GPS is coming to a hotshoe near you

[Nikolai Sklobovsky]

Photo GPS device from Jobo
http://www.cameratown.com/news/news.cfm/hurl/id%7C3758 (http://www.cameratown.com/news/news.cfm/hurl/id%7C3758)

My biggest concern would be only about software to handle RAW files (at least via XMP)

[scott kirkpatrick]

The device works by grabbing GPS information when stimulated by the flash signal, so you have to set flash on. OK, I can do that. It takes a few seconds to wake up and find itself, so it will be confused if you start right out with a spray of shots. (I don't do that, so again, OK.) But then the information is only synched up with the camera info once both the images in the camera and the info in the GPS have been downloaded separately and compared in JOBO's software. At best the camera and the GPS will be within a minute or so of each other, but unless you set your camera to UTC, how do they know which is the home time zone of the camera? I think this will be a great function once there is a little more communication between camera and gps.

scott

[Sean DeMerchant]

Photo GPS device from Jobo
http://www.cameratown.com/news/news.cfm/hurl/id%7C3758 (http://www.cameratown.com/news/news.cfm/hurl/id%7C3758)

My biggest concern would be only about software to handle RAW files (at least via XMP)

Looks like a fun toy.

My biggest concern would be having the camera meter incorrectly for neophyte users as the camera will think a flash is mounted an may change the exposure. Okay, honestly the real issue is I could not use flash with it (except using wireless where it could be on the second channel).

As to RAW, just run it against a directory of RAWS converted to JPEGs with intact EXIF and you should be okay.

enjoy your day,

Sean

[Ray West]

Hopefully, the MK2 version will have a compass built in, then, in combination with the focal length of the lens, it will be able to have a stab at the location of the subject.

Best wishes,

Ray

[Tim Armes]

Don't forget that it won't work if you're using the flash hot shoe! Good bye to fill flash.

[Johann_Gudbjargarson]

Yes I was a bit excited when I heard about the product the first time. I'm planning a 2-3 month trip to India this autumn and this would be very helpfull for me tracking the locations of pictures. When I looked into it further there are a few complaints which will probably rule this product out like people have pointed out here:

1. It is way to big - the Sony GPS system (http://www.dpreview.com/news/0608/06080202sonygpscs1.asp) is probably a better solution but probably not as accurate because pictures will be synced by time instead of just tracking when pictures are shot (and probably need more battery).

2. Can't use flash and GPS at the same time.

3. I'm worried about metering when the camera thinks there is flash mounted.

4. How well will the support for RAW files be - I convert everything to DNG when importing from camera and it will have to work well with that.

5. Computer needs to by connected to internet to populate IPTC fields about locations from online database. It will not an option for me travelling in India but syncing afterwards (when back in Iceland might be an option).

It looks like a nice toy although :-)

Regards,
Johann
http://gudbjargarson.net

[Bart_van_der_Wolf]

Hopefully, the MK2 version will have a compass built in, then, in combination with the focal length of the lens, it will be able to have a stab at the location of the subject.

Yes, but then the focus distance (rather than focal length, maybe a typo?) also needs to be made available again in the EXIF, or decrypted from the maker notes.
Nevertheless, shooting position will get you close, adding shooting direction may be helpful.

Bart

[Edward Bussa]

What about GPS on SDHC ?!!?

I know a company that recently developed 802.11 WiFi using an SD card. I wonder if GPS could be implemented on an SD/SDHC card? Much more likely even, this could be developed for Compact Flash cards since they are, relativley speaking, much larger.

[Sean DeMerchant]

Yes, but then the focus distance (rather than focal length, maybe a typo?) also needs to be made available again in the EXIF, or decrypted from the maker notes.
Nevertheless, shooting position will get you close, adding shooting direction may be helpful.

Bart

In of doors direction is not relevant and is easily found. Out of doors, again direction is easy except when sunlight or moonlight is absent. Time and location of the shot will yield the direction of the sun or moon allowing lighting in a straight shot (no flash/artificial lights, no reflector) to be determined if you are determined enough. With major landscape features/buildings in a shot with know latitude and longitude one can easily derive direction if the values are precise enough and reasonably accurate.

enjoy,

Sean

[John_Nevill]

Not surprisingly, such GPS devices are only good for outdoor use as they need skyline to recieve satellite data for location triangulation, so to house such a device in a SD card would require an external antenna.