Geotagging RAW with Eye-Fi Pro

[rlebel]

So I got all excited and bought two Efe-Fi Pro cards so I could use my RAW format Canon cameras with GeoTagging and, guess what, it appears only jpg files get geotagged! Is this "feature" in some fine print that I missed?

[hyachts]

I'm really not sure about this so I'm genuinely curious. Is there some standard for geo data on RAW files?

[rlebel]

EXIF data works with RAW files also. Exiftools will happily manipulate the EXIF data of RAW files, so Eye-Fi should be able to too. Remember that the hard part of geotagging happens during the upload, so this doesn't require software on the card.

[hyachts]

Remember that the hard part of geotagging happens during the upload, so this doesn't require software on the card.

Understood - I just didn't realize that RAW uses standard EXIF data. In that case, I agree, seems like the card should support geotags on RAW files. I wonder why it doesn't.

[DMN]

So geotagging does not work with Raw files?

[dgapilot]

Again, since it still wasn't answered, has the Eye-fi been updated to geotag when uploading RAW files?

[MadDawgJ]

RAW files do not have standard EXIF formats, that's why there is no support for Geo-Tagging RAW files. JPG has a standard, so location is always in the same place, RAW files do have a set location for in the EXIF for a location field, if you really want your RAW tagged shoot RAW + JPeg and copy the data from the JPeg into the RAW.

[kieran]

aw come on, then eye fi pro is really doing some deceptive advertising. i bought this specifically because it could "geotag" and "process raw files"

[Kyiakhalid]

aw come on, then eye fi pro is really doing some deceptive advertising. i bought this specifically because it could "geotag" and "process raw files"

Now that they have your money, their next card will fulfill this card's promise.

[chregu]

That's really too bad that this still doesn't work. I'm able to write GPS data into RAW (Nikon NEF) files with eg. http://www.carto.net/projects/photoTools/gpsPhoto/ which then are then perfectly fine read by Aperture 3.

Currently I have to put my D90 into taking RAW and JPEG at the same time if I want geolocated pictures (Aperture can handle that). I usually don't need the jpgs, so this is a waste of memory now for me.

Would be great, if this could be introduced in a next software update

[dmourati]

That's really too bad that this still doesn't work. I'm able to write GPS data into RAW (Nikon NEF) files with eg. http://www.carto.net/projects/photoTools/gpsPhoto/ which then are then perfectly fine read by Aperture 3.

Currently I have to put my D90 into taking RAW and JPEG at the same time if I want geolocated pictures (Aperture can handle that). I usually don't need the jpgs, so this is a waste of memory now for me.

Would be great, if this could be introduced in a next software update

We were talking about this yesterday in fact. I shoot the D90 and have been annoyed with Lightroom which while it can read both the RAW and JPG files doesn't merge the metadata. As to your wasted memory, it shouldn't be too much overhead relative to the large size of the RAW files to shoot small JPGs. I agree, though, this is annoying to not have full EXIF data in the RAW files. Standards.

[chregu]

So. I came up with my quick and dirty own solution using http://www.exiv2.org/ and the following script:

Code: Select all

#!/bin/bash
for j in `find . -name *.JPG`
do

   FILE=`echo $j | cut -f 2 -d "." `
   FILE=".$FILE"
   if [ -f $FILE.NEF ]
   then
      echo $FILE
      IFS=$'\n'
      A=` exiv2 -Pkyv $FILE.JPG  | grep GPSInfo`
      echo -n "" > meta.txt
      for i in $A
      do
         echo "set $i" >> meta.txt
      done
      exiv2 -m meta.txt $FILE.NEF
      mv $FILE.JPG ./oldjpegs/
   fi
done


It goes through all my jpegs, reads the GPS data and writes it to the NEF. And then moves the jpeg to some directory. Aperture does perfectly understand this and it solves my problems (it would still be nice, if Eye-Fi would directly tag my NEF files and I wouldn't have to go through this procedure, of course)

[probichaux]

Is this still a problem? I was rather hoping that Eye-Fi would have fixed it with new firmware, and I'm not sure the extra $50 for the Pro is worth it if they haven't.

