I'm moving forward on this geotagging project on two fronts. One task is to geotag everthing I've already shot in 2009. On the second front, I want to use a GPS device to create data while I'm in the field.
For the GPS device, I decided to give the Jobo photoGPS Geo Tagging Flash Shoe a try because of its small size and ability to stay out of the way in the hotshoe of my camera. The Amazon listing, and everywhere else I looked, said that the Mac software would be ready by the end of 2008. So I naively expected it to be in the box with the photoGPS.
What I did find in the box was a link on a CD to a mailing list that would notify me when the Mac software was ready. No timeframe is listed. Just sign up for the list, and we'll let you know. OK, not so great.
I'm going to hold off reviewing this device until I actually incorporate it into my workflow. At the moment, I'm probably going to have to try the Windows version of the bundled software to learn more about it. Note to Jobo: It's 2009.
The second part of the project is going a little better. I've decided to try Maperture for the images already in my Aperture library. This plug-in is free and easy to use. Ubermind provides a nifty screencast to provide a hands-on overview of the product. I'm still getting to know Maperture, and will have more details about it after further testing. But my first impression is good.
I should have another update sometime next week. Once I get everything working to my satisfaction, I'll also record a podcast on geotagging. More soon.
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Technorati Tags: Aperture, Derrick Story, digital photography, Geotagging, Technology, The Digital Story
I've been using the maperture pro beta plugin for a while now - since it was the first one that fit inside aperture rather than between aperture and the camera (Houdah Geo worked fine but interrupted the workflow by having to work on the files prior to import to aperture).
Maperture's GUI works well - is easy to use and fits in well to the way I work.
Note that there is a small bug that I know the maperture folks are aware of. Although the GPS tags show up fine in the aperture gui, when you export versions the GPS data is missing. This happens on export to disk via the flickr export plugin etc. It seems that since the data is EXIF rather than IPTC it's pulled from the master rather than the version.
I hope that they do fix this since otherwise the plugin works just fine.
Note that Houdah Geo now also says it can update masters in your aperture library - but I haven't been able to make it do that on my library yet.
I look forward to your review on the jobo - would be nice to drop the full GPS unit and just have that in my flash shoe (perhaps I'll have to get that minolta -> standard converter at last) - much more convenient - but - with a working GPS and no working mac software it's just not quite enough just yet.
The Jobo, as a device, seems interesting. It's small and tucks away nicely on the hotshoe. It seems to be recording data, but since I haven't had software to work with it yet, I don't know for sure.
I will definitely keep everyone updated as this thing unfolds...