The location coordinates are in the EXIF data in the fields
GPS Latitude and
GPS Longitude, and again in
GPS Position. As with previous models, the altitude is listed in three fields:
Absolute Altitude : +2175.35
Relative Altitude : +0.00
GPS Altitude : 2175.3 m Above Sea Level
In many earlier models these data were incorrectly named and confusing;
Relative Altitude was height above the takeoff point derived principally from the barometer assuming a standard atmosphere, while both
Absolute Altitude and
GPS Altitude were altitude MSL based on the barometric pressure, again assuming a standard atmosphere. GPS altitude data, despite the name
GPS Altitude, was not used or listed. The
Mavic 2 firmware was changed, in response to numerous complaints about things like negative altitudes when flying near sea level, to put the actual GPS altitude MSL in the
GPS Altitude field. They also put it in the Absolute Altitude field, presumably because it is generally much more accurate than the barometric altitude, but that was still somewhat confusing.
That issue, and the
Mavic 2 fix was discussed in the following threads:
Mavic 2 Pro flight and pictures excellent, but image EXIF data shows altitude was a bit over 115 million meters...which would be impressive if true. Lat/Lon also consistently off by about 3/4 mile. This matters when feeding pics into Pix4D photogrammetry software. Anyone else check their EXIF...
mavicpilots.com
A number of people have noted that the latest firmware has changed the EXIF altitude data, but DJI did not specify exactly what had changed. I guessed that it was what I had been bugging them about – namely that the altitude data fields were mis-labeled, e.g. : GPS Altitude Ref ...
mavicpilots.com
Now the bad news - it appears that the Mini has the old EXIF definitions, i.e. both
Absolute Altitude and
GPS Altitude are barometric MSL. That's clear from looking at a couple of EXIF datasets, firstly where the photo was taken without a GNSS lock and secondly where there was a GNSS lock but noting that the GPS Altitude field doesn't correspond with the actual recorded GPS alitude:
No GNSS lock at 2260 m MSL:
GPS Altitude Ref : Above Sea Level
Absolute Altitude : +2173.80
Relative Altitude : +0.00
GPS Altitude : 2173.7 m Above Sea Level
GNSS lock at 2260 m MSL:
GPS Altitude Ref : Above Sea Level
Absolute Altitude : +2175.35
Relative Altitude : +0.00
GPS Altitude : 2175.3 m Above Sea Level
Note that the altitudes listed are wrong, but correct relative to a the current atmospheric pressure in a standard atmosphere, in this case 87 meters (285 ft) low.
As a result the absolute and GPS altitude fields are basically useless - if you want anything approaching useable numbers you will have to extract GPS altitude from the flight DAT file.
What kind of viewer are you using? Mavic series should by default save GPS data in original Jpg EXIF files.
