Sony's GPS-CS3KA GPS image tracker coming in March

Sony last upgraded its CS1 GPS image tracker around this time last year, and as PMA 2009 draws ever closer, we're seeing the outfit quietly introduce that unit's proper successor. The GPS-CS3KA takes on a slightly more modern design and promises compatibility with nearly every Cyber-shot digital still camera and Handycam camcorder out there. Essentially, the utility here is the same as before -- keep it on your person while shooting, then let the Picture Motion Browser software sync up data with the time stamps on your photos. Once done, you'll get a nifty Google Map showing where you photographed each image. This unit also sports dual MS / SD card slots and can run for almost 15 hours on a single AA cell. We're almost guaranteed a look at this early next month in Vegas, but the general public will have to wait until it ships in late March for $149.99.

[Via NaviGadget]

Gallery: Sony's GPS-CS3KA GPS image tracker coming in March

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[Down @ Feb 10th 2009 9:45AM]

Is that the VAIO P? Looks delicious.

[Josh @ Feb 10th 2009 10:08AM]

No.

[Filzz @ Feb 10th 2009 9:52AM]

Why does this thing have no Compact Flash slot?!
With a MS-/SD-slot, this device is completely useless for me - What a pity!

[jordan turpentine @ Feb 10th 2009 10:06AM]

because compactflash cards are bigger than the device. Go look at the pictures of it open where you can see the card slot and the battery is pretty much the whole thing. stfu and drop $5 on a sd card. If you can afford a $150 tagger you can afford a new memory card for it.

[required @ Feb 10th 2009 2:00PM]

compactflash are not bigger than this device

[Brendan @ Feb 11th 2009 11:09AM]

Wait, why would you wan't to put a CF card in this anyway?
All it does is record a tracklog to an SD card so I'd imagine even a 256mb SD card would provide ample space.

[Adam @ Feb 10th 2009 9:55AM]

Just build it into the camera already!...and put a bigger battery in there.

[crawdad689 @ Feb 10th 2009 10:18AM]

fuck sony, seriously. $150 for some bullshit device like this? You can buy a full-blown gps navi for that much.

I hope they go the way of Circuit City. Pathetic.

[pditty @ Feb 10th 2009 10:25AM]

hmm, i have several sony point and shoots and dSLR. Been looking for a geotagging solution that is 1) very convenient 2) will work with a mac (and also a pc would be nice)

[Dee @ Feb 10th 2009 10:43AM]

That's an expensive price to pay for geotagging images.

[Ignacio @ Feb 10th 2009 11:01AM]

I'll wait for the next version:
http://www.theonion.com/content/video/sony_releases_new_stupid_piece_of

;-)

[roundgob @ Feb 10th 2009 11:19AM]

Darn. Already spent all my money on Sony's new Stupid Piece Of Shit That Doesn't Do The Godamn Thing It's Fucking Supposed To®™

[simon @ Feb 10th 2009 12:23PM]

Roundgod,
You might want to consider switching to decaf. just saying...

Simon

[obo @ Feb 10th 2009 12:35PM]

Simon,
Check Ignacio's link for context.

Obo

On topic: Is there a similar software solution for laptops that have GPS?

[roundgob @ Feb 10th 2009 3:45PM]

Simon,

Not a coffee drinker, I'm afraid. Must be the good air here! Oh, and by the way, I feel flattered, but it's "gob" as in "big mouth", not "god" ;-)

[scottcwaelde @ Feb 10th 2009 12:45PM]

nice style.....NOT!

[Jared @ Feb 10th 2009 2:12PM]

What's wrong with that woman's wrist? Yikes

[tobz1000 @ Feb 10th 2009 3:59PM]

I've never heard of this before, but I love it. Syncing frequently enough to deal with video would make for some good gravy too.

[esoterica @ Feb 10th 2009 5:57PM]

Is there any reason this wouldn't work with non-Sony cameras? In the item description it says "Virtually compatible with all digital still cameras" and GPS coordinates are a standard EXIF tag. I don't see any reason why you couldn't just stick an SD card in from any camera and have it automatically add the appropriate tags to the images on the card (and for Mac users, iPhoto '09 reads and maps the GPS data, so no use for the non-Mac-compatible Sony software).

[Brendan @ Feb 11th 2009 10:58AM]

Nope, just Sony BS really, it should work with any photos that contain EXIF data, so basically any digital camera photos.
Unless of course Sony have set it up to only read photos with "Sony" embedded in the EXIF somewhere!

All this device does is log a long/lat location along with a time stamp at set intervals (say 15 secs)
The software then looks at the time stamp in your photo and matches it to the closest time stamp in your GPS log.
It will then insert the coordinates into the EXIF of the photo.
So no, this is nothing special as geotagging can be done with any GPS device that exports a tracklog and by using FREE software!
Check out Geosetter, it's probably the best free geotagging solution I've come across.

http://www.geosetter.de/en/

[moby @ Feb 10th 2009 7:36PM]

It does seem a bit pricey (and bulky) for such a simple service. Just build the capability into the camera. You can also use an eye-fi sd card which can come with geotagging built into the card.

[Quikboy @ Feb 10th 2009 9:44PM]

I wish there was a choice in which mapping service you could do - I don't necessarily want Google to know where my images came from...

[Brendan @ Feb 11th 2009 10:58AM]

It probably just provides you with a .kml or similar which overlays your images on Google Map imagery.
Google won't know where your images were taken, and even if they did, why would they care?

[nobudesu @ Mar 9th 2009 11:50AM]

Some informaion regarding GPS-CS3KA is available at here.

http://support.d-imaging.sony.co.jp/www/gps/mapview/gpsunit/us/

[gadgeTT @ Apr 13th 2009 10:50AM]

Just bought this thing and so far it works great! Instead of having to merge the GPS track data with the photos on a computer (PC, not mac), you can just remove the camera's memory card from the camera, insert it into this device, and the device will merge the data directly onto the photos. Take the card out of the tracker and either shoot more photos or import the photos into your Mac or PC. Since they're already geo-tagged, you're done! I use a Mac as my primary machine and while I had a workaround for old GPS Tracker to merge the data on my Mac, it was laborious. This device does it without that process and it's faster and easier.

Sure, it would be great to have GPS built into every camera I own, but this device is a suitable substitute for now.