Any GPS enabled camera user with a EyeFi Card + Geo Tagging feature

[Jkieffer]

Hey all,

I wanted to tap into your collective brain powers and see what the thoughts are on this. If one has a GPS enabled camera and is shooting with an Eye-Fi card that does geo-location based on the wifi networks. Which data is written to exif, the cameras's or Eye-Fi's best guess using sky-hook?

How you would test; take a photo with GPS on, make darn sure you are no where near your uploading networks as defined by the eye-fi utility, pull the photo off the card, and check the exif data. Then bring the camera into one of your defined networks let the Eye-Fi program take control, and check the exif data for differences. I dont have a GPS enabled camera, and never had to think about this, since the wireless network triangulation was "Ok". I want to make sure that the best data I can get is recorded on the image, and not overwritten by a program during upload.

I realize that I can turn Geo Tagging off, but if I swap the SD card from one cam to the other(non gps enabled), I would like to have my photos taged with the best data available.

Thanks for any and all insights, if there is no answer by the time I get my HX100v I will update and let you all know.

 

[ron2000]

Your camera is not a phone!
GPS enable or not has nothing to do with EyeFi.

The 2 are totally unrelated - one's use does not make any difference to the other.

 

[ggoodwin]

I haven't tested this but from what I've read it seems that, if the camera has gps enabled and it has a satellite lock then that is the positional data written to the photo. If not, then EyeFi will provide the data instead, if it can.

 

[Jkieffer]

Your camera is not a phone!

Great to get that clarification. I think you are confusing my use of the word skyhook. Skyhook is a service that provides the Eye-fi's best guess wireless triangulation(see link lower bottom of page). http://www.eye.fi/how-it-works/features/geotagging

GPS enable or not has nothing to do with EyeFi.

I wanted to know if exif data was overwritten by EyeFi, as it writes the geo data to the photo when it is uploaded to, in my case, my computer. There would presumably be efix data written by the camera already, when GPS is on. That has a whole lot to do with GPS on or off for the camera.

The 2 are totally unrelated - one's use does not make any difference to the other.

 

[Bob the Printer88467]

I wanted to know if exif data was overwritten by EyeFi, as it writes the geo data to the photo when it is uploaded to, in my case, my computer. There would presumably be efix data written by the camera already, when GPS is on. That has a whole lot to do with GPS on or off for the camera.

As I understande it, the eye-fi card does NOT write any EXIF data to the camera's pictures. So if your camera has GPS turned on, use of the eye-fi card should have no effect on the EXIF data.

The location data that the eye-fi provides is only accessible via the eye-fi software in other words..

--
Have a SAFE and HAPPY 2011 !

Bob the Printer

 

[Jkieffer]

As I understande it, the eye-fi card does NOT write any EXIF data to the camera's pictures. So if your camera has GPS turned on, use of the eye-fi card should have no effect on the EXIF data.

The location data that the eye-fi provides is only accessible via the eye-fi software in other words..

When the photos are uploaded to the computer, and put into iPhoto, the geo data shows up in the EFIX data location and when getting the info on the pictures the data is there. I did a quick copy to my linux computer, geo data came accost with the photo, so it is writing to the imported photo at some point. I would hope, but want confirmation that pre-existing geo data is left alone if I import photos using their software.

Getting the same photo from the SD card/original source, the geo data is not attached to the photo(in line with your understanding), which is great, I can always get the original data. I will wait and see what the outcome is once I have me my new cam.

 

[Bill Borne]

I have never used eye-fi card, but......

I have to assume that camera enabled GPS will write GPS info to exif immediately upon processing photo in cam as soon as photo is taken. If eye-fi writes gps to exif it will overwrite gps info just as would doing it manually in an exif editor.
--
Bill



Link for Recent Trip Out West
http://www.pbase.com/bill_b/west

 

[Eye-Fi Support]

If the camera writes geo information, then Eye-Fi leaves it alone. If the camera does not write geo information and your Eye-Fi card has geo capabilities, then Eye-Fi will write the geo information in the EXIF so that any other program including iPhoto, Flickr, etc. can read the geo info.

The geo information is added when the card wirelessly transfers photos to the computer - it is not written onto the image on the SD card itself. So, if the files are wirelessly transferred by Eye-Fi, you will get the geo in the EXIF. If you were to copy files from your SD card into iPhoto, they won't be geotagged.

Hope that helps.

Randhir (Eye-Fi)

 

[diffdude]

I tested this scenario with my Sony HX5V and Eye-Fi card.

If the Sony camera's GPS has a fix, Eye-Fi will not overwrite the GPS data in the photo, if the camera's GPS does not have a fix, the Eye-Fi card will add the location information (include City, State, and Country in the XMP section of the EXIF).

This is a great feature, because it can be used as a backup to the GPS on the camera. If you are in a building, or otherwise temporarily lose GPS fix, the Eye-Fi will add location data, which could be useful even if not as accurate.

I did the same test with my Nikon D5000 and Nikon GPS (GP-1), and it did the same thing.

The original photos on the Eye-Fi card are not modified, only the ones sent via Wi-Fi.

Rick.