ATP PhotoFinder mini geotagger doesn't require software

Most of the geotaggers we've seen have written location data to your photos using some fancy software on your machine after you've pulled images off your camera, but ATP's PhotoFinder mini moves the tagging step backwards in the process, writing geodata directly to images on your memory card. Like similar devices, the PhotoFinder mini records timelogged GPS data from a SiRF Star III chip while you shoot -- but when you're done, you insert your card into a base station, which tags your images using their EXIF timestamps. Sounds like a much simpler system than relying on third-party software to integrate with your photo-management apps -- we just wish the dock was also a card reader, which would make this a one-step process. No pricing info yet, but if this thing is reasonable, it'll certainly be tempting.

[Via Photography Blog, thanks Mark]

[who? @ Sep 2nd 2008 2:34PM]

It's not as good as the

[who? @ Sep 2nd 2008 2:35PM]

(yes, I did that on purpose)

[deyanimay @ Sep 2nd 2008 2:51PM]

Really it sure didn't

[deyanimay @ Sep 2nd 2008 2:52PM]

seem that way. (I did that on purpose =)

[phanbouy @ Sep 2nd 2008 2:54PM]

dude i totally get

[George Kirkaldie @ Sep 2nd 2008 4:36PM]

Not as good as the ATP Photofinder? if so, it's not good at all since the Photofinder was garbage

[o6mopok @ Sep 2nd 2008 2:57PM]

.

[GaryZ @ Sep 2nd 2008 3:12PM]

so I have to carry an extra gear, and have to stop photoshooting at the scene in order to tag the photos?

not so cool...

geo-tagging camera is the way to go!

[Taylor @ Sep 2nd 2008 3:47PM]

why does it have to be 'at the scene?'

[chef @ Sep 3rd 2008 3:24AM]

False. You don't have to stop shooting at the scene - you put in your card *after* you're done shooting or whenever you feel like to have the data automatically added to the photos. It doesn't require you to do any weird swapping on the scene.

[Maciej Nejmantowicz @ Sep 2nd 2008 3:36PM]

This product does not support RAW files. Only JPEG. Too bad, would have been a nice addition.

[Taylor @ Sep 2nd 2008 3:48PM]

Yeah, that's a deal breaker for me.

[a ham sandwich @ Sep 2nd 2008 3:38PM]

adenasine triphosphate?

[Taylor @ Sep 2nd 2008 3:47PM]

This article got me curious, and a quick search found that the ATP GPS photofinder you guys featured a while ago does this too, though you need to plug a usb card reader into it for compactflash. Still, it's avaliable now, for $89, through costco, among others:
http://www.costco.com/Browse/Product.aspx?Prodid=11270012&search=atp&Mo=27&cm_re=1_en-_-Top_Left_Nav-_-Top_search&lang=en-US&Nr=P_CatalogName:BC&Sp=S&N=5000043&whse=BC&Dx=mode+matchallpartial&Ntk=Text_Search&Dr=P_CatalogName:BC&Ne=4000000&D=atp&Ntt=atp&No=12&Ntx=mode+matchallpartial&Nty=1&topnav=&s=1
Looks nice.
-Taylor

[chef @ Sep 3rd 2008 3:29AM]

Reviews also mention that the ATP Photofinder is crap for its actual handling of GPS, and had major problems getting and keeping signal. Whoops. I wonder if the chip on the mini version is any better.

[Eddie @ Sep 2nd 2008 3:47PM]

Cool feature, but I am with GaryZ on this one. A one step process would be much better.

[ingus @ Sep 2nd 2008 5:05PM]

that's only if the 'one step' camera was any good in the first place.

no digicam is perfect all-around, so for people with multiple cameras, the 2 step thing offers much more flexibility imho. however, the lack of RAW support on this thing is a deal breaker for me - when i go out and shoot stuff that actually needs geotagging, i do it with dSLR's in RAW.

[john @ Sep 2nd 2008 3:59PM]

Horrible! Who would want to put their CF card in a device to get re-written before backing it up? What if the device corrupts your data? Anything at all goes wrong and you've lost an entire card of images.

As a pro photographer, I would NEVER write to a card before I've downloaded & backed up my images.

[Joseph @ Sep 2nd 2008 7:55PM]

I agree w/ this ^Douche^

[Nuclear Fire @ Sep 2nd 2008 4:08PM]

And eventually the companies making the cameras will realize how badly consumers want this built into their cameras to begin with...

[George Kirkaldie @ Sep 2nd 2008 4:38PM]

Lets hope this is better than the other ATP Photofinder, I tried that on a recent trip, and it was just horrible. It took ages to get a fix, and then when I got home and looked at the data files (I wasn't going to use it on an unbacked up card) It only had the last 2 days of data in it.

[ATP Support @ Sep 2nd 2008 5:38PM]

George K,

Sorry to hear that you had an issue with our PhotoFinder. Our customer service will be happy to resolve any issues you ran into and issue a replacement unit if necessary.

Take care,
ATP Support
[e-mail]

[Evan R. @ Sep 2nd 2008 8:20PM]

ATP support: Ok so i want an all in one, battery powered CF solution. I would just hang it on my belt, shoot, and then stick a CF card on one side and a blank one, like so: CF1->[IIII]->CF2. Then I would put CF2 into my card reader.

