Review: Jobo’s PhotoGPS
I really like the idea behind geotagging photos. ((For a long winded explanation of geotagging go HERE.)) Many of you know I have been wanting to get my greedy little hands on the Jobo Photo GPS unit since they first announced it two years back. For whatever the reasons, Jobo had a series of delays releasing this unit. Finally in December 08 they released the product and I got my hands on the little guy. ((One note, this is a completely different unit than they had planned to release. The original one had a led display on the back and a higher profile. I am not sure if this unit is made by someone else and distributed by Jobo with their name on it or if Jobo is producing it for Geotate under the name Kato. No biggy, manufactures do this all the time. Just an interesting fact.)) Only to have my excitement dashed as they did not have Mac software for it only Windows. So I have this tiny sexy little gps for my camera sitting on my desk for the past month or so waiting for the release of the Mac interface. Finally a few weeks back they released it. (Remember, click on any images to view them larger.)
I downloaded the software and right away went out to my front yard to shoot two or three frames to test the unit. I returned to fine the software was not finding any locations. It recorded the shots and the times, but no locations. I had heard from Jobo that this was supposed to be so specific that the software would not only record the latitude and longitude but also the street name. This I wanted to see. But nothing.
So I emailed and called Jobo with not much luck. Finally they wrote and told me I must have a defective unit. I don’t think so. Here’s why; In a last desperate attempt I went out into the city and just drove around and shot with the unit on my camera. I came home and found that several locations where in fact recorded and even had street names. Hurray! So I went out again yesterday to do a more detailed test.
Before I get into the workflow let me describe the actual unit its self. It is really small. It is about 2 inches by 1 inch. It is mounted on the camera flash shoe and records a position every time the shutter is fired. The one gripe I have about the actual unit is that the hot shoe connector does not have a lock of any sorts. The unit just slides on and slides off. It fits snugly on the shoe, so it won’t fall off if the camera is turned on it’s back. But not that tight to give me any comfort that it would not get knocked off while the camera hangs upside down on my BrackRapid strap. This just seems like an design over site and very risky.
The gps is always on and in standby so unlike other gps units it does not need to find the satellite. I am not going into details of how the GPS unit works. For some of you that is important. For me it is not. All I need to know is that it does work, and it does. What I struggled with was not the gps unit but the Mac software.
So once you have taken your images and return to the computer to download them you need to run the Jobo software, PhotoGPS. The software is simple and easy to use. But it does become an extra step in the download process. You will want to run the PhotoGPS software before you load your images into LightRoom. The reason being is that LightRoom reads your metadata and records it into each file. So it will read the gps coordinates on import once PhotoGPS embedds it into the RAW file. You can run the PhotoGPS software after import into LightRoom. But, once you add metadata to each file after import, like the gps coordinates, then you will have to have LightRoom re-read each file for the new metadata and that just gets complicated and time consuming.
So once you open the PhotoGPS software you are given a two paneled screen; one side for the gps data and the other for the photos. (See the image to the left.) The Jobo gps unit plugs into the computer through a USB 2.0 cable. PhotoGPS sees the unit and tells you it is there and that it is charging. You are given two ways to read the gps data, either by reading it directly from the unit or by downloading the data to the computer and storing it in a folder on your hard drive. I tried reading it from the unit first. The software thought a long time then crashed. I tried again, and it thought a long time, then started to download, then crashed again. This was not encouraging to say the least. So I tried the other option of downloading the data. I told it the folder I wanted the data to be stored in and told it to download. It thought, and thought and thought and…well, you get the picture, it hung. I quit the application and restarted it. This time it loaded the 
data fairly quick. Overall in this process the PhotoGPS crashed or froze several times. It is clear there is an issue with the Mac software. Finally the images all loaded. The next step is to match the data with the images. This is done simply by a push of a button. So I pushed the button and prayed; this time no issue. All the data matched up to all the images. Then the last step is simply to write the data to the RAW files. To do this you push the “Tag Photos” button and it writes the data to a XMP sidecar file where you have the photos stored, in this case the flash card. Apparently it write it directly into the EXIF data in a JPG file. Again, it went off without a hitch.
Now you just proceed to import the files like you would normally do into LightRoom. Only this time you will see two new metadata fields. Yes, two. One for the gps coordinates and the other for the altitude. Fun. One more thing that is kind of cool, but needs some tweaking, is that on import all the street information is imported at key words. Very cool! This mean you do not have to key word on import the location of your shoot anymore. But here is the downside to this and where it needs tweaking. What I found was that the location did not import as multible key words but one single entry. Normally I would inter key word and they would look like this: Malaysia, Penang, Tanjung Tokong. Each place or name separated with a comma. But when PhotoGPS entered the key words they came out like this: Mukim 18 (Tanjong Tokong) Penang Malaysia. To be honest, I am not sure if this is really and issue or not. But it does make for some very long key word sets in LightRoom.
