GeoTagging for Leica Q2

[levins]

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Hi, is anybody able to get geotagging work on Q2? I have paired my Q2 with Leica POTO app on my iPhone, tuned on Bluetooth. And I can see the satellite icon on camera which according to the manual means the GPS is turned on. But after import photos through Leica POTO, I don't see any geo infomation logged on the photos. Did I miss anything? Thanks. 

[Leica Guy]

It’s the FOTOS App. The last I read geo tagging will be part of an upcoming firmware update for the App. 

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[Jared]

The current firmware in the Q2 allows Geotagging if and only if the shutter is released hub Fotos.  Just having the satellite icon running won’t work.  You need to actually use Fotos to take the picture.

Hopefully, this will change with a future firmware release.  The current functionality is darn near useless.  Lots of other companies support tagging via an active Bluetooth connection to your cell phone, but so far not the case w/ Leica and the Q2.  Perhaps in a few months or a year.  

Best bet as a substitute right now... Take a pic w/ your cell phone as well, then cut and paste to a batch of Q2 photos.

[nicci78]

Still the same, geotagging through Foto app is just the most frustrating and unreliable stuff in the whole world. Just forget about it. 

If you really need geotagging, just buy a used SL typ 601 or use any Visoflex typ 020 compatible camera : T/TL/TL2, M10 series or X type 113. 

More recent cameras do not have build in GPS. So get over it. No more geotag.

[iRandom]

Please let us know if you consistently get correct location data. One problem that people, including myself, have had is that it stops geotagging after a while - even for pictures that are taken back-to-back. Another problem that some people have had is getting a stale or incorrect location tagged to the photos.

Edited July 8, 2021 by iRandom

[dnease]

Agree that it’s annoying that the geotagging times out with Fotos. One solution that I’ve wished for is an Apple Watch Fotos app. This would allow one to easily enable the connection without having to fish in a pocket for the phone.

Is anyone aware whether Leica plans to add an Apple Watch app?

[SergiyG]

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Did anyone try https://www.geotagphotos.net? It uses date and time to associate geolocation data in the post-processing phase.

[iRandom]

13 hours ago, SergiyG said:

Did anyone try https://www.geotagphotos.net? It uses date and time to associate geolocation data in the post-processing phase.

I've used it on a couple of vacations and did the tagging in LR. I see that they now have their own desktop app to do the tagging if you aren't using LR.

It did give me a days worth of tagged photos. My only issues were remembering to turn it on and being worried about the battery life since I was also using my phone for photos and other stuff. Both issues also apply to the Leica app. Battery life may no longer be a concern as phones as evolved and external batteries are now readily available.

I think I'll give it another try since I don't have much luck with the Leica app. Got one out of twenty photos tagged yesterday. The reason I stopped using Geotag Photos was that I've moved away from LR and hadn't taken the time to track down an app to tag the photos.

[iRandom]

I took a mile walk around the fire-roads in the neighborhood to test GeoTag Photos since I haven't used it in a while. Every photo I took now has geolocation info in the DNG. I used the iPhone app to setup the session, used the watch app to control the session and used the Mac app to tag the photos prior importing into Photos.

I don't mind the extra step to tag the photos prior to importing since my workflow already includes using FastRawViewer to do the initial pruning prior to going to Photos. Looks like the GeoTag Photos folks also have an app to apply the geolocation tagging to the photos in iCloud Photos Library if you import directly from an SD into Photos on your iPhone/iPad. There's also the option to apply the tagging in LR. I used this in the past and it was quick and easy.

[andrewj]

This may be out of date, by last year, when I was using the Fotos app to geotag, it was a frustrating experience.  It seemed that there would be an “offset” of about 100-200 feet from the actual location.  Which I thought was odd since the info from the Fotos app was coming from the iPhone, and the geo location from the iPhone for the photos taken with the iPhoto was accurate.  Instead, what’s easier is to use an app that generates a .gpx file that Lightroom then uses.

[JohnQ]

I have used GeoTag Photos Pro 2 for a number of years in many countries. I set the app to work with satellites and not the wireless network. Apart when on aircraft, I leave the app running day and night. It uses little power. You  don’t get instant geotagging so I to do this when I access my home computer. It’s easy and very reliable. Even if Leica improves the Fotos app I doubt I’ll use it for geotagging.

[kirkmc]

I just got a Q2M, and I don't understand how this is supposed to work. The manual says to connect the camera to the phone via Bluetooth, but when I make a connection, it's over wifi, even though Bluetooth is on, and the phone is paired. As for the rest, I haven't even gotten to the point where I can consider any options for geotagging, because to take photos again, I have to turn wifi off, so the camera disconnects from the phone. Can anyone help? 

[ianforber]

I’m no expert but I think the idea is that the first time you switch Fotos on to pair with your phone it uses wifi to establish the connection. Thereafter, when you want to connect the camera to the app, just switch on Bluetooth in the menu (and your phone, obviously) and it should connect automatically or at least appear in the list of known devices on the phone. 

If you have successfully paired the app to phone, have you tried switching wifi off on the phone to force it just to connect using Bluetooth? I only ever use the app to remote control the camera on a tripod so I have never bothered looking to see if it geotags or not. 

[iRandom]

I was doing some work recently using my lightbox. I took a series of 85 photos over a period of an hour or so. When I was downloading the photos I noticed that two separate sets of four ended up with geo data. There was nothing special about either of these sets of four. The camera wasn't moving. I wasn't power cycling it. It wasn't going to sleep. I wasn't changing settings aside from aperture and exposure comp. I was triggering using the self timer. I didn't have the app running on the phone. In fact, I was surprised to see any geo data at all since in the past I needed to have the app running on the phone. I do have the app set up to allow it to access location at all times.

[andrewj]

On 8/1/2021 at 1:28 PM, andrewj said:

This may be out of date, by last year, when I was using the Fotos app to geotag, it was a frustrating experience.  It seemed that there would be an “offset” of about 100-200 feet from the actual location.  Which I thought was odd since the info from the Fotos app was coming from the iPhone, and the geo location from the iPhone for the photos taken with the iPhoto was accurate.  Instead, what’s easier is to use an app that generates a .gpx file that Lightroom then uses.

To follow up on this, with the Q2 and the new Fotos app, the geotagging accuracy is a lot better/more consistent.  Not sure if this was related to using the new firmware or not.