Geotagging Nikon P7000 RAW files (NRW)

PhotoLinkerI tend to geotag most of my photos. This way I have location information with the photo for future reference. It's also a neat feature that you might exploit when creating photo albums with e.g. iPhoto. The GPS coordinates in the images creates the option to create maps in iPhoto albums.

I use geotagging in two different ways. I use the jf Geocoding plugin in Lightroom and the PhotoLinker application. Both have their (dis)advantages. Something I won't go into in this post.

The jf Geocoding plugin works with all images in Lightroom since it uses the xmp sidecards, and/or the LR database to store the information. The PhotoLinker application on the other end is able to write the GPS coordinates directly into the (Nikon) RAW file. This way, the information is stored inside the image. Downside is that you modify your original RAW file. Not knowing exactly what else is modified or corrupted might be discouraging, but I've been using the PhotoLinker application (and it's predecessor GPSPhotoLinker) a couple of years now with no problems whatsoever. So I guess it's safe.

Since I got my Nikon P7000 camera I also want to add the GPS coordinates in the P7000 format (.NRW extension). Problem is that the PhotoLinker software won't recognize the format (read: extension).

Altering the extension to e.g. .NEF allows you to use PhotoLinker to geotag your files. Also, when you change the extension and import the 'converted' NRW files into Lightroom, everything (seems) to work properly.

Changing the extension of a RAW file might not be problematic at this moment, but I'm not sure what the differences are between the NEF and NRW format. So you might run into problems later on when e.g. Nikon makes some changes through firmware updates. So my advise is (if your going to use PhotoLinker) to do the following (BUT USE AT YOUR OWN RISK!!!):

1. Copy the original photos to a temporary location on your HD.
2. Rename the extension of the copied photos to .NEF (with e.g. "A Better Finder Rename").
3. Add the GPS location with PhotoLinker.
4. Rename the extension of the altered photos back to .NRW (with e.g. "A Better Finder Rename").
5. Import the photos in Lightroom and check if everything works / looks properly.
6. To be sure, you should store the original (with NO GPS info) photos somewhere as well. Just to be sure.

This (seems) to work for me.

I hope the author of the PhotoLinker tool will add the Nikon NRW RAW format in a future release of PhotoLinker.

UPDATE: I contacted the author of the program, and he told me that Nikon NRW RAW support will be added in the next version of the software.