Once in LightRoom you will find the Metadata field that holds the gps coordinates you will see a small button next to them. (See image) 
If you click on that button you will be taken to Google Maps and shown where the image was taken. For the most part the data was very close to the spot I stood. The difference might be at the most 50 yards, but much of the time it was within a few feet.
Another LightRoom add on is the Flickr plugin that Jeffrey Friedl has made. This will upload your images to Flickr with the gps coordinates and then visitors can view them on the Flickr map.
So, over all what do I think? I really, really wanted to love this product. I love a lot of Jobo’s product like the Gigaview Pro. I love the concept and the unit itself. Jobo, or somebody did a great job designing a small, low profile gps unit for the camera. It does what it was designed to do and for $159 it may well be worth it, especially once they get the software kinks worked out of it. But what I really dislike is the Mac version software PhotoGPS. Not because it is hard
to use, it is not. It is very simple. It is just glitchy, really glitchy. It took so much time to load and then reload the images due to all the snags. I am just not sure it is worth the effort. I guess it all comes down to how important is GeoTagging your photos. For me, at this time it is mostly just for fun. But there are important uses. When I went to Sumatra in Feb 08 I needed this unit, but it was delayed. The NGO I was shooting for really wanted to know where the images of each people group I shot where taken. I had to just point them out generally on a map after the trip. This would have been really handy. The PhotoGPS is a group effort between Jobo, Geotate and it uses the data from the OpenStreetMap project. This product has a lot of potential. With all that said it still is a far cry better than the way I was doing geotagging before. A lot fewer steps and I thing this is all correctable in the next version update. But for now. Just be ready to fight with the software if you really want your photos tagged.
Comprehensive review Matt, thanks. Stock libraries are increasingly asking for files to be geotagged so this is going to become more important to many of us.
Hope you won’t me plugging my Geotagging tutorial at http://www.gavingough.com/workshops/online-tutorials/adding-gps-geodata-in-lightroom/, which may be of interest to anyone who’s keen on geotagging their images.
Gavin,
Of course you can link it. I am sorry I would have, I just completely forgot you did a geotagging post. My bad.
Gavin,
Of course you can link it. I am sorry I would have, I just completely forgot you did a geotagging post. My bad.
I’ve been playing with geotagging images and Lightroom for a while now and I’ve come to the conclusion that these photo-specific units just aren’t worth it if they require post-processing to merge the geo data with the photo.
Why do I say that? Because for about $200 you can get a full-featured standalone GPS that creates .gpx files and use free/cheap software to merge the geo data into the EXIF of the photos. I happen to use a Garmin eTrex Legend HCx with a 2 GB flash card, because it will write tracks to the card FOREVER without filling up and it’s got a well implemented USB interface. This is an under-documented feature of these units, in my opinion.
In the meantime, I have a fully functional GPS that I can use for normal GPS-type things (driving directions, hiking, waypoints, etc.) The photo-specific units tend to be totally useless for anything other than geotagging photos.
A FULLY integrated solution (a GPS built into the camera) that required no post-processing would be useful and valuable. Until then I don’t think I have room for another one trick pony when I’m traveling.
Brian, I see your point. But once the software issues are fixed, it will be a lot easier to use than downloading the files to HoudahGeo and it gave me a lot more detailed information. Sure, you have the eTrex for other use and that is great, but come on, the Jobo unit is 2 inchs, how much space is it really going to take?
The space is another issue that I noticed. I’m concerned that having something else mounted on the camera would interfere with using a drop-in holster-style camera bag too. I keep the eTrex somewhere on my person, usually in the chest pocket of my jacket if it’s cold, or in my camera bag, etc.
I hate to sound like the nitpicker here – overall I really applaud the industry for coming out with lots of different solutions for geotagging photos. This has been a dream of mine for a while and I’m blown away by how accessible these technologies are compared to, say, 10 years ago. The fact that we’re even talking about minor details like form factor and usability means that there are choices! 🙂
Thanks again for your review (and thanks to Gavin above for his tutorial too). I look forward to joining you guys in Asia sometime!
Update: I just watch Scott Kelby’s D-Town where he talks about the di-GPS adapter http://www.di-gps.com that writes the gps data right onto the image file in the camera. This is a huge plus, as you forgo all the geotagging software. I just wrote the manufacturer and asked for a unit to review. It seems for Canon’s you have to have the WFT-E3 Wireless Transmitter. As I don’t, I wont be reviewing it and I think this will limit the use of Canon uses by a large margin.
Thanks for the great review, Matt. One question springs to mind – what happens if you want to use a hotshoe mounted flash or even the built in pop-up flash on say, the Canon 40D? Do you know of a work around or is it just a simple case of you can’t do both at the same time?
Andrew – I think you’re hosed. A pop-up flash might work. But it would be really close. I don’t have one on either 5D so I can’t say for sure.
