Newbie, I'll admit! I am trying to extract gps data from a folder of camera images and save to a .gpx file. I only need date/time and lat/long data, but am having some difficulty with a command (Windows) line construction.
I have searhced the forum and see some similar posts, but nothing on point with what I am trying to do. Any help is appreciated, and I am willing to learn as much as I can. Thanks
This isn't what I would call a newbie question, since it involves some more tricky features of ExifTool.
This is explained in the reverse geotagging (https://exiftool.org/geotag.html#Reverse) section of the ExifTool geotagging documentation. Let me know if you have any problems after reading this.
- Phil
Hi Phil and thank you for the prompt response.
Based upon your recommendation for reading, I was able to create waypoints (using gpx_wpt.fmt) to a gpx file from some test images, and plot them on another piece of software. I used "exiftool.exe -gpsdatetime -p gpx_wpt.fmt TestPics > out4.gpx" and am trying to bring over the time, but only filename, lat and long show up.
The order of the times is not important.
In the end, I would like to be able to map images (not using google earth kml) with associated dates/time. It seems that creating a normal .gpx gives me a tracklog and that is not really what I am trying to do.
Any assistance would be appreciated.
Hi Andrew,
If your source images contain both GPSDateStamp and GPSTimeStamp, then ExifTool's GPSDateTime tag should be generated and written to the output GPX log. If both are not available, you can change "$gpsdatetime" in the format file to something else (like $datetimeoriginal for example), but the only problem here is that it should be in UTC, not local time.
- Phil
Thanks, Phil. The images have a gpstimestamp, but no gpsdatestamp. I guess I am not clear on how to change something in the format file as you suggested, ie, $datetimeoriginal - so I can capture another available tag. Is it in the command line syntax or is it done somewhere else. I am getting closer, thanks to your assistance. I really enjoy using exiftool and amazed at is flexibility.
-Andrew
Hi Andrew,
In the print format file (probably named "gpx.fmt"), replace the line
#[BODY] <time>$gpsdatetime</time>
with
#[BODY] <time>$datetimeoriginal</time>
using your favourite plain text editor.
- Phil
Thanks, Phil. I was able to make that change.
On a slightly related note, I am attempting to export the gpstimestamp data to a .csv, (as an alternative) and it seems that I need to adjust the gpstimestamp from the TAG value to correcly populate the csv filed. The GPS Time Stamp is reported as 15:47:30.22, and csv ignores the "15" and reports time as 47:30.2., so it must be the number of "places" in the time reported ??
I have tried different -d time formats in my command line to try and adjust the GPS Time Stamp output, but have had no luck. Would like to get to something like 15:47:30, which should correctly export to .csv, and is close enough for my purposes, but everything I have tried returns the same values as in the TAG.
Sorry for being such a noob, but I am a lot further along then I was a few days ago, thanks to your guidance and other posts in the Forum
Thanks
-Andrew
Hi Andrew,
I can't reproduce the problem you are having. Here is a console excerpt:
> exiftool a.jpg -gpstimestamp=15:47:30.22
1 image files updated
> exiftool a.jpg -gpstimestamp -csv
SourceFile,GPSTimeStamp
a.jpg,15:47:30.22
Is the problem just with the software you are using to import the CSV file? Unfortunately, the -d option doesn't work on time-only values, so this format can't be changed in ExifTool.
- Phil
I just tried opening Microsoft Excel and typing "15:47:30.22" into a cell, and it changed to "47:30.2".
Dumb. I wonder why it does this. It seems as if this is your problem.
I can change the format of the cell in Excel so it displays as "15:47:30", but the limited choice of formats doesn't let me display the fractional seconds like this.
Normally I don't get into answering questions about other software, but I had a few spare minutes to kill.
- Phil
Hi Phil,
I believe it has to do with PC regional settings which Excel uses. You should try to use "15:47:30,22" instead -or try to find options in Excel, to change this behaviour.
On my PC "15:47:30.22" works ok, but if I use "15:47:30,22", content changes to "47:30,2" -opposite of what's happening on your PC.
Bogdan
Phil
It appears to be an Excel issue, since I was able to export to another spreadsheet software correctly. So, with yor help, I am able to get the first phase of my project completed - thank you!!
-Andrew