Geo tagging EXIF data?

[Tuxedo]

Hello,

I'm in search of a fairly lightweight GPS device to carry around and use in
combination with a Sony NEX camera.

Are there are some command line Perl utilities that append geo-coordinates
onto Exif data of a set of images?

I've not used any GPS device before but I imagine the device would collect
GPS data once a minute or every few seconds. The data should thereafter
easily be exported into some standard format and merged with a collection
Jpegs in a directory where a 'merge' command can run.

I imagine it could be done by synchronizing the time settings of the camera
and the GPS device and after having saved a collection of Jpegs and GPS
data in a directory, running the procedure against the two data sets would
write the closest by-time geo-coordinate into an Exif field of each Jpeg.

Can anyone recommend some perl applications or modules for this?

Many thanks,
Tuxedo

PS: I would like to avoid any Windows-only applications or other
proprietary GUI solutions etc. Also, any recommendations on actual GPS
hardware would be much appreciated.

 

[John Bokma]

I've not used any GPS device before but I imagine the device would collect
GPS data once a minute or every few seconds. The data should thereafter
easily be exported into some standard format and merged with a collection
Jpegs in a directory where a 'merge' command can run.

Exporting it do a standard format can be done with GPSBabel:
http://www.gpsbabel.org/

I imagine it could be done by synchronizing the time settings of the camera
and the GPS device and after having saved a collection of Jpegs and GPS
data in a directory, running the procedure against the two data sets would
write the closest by-time geo-coordinate into an Exif field of each
Jpeg.

It seems that GPSBabel can do that as well:
http://www.gpsbabel.org/htmldoc-1.5.0/fmt_exif.html

[..]

PS: I would like to avoid any Windows-only applications or other
proprietary GUI solutions etc. Also, any recommendations on actual GPS
hardware would be much appreciated.

GPSBabel is open source and runs from the command line. No idea if there
is a Perl solution.

 

[Jim Gibson]

Hello,

I'm in search of a fairly lightweight GPS device to carry around and use in
combination with a Sony NEX camera.

Are there are some command line Perl utilities that append geo-coordinates
onto Exif data of a set of images?

You can check out this Perl-based one:

<http://www.carto.net/projects/photoTools/gpsPhoto/>

I have not tried it.

I've not used any GPS device before but I imagine the device would collect
GPS data once a minute or every few seconds. The data should thereafter
easily be exported into some standard format and merged with a collection
Jpegs in a directory where a 'merge' command can run.

Devices differ on when and where they save "track" points (as opposed
to "waypoints" and "routes"). Some can be configured to record points
at time or distance intervals. Formats also vary widely, but most
devices support the standard GPX format. As John mentioned, GPSBabel
can translate many different formats into GPX, and also extract the
track logs from the device.

I imagine it could be done by synchronizing the time settings of the camera
and the GPS device and after having saved a collection of Jpegs and GPS
data in a directory, running the procedure against the two data sets would
write the closest by-time geo-coordinate into an Exif field of each Jpeg.

Can anyone recommend some perl applications or modules for this?

Many thanks,
Tuxedo

PS: I would like to avoid any Windows-only applications or other
proprietary GUI solutions etc. Also, any recommendations on actual GPS
hardware would be much appreciated.

I just bought the Holux M-241 device and tried it out over the weekend:

<http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Holux_M-241>

Finding an application to extract the track logs proved to be
difficult. The only thing I have gotten to work so far is BT747, a Java
program: <http://www.bt747.com>

mtkbabel is a Perl program that is supposed to be able to extract track
logs from some GPS devices, including the Holux M-241, but it did not
work on the first try, I think because the device name was incorrect. I
haven't had a chance to try it again:

<http://sourceforge.net/projects/mtkbabel/>

 

[John Bokma]

I just bought the Holux M-241 device and tried it out over the weekend:

<http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Holux_M-241>

I have an Amod AGL3080. Has been on many hikes for years and still
works. No display, though.

The Holux looks nice, I like the display, thanks for mentioning it.