and JPG at the same time so no problem - I assume most SLRs are also able to do this.

Anyway the link will give you a better explanation than my ramblings

[Michael J]

But only lunatics like Michael J would contemplate a 32 hour ride

I beg to differ.

See: http://www.ironbuttuk.org/

[GAScubaBum]

And the newest wave of compact camera's, at least on the high end, will have this functionality built in.

http://www.dcresource.com/news/newsitem.php?id=4064

As Michael mentioned, expect to wait a few seconds or more for the GPS receiver to locate satellites before snapping your shots.

[Michael J]

As Michael mentioned, expect to wait a few seconds or more for the GPS receiver to locate satellites before snapping your shots.

One futher note - at least with the Coolpix 6000 - if the GPS feature is active, there is a constant drain on the battery, even when the camera is off.

Not a significant issue, just one to be aware of (and maybe carry a spare charged battery).

[juha]

Tim: Your question
"how far/long can you drive with it for the 200,000 points to be used up, on say driving setting? "

I would guess it records your position with 1 Hz frequency = 1 point every second. At least this is what mobile phone GPS receivers do.

-Juha-