Visiontac rolls out VGPS-900 data logger with voice recording

We first caught sight of this tiny Bluetooth GPS data logger a few months back under the guise of the Columbus V-900 but unfortunately didn't have much in the way of a price, release date, or complete specs at the time. Thanks to the wonderful world of consumer electronics, however, the same device has now popped up again in the form of the VGPS-900 from Visiontac, who seem to be a bit more eager to actually sell it to you. As Columbus let on, this one boasts built-in Bluetooth, a microSD card slot and, according to Vsiontac, a voice recording feature, which is apparently a first among GPS data loggers. You'll also be able to use the device to geotag your photos and, if you so chose, you can also make use of its "spy mode," which provides 30 days of standby logging. Sold? Then you can get your order in right now for $110.

[Via Mobile Gadget News]

[TJ @ Nov 11th 2008 2:15PM]

Wow, I think I'm actually going to order this thing. Went over to their page, checked it out a little further. LOVE the way "Spy Mode" works. Can be set at any interval betwen 1min - 100min, doesn't show any sign of being on except for a blue LED flashing at interval (thinking a piece of electrical tape will fix that), logs for 8 seconds before it turns back off. I have a friend who thinks thier spouse is cheating on them, and placing this device in the spouse's car should provide some evidence.

[scape @ Nov 11th 2008 2:52PM]

that'd be interesting if it had internet connectivity to log passively and live, instead of just direct to memory, well interesting and a bit creepy..

[patsy @ Nov 11th 2008 4:05PM]

That would make the thing tons more expensive and restrictive, since it would require a cell modem plus a carrier and contract. Go grab yourself GPSed at http://gpsed.com/about for your smartphone, and either one of these units or any number of other tiny bluetooth GPS units, and do exactly what you are talking about. I've been using it to track our hikes with good results.

[scape @ Nov 11th 2008 2:57PM]

also not sure how useful that picture tagging is

[Fant @ Nov 11th 2008 3:05PM]

Put this thing in the box when you send packages via UPS to see exactly where it is :)

[Fant @ Nov 11th 2008 3:06PM]

Oh right its passive recording. So you can see the journey once your package gets to its destination.

[Steve @ Nov 11th 2008 3:56PM]

Can you use something like this in-flight? I'm going on a long vacation out of the country and I think it would be cool to plot my entire journey on google maps. I know that you're not allowed to use radios and cell phones because it can supposedly interfere with the flight equipment in the cockpit but is it the same for GPS receivers?

[Jake @ Nov 11th 2008 10:51PM]

Order now and save 27% on the completely made up "market price" of $149!

-jp

[Whoopn @ Nov 12th 2008 1:32PM]

Red Hen Systems:

http://www.redhensystems.com/products/product.php?product_id=1

The only way to geotag the pictures! Seriously this thing rocks. You can probably use this GPS device with it too!

[chef @ Nov 12th 2008 2:17AM]

...or you could use any GPS logger and use a freeware program like Copiks PhotoMapper or Geosetter. This method also lets you use any camera you want, any GPS logger you like, and lets you tag photos for everybody in your travelling group instead of just one camera's photos. This method is also far, far cheaper than the incomplete geotagging device you're shilling.

[Whoopn @ Nov 12th 2008 1:42PM]

And what happens when you delete a picture? Oh yeah, you have to go and delete that log too. Oh and then when you're all done you have to embed all the NMEA data in the EXIF headers of EVERY image you've taken (thats a lot of post processing and over the course of a year would add up to way more than $300 worth of man hours).

The Blue2Can embeds the GPS data STRAIGHT into the JPEG file or RAW file for you so when you take your pictures off of your camera then you have no processing to do...you can upload them straight to Flickr or Picasa without doing anything to the image.

And so you know chef, they (Red Hen Systems) have a free tool called "Field Tools" that does just what Copiks PhotoMapper and Geosetter do but is much easier to use and far quicker at embedding the information.

But I have a question for you: what do you do if you take RAW photos and want to use those? I'm guessing you have to process those to jpg THEN process the Geotag data in (and you just have to hope that you didn't get off on your log count versus your picture count otherwise ever picture past a where you deleted an image off of the camera will be wrong).

So its true (chef you're right) you can have a solution that is "far, far cheaper" but that is exactly what you'll have...a cheap solution. And in the long run, if you use this for business, you'll cost yourself thousands of dollars in man hours doing something the Blue2Can does for you. Plus they have a tool called "ISWhere" that puts the photos down in Google Earth for you...a really cool tool if you ask me.

[chef @ Nov 12th 2008 9:20PM]

Um, no? I don't see why you would delete the log if you decided to delete a picture - that doesn't even make sense. As for embedding the NMEA information into EXIF, that's what the freeware does for you, automatically, and quickly, and I have no idea how 1000s of man hours come into it.

Red Hen doesn't have Field Tools anywhere on their site that I can find, but they do have Media Mapper software that seems to do what you mentioned(perhaps it's the evolution of that software), and it's ~$600USD, which is the opposite of free. The only related information I can find from googling "Red Hen" "Field Tools" is some guy's board post mentioning that it was probably ~$40USD, not free. If you could provide a link, I would appreciate it, as would others.

"and you just have to hope that you didn't get off on your log count versus your picture count otherwise ever picture past a where you deleted an image off of the camera will be wrong"
Aside from this not making sense, I don't think you understand that deleting a picture has nothing to do with your track log. All the software has to do is check the time the photo was taken from EXIF, find a corresponding entry in the data log, then load that entry's coordinates into EXIF(or an XMP sidecar or whatever).

RAW is indeed a problem, though some software tools (not the freeware ones, but I remember some logger has a software upgrade that includes it) also allow you to save GPS data to RAW. Considering I have to post-process photos for distortion anyway, and adding GPS data takes maybe 2-3 minutes for around 1000 photos(and it's a batch process), I don't think the postprocessing time is a huge issue with the GPS logger tagging method.

You still haven't addressed the major issue of the product in that it *only* works with very specific models of Nikon DSLRs(currently D200, D2X, D2Xs, D2Hs, D3 and D300 as per their site). The post above is about a logger that can be used with any digital camera. This is why I believe your initial shill post is dumb and misplaced.

[kingu @ Nov 16th 2008 10:22PM]

I found this http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.17851 , but you would have to do without onboard voice recording.

[bluebb @ Nov 19th 2008 4:13PM]

There is no comparison. THe visiontac one has microSD, voice recording, spy mode. Not to mention the form factors

[kingu @ Nov 19th 2008 6:08PM]

They do compare pretty well, you can do logging on both.
Since the visiontec is the only one to do voice recording (in .wav!) im sure thats why it would need the extra storage.

The form factor is about the same from what i can tell.
RCS R150+ : 65 x 41 x 16.8 mm $63.90 (shipping included)
Visiontac: 74 x 43 x 9.9mm Market price: $149.99 Our price: $109.99

[tdfx @ Mar 27th 2009 5:36AM]

I have found this product also in germany. Link-Adress http://www.columbus-gps.de