Geotagging for analogue cameras.

wilwahabri · Mar 30, 2021

I am sure there used to be geotagging units which fitted on the hotshoe of a camera and each time a photo was taken recorded the position internally. This data could then be extracted later and attached to the digitised photo files. Am i going mad because i cannot find a single reference to this type of system at all now!

Does anyone know of a geotagging device that will perform as described? using the flash contact in the hotshoe to detect shutter operation and noting the position and time.

i am seriously thinking about designing one of my own!

ChristopherCoy · Mar 30, 2021

There's 50 million of those apps on any phone app store. I use one called Photo Logger I think.

Dan Fromm · Mar 30, 2021

Um, er, ah, I'm not sure there is a still camera (film, not digital) that will record arbitrary text on the film when a shot is taken. Cine cameras, yes, still no.

FWIW, I sometimes do fieldwork and have to record when (date, time of day is usually irrelevant) and where (lat, long) the specimens I preserve were collected. I carry a hiker's GPS, save the station's location, also time and date, in it, also transcribe station #, date, lat and long in my field notebook and on a slip of label paper that goes in the preservative with the specimens. You can type so I'm sure that you can operate a pen or pencil and a notebook.

Helge · Mar 30, 2021

Just take the photo with your phone too. Job done.

What would be cool would be to have it build it into the camera and recorded between sprocket holes or between frames.

ChristopherCoy · Mar 30, 2021

Helge said:
Just take the photo with your phone too. Job done.

What would be cool would be to have it build it into the camera and recorded between sprocket holes or between frames.

What would be cool is some kind of adapter that would let you mount your phone on the hot shoe, and also trigger the phones camera. You'd get the gps data, but also a preview of the scene you were looking at to compare to your analog capture all in one click.

Chan Tran · Mar 30, 2021

wilwahabri said:
I am sure there used to be geotagging units which fitted on the hotshoe of a camera and each time a photo was taken recorded the position internally. This data could then be extracted later and attached to the digitised photo files. Am i going mad because i cannot find a single reference to this type of system at all now!

Does anyone know of a geotagging device that will perform as described? using the flash contact in the hotshoe to detect shutter operation and noting the position and time.

i am seriously thinking about designing one of my own!

To be honest I think you are going mad for wanting such a device.

Helge · Mar 30, 2021

ChristopherCoy said:
What would be cool is some kind of adapter that would let you mount your phone on the hot shoe, and also trigger the phones camera. You'd get the gps data, but also a preview of the scene you were looking at to compare to your analog capture all in one click.

I’ve been saying that for years, and it gets more and more true:
A phone is the ultimate finder for a film camera.
It would be able to perform:
- Rough preview (film type approximated emulation, and lens type).
- Metering. Any kind really including flash.
- EXIF data, and really any kind of data recording.
- Rangefinding with lidar and comparison between the three focal lengths cameras on most phones, to find the distances beyond the lidars reach.

Only trouble is we would need a camera specifically designed to support this. And we would need a well developed app (which in today’s software milieu could be more expensive than designing the camera).

You’d have a fantastic film camera though, with just about any thing you could have wanted from film in the past alleviated.

BradS · Mar 30, 2021

wilwahabri said:
I am sure there used to be geotagging units which fitted on the hotshoe of a camera and each time a photo was taken recorded the position internally. This data could then be extracted later and attached to the digitised photo files. Am i going mad because i cannot find a single reference to this type of system at all now!

Does anyone know of a geotagging device that will perform as described? using the flash contact in the hotshoe to detect shutter operation and noting the position and time.

i am seriously thinking about designing one of my own!

In my memory, there was never such a device. I suspect that non-miltary application of GPS technology did not overlap sufficiently in time with film camera technology. In other words, the technological development of film cameras ceased before GPS technology was widely made available and feasible for use in non-military applications.

It would be cool though. I am in the habit of writing such meta data in a note book...when it seems interesting to me.

Vaughn · Mar 30, 2021

Geotagging post-dates most still camera design and manufacture. Thankfully.

MattKing · Mar 30, 2021

IIRC, there were some data backs for film cameras that would allow you to put sequential numbers on to the film.
So you might be able to design something that would synch those numbers with a separate geotag.

reddesert · Mar 30, 2021

Jobo made something called the "photoGPS" that fit in a hot shoe and logged the GPS coordinates, just as the OP asked. It's the first hit when you google "GPS hot shoe." It is no longer made. It would be more practical when used with a digital camera that put the image date/time in the metadata, of course.

I don't think the OP was asking for the unit to actually record the data onto film. There are of course date backs, and there is an utterly over the top Chinon Info Back that actually did allow you to type an arbitrary character string to be recorded onto the film, but of course that was intended for lab or fieldwork use, not for ordinary people making aesthetically pleasing pictures. Here's a description: http://cameratraders.blogspot.com/2010/07/great-chinon-chimera.html

ic-racer · Mar 30, 2021

If I wanted to easily record my location on film I'd just take a picture of the Map screen on my iPhone that shows my location.
Nikon F6 does record (on film or in memory) a user defined number if desired. It can be any six digits.

DREW WILEY · Mar 30, 2021

I hate it when somebody discovers some special place or archeological ruin, then posts the picture with coordinates. It's not long till it's trampled or vandalized. But if ya gotta know, any GPS device will suffice.

