ATP PhotoFinder Pro loses the base station, takes us to geotagging nirvana

Despite new cameras being riddled with borderline useless features and modes, useful functionality like automatic geotagging is getting little love from the big players. All the more reason for third parties to sneak in and make a few bucks, and ATP certainly seems to be on top of it. We liked the idea of the company's PhotoFinder, but that base station looked like needless desk clutter. The new PhotoFinder Pro does away with it, featuring an integrated SD, Memory Stick, and MMC card reader. Just sync up the clock in the unit with that of your shooter, clip it onto your camera bag for a day of scenic photography, and then pop your card in before downloading the pics that night. It'll automatically add coordinates to each photo's EXIF information, drastically reducing the likelihood of future spousal arguments about the whereabouts of certain Kodak moments. That sounds like a beautiful thing, and at $119 a good deal, too.

Update: Dan commented to point out that, with the help of an external USB card reader, the PhotoFinder Pro can also tag pics on CF, xD, or any other FAT/FAT32 formatted cards you might have sliding around in the bottom of your junk drawer.

[Via Photography Blog]

[Neumann @ May 28th 2009 10:29AM]

Seems like a handy tool, however, what is with the support for MMC and the lack of support for CF? I'd like to have the shots from my DSLR tagged as easily as from the wife's P&S...

[MacMasore @ May 28th 2009 10:37AM]

On the website it said it also supports CF cards

[Dan @ May 28th 2009 10:58AM]

From their website:

Q: Does the Photo Finder support CompactFlash or xD flash cards?
A: The Photo Finder supports all memory cards as long as they’re formatted using a FAT/FAT32 file system. For SD(HC) and Memory Stick cards, there is a built in card slot. For other memory card formats such as CF and xD, a standard USB reader (sold separately) can be directly plugged into the Photo Finder using the USB adapter cable (included). An ATP USB card reader is recommended to ensure compatibility and performance.

[Rifter @ May 28th 2009 11:32AM]

If I were you, I would just go ahead and get a logger, instead of this.

This seems simple, but very specific.

I have a cheap little logger that I use all the time.

I like to geotag my photos:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/ryfter/3561799210/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/ryfter/3484278079/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/ryfter/2811931759/

It lets me know where they were, AND I can point people to the map, if they want to see where the photos are taken. Geotagging is a great addition to my photography toolbox.

[Nelson @ May 28th 2009 10:29AM]

Elegant solution. I like it!

[greenlight @ May 28th 2009 10:33AM]

Or if you want to save $50, you can get a standard GPS logger and download the logs and use an app on your desktop to do the tagging. They don't list battery time, but my el cheapo logger lasted a little over 24 hours with 2 NiMH AAs.

Of course, now I've just moved on to use an 8 MP cell phone camera with built-in geotagging.

[Paul @ May 28th 2009 10:56AM]

Good thing my HTC Touch Pro can already geotag my photos so I won't need this, even though I could see the point (somewhat) for someone that uses a DSLR

[bugmenot @ May 28th 2009 10:56AM]

Extremely nice, BUT is it also possible to download the GPS logs to the PC for other purposes?

[WilburWC @ May 28th 2009 12:19PM]

Bugment:
>>>Extremely nice, BUT is it also possible to download the GPS logs to the PC for other purposes?
Yep. I talked my wife's stepfather into buying one so I could see how well it worked before I bought one. It works pretty well and yes, the device gives you the option of spitting out it's complete log file in an XML format onto the memory card once it's done processing the images.

[sdfdsdsfdfs @ May 28th 2009 10:57AM]

Extremely nice, BUT is it also possible to download the GPS logs to the PC for other purposes?

[freudslipped @ May 28th 2009 11:12AM]

When it drops down to 59.99 on newegg, I'll be interested. :-)

[Igor @ May 28th 2009 11:14AM]

Hm, tempting. I have their previous version, the one with a dock, and it works pretty well, but needing the usb powered dock to do the sync was a bit of a hassle. Hopefully they also fixed up the speed of the geotagging, the thing used to take about 15 seconds per photo, which is very slow.

Still I was very glad to have it with me in Vietnam, and almost all of my photos from there are properly geotagged, which makes for a nice way of going over the trip later.

[dajimmers @ May 28th 2009 11:19AM]

Sadly, no RAW support either, so many DSLR users will have to look elsewhere...

[Rifter @ May 28th 2009 11:28AM]

Wow, that is a total deal killer, right there.

[Victor @ May 28th 2009 11:55AM]

It went from "buying it" to "i'll wait"

[sam @ May 28th 2009 12:39PM]

I use an AMOD AGL3080 tracker (cheap). It's a little bit of a pain to geotag with it, though partly because I can't be bothered to pay for software to automate it :) Basically my procedure is:

0) check my camera's time is correct, the OS ought to set it automatically whenever it is connected but I have helpfully broken this in some way and can't face fixing it.

1) plug tracker into USB port so that it mounts as removable storage, and move file off tracker onto disk.

2) convert file from NMEA to GPX format using a GUI frontend to gps babel software

3) load GPX file, and photos [which are Adobe DNG format by now, but any format works], in GPS Photo Linker (this is a mac program, there are others on PC)

4) set the time adjust if needed (see 0), then hit the 'do them all' button and do something else while waiting for it to finish

5) go back into lightroom, select all the files and do 'read metadata' just to make sure it noticed they changed [I'm still running the old version lightroom...]

