A complete geo-tagging solution

I have been experimenting. I already have a DSLR (Canon 350D) with a lot of extras (like a battery grip and three lenses) so I really do not see myself changing cameras for the time beeing. Ok, I know that this is the entry-level model of Canon SLRs, but I am really happy with it (except for the poor screen) so I will not upgrade for a while. But then, I really would like to have geographical information in my images. In the absence of an almost-free-trade-in campaign for Canon cameras :-) I just have to solve this in some other way.

I was looking at the Sony GPSCS1KA GPS for a while, and almost bought one, but then I found a number of posts saying that this unit may not work on Mac yet, and that the previous generation of the device took for ever to get compatibla with Mac OS X. Also, it is a bit expensive, so I thought I would rather not risk it.

But, I have a P1i. Ans, Sony Ericsson did once try to get into the GPS phone marked by a product they call(ed) a "GPS enabler", the HGE-100. So, presto.. why do I need a GPS logger? The unit was actually cheaper on Amazon than a walkman stereo headset (which I needed to replace anyway) and all I needed to find was some software that would log position and output it in a usable format. I thought that this would be easy, but I was very much mistaken.

I have tried many programs for GPS naviation and logging. All but one seemed to have a problem doing what I wanted it to do. Either the only supported Bluetooth GPS devices, a serial device, or they really needed a map which you had to download or buy, or you could not get the log out from the internal file used by the program. Arrrgh! I almost lost my interest in the entire project..

But, I think I have found a solution. Thanks to some flying ethusiasts, there is a program called InFlight (http://aerotools.hoshis.org/). It does a lot of things, but one of these things is to log GPS coordinates, at user definable intervals. Then, you upload the log file to their server through the phone application (ou have ot create an account first) and download the log file in a 2 D kml file. This file you can either view in Google Earth directy, or convert into GPX/NMEA format using the free tool HoudahGPS), for later geo-tagging of the pictures taken on the trip using HoudahGeo. Complicated, but it works. Of course, the phone and camera should really be set to the same time, but maybe this is a good idea anyway. :-)

So what about pictures already taken? Ok, you can geo-tag them using HoudahGeo + Google earth, but this is a bit awkward. Too many windows and things that keeps getting in the way. I instead prefer Geotagger. Very easy to use: just 1) navigate to the spot in Google Earth and 2) mark the images (in iPhoto or in an import folder) and drag them to the Geotagger icon on the dock (you have to place it there of course). This causes the coordinates to be inserted in the EXIF info of the files, and you do not have to do anything else really for the files to be tagged. Very easy.

Well, there is a further complication if you are using iPhoto and want to geo-tag pictures you have already imported. The problem is that iPhoto reads the EXIF information at import, and then store these in the database. I wise decision, but this means that if you geo-tag a picture already imported, iPhoto will never pay any attention to the new information. A further comlicaiton is that this information is not updated even if you in iPhoto '08 try to rebuild the database. Even further, there does not seem to be any tool available for forcing a re-import of metadata, including GPS coordinates. This issue had been extensivelly discussed on the Apple forum.

There is a solution though. in iPhoto '09 seems to update metadata when you choose to rebuild the database. So, just keep ALT-CMD pressed when starting iPhoto 09, and choose rebuild database (or, since the iPhoto 09 metadata is now kept in a sqlite database :-) you can just update it using a script, like this one ). I have not tested this myself, so I can only go by other people are reporting. For iPhoto 08 though, this will not work. Instead, you will have to do the "hoding ALT-CMD pressed when starting iPhoto"-routine, but also choose to update the thumbnails. This apparently causes iPhoto to also update the metadata cache, and with it the GPS coordinates. This will take a while though... I guess this is another reason why you would like to upgrade to iPhoto 09 :-).

(Of course, these instructions are provided with any guarrantee that they will work for you. I will not be held responsible if something breaks for you because of the use of these instructions.)