I purchased a TG-6 since it has GPS, my expectation being that, with GPS turned ON my uploaded observations would include Location data.
However, after a good bit of trial and error and searching, I still can’t get location data to populate for photos that I upload to iNaturalist. Record GPS location is turned ON for the camera. I’m using Olympus Workspace to move photos from the camera to my hard drive.
Can anyone provide details about how to upload TG-6 photos as observations that include Location data?
I have the same camera, leaving a reply so you couId remind me in a few days. Btw, there couId be a separate foIder for Iocation data on the camera directory. Is there any olympus documentation on the web?
I have the TG-4 and in my experience it can take a while for it to get your location and also save accurate locations to my photos, so I tend to just leave it off. I think the issue here is either a) coordinates were never saved to the image or b) the coordinates were stripped somehow between your camera and iNat.
When you look at a photo on the camera, I *thinkI it displays coordinates if they were saved to the image. Unfortunately I lost the silly proprietary charging cable for my camera so I can’t turn it on.
It would be good to check the photos on your hard drive and see if they have GPS data in them.
I do not have an Olympus, but the GPS data is stored in the photo in the JPG. Unless you use a RAW or any other format, the data is stored in a separate file with the same filename. When copying a file, you can check the file has all the Exif information (which store all the camera information including the date time and GPS. This can usually be stripped by enable stripping “private information” like the photographer’s name and the GPS data…
make sure the the GPS icon on the bottom left side of the screen is solid and not blinking. I find it helps if I turn the camera on and leave it on the roof of my car for a minute or so and let it triangulate while I get ready. once its locked on it usually won’t lose GPS unless you get into a deep valley or into a building.
If that isn’t the issue it may be the software you are using… I bulk upload straight from the SD card.
I also have a TG-6 and I’ve noticed that it often takes quite a while for it to figure out the GPS coordinates. If I take several photos of something, often only the last 1 or 2 photos will have the GPS coordinates encoded in the JPEG. I would suggest turning on the camera at least 10 seconds before you start taking photos, or if it’s something that’s likely to run away, take an initial photo immediately and then wait 10 seconds and take another photo for GPS coordinates.
I have a TG-4. It takes it a long time to acquire a GPS location, and when it does the location is sometimes very inaccurate (I live in coastal california and once got a location in Arizona from the thing).
Not only that, it caches the last location for an hour or so; meaning that once it finds a location you can turn the camera off, move to a new location and take a new picture, and you will probably get the same location as before.
I have a TG-6, and after much trial and error, I’ve now given up on using the GPS of this camera (or more properly, waiting for a GPS location to be derived, since I still keep it active just in case it actually gets a fix before I move on). It takes anywhere from ten seconds to over a minute for the camera to stop blinking the GPS symbol on the video screen, indicating it has a fix, even when the GPS “log” is turned on (switch on top of the camera). It takes even longer if you don’t have the “log” turned on.
It is much faster, and more accurate, for me to take a GPS point with my Garmin Etrex, and then manually enter it into the iNat location (there are programs to automatically associate the two, but I haven’t tried them yet).
But if you don’t have a stand-alone GPS, or don’t want to enter it manually, then you must wait until the GPS icon stops blinking before taking your pix. Only then will the pix have a GPS location in it.
Here’s an analysis I’ve done of the accuracy of iNat locations:
The main problem with camera and smartphone positions is that they don’t actually keep a running GPS track sampled every second. They take samples much more infrequently, so that there is always the possibility of an “initialization” error for each fix.
I have a Sony DSCHX400V and it is fairly quick to lock GPS, fast enough that I never bother to check if it’s fixed a position and roughly 1 in 100 observations doesn’t get a fix or is noticeably off by greater than 5m. However, it is a bridge camera so has to mechanically push out it’s lens and go through it’s “start up process”, which is frustratingly slow. I mention this, because maybe my solution for this problem could be the same for the TG-6 GPS fix…
Once started up, I turn off the lcd preview panel and then I only need to turn it back on and I’m instantly ready for a pic, GPS locked and loaded (assuming can see sats etc)… So while I am actively looking for or expecting observations, my camera is on and lcd off. It doesn’t use significantly more battery than keeping it off and starting up each time I want a photo, and in fact it was “keeping it on but battery draining too quickly” that got me to experiment with having the lcd panel off, and it turns out it is the biggest drain on the battery!
Of course if I am not expecting obs then I still have to go through the startup and wait for GPS fix, but it is definitely more the startup than the GPS fixing that slows mine.
There’s two ways of adding location data on the TG-6. If you use the “Log” switch on top of the camera, it stores GPS info as a separate file. You then use an app (such as the OI.Track app) to apply locations to the images.
If you turn on the “Record GPS location” feature in the menu, the location info should be added to the image directly.
The first method seems to be more reliable, as the location is being constantly queried, where the second method only samples as a picture is taken, so if it fails to get the location in time, it’s not recorded. The flip side of this is that the first method drains your battery faster.
I’ve worked around this by using a smartphone app to generate the location log instead of the camera. Unfortunately this doesn’t work underwater when I obviously don’t take my phone with me, so I use method 2 to record location info and just accept that I’ll have to manually set locations for 10-20% of my images.
This discussion has ben quite useful to me, I have been planning to buy an Olympus TG-6 and have always been curious on the effectiveness of the GPS system and how I might streamline my observation uploads if I were to use that as my documenting tool.
Thanks all for the replies! As it turns out, I just learned of these replies via email iNaturalist Community Forum, so my response is a bit delayed.
The TG-6 is now successfully adding GPS to the JPEG photos, although I can’t document exactly what steps have led to this success (reminds me of the old Windows OS days where you’d make changes, reboot and repeat until things started to work :-)
I have LOG turned off, since it reportedly takes more battery power and for now I’m just getting familiar with the camera around the neighborhood. Regarding satellite acquisition time (as mentioned, the satellite graphic must not be blinking), keeping the A-GPS data updated can significantly speed up satellite acquistion.
The last step that I completed before the GPS started working was to set the camera date and time via the OI Share app on my iPhone, but it’s likely that many iterations through all of the menus resulted in the magic combination of settings that worked.
On an unrelated note, the macro features on this camera are outstanding! When taking a macro shot, make sure to change the focus mode to AF Super Macro (or the manual equivalent): press OK then arrow down to focus mode and select the focus mode.
I’m used to working with a HEAVY reflex/lens and geotagging my photos against a GPS track, but I’ve recently also acquired a TG-6 to have a lightweight camera with me at all times, even on grueling uphill climbs. Since reading your post, I’ve done a few test runs and can confirm that the geologging works perfectly and is spot on in tests against my manual geotagging. And the macro is quite amazing for such a small, easy-to-carry, easy-to-manage camera. I think we’re going to have a whole lot of adventures together!
I should point out that I mostly work in areas where GPS has challenges, such as canyons and mountain slopes that restrict the view of the sky, and areas with a number of boulders that produce multi-path error.
Presumably, if one is in flat terrain, with no trees to obstruct the view of the satellites, the GPS on the camera should work much better.