This isn't really quite as bad as it seems from the number of steps since all are either really short, or if it takes time you can do something else while waiting. But even so, this hardware to do the trick seems like a neat idea... except if it can't do RAW then it's not a lot of use to me and many others.

Hopefully we will soon see a time when camera manufacturers include GPS in all DSLR-class cameras as standard, or at least implement support for eg Bluetooth GPS. Unfortunately then they wouldn't be able to sell their own $500 GPS solutions... hmmm....

[Wolfticket @ May 28th 2009 11:26AM]

For that price you can get a proper handheld gps and then use an app to sync the track log to the time stamps on the photos. However, I do understand that the speed and PC-free simplicity will appeal to some people.

[KrisL @ May 28th 2009 12:09PM]

For those of you that travel with a GPS capable of track logs, there are Windows & Mac apps that will geotag photos from a GPX (GPS eXchange) format)

Also, there is an iPhone app that will do this as well - of course, the app has to be running while you're taking pictures. It's called GeoTagLog. I believe it will automatically connect to flickr and geotag your photos that you've already uploaded post-event. Handy.

[spam_from_engadget @ May 28th 2009 12:41PM]

My other complaint about their first product was that the small print said it might corrupt your memory card and you should be sure to take a backup before using it. (Hmm, well I think it was their product; to be fair it could have been another product doing the same thing. But I think it was this one.) I wonder if that has gone away with this version?

I have the Sony GPS logger. It works well, though some other things have come out since I bought it that might be better. I can't see much advantage to doing the tagging before before it gets to your PC.

[janes @ May 28th 2009 12:46PM]

I have an older version which uses NO DOCK>>>
The GPS Chipset they use in this device SUCKS!! WTF is 14 minutes to get a lock all about?
The original unit was slow. So is this one.
That is the one major issue with this thing. it is slow to lock and not sensitive enough. They should use the MTK chip set. It would make this device superior in every way.

IMHO there ar much better choices to be found.
Yaesumofo

[Gorilla800lbs @ May 28th 2009 1:07PM]

Bummer. I wanted to buy it. :(
What are those other choices you're talking about of? Any simular/alternative products?

[janes @ May 28th 2009 2:12PM]

Have a look here:
http://www.buygpsnow.com/

There are a few very cood and inexpensive FAST options here.
Yaesumofo

[SLow rAM @ May 28th 2009 7:17PM]

I gotta agree, at least about the previous model. It doesn't lock into gps well at all, so many pics will show at same position because it's not getting conuous locked positions to geotag near often enough. Also, with previous model, it was a bit difficult to read the display.
However, I never had a problem with it corrupting pictures or losing any data.

[Cris @ May 28th 2009 12:57PM]

Why call it a "Pro" version if it doesn't support RAW images? Lame... The overall design is nice, but it needs to support CF cards and RAW formats. Far simpler than other solutions, except those that attach to the camera and record the GPS coordinates immediately (which are more expensive).

I think it's kind of stupid for people to say "my phone already does that"... Yeah for the photos taken with your crappy phone camera. Lame posts.

[KrisL @ May 28th 2009 1:26PM]

Cris: My phone already does that.....for the photos taken with my digital camera! http://www.galarina.eu/GeoLogTag/Home.html

[Anne @ May 28th 2009 3:24PM]

I use the same iPhone app as KrisL for some time now and it works like a charm. The "geotag over WiFi" functionality for Mac users is just awesome. My geotagging workflow for iPhoto (Places) is really simple now:

1. GeoLogTag logs where I am during my photoshoot
2. Afterwards GeoLogTag geotags the photos on my Mac over WiFi
3. I import the photos in iPhoto and they automatically show up in Places

For Flickr users the workflow is more or less the same. For Windows users the workflow requires a GPX file.

http://www.galarina.eu/GeoLogTag/How_To.html

[ElvisLives @ May 28th 2009 3:48PM]

Check out the user reviews on Amazon.com - I don't think I've ever seen a device so roundly trounced in the reviews. I'll pass...

[Bob @ May 28th 2009 5:23PM]

Since this hasn't shipped yet there are NO reviews on amazon.com...ships mid-July....it still may suck but at this point we don't know.

[paul-engadget @ May 28th 2009 4:28PM]

it's not completely obvious but does it also work as a USB card reader, so you put your memory card into the GPS tagger which tags all the files, and then connect the GPS tagger to your PC to make it act as a USB card reader and access all the photo files whilst they're still in the tagger? If yes, then it's definitely a smart idea.
If no, I'll be happy with a separate logger.

[Dan Reardon @ May 29th 2009 9:51AM]

But where can you get one? All the links for "where to buy" on ATP's site like to the older model!

[jimps @ May 30th 2009 12:22PM]

Which GPS logger do people recommend?

[guyin22204 @ Jul 4th 2009 8:14AM]

I have the ATP Photofinder Mini (the one with the dock) It is a fun tool to have, but BEWARE, it does not work well with the Nikon D60. It corrupted an entire series of photos and after that first experience we backed up our cards prior to syncing. I'm not sure if it has something to do with the Nikon format as we were using two cameras, but it just didn't play well with the Nikon JPEGs.