S5II Geo Tagging

[Threlly]

Ok,

Just tried the android Lumix Sync app.

Via wifi It connects to the camera but insists it's either remote controlling the S5II or not.

If not I lose the geo-tagging GPS functions !!!!!

That's all I need from the app, I'm not interested in remote control at this point.

Also, via bluetooth if I power the camera off, and back on as I'm shooting on the move I have unlock the phone, WAIT for the app to connect, then and only then will I get a BT connection and GPS.

I have to engage with the app EVERY.... SINGLE.... TIME....

Why can't the camera/phone just connect when they see each other and start syncing the GPS info in the background???

Utterly, utterly frustrating.

Cheers,

Gary.

 

[Jan.Wedekind]

Huh, I haven’t used this in a while - but doesn’t surprise me. It did surprise me positively when found out that the OM-1 app works exactly as you wish for: I connect it once, turn on geo-tagging and it just keeps connection via BT for the rest of the day.

Doesn’t help you of course so totally share your frustration. This could be useful for @Richard Wong thread!

 

[Michael_too]

I tried this on the S5 (and I would expect it to work very similar to the S5ii) and an android phone and what I noticed:
- The camera must be connected via bluetooth to the phone, not wifi.
- When the camera turns off, and then turns on again while the phone's screen is off, the camera searches for a bluetooth connection but will only find it when I make the screen of the phone light up. I don't need to bring the app to the foreground but also note that I don't explicitly close the app. I just start the app once and then navigate back to the home screen.
- As long as the camera is on, it's ok if the phone screen goes black, then the connection remains.
- It may also take quite some time before a gps lock is acquired, so quickly turning on the camera and directly making a picture might not get an accurate location anyway.
- I can even take the battery out of the camera and back in and the connection will be restored, as long as I wake-up the phone.

So yeah, it's a bit annoying I have to explicitly wake-up the phone to re-establish the connection. I think it might very well be a limitation of how android works. It would not surpise me if when the phone loses a bluetooth connection, android stops searching for the connection to save power, especially when the screen is off also. Not sure if it would be the same on Apple. The possibility to have an app force the OS to keep searching for a connection may very well be blocked by Google/Apple to avoid battery drain due to ill behaved apps. But then again, based on Jan's experience it might also be an oversight of Panasonics app developers.

 

[Michael_too]

Tried it again today and now it worked as it should, connection was automatically re-established even with the phone screen dimmed. I also noticed (and have noticed that with other devices to) that to establish the connection the devices must be quite close together. Once the connection is there, a larger distance is ok. And it may still take several seconds to re-establish. All in all not the most robust functionality.

 

[Threlly]

Tried it again today and now it worked as it should, connection was automatically re-established even with the phone screen dimmed. I also noticed (and have noticed that with other devices to) that to establish the connection the devices must be quite close together. Once the connection is there, a larger distance is ok. And it may still take several seconds to re-establish. All in all not the most robust functionality.

That's interesting, I'll try it again. I'll be wandering around quite a few Japanese cities/prefectures in my next trip and the least amount of "faffing" around there is the better.
Cheers.

 

[CharlesH]

Why can't the camera/phone just connect when they see each other and start syncing the GPS info in the background???

Yes, I can agree this is the least attractive feature of Panasonic cameras.
I have a Sony and it works just the way you would want. As long as you have not unloaded the "Imaging Edge" app and leave it in the background, it will geo tag as soon as you turn on the camera. And if you turn off the camera a message pops up on the iPhone that syncing has stopped.
With Lumix cameras you need to start the Bluetooth sync every time you turn on the camera. A main pain for me is that I usually forget to do it. And it won't re-sync unless the app is active on the screen. (Once synced the app can be in the background and you can do other things on the phone, but if the camera turns off you need to sync again.)

Dear Panasonic, please fix this.