After searching net for few days I found one nice little unit. iBT747(A) GPS Data Logger. It has 32Mb built in memory so it can store up to 150 000 gps points to it’s memory. And it has little button on it to “mark” some point if you want to make some place special. It’s VERY sensitive. It even works inside at least in our house. And we have concrete roof. There’s detachable battery. The battery is same that Nokia phones use BL-5C and it last quite a long time. You can set how it saves gps points. There’s three settings: speed, distance and time.
And about getting data from it… It comes with some program that’s not so good for tagging photos but I only use it to get the data out. I use Geosetter for tagging photos. It’s really nice software and best about it is that’s it is free.
And there’s controlling software for it works on Palm, WinCE, Mobile Phones supporting Java (J2ME)) and Desktops (Windows, MacOSX, Linux flavors). I tested it with my Nokia E71 phone and worked fine! I can download track from it using my phone over bluetooth and also erase memory also. And this is also free. http://bt747.free.fr/content/
So its quite cheap (around 60-70euroes). You can just put it on and cram it to pocket and forget it and it works just fine and when you have extra battery with you it works for weeks.
This is not paid commercial 😉
Somebody said the magic words, “extra batteries”. A large advantage of the PhotoGPS is the extremely long battery life. I believe I saw “many months” mentioned elsewhere. The enabling feature of the PhotoGPS is that it’s almost never on. The OP thought it was, and based on a normal GPS reciever operation, that was a reasonable assumption. When the PhotoGPS gets the flash signal it turns on and records 0.2 seconds of GPS signal and turns off.
Those familiar with GPS receiver specs will wonder how PhotoGPS can get a fix in 0.2 seconds. The simple answer is, it can’t. It only records the most time and location sensitive portion of the GPS satellites’ broadcasts. The portion that takes the satellites 30 seconds to transmit completely is not position sensitive, so is recorded continuously by the company’s server. When you run the software later it grabs the extra data from the server and then calculates all the fixes. The concept is similar to the Assisted GPS used in some cell phones.
So like all choices there are trade offs. You don’t get a complete track log of your trip or real time fixes, but don’t have to carry extra gear or batteries. And short of strapping your external GPS to your head, you’re not going to get much better antenna positioning than on the hot shoe (at least in landscape camera orientation :).
AC – I have a feeling your on the PhotoGPS team. Glad you dropped by and and filling the details of how this little guy works. I got a very strange thing that happened, maybe you call tell me what happened. I shot some photos with the PhotoGPS on my G9 in Bangkok on a layover while on my way to England a few weeks back. When I was in England I ran the software and it gave me a city in Turkey as my location. Very odd. But here is the very weird thing: My wife had just returned from there! And no there was no chip mix up or anything, as I had not even seen her yet. We crossed paths in the air! Totally a Twilight Zone moment!
Matt, thanks for your review from the perspective of a Mac user.
The photoGPS works great for me on a PC (… the interface could offer a few more options …) with my Canon raw files (1DMIII) whenever I have internet access and can load the GPS data BEFORE making any other changes to my keywords and meta-data in Lightroom.
However, when internet access is not available and I add keywords to my raw files in Lightroom, I noticed that my Lightroom entries (keywords, caption, …) are deleted when I tag these files with the photoGPS software. I tried writing my Lightroom metadata entries to the xmp files before doing the tagging, but without success.
I hope that I am doing something wrong, but unless I can resolve this, it seems a major limitation to the software. I did not notice these issues with JPG’s.
Did you experience this limitation with the Mac software?
Matt, I found the solution to using the PhotoGPS and a flash at the same time. The PhotoGPS can be connected to the camera’s synch socket via an adaptor and mounted on a simple flash bracket. I have a photo of the setup from Jobo if you’d like to see it.
Matt, thank you for the great review. I just wanted to ask you a couple of questions.
First, can I download the data to a folder without an active Internet connection an do the actual matching between photos and GPS data later?
Second, is the latest version of the software on Jobo’s website more stable or is it the same?
Good review Matt.Some concerns:This device needs to contact over TCP/IP to Jobo server to get GPS “fixes” How long is this company around to give this service. USB charging to a unknown battery capacity. TomTom GPS having an embedded battery solution also. Lucky I am living in Norway so they have to send me new unit every second year when they stop taking charge.Why not embed the GPS data in the RAW file. If the sidecar file get separated from the raw file the GPS information is lost.I am little concerned with putting 159 USD in this product.
Good review Matt.
Some concerns:
This device needs to contact over TCP/IP to Jobo server to get GPS “fixes” How long is this company around to give this service.
USB charging to a unknown battery capacity. TomTom GPS having an embedded battery solution also. Lucky I am living in Norway so they have to send me new unit every second year when they stop taking charge.
Why not embed the GPS data in the RAW file. If the sidecar file get separated from the raw file the GPS information is lost.
I am little concerned with putting 159 USD in this product.
Matt, thanks for the review. Espcially GPS tutorial…Cool !!
wow,the camera do well.the picture is very nice.http://www.newbatterycharger.co.uk/nied-digital-camera-battery-panasonic-lumix-dmc-zx1.htm