Geotagging of Photos made simple

***What is Geotagging? 

Geotagging is a simple process of writing the Geographic information to Exif data in the images. 
Geographic information includes Lattitude, Longitude, Height and other related information. 

***Why should I Geotag? 

When fotos are Geotagged, it makes it simple for the viewers to pinpoint the exact location where the foto was shot, and also saves the creator from the hassle of remembering each of the locations. 

Geotagging is also now read by most of the popular sites like flickr, provides an amazing integration with Google maps to show a Location Map of the fotos you have taken. 

How wonderful it would be to see your pics on google map with the exact location details. 

***Do i need a GPS receiver to Geotag my fotos? 

No you dont need a GPS receiver to do it, although a GPSr may get the exact co-ordinates of the location and saves the hassle of manually searching the co-ordinates. 

***How do I Geo tag my fotos? 

There are a couple of free tools to do the job. 
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you can use GPicSync, it's open source and supports the following raw filetypes: 
http://code.google.com/p/gpicsync/wiki/RawFormats 

Very nice, have a try: http://code.google.com/p/gpicsync/ 
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Detailed instructions here: 
http://www.oziphototool.com/smf/index.php?topic=124.0 
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The latest Picasa has a great integration with Google Earth... It wont let you write to CR2 files, but will store in a .ini file. 

For JPEGs it write the exif, you can upload the photos to Flickr and Picasa Web and they will show in the map. 
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***How do i find the location co-ordinates? 

Its very easy with Google Earth or google Maps, if you know the location, search in Google Earth and that will give you the exact details required. 
Picasa also has an integration with Google earth and writes values to JPG files. 

***What is the difference between Geotagging and GeoStamping? 

Tagging means writting GPS coordinates into EXIF metadata -same as writing/changing (for example) variuos DateTime values. Important is: tagging doesn't change image! With other words: when you open geo-tagged image, you don't see GPS coordinates (you need some exif utility to see and edit those values). 

Stamping means you (using some utility) "write" coordinate values directly onto image. So, everybody will see those values by opening/viewing image (you remember old photos containing date/time when they were taken?). The problem is, it is difficult to edit stamped images later. In short: GPS stamped images are not very artistic -they look ugly, actually  

***Examples? 
I have tried Geotagging some images and here is how they look on my site, scroll to the bottom of the page to see the Google maps. 

http://www.vividscapes.com/gallery/main.php?g2_itemId=5790 

Missing any information?, please feel free to add or correct me where ever am wrong.

GPS Loggers - RBT 2300 and Holux M241 Reviewed in depth

Here is a details review of both the GPS logger models and read on to see which one is a clear winner over the other.

So I purchased the RBT-2300 and had some issues with the signal fix and one of my friend suggested to try the new Holux-M241, later realised the fix is due to the low signal level inside my apartment and its an issue with all GPS units.

My main use is for Geotagging photographs and also to be used as GPS with my Nokia N73.

Here are my observations on both the devices on a test I did this weekend.

Specs:
RoyalTek RBT-2300 with Nokia battery fully charged
Holux M-241 with Energiser lithium battery fully charged

Time to Acquire first fix:
Tried both inside my flat and first fix was difficult, so moved both the devices to my Balcony, RBT-2300 acquired the fix in approx 12 minutes and the Holux took 15 minutes.

Lock:
The RBT-2300 was able to lock to the signals more easily than the holux M-241 when i moved inside my apartment, Royaltek lost signal one in 10 compared to Holux losing 4 times in 10.

Logging:
RBT starts logging the moment you switch it on and the GPS is fixed, no hassles to wait for the fix and then press the start button to start logging.
Holux needs to get the fix first and then need to press the enter button to start logging.

Log size:
RBT : 180 days worth data or approx half million way points
Holux : 130,000

Battery life:
RBT using a Nokia batterly (860mAh) ran very good for 9 hours until the unit totally died.
Holux using the new Energiser lithium battery (approx 2800mAh) ran for 6 hours till it totally died.

Connecting to Smartphone:
Both the devices were very easy to connect to my Nokia N73 using bluetooth, got connected immediately without any problems.

Connecting to computer:
RBT provides only bluetooth and connected pretty well,
Holux uses both USB and bluetooth and connection was good.

Software:
RBT software is better then the Holux, remembers the selected Com port and also the folder location where GPS log file was last downloaded.

Downloading LOG files:
This is the main part where I started hating the Holux M-241, both took the same time to download using bluetooth, however the Holux files were empty without any log info in a previous test.

Reliability:
For any geotagging and logging purposes reliability of the data is more important, RBT has delivered proper ones till now and had no issues, but with the Holux, I was not able to download the data, this might be due to the fact that the battery got over and the unit switched off without stopping the log, now am not able to see the data in Holux, using the download tool, it crashes whenever I try to get the file.

Verdict:

Eventhough the looks of the Holux is better then the RBT, and the Holux has an attractive LCD display and many modes, it is clearly not a winner in the Geotagging scenario, may be it can be used as a GPS device for smartphones, but definitely never a reliable one for Geotagging, the reasons below.

1. For geotagging, i would prefer to switch on the device and start logging by default and if I dont want it, then I can switch it off, its ridiculous to wait for a signal and then to switch the logging on.

2. If the unit dies of low battery charge, I should atleast be able to get the proper log files from it, here Holux fails to impress.

Overall the new Holux M-241 is just a beauty with absolutely no brains and does not seem to be very useful for logging and Geotagging world with a highly unreliable performance.

Even though the RBT is simple and does not have any fancy display, it exactly does the job its claimed to do.

so anybody planning to buy the Holux M-241, please assess these facts and base your decision on what you mainly intend to use the GPS for, if visual display of the GPS details is not much of a bother to you, better go with the RBT-2300.

The Winner:

[b]RBT-2300 is a clear winner[/b] compared to the Holux M-241.