Problem with Garmin 60CSX and Geosetter for geotagging my pictures

[Sgt_Strider]

I bought a Garmin 60CSX earlier in the year and brought it with me to China. It has done a good job for me so far in geotagging my picture. However, recently there have been a problem with geotagging my pictures. I'm not quite sure why the problem is occurring. It seems like when I use Geosetter to geotag the pictures, the pictures seem out of place. In the sense that where the coordinates don't quite match up the location of the pictures. I couldn't figure it out why until now. I think it's because of the DST thing. I'm not sure if the 60CSX has the newest DST settings installed in the firmware. I'm still using the stock firmware. In Geosetter, I initally used UTC-5, but then tried out UTC-5 +1 DST. The weird thing is that you would think that only one of those settings would work. However, it seems like all of my photos from 9/13/08 and onward would need the +1 DST compensation while the ones before are ok with the UTC -5 setting. I've checked the GPS and the DST setting is set to "Auto". Right now I think the best way to check things out is to have a program that list every single coordinate and time from the GPX file, but I'm not sure which program will do this. Can someone basically tell me if there is something wrong with the DST setting? Does anyone here know when was the start of DST before the last changed that went into law at around 2006 or 2007?

[+EScout]

My understanding is that GPSrs record their tracks in UTC. All my Garmins and Magellans do. Any adjustment you make only affects the displayed time when you look at the GPSr.

 

What you set that affects your geotagging is the time in your camera, and the time zone in Geosetter. In the USA, DST used to end last Sunday in October, so that should not be your problem.

 

I regularly check my camera's time and sync it. If I were doing international travel I would set my camera's time to UTC and not worry about time zones.

 

I think your Garmin can use the program: G7ToWin

This will show all the points in your track, with the time stamps for each.

Edited October 21, 2008 by EScout

[Sgt_Strider]

My understanding is that GPSrs record their tracks in UTC. All my Garmins and Magellans do. Any adjustment you make only affects the displayed time when you look at the GPSr.

 

What you set that affects your geotagging is the time in your camera, and the time zone in Geosetter. In the USA, DST used to end last Sunday in October, so that should not be your problem.

 

I regularly check my camera's time and sync it. If I were doing international travel I would set my camera's time to UTC and not worry about time zones.

 

I think your Garmin can use the program: G7ToWin

This will show all the points in your track, with the time stamps for each.

 

You do know that DST was changed not too long ago? Perhaps the unit adjusted to DST a bit early? I'm not quite sure how to resolve this problem.

 

I just used the program to open up the GPX file. How do I knoww hich point was the very first point that the GPS recorded? It list the UTC time as 04:00:28 for the very first entry at the top. What time is that in EST (Boston)? 12 AM?

Edited October 23, 2008 by Sgt_Strider

[Sgt_Strider]

bump!

[+EScout]

What time is in your camera? That is really the only time you can change. You then set the program to match the time zone of your camera.

For example, if your camera is set to local time now, Easter Daylight Time, your setting in the program is UTC -4 (or EST: UTC-5 with the DST box checked.) Uncheck the "Consider Daylight Savings Time" box and read the warning that pops up.

 

The program Geosetter, subtracts 4 hours (assuming you are using EDT in your camera) from your track log time (UTC) to sync the photos. After daylight time ends in Nov, if you change the time in your camera to local EST, then you will use UTC-5 in the syncing program.

[+julianh]

What time is in your camera? That is really the only time you can change. You then set the program to match the time zone of your camera.

Handy Hint for geo-tagging photos:

 

Take a picture of your GPSr screen, turned on, with a good fix, showing the GPSr system time and date. Now you will have an image which simultaneously shows the exact GPSr time (in whatever time zone it is set to) AND the corresponding camera time embedded in the image meta-data (in its time zone). Use this image for setting the time delta in your geo-referencing application, and your photos should be located spot on.

 

(For what its worth, when I am travelling, I leave my camera and my GPSr set to my home time zone, rather than resetting to the local time zone of where ever I happen to be. That way, my camera and GPSr stay pretty well in sync at all times; the only slight error being that the camera's built-in clock gains a few seconds each month. I only need to be careful to do the time syncing every once in a while, and really only if I want REALLY accuarately referenced photos.)

 

Hope this helps!

[+EScout]

What time is in your camera? That is really the only time you can change. You then set the program to match the time zone of your camera.

Handy Hint for geo-tagging photos:

 

Take a picture of your GPSr screen, turned on, with a good fix, showing the GPSr system time and date. Now you will have an image which simultaneously shows the exact GPSr time (in whatever time zone it is set to) AND the corresponding camera time embedded in the image meta-data (in its time zone). Use this image for setting the time delta in your geo-referencing application, and your photos should be located spot on.

This will work, the only problem being around the time changes from DST to Standard time and back. This is because some GPSrs have automatic changes, using the old standard dates of change, and some allow you to imput the actual change dates.

 

Since GPSr track points always use UTC, the only important time to know is what you have in your camera and how far it is from UTC. So, you can put any time (zone) in your camera, as long as you use the correct offset from UTC in your tagging program. I always sync my camera's time before every photo session because I like accurate tag positions.

