GPS Altitude for Nikon Coolpix AW110

[jamesl]

Hello all,

I recently purchased a Nikon Coolpix AW110, which not only has a built-in GPS, but also a barometer and a compass, which I find useful for determining the direction I'm pointing at, especially when taking photos of mountain peaks.

Everything seems to work as advertised, except that when I examine the exif data using exiftool, the altitude tags yield:
GPS Altitude                    : undef
GPS Altitude                    : 0 m Above Sea Level

However, the altitude does display correctly on the screen, both when taking a photo and when displaying recorded photos.
Has anyone else experienced this problem with the AW110?

James

[Phil Harvey]

Hi James,

Typically the barometer altitude information is not stored as GPSAltitude.  If you send me a few AW110 images with known altitudes, I'll see what I can do about decoding this information.  My email is philharvey66 at gmail.com

- Phil

Edit: Also, change the display between meters and feet for one of the pictures (and tell me what the display units are set to).  There are other models for which the altitude has been decoded, and I suspect they may also record this setting.

[jamesl]

Thanks for the prompt response Phil.

I'll send a couple of images by email as you proposed.

James

[Phil Harvey]

Sorry for the delay in responding -- I was driving to Sudbury (I'm on shift underground tomorrow).

ExifTool already extracts the barometer "Altitude" reading from the images you sent.

Use this command to extract only the altitude:

exiftool -altitude FILE

- Phil

[jamesl]

Many thanks for your help Phil.

I did look through the exiftool output for other forms of altitude data, and just now I tried the -altitude option, but the Altitude tag didn't appear. Maybe it's because I'm running an old version of exiftool (9.12). I'll upgrade to the latest version and check again.

James

[jamesl]

I upgraded to exiftool 9.74 and the Altitude field does now show up.

Thanks again for your help.

James