[randhirv]

probichaux, currently only JPEG files are geotagged.

Please add your vote for geotagging RAW files in our Feature Requests forum.

Thanks,

Randhir

[Rob Jones]

Is this still a problem? I was rather hoping that Eye-Fi would have fixed it with new firmware, and I'm not sure the extra $50 for the Pro is worth it if they haven't.

Is there any answer to if this has been fix or not?

Rob

[Wildcat59]

This seems like an excellent work around, but I have not been able to get the batch file to work in a DOS window. Would you mind helping to explain the steps a little more.

Thanks in advance. This is very frustrating as I am sure it is to most of us that paid the extra money for the Pro card for RAW support only to find out that tagging isn't supported.

So. I came up with my quick and dirty own solution using http://www.exiv2.org/ and the following script:

Code: Select all

#!/bin/bash
for j in `find . -name *.JPG`
do

   FILE=`echo $j | cut -f 2 -d "." `
   FILE=".$FILE"
   if [ -f $FILE.NEF ]
   then
      echo $FILE
      IFS=$'\n'
      A=` exiv2 -Pkyv $FILE.JPG  | grep GPSInfo`
      echo -n "" > meta.txt
      for i in $A
      do
         echo "set $i" >> meta.txt
      done
      exiv2 -m meta.txt $FILE.NEF
      mv $FILE.JPG ./oldjpegs/
   fi
done


It goes through all my jpegs, reads the GPS data and writes it to the NEF. And then moves the jpeg to some directory. Aperture does perfectly understand this and it solves my problems (it would still be nice, if Eye-Fi would directly tag my NEF files and I wouldn't have to go through this procedure, of course)

[xvd]

This is as much a deal-breaker for me as having RAW support in the first place. I'm very discouraged about this company/product after seeing some of the astonishing product decisions: Your market is not photographers but photography professionals & enthusiasts. The vast majority of your market shoots RAW. How has this been given so little priority?

I'm all for soliciting feedback from your customers for product iteration, but don't forget about your potential customers as well: those who have been deterred from buying because you're not yet meeting their needs.

[hyachts]

The vast majority of your market shoots RAW.

Source?

[bibyfok]

To geotag RAW files here is what I do:

Install exiftool (Mac+PC)
Shoot in RAW+JPEG
Put all pictures in a folder
Run this command:

Code: Select all

exiftool -tagsfromfile %d%f.JPG -gps:all -ext EXTENSION PATH_TO_FOLDER

(Change "EXTENSION" with the raw extension of your file i.e. arw in case of a Sony camera, and "PATH_TO_FOLDER" to the directory of your pictures...)

Example:

Code: Select all

exiftool -tagsfromfile %d%f.JPG -gps:all -ext arw /Users/bibyfok/Desktop/Transit/Photos/Raw

Exiftool: http://www.sno.phy.queensu.ca/~phil/exiftool/
Thread: http://u88.n24.queensu.ca/exiftool/foru ... 868.0.html

[daniel.hoherd]

If Eye-Fi wants an elegant solution to this, they should simply convert all RAW formats into DNG, which has a standard metadata structure and is made by Adobe, the people who make AIR, which is what the Eye-Fi Center is programmed in.

Or simply put a txt file next to each RAW file that gives the lat/lon coordinates, or a CSV with all the info that would've been written had the file been a JPG. Or write a JPG file with the location data for every RAW file that is imported. Or create an XMP sidecar. Or something else useful rather than simply throwing that information away. Location information is not even stored in the logfile that's kept on the card.

I too am severely disappointed that I didn't see the fact that RAW files are not geotagged before I bought this Pro X2 card. Thank you people above who provided solutions to the problem. I guess I'll be shooting JPG+RAW from here on out, and then simply throwing away all those JPG files. It'll suck if my card fills up because I'm writing duplicate files, but hey, you gotta do what you gotta do.

Also, concerning RAW being used by the majority of the target market, I would expect that by the word Pro. I haven't shot JPG in years, and when I went looking for a camera I filtered snapsort.com by only cameras that shoot RAW.

