Gps and the K-30

Alexander Meredith · Jun 15, 2013

The gps module for the Pentax K-30 is very expensive especially if you only want to use it occasionally. Recently I was on a trip from Toulouse via Aigues Morte to Valence in France and at the end of the trip I basically had no idea exactly where on the canals and river Rhone the photos were taken. A gps unit would have been very handy. My question is...has anyone thought or tried to make a workable gps using one of the $35 Opteka modules sold on eBay and the pentax off camera flash cord, again sold on eBay for $14. One end of the flash cord could be cut and wired to the USB cord connecting the flash foot to the gps module...Total outlay about $50...Any suggestions. Thanks

edhannon · Jun 15, 2013

It would be nice if it were that easy!

You need software in the camera to receive the GPS data and then put it in the EXIF metadata. You also need hardware to talk to the USB in the GPS.

Flash interface is a lot different than a GPS host.

Even the USB interface on most cameras will not work - it is designed to be the slave side rather than the host.

Guess we are stuck with buying a camera with the GPS module built in.

Simon Devlin · Jun 15, 2013

My thinking was people bought this for the Astrotracer functionality and the GPS came second.

I couldn't care less about the exact position I took a photograph. I find it fun trying to work out where exactly I was then it means more. I don't know of anyone else who needs to know or wants to know either!

I imagine landscape photographers would not like to declare their perfect positioning following a long time researching or stumbling across the perfect shot. This is their intellectual property!

Alexander Meredith · Jun 15, 2013

edhannon said:
edhannon wrote:

It would be nice if it were that easy!

You need software in the camera to receive the GPS data and then put it in the EXIF metadata. You also need hardware to talk to the USB in the GPS.

Flash interface is a lot different than a GPS host.

Even the USB interface on most cameras will not work - it is designed to be the slave side rather than the host.

Guess we are stuck with buying a camera with the GPS module built in.

Alex Sarbu · Jun 15, 2013

Alexander Meredith said:
Alexander Meredith wrote:

Alexander Meredith said:

edhannon wrote:

It would be nice if it were that easy!

You need software in the camera to receive the GPS data and then put it in the EXIF metadata. You also need hardware to talk to the USB in the GPS.

Flash interface is a lot different than a GPS host.

Even the USB interface on most cameras will not work - it is designed to be the slave side rather than the host.

Guess we are stuck with buying a camera with the GPS module built in.

Click to expand...

Alexander Meredith · Jun 15, 2013

Member said:
Simon Devlin wrote:

My thinking was people bought this for the Astrotracer functionality and the GPS came second.

I couldn't care less about the exact position I took a photograph. I find it fun trying to work out where exactly I was then it means more. I don't know of anyone else who needs to know or wants to know either!

I imagine landscape photographers would not like to declare their perfect positioning following a long time researching or stumbling across the perfect shot. This is their intellectual property!

newmikey · Jun 15, 2013

A GPS logger if I read one of your posts correctly. Why so complicated? If you can export a GPX file from any 50$ GPS logger (I use the Qstarz) you can use very simple and free software to geotag your image files, raw and jpeg, so that the GPS coordinates are embedded into the EXIF data.

Alexander Meredith · Jun 15, 2013

Alex Sarbu said:
Alex Sarbu wrote:

Alex Sarbu said:

Alexander Meredith wrote:

Alex Sarbu said:

edhannon wrote:

It would be nice if it were that easy!

You need software in the camera to receive the GPS data and then put it in the EXIF metadata. You also need hardware to talk to the USB in the GPS.

Flash interface is a lot different than a GPS host.

Even the USB interface on most cameras will not work - it is designed to be the slave side rather than the host.

Guess we are stuck with buying a camera with the GPS module built in.

Click to expand...

Click to expand...

Nicols · Jun 15, 2013

newmikey said:
newmikey wrote:

A GPS logger if I read one of your posts correctly. Why so complicated? If you can export a GPX file from any 50$ GPS logger (I use the Qstarz) you can use very simple and free software to geotag your image files, raw and jpeg, so that the GPS coordinates are embedded into the EXIF data.

That's about the same what I am doing. When I am interested in saving the coordinates of my photos, I just start route tracking software on my android phone (mostly I use endomondo), and afterwards I use the software myTracks (for Mac) to write the coordinates to the raw files.

For photos at fixed locations I use the command "Add location" in Aperture. This way, the jpgs created from these photos will have in the exif data the coordinates.

I wouldn´t like to block my flash hotshoe just for obtaining the same.

Cheers - Klaus

Infrabasse · Jun 15, 2013

I think eye-fi cards have a function to GPS tag your pictures as they are transferred to your smartphone. Might be worth having a look into that.

It can use WPS (Wifi Positioning System) triangulating it's position by detecting surrounding wifi networks. Outside cities this would be pretty useless.

It can also use the GPS of your android phone. Doesn't work with iphones though.

http://support.eye.fi/features/geo/what-is-geotagging/

Alexander Meredith · Jun 16, 2013

Nicols said:
Nicols wrote:

Nicols said:

newmikey wrote:

A GPS logger if I read one of your posts correctly. Why so complicated? If you can export a GPX file from any 50$ GPS logger (I use the Qstarz) you can use very simple and free software to geotag your image files, raw and jpeg, so that the GPS coordinates are embedded into the EXIF data.

Click to expand...

That's about the same what I am doing. When I am interested in saving the coordinates of my photos, I just start route tracking software on my android phone (mostly I use endomondo), and afterwards I use the software myTracks (for Mac) to write the coordinates to the raw files.

For photos at fixed locations I use the command "Add location" in Aperture. This way, the jpgs created from these photos will have in the exif data the coordinates.

I wouldn´t like to block my flash hotshoe just for obtaining the same.

Cheers - Klaus

Yes Klaus, that is the downside I guess, Thanks Alexander

Alex Sarbu · Jun 16, 2013

Alexander Meredith said:
Alexander Meredith wrote:

Alexander Meredith said:

Alex Sarbu wrote:

Alexander Meredith said:

Alexander Meredith wrote:

Alexander Meredith said:

edhannon wrote:

It would be nice if it were that easy!

You need software in the camera to receive the GPS data and then put it in the EXIF metadata. You also need hardware to talk to the USB in the GPS.

Flash interface is a lot different than a GPS host.

Even the USB interface on most cameras will not work - it is designed to be the slave side rather than the host.

Guess we are stuck with buying a camera with the GPS module built in.

Click to expand...

Click to expand...

Click to expand...

edhannon · Jun 17, 2013

OOPS!

Did not know that the K-30 had a GPS unit that attached to flash hot shoe.

Like the other poster, I would not like to tie up hot shoe with GPS.

The alternative of tracking with an android, exporting a file, and then using software on PC to add to EXIF sounds like the best bet to me.

May try that myself.

tcom · Jun 17, 2013

Hi

There is no need to have a GPS receiver connected to the camera to geotag your photos. Basically any device able to deliver a GPX file will do.

On Saturday, I covered the "Bol d'Or Mirabaud" on Lake Geneva, Switzerland. I wanted to know the position of the photos taken. I started an app on the iphone to record the position and at the end of the event, all I had to do is to get the generated GPX file and use it under Lightroom to geotag all photos taken. Have a look, most photos under http://www.flickr.com/photos/dschreckling/sets/72157634158989618/ have been geotagged using this method.

Should you not use Lightroom 4, there are tools like geosetter to merge photos and GPX files: http://ipaimpress.com/geotagging/

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Gps and the K-30

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