Using Sports Tracker as a geo-logger for photo applications

Discussion for Sports Tracker

04-04-2009 15:50

Hi all,
With my new N85, I've really enjoyed the geo-coding ability for photos, specifically when used in conjuncture with iPhotos maps.

However, I have a nice DSLR which does not have geo-coding ability. I considered buying a GPS mount for it, but found many people use another solution for older DSLR: They have an external GPS logger, and then on their PC use software to link the geo locations back to the photos based on the time stamp of the photo and the location recorded at that time.

I think that's pretty clever, and it struck me that since Sport Tracker exports many standard formats, it could be used to do this. My question is: Has anyone here done this? What has your experience been like?

FYI, the software I am thinking of would be either of these two:
http://geotag.sourceforge.net/
http://www.earlyinnovations.com/gpsphotolinker/

Comments

Submitted by patrickmo23 on 04-04-2009 21:27.

you could simply shoot a geotagged picture with your n85 and copy the tag to the dslr picture.

Submitted by thefirelane on 05-04-2009 10:43.

I'd prefer not to have to take two photos each time though. Besides, simply leaving on Sports Tracker is much easier.

Submitted by djh.sthlm on 05-04-2009 12:37.

My E61 doesn't have a camera so I can't add to the discussion that way. That changes this week when I'll receive my new N79 Active Edition. I'm so excited that I'll have a quality camera with me all the time now.

Thanks for sharing GPSPhotoLinker for OSX. I'm playing around with it right now and looks like a keeper!

-David

Current setup: e61 unbranded product code 0529654 Euro-B1 Silver. Firmware: 3.0633.09.04. Theme: Ovi blue. Service provider: 3 Sweden. Peripherals: Bluemax ext BT GPS module

Submitted by mbrett on 05-04-2009 12:39.

You could set a manual lap marker on your phone each time you take a photo. Another option is to try location tagger from the graduated area and take a second photo with you phone. This method makes it easier to link the location info with your photo.

mbrett
N95 8Gb (Product Code: 0558787 (UK)) FW 31.0.018

Submitted by thefirelane on 05-04-2009 21:15.

Hey all,
So I tried this today, just on a short walk. Firstly, based on the comments, I don't think everyone quite gets what I'm trying to do. It's really the simplest solution:

1) Turn on sports tracker, let it record the whole day's travels
2) Take photos with DSLR camera
3) At PC, software matches DSLR photo's time stamp to the location saved in the exported GPS file, then copies each location to each photos EXIF data.

No setting laps required, no second photos taken with my N85, everything is automatic and transparent. The phone records all day in my pocket, while I happily snap photos with the DSLR.

Back to the main subject: I tested this today, and it works wonderfully. Obviously, you have to make sure you phone and camera's internal clocks are synchronized, but aside from that, everything works well.

Additionally: be sure to use the files exported from Sports Tracker on your phone, don't download them from the website as these are less accurate. This subject is covered in other threads though.

A new use for Sports Tracker, cool eh?

Submitted by djh.sthlm on 06-04-2009 11:46.

@thefirelane, Nice creativity.

Perhaps it was a year ago, but there was a time when I thought SportsTracker's development was going to be replaced by Nokia's Vine project. ST's blog had comments from users suggesting that the app wasn't really "about sports anymore" and should be morphed into a full-blown media-sharing/geo-tagging tool. A couple comments from the dev team showed even they seemed ready for the switch, and I was getting nervous that my favorite little app would soon be history. Thankfully, that didn't happen

That said, Vine's concept fits better into the white-hot micro-blogging, Twitter world, than SportsTracker as it currently is. With Vine, the app runs on your occasional or daily journeys, organizing your captured media throughout the day, tagged to wherever you've wandered. Strange, too, is how Nokia categorizes Vine as a "marketing campaign" rather than including it as a Beta project.

My wish is for SportsTracker to continue to develop its athletic core and leave the individual location based services, like geo-tagging, as robust plug-ins for similar apps.

-David

Current setup: e61 unbranded product code 0529654 Euro-B1 Silver. Firmware: 3.0633.09.04. Theme: Ovi blue. Service provider: 3 Sweden. Peripherals: Bluemax ext BT GPS module

Submitted by thefirelane on 19-04-2009 20:58.

After some playing around, I can give one final tip: Don't use the "pause" feature. It will cause problems syncing the photos with the exported GPX file.

Perhaps other file formats work correctly, but my application requires GPX, which just appear to store a start time and then a series of points. So if you pause, the points are not written at a constant interval, meaning you photos will not be synced correctly as their time will now be "off" from the location.