Wallendo · Mar 30, 2021

Many GPS trackers have a waypoint button you can push to mark a particular location.

in the end, taking a cell phone would be easier since you could simply copy and paste the metadata.

MattKing · Mar 30, 2021

ic-racer said:
If I wanted to easily record my location on film I'd just take a picture of the Map screen on my iPhone that shows my location.

I do this with the date on my cel phone, so that I don't get confused about which roll was exposed where and when.
This works really well when I'm diligent and put descriptive info into my calendar as well - at home, because my phone is a flip phone, and I don't carry a smart tablet with me normally.

wilwahabri · Mar 31, 2021

Thanks Guys, it was the original Jobo I was thinking of, it recorded the location of every time the shutter was fired and the data could then be merged post process with the digitised photographs. It did not directly transfer data to the camera - which would make it eminently suitable for my purpose - use with my film cameras.

I currently use a GPS tracker on my phone to generate a GPX file which can the be merged with my digital camera files, geolocating each photo based on the time the picture was taken. This does not work for digitised film images as no time code is present, or more accurately the time the photo was shot is not recorded. Use of a marked GPS track would therefore solve the issue, hence my original question.

I don't post geotag information with my pictures publicly for the very reason stated, however I have several hundred thousand pictures taken all over the world and cannot hope to remember the exact location of every one. It also helps to identify the location [name of the place in local language] of a picture when it was taken in a foreign country.

wilwahabri · Mar 31, 2021

ChristopherCoy said:
What would be cool is some kind of adapter that would let you mount your phone on the hot shoe, and also trigger the phones camera. You'd get the gps data, but also a preview of the scene you were looking at to compare to your analog capture all in one click.

Now that is an idea! Not too complex either - need to get my thinking cap on. I suppose I could buy an Olympus Air 1 - it is a m4/3 digital camera with no viewfinder or conventional controls utilises mZuiko lenses and connects to a phone, which can be clipped on the back, which acts as the viewfinder and control system. although that does defeat the object of what I am trying to achieve!

grat · Mar 31, 2021

I use an app called "film shots" for taking notes. Includes geotagging as part of its options.

mawz · Mar 31, 2021

wilwahabri said:
Now that is an idea! Not too complex either - need to get my thinking cap on. I suppose I could buy an Olympus Air 1 - it is a m4/3 digital camera with no viewfinder or conventional controls utilises mZuiko lenses and connects to a phone, which can be clipped on the back, which acts as the viewfinder and control system. although that does defeat the object of what I am trying to achieve!

PC-sync trigger to an Arduino Tiny and a BT module, with an app which uses that as a remote camera trigger.

Quite doable, and could also double as an app which simply took a series of timestamp/gps co-ordinates and saved the log.

grat · Mar 31, 2021

Or, for the OP's original request, an arduino with GPS, tied into the PC-sync terminal. Could probably be made small enough to fit on the hotshoe. Bonus points if you add a light meter.

wilwahabri · Mar 31, 2021

grat said:
Or, for the OP's original request, an arduino with GPS, tied into the PC-sync terminal. Could probably be made small enough to fit on the hotshoe. Bonus points if you add a light meter.

Neat ideas, The hotshoe appears to be removable from the bottom of the flash, and it is quite a large section with room for a small circuit. The iS 3000 has no physical remote release only an infrared one, but that could be emulated. My initial inspection of the G40 flash indicates that it may use more than 2 pins to initiate the flash, and has no foot side contacts WIP!

wilwahabri · Mar 31, 2021

Helge said:
I’ve been saying that for years, and it gets more and more true:
A phone is the ultimate finder for a film camera.
It would be able to perform:
- Rough preview (film type approximated emulation, and lens type).
- Metering. Any kind really including flash.
- EXIF data, and really any kind of data recording.
- Rangefinding with lidar and comparison between the three focal lengths cameras on most phones, to find the distances beyond the lidars reach.

Only trouble is we would need a camera specifically designed to support this. And we would need a well developed app (which in today’s software milieu could be more expensive than designing the camera).

You’d have a fantastic film camera though, with just about any thing you could have wanted from film in the past alleviated.

Actually this does exist - check out the Olympus Air 01 - m4/3 camera innards in a small housing and the mobile phone acts as the viewing and control device. Images are stored on a card in the Air 01. Available second hand these days and pricey about US$200 plus. Obviously works with the entire range of mZuiko glass!

wilwahabri · Mar 31, 2021

grat said:
I use an app called "film shots" for taking notes. Includes geotagging as part of its options.

Useful but no cigar! I want to automate the process as much as possible. remembering to take a note each time a photo is taken is a huge chore.

Dan Fromm · Mar 31, 2021

wilwahabri said:
Useful but no cigar! I want to automate the process as much as possible. remembering to take a note each time a photo is taken is a huge chore.

Well, then, why can't you go digital?

CCLA · Apr 1, 2021

grat said:
I use an app called "film shots" for taking notes. Includes geotagging as part of its options.

hi grat,

I was having a look at the “film shots” and it says on the website that you can record a frame by tapping on the Lock Screen. I cannot figure out how to do that. Have you figured it out?

claudio

Geotagging for analogue cameras.

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