[+alanfreed]

You can even take it one step more geeky... I have a Nikon D300, and I hook my Garmin 60CSx directly to it. It automatically records the data into the image's EXIF.

[+alanfreed]

*deleting duplicate post*

Edited October 24, 2008 by alanfreed

[Sgt_Strider]

Here's an update for you guys. I no longer have the camera with me, but when I check the EXIF of my photos, it appears to be correct and taken at the right time. Something has to be wrong with Geosetter or that I'm not selecting the right timezone.

 

I want to go down the G7towin route right now as this will ensure that I have an absolutely accurate tagging process. Basically I'll just use the picture's EXIF time to match the time on the GPX file and then I'll take the coordinates and punch it in manually. The problem is that I don't know how to interpret the information from the GPX file. How do I know where the first coordinates is? It list the UTC time as 04:00:28 for the very first entry at the top. What time is that in EST (Boston)? 12 AM?

 

What is GPSr?

[+coggins]

It list the UTC time as 04:00:28 for the very first entry at the top. What time is that in EST (Boston)? 12 AM?

the convertion depends on the J day of the reading. Boston uses EST and EDT depending on the date. The current offset is: UTC/GMT -4 hours, so using 04:00:28 Zulu, the local time would be 00:00:28 EDT (28 seconds after midnight).

What is GPSr?

Global Positioning Satellite Receiver

Edited October 25, 2008 by coggins

[+Prime Suspect]

Here's an update for you guys. I no longer have the camera with me, but when I check the EXIF of my photos, it appears to be correct and taken at the right time. Something has to be wrong with Geosetter or that I'm not selecting the right timezone.

 

I want to go down the G7towin route right now as this will ensure that I have an absolutely accurate tagging process. Basically I'll just use the picture's EXIF time to match the time on the GPX file and then I'll take the coordinates and punch it in manually. The problem is that I don't know how to interpret the information from the GPX file. How do I know where the first coordinates is? It list the UTC time as 04:00:28 for the very first entry at the top. What time is that in EST (Boston)? 12 AM?

 

What is GPSr?

Give the GPicSync program a try. I downloaded Geosetter, and found it ridiculously overcomplicated, for what should be a pretty simple operation. With GPicSync, you just select the folder with the picture, the GPX file to use, and click a button. About the only thing you have to adjust is the UTC offset (if your camera was set to local time).

 

If your pictures span multiple days (and therefore multiple GPX files), you can drop all the GPX files into G7ToWin, save the result as a single GPX file. You can then use that GPX file to tag all the photos.

Edited October 25, 2008 by Prime Suspect

[Sgt_Strider]

It list the UTC time as 04:00:28 for the very first entry at the top. What time is that in EST (Boston)? 12 AM?

the convertion depends on the J day of the reading. Boston uses EST and EDT depending on the date. The current offset is: UTC/GMT -4 hours, so using 04:00:28 Zulu, the local time would be 00:00:28 EDT (28 seconds after midnight).

What is GPSr?

Global Positioning Satellite Receiver

 

The date of the log was September 13th, 2008. I'm guessing it was on EST then?

[+EScout]

What Prime Suspect suggests. GPicSync is easy to use and works well. Geosetter has a bunch of features, but the only real useful one is letting you set the size of the photos when you create a KMZ file with your track and embedded photos. Your KMZ file will then be a reasonable size. With GPicSync, first resize your photos in bulk using a program like Photoscape.

[Sgt_Strider]

I'm currently analysing the information from the GPX file through G7towin and there are a lot of stuff that doesn't make much sense to me. First of all, it doesn't matter what time I set the Garmin 60CSX to right? So the GPS will record the time in UTC format which means that regardless of the settings that I use, regardless of where I am on the earth, regardless of the day that I was in, the GPS will always record the correct time for UTC timezone right?

[+coggins]

It list the UTC time as 04:00:28 for the very first entry at the top. What time is that in EST (Boston)? 12 AM?

the convertion depends on the J day of the reading. Boston uses EST and EDT depending on the date. The current offset is: UTC/GMT -4 hours, so using 04:00:28 Zulu, the local time would be 00:00:28 EDT (28 seconds after midnight).

What is GPSr?

Global Positioning Satellite Receiver

 

The date of the log was September 13th, 2008. I'm guessing it was on EST then?

Looks like it was EDT then/there.

The EDT TZ reverts back to EST in November.

 

START JDAY: 257

START TIME ZULU: 0400

START CALENDAR DATE: 13 SEP 2008

257/0400-257/0401

[+coggins]

In the sense that where the coordinates don't quite match up the location of the pictures. I couldn't figure it out why until now. I think it's because of the DST thing. I'm not sure if the 60CSX has the newest DST settings installed in the firmware. I'm still using the stock firmware. Can someone basically tell me if there is something wrong with the DST setting? Does anyone here know when was the start of DST before the last changed that went into law at around 2006 or 2007?

I think that you will need to run the webupdater to get the fix. This was corrected in an update some time back.

 

So the GPS will record the time in UTC format which means that regardless of the settings that I use, regardless of where I am on the earth, regardless of the day that I was in, the GPS will always record the correct time for UTC timezone right?

 

Yes, it should be recording it's timestamps as in the following format:

<time>2008-09-13T04:00:28Z</time>