GeoPic II geotags your Nikon shots, saves on battery
By Paul Miller 
posted Oct 9th 2007 5:06PM
posted Oct 9th 2007 5:06PM
Geotagging kind of loses its appeal when it's cutting your battery life to ribbons, which is where GeoPic II comes in. The unit slides into your DSLR's hot shoe and embeds GPS information off of a SiRFstar III chip onto your photo's meta data, just like the competition, but what sets the GeoPic II apart is that in comparison to its predecessor, the unit get three times as much battery life, allowing you to tag a good many more photos. The device accomplishes this by only streaming GPS data to the camera when needed, which sounds like a given, but apparently took a good bit of R&D to pull off. There's no telling how this tech compares in power savings to NXP's swGPS, which was built with a similar purpose, but GeoPic II is available now for £200 ($408 US), while swGPS hasn't quite made it out of the labs just yet. GeoPic II is compatible with most Nikon DSLRs and the Fuji S5 Pro.
How does this device works?
I mean, does it write geo information in moment raw file is written on flash card?
And what this geographic information is looks like (x:y geo location or the name of place)?
It is written in the EXIF information as coordinates.
I love the idea of it, but I hate the ergonomics of it. My D200 feels great as is.
I will wait until they eventually implement a Bluetooth version on a future body. :)
Some Cameras have the ability to take GPS data and write it to the exif meta data, the Nikon d200 is a good example (and my personal camera)
This would not work with just any camera, you have to have built in support for it.
Oh, thanks for replys and information.
I've D70, do you know if it has an ability to write GPS data?
the D70 does not have the pin connector for this device. You have to use a timestamp method to add the location data to your photos' EXIF information. This is done by carrying a GPS with you when you shoot, and using some software (there are free examples on the net, including one from MicroSoft) to match waypoints from the GPS with the time stamp on your photos.
I preferred the sony devices you reported about ages ago.
You just keep them on a keyring or in your bag seperate from your camera and then and turn them on while shooting images. then when you get back home or plug into a lappy som software updated all the photo's with the GPS data matching the timestamp on the photo. much better idea and less mess on your already large dslr. still any device mapping exactly where you took photo's is awesome. I've taken shots in austrailia while touring in the middle of nowhere and it woule be awesome to know exactly where it was.
Nikon D200 and up cameras look for a NMEA0183 v2.01 data stream to be present on the camera's 10 pin connector. If it finds the data stream it will extract Latitude, Longitude, Altitude, and Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) and embed those elements into the photo's metadata as the picture is taken. Various solutions to do this exist: 1. utilize a off-the-shelf portable GPS device that has NMEA0183 serial connection and connect that to Nikon's MC-35 GPS Adapter cord; 2. specialized Camera GPS device which directly connects to camera's 10 pin connector (e.g. Dawn Technologies N2 di-GPS - http://www.dawntech.hk/di-GPS/n2.htm, or the one above); 3. generalized Camera GPS device that is camera independent (e.g. Jobo AG's PhotGPS - http://www.jobo.com/usa/products/photogps/index.html). I personally purchased the N2 di-GPS and have been very happy with its performance.
Wow, that Dawn Technologies unit has really dropped in price since it was introduced. If I remember correctly it was around $400 originally. I could be convinced to consider that unit given its size.
Why are they charging $45.00 for shipping for an item no heavier than a pound?
I think there is a lot of competition with GPS modules (core guts) becoming cheaper and smaller, plus there are a lot of people starting to create Nikon GPS offerings. I don't know about the $45 shipping charge. I can only guess that since its coming from China and it has to clear customs there are additional charges. I haven't bought too many things directly from Asia, so I don't have any experience with comparative charges.
I read in an article about a java applet for phones with integrated GPS receiver that is logging time and GPS info. After you return you put your photos and your GPS log onto your home pc and another program writes the GPS data into the EXIF headers of your image. It's definitely not as comfortable as this solution, but you can't beat the free price if you already own e.g. an O2 Orbit. And geotagged photos are really great, e.g. for photo travel sites like http://www.photrax.com where you can even relive your past holidays or share the route with others...
Is there anything like this for Canon cameras? That would be nice.
Cover me in chocolate and call me Susan, look what a bit of searching turned up!
https://ecommerce.redhensystems.com/pc-47-2-blue2can.aspx
Note: You will need to purchase a BlueTooth GPS receiver independently. The GPS receiver can be mounted on the camera, carried in your pocket or put on the dash of your car.
Yikes. $279 for a Blue2CAN, and another $100 for a bluetooth GPS? Well, i guess it is better that what they want for this GeoPic II thing. I still think that Sony keyfob thing works just fine.
I built one of these for myself a while back. These guys have done a good job. The biggest issue with power (at least on the D200) is that while the camera is parsing GPS data, it does not sleep and power down its meter. The difference between the camera in a "sleep" state with the meter off and the camera in the ready state, parsing GPS with the meter on, is bigger than the power draw of the GPS unit itself. Here is my stuff if anyone finds it useful:
http://www.petermillerphoto.com/nikongps/nikongps.html
Awesome write up man!
Yeahh and not only for them SLR cams would b nice
I have an [almost] identical GPS device on my FujiFilm FinePix S5 Pro (based on a Nikon D200 body), and the GPS time, altitude, longitude, and altitude is written in the EXIF data as each photo is shot. I think it records the number of sattelites too. I post my photos on flickr.com, and it can then show the photos on a map. It is really convenient, just too bad it is not built-in on more cameras. The only down-sides is that a cold start can take 30-60 seconds before it locks on to the GPS signal, and that the GPS device can not be mounted on the camera when I use the flash.
These devices are awesome, make sure you buy a camera that can use a device like this. Some other devices require post-processing to match the time of your photos with the GPS log and is very inconvenient compared to this.
I mentioned altitude twice, but the last time it should have been latitude...
The cool thing about this unit is that there is a mode (freeze mode) where it buffers the GPS data and switches the internal module off meaning you dont have to worry about losing the signal indoors etc. Great for events like weddings where you probably would be ok just using a single location for the entire event, hence still get the advantage of the geotagging for cataloguing etc but without ever worrying about losing the signal in the church etc...
Check out this new product
Introducing the Photo Finder ― GPS Picture Tracker
1. Designed for Google Earth & Google Maps.
2. Compatible with digital cameras of major brands and all memory card formats on the market.
3. Built-in LCD screen provides instant feedback on the status.
4. GPS data synchronization without a PC ― patent-pending for the new design.
http://photofinder.atpinc.com/