Make that and I will buy one. Promise.

[chef @ Sep 3rd 2008 3:42AM]

Hey ATP - this issue is very common (can't get a fix) with many people with your unit(basically, EVERY SINGLE REVIEW about the unit); are you saying all these units are defective? What good would a replacement do?

Seriously, I was EXTREMELY interested in your product before, but acquisition and signal problems kind of remove any reason to purchase your products. After all, no matter how convenient it is to put my card in the Photofinder and have it automatically geotag my photos, *if there's no tracking data, there's nothing to add, and the product is useless.* It more or less becomes an expensive joule thief. Now you have a 2-piece design which probably uses the same GPS solution? Gah.

The way I see it, you have 2 ways to make money: Fix the original; that's the one that will sell. Otherwise, keep spending all your money on marketing.

[mike k. @ Sep 2nd 2008 5:52PM]

this is an iphone and or android app waiting to happen.

[njg234908 @ Sep 3rd 2008 5:00AM]

Or a N95 app that happened about 2 years ago...

[Joshua Walters @ Sep 2nd 2008 6:50PM]

I like where this is going.

[ATP Support @ Sep 2nd 2008 10:21PM]

Hi, all:
1. Yes !!! we fully understand that the camera embedded GPS is the final solution, and it's the perfect product that most users want.
But we may want to highlight the differences:
(1) how many models can provide the function on the market ? more than 10 models ?
(2) how many people will buy a new camera just add the GPS function ? discard your old camera ?
(3) how much the price is to buy a GPS camera ? between US$500 and US$149, which selection is easier and better.

2. And buy a PhotoFinder, your family members and friends also can use it because we can accept most format of memory cards and cameras.
You or your friends just buy one set PhotoFinder but you can share the geotagging function for everyone.

PhotoFinder mini is coming soon...................

[sockatume @ Sep 2nd 2008 8:50PM]

I'm not sure what the point of this is. I'm going to be putting the photos onto my computer to upload them anyway, so why should I go to the lengths of slotting them into this widget first when I can just do it on my PC?

[D0rk @ Sep 2nd 2008 10:37PM]

Good idea in theory, but horrible execution. No RAW support? Fail.

I'd rather upgrade to a D90 and get Nikon's new geotagging hot shoe accessory than buy this(at the moment).

And I agree with sockatume. Why the extra step and piece of equipment? Make the GPS dongle have a PC interface like USB so you connect it directly to your PC and apply the geotagging data to a folder of photos using some lightweight software. No need for a card reader and doesn't interfere with the photographers will to protect their photos first.

And it HAS to support RAW-type formats. A product like this can't be taken seriously by professionals if it doesn't support at least the RAW formats for the big name camera manufacturers.

[tryanything @ Sep 2nd 2008 10:57PM]

With the original Photofinder, if you code the photos at least daily, it works reasonably well. If you get more than 2 or 3 megabytes of GPS data you are in for 20 or 30 minutes waiting for it to finish the encoding. A reformat of the device helps, I did it every time after encoding the photos. Outside of these parameters you will rarely have an uncorrupted device. The firmware in the thing is such that loss of all the data in the device is the usual result. It eats batteries, battery life is about 4 to 5 hours. I don't think I would buy anything from ATP, amd I would not want a replacement. It never did any damage to the SD card, over the course of 2000 photos.

[Darren @ Sep 3rd 2008 6:53PM]

I bought a previous model ATP PhotoFinder in March. The thing never, ever worked. The only thing as unreliable as the device was the customer support offered by the company (they never returned a single email). Save your money, and wait for this tech to be included in the camera.

[ATP Support @ Sep 19th 2008 2:40AM]

Hi, all:
1. Yes !!! we fully understand that the camera embedded GPS is the final solution, and it's the perfect product that most users want. But we may want to highlight the differences:
(1) how many models can provide the function on the market ? more than 10 models ?
(2) how many people will buy a new camera just add the GPS function ? discard your old camera ?
(3) how much the price is to buy a GPS camera ? between US$500 and US$149, which selection is easier and better.

2. And buy a PhotoFinder, your family members and friends also can use it because we can accept most format of memory cards and cameras.
You or your friends just buy one set PhotoFinder but you can share the geotagging function for everyone.

PhotoFinder mini is coming soon...................

[Glen Lancaster @ Oct 21st 2008 2:50PM]

I just contacted ATP (2008-10-14) for how to purchase the mini in Canada and got this reply:

"Thank you for your interest in the ATP PhotoFinder mini. Unfortunately this item is only available in Asia and Europe, and we do not have any plans to carry this product in US/Canada at this point.

Best regards,
Miranda Wijaya"

What is going on here? Why on earth is this unit not available in North America.

[Bill @ Nov 14th 2008 10:26AM]

I was very interested in the way the ATP added the information to the photos so I bought the ATP (Sep 07)and took it to Africa with me. Even in the open areas it was not always able to obtain a signal or maintain it. I also found the screen on the unit to be very hard to read (I am over 40). When it worked it did seem to work well. However over all I was disappointed in it and ended up buying the AMOD for a trip I took to Tokyo. I found it to work very well and it would acquire signal very quickly after leavening the subway and it didn't seem to have any problems keeping the signal in the intercity of Tokyo. My only complaint about the AMOD is the software not as user friendly as the ATP.