What's a good GPS?

[yg17]

I'm going on a trip and want to be able to geotag photos, but alas, my Rebel XSI doesn't have GPS. I've been looking into some of those receivers that log your location every X seconds and then use software later to tag your photos. Looks like there's a lot out there. What's the best one?

BTW, Mac compatibility isn't important because I'll be bringing my Dell laptop with me, which I have Ubuntu and Vista on, and I could use Vista if I have to. Although Linux support would be awesome

 

[ThunderRobot]

You list a 3G iPhone in your signature. Why not take a single photo with it in each location before you begin shooting and when you get home manually add the data to the shots you took in that location.

Easy, not too much extra work and you don't spend any money. Lots of apps out there (including iPhoto) to batch change the data on multiple images.

Obviously this wouldn't work in every situation, but would for most.

 

[GotMyOrangeCrus]

I use the Garmin Colorado 400t and have absolutely zero complaints. Its the best unit I have used yet and I have tried quite a few of them. I storm chase every year so GPS is EXTREMELY important to me. Instead of me giving you the low down your time would be better spent reading the review over at GPS Magazine.

http://www.gpsmagazine.com/2008/01/garmin_colorado_400t_review.php

There are quite a few options on the market these days so the best thing you should do is figure out what features are most important to you and then go from there. The Garmin Colorado 400t is awsome but t might be a bit more than you need and you might be able to find something cheaper that still suits all your needs.

The Garmin Colorado 400t is a handheld system, If your looking for a car mounted GPS then the Garmin Nuvi 880 is the only way to go. I have only had the Garmin Nuvi 880 for a very short time but its the best car mounted model I have used yet and I have tried many of those as well. The Garmin are a bit more expensive than your other models however I think its absolutely worth it. This is one of those cases where you get what you pay for, at least imo.

 

[yg17]

You list a 3G iPhone in your signature. Why not take a single photo with it in each location before you begin shooting and when you get home manually add the data to the shots you took in that location.

Easy, not too much extra work and you don't spend any money. Lots of apps out there (including iPhoto) to batch change the data on multiple images.

Obviously this wouldn't work in every situation, but would for most.

Two reasons. One, that sounds like a major pain in the arse. Two, I'll be out of the country and even with data roaming off, I don't trust the iPhone to not try to use data to find my location. I'm not risking that.

 

[ThunderRobot]

Two reasons. One, that sounds like a major pain in the arse. Two, I'll be out of the country and even with data roaming off, I don't trust the iPhone to not try to use data to find my location. I'm not risking that.

Fair enough. If you care at all, I've presented a rebuttal.

1. For the record - it's not a pain in the arse to do. It's a piece of piss. I do it frequently. It