Review: PhotoLinker

As part of reviewing the i-Got-U GT-120, I searched for a Mac solution to handle geotagging of photos. There are lots of options on the Mac. I looked at many of them and GPSPhotoLinker worked quite well and was free to top it off. In addition, the interface was very Mac like. I liked what I saw, so I asked the developer for a copy of PhotoLinker, GPSPhotoLinker’s big brother, to review.

GPSPhotoLinker and PhotoLinker share a main purpose and that is to geotag photos. In both programs, you load in your track files. (Hint, create a folder on your hard drive and put all your track files there and keep them so that you can reference them later. Both programs link to the files and don’t copy them.) Both programs do their basic job well in that you load your tracks and pictures and basically click “geotag”. If all you need is geotagging, then I have to recommend the free GPSPhotoLinker as it worked well in my testing.

PhotoLinker starts adding bells and whistles that may make it worth $50 to prosumer or professional photographers.

PhotoLinker adds:

• Cleaner interface. The basic PhotoLinker view puts the geotagging console hidden so that what you see are your pictures, a map, and tags associated with the picture. GPSPhotoLinker confuses the interface by having the first column be the area to geotag.
• Ability to add EXIF tags outside of the standard geotagging information such as keywords, description, people shown, and event.
• More customization in view options.

I put both products through some tests and the rest of this review will focus on the paid PhotoLinker product.

Pros

• Easy to use.
• Works well.
• Clean user interface; very Mac like.

  There isn’t a lot to say as it does what it is supposed to do and does it simply.

Cons

• Map choices aren’t all that useful; Google and the more mainstream maps aren’t options. The developer has indicated on his forums that this is due to licensing costs with the mainstream vendors.
• No direct downloading of iGotU data. (The open source iGotU software is GPL licensed which would make it impossible without separate arrangements to integrate it.)
• No AppleScript support. Normally I wouldn’t care, but when my end goal is to get geotagged files into iPhoto, automation would be most welcome.
• Cost is a bit high.

Overall impressions

I really like the concept of geotagging my photos. I don’t travel all that much, but anticipate taking vacations in the future with my family (have you ever travelled with a 2 year old? It isn’t the most pleasant experience.) For basic geotagging needs, the free GPSPhotoLinker will handle all my needs. I can’t justify the $50 for PhotoLinker for a few user interface improvements. I don’t see myself using additional EXIF tagging, so that feature isn’t a key to me. PhotoLinker will have to add some real compelling features to justify the cost; I can’t think of any features right now, so I’m not much help to the developer. I’d be more than happy to take another look at PhotoLinker when improvements are made to see if my recommendation against buying stands.

GPSPhotoLinker Screenshot	PhotoLinker Screenshot