I have (back when Aperture was Aperture 2) been talking about which solution would be the easiest when trying to pair your RAW files with GPS data from some sort of device. In the end, I decided to buy the PhotoGPS from Jobo only to discover that was not possible to embed your GPS data from the PhotoGPS into the RAW files in Aperture, because Aperture did not have XMP support.
Aperture seems to have XMP support now. At least that is what has been said. However, when importing the photos with the XMP files produced by the PhotoGPS application, Aperture still is unable to match the RAW files with the XMP files. Is it because the XMP files are truly XMP complaint? I don’t know.
Anyway, it would be nice if Jobo would allow me to export the data from the PhotoGPS as a GPS track file, instead of insisting on doing a match in the accompanying PhotoGPS application and thus letting me do the match in Aperture.
My Jobo PhotoGPS has been hibernating since May last year because of Aperture’s lack of XMP support, but it looks like I should look at a different GPS logging solution. Given Aperture’s requirements the best solutions would be one that can output a GPS track file and it has to be mac compatible. Any suggestions?

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As stated in my previous post, there’s the run-down on the Jobo PhotoGPS (available at Fototrade, Luxembourg for 155€).
Derrick Story has been testing the device with his Mac and concludes that it is not bad. Your work flow gets a bit more complicated, but until the cameras will have GPS built-in, this is one of the better solutions. Derrick did however only shoot JPG’s and not in RAW.

The Jobo software is very simple and easy to use and does a decent job of helping you sort out the geotagging of your photos. As stated in the manual for the Jobo software, the geotagging information is written directly to JPG photos and to a XMP sidecar file when it comes to RAW files.

This is all good if you are shooting in JPG format, as the file can be imported into any of the major software programmes (Aperture, Adobe Lightroom, iPhoto).

Shooting in RAW is more complicated. If you have a setup with Adobe Lightroom, you are fine. The XMP format was invented by Adobe, so the format is of course supported. When it comes to Aperture of iPhoto, you are (currently) out of luck, as these two programmes don’t support the XMP sidecar files. I haven’t been able to find any third party solution to the problem either.

So, if you are shooting RAW and is using either Aperture or iPhoto for your photos, don’t buy the Jobo PhotoGPS as you won’t be able to import the information into these programmes.

I have submitted a ticket at Apple regarding this, and I suggest you do the same Maybe Jobo could come up with a solution, but I suppose they are more concerned with the Windows market…

UPDATE: as suggested by Derrick Story, you could go with a work flow that involves shooting RAW+jpg and then stack the versions together in Aperture… I personally find that a bit too heavy a lifting…

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Fraser Speirs does a new and again improved version of FlickrExport for iPhoto as well as for Aperture.

Beta is available.

Technorati Tags: apple, mac, photography, photos, aperture

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