[daniel.hoherd]

I dug around some more and found this additional syntax that is useful:

Code: Select all

exiftool -r -tagsfromfile %d%f.JPG -gps:all -city -province-state -country --ext jpg ~/Pictures/Eye-Fi

This processes all files except JPG files, so there's no need to declare the raw file extension, and it also brings over the expanded gps metadata... or the metametadata.

[daniel.hoherd]

I've found a workflow for RAW+DNG that I think gets the best use out of the Eye-fi. Assume the following:

#1 - Eye-fi doesn't geotag RAW
#2 - Eye-fi doesn't geotag Movies
#3 - RAW and Movies take a looooong time to transfer
#4 - Long transfers kill camera battery

Since I don't want to kill my camera battery, I always end up putting my Eye-fi card into the SD slot on my Mac. Since it's already in the computer, I might as well retrieve the files that Eye-fi can't handle, RAW and Movies. Then, since I've already taken those files, I set up my Eye-fi card to only transfer JPG files. Using all this together I can more quickly get my data off while still getting the best of the features from Eye-fi: quick transfer of geotagged images.

I have a shell script that moves all of the RAW and Movie files into the Pictures/Eye-fi folder. The JPG files go over the air and end up in the same folder. Then I use the snippet of code used above with some extra stuff around it to geotag each RAW file, delete the JPG file, and convert the RAW into a DNG file.

After coming up with this workflow I may not sell my Eye-fi card because now it's a lot less painful to use. The only problem left is the requirement to shoot in RAW+JPG.

[chicagonyc]

I try this on Windows for my Pentax PEF and JPG files and I get the following error:

Code: Select all

E:\DCIM>exiftool -r -tagsfromfile %d%f.JPG -gps:all --ext jpg 106_0716
Warning: No writable tags found - 106_0716/_IGP3101.JPG
Warning: No writable tags found - 106_0716/_IGP3102.JPG
    1 directories scanned
    0 image files updated
    2 image files unchanged

I dug around some more and found this additional syntax that is useful:

Code: Select all

exiftool -r -tagsfromfile %d%f.JPG -gps:all -city -province-state -country --ext jpg ~/Pictures/Eye-Fi

This processes all files except JPG files, so there's no need to declare the raw file extension, and it also brings over the expanded gps metadata... or the metametadata.

[daniel.hoherd]

Warning: No writable tags found - 106_0716/_IGP3101.JPG

Incidentally, I ran into that same problem today. I assumed it was because the JPG files contained no EXIF GPS data (`exiftool *.jpg | grep -i lat` returned nothing), and simply gave up. I'll give it another go tomorrow for sure and respond if I have any feedback. (I use EyeFi every. single. day. Thinking about selling it though after today.)

[daniel.hoherd]

Regarding the "Warning: No writable tags found" error message, I did not get that error again today. I can only assume that the problem was caused by the EyeFi center passively failing to geotag the images, either through host software failure or by network connectivity failure. Again, this is one of the reasons I wish that EyeFi did something less destructive with the log files, like writing XMP data that contained a list of AP's that were nearby during photographing or something else that would be useful in offline or failure type circumstances.

[MulderDSM]

Does anyone know how to make this into a OSX Automator action script that we could just drag the file onto the icon and it open up terminal and perform this command:

exiftool -r -tagsfromfile %d%f.JPG -gps:all -city -province-state -country --ext jpg ~/Pictures/Eye-Fi

[prabha]

The new beta version has support for geotagging RAW files using XMP sidecar files.

Download the 3.4.10 beta version from:

http://support.eye.fi/agent/download/3.4.10/Setup.exe
http://support.eye.fi/agent/download/3.4.10/Eye-Fi.dmg

-prabha

[MulderDSM]

I just downloaded beta, took 3 new pics RAW+JPEG and when I imported them into iPhoto, I had GPS data on both my JPEGs and my RAW files!

Thanks very much for this update!

[esophoria]

Took some pics with Eye-Fi Pro with my Fuji X10 (RAW) and tried the Ver 3.4.10 . Shot in RAW and was successfully imported into Aperture with RAW with GPS data

Yes!

Wish the speed of the Eye-FI Pro would be increased.

[MikeV]

More speed as in... write speed from camera to card? or transfer speed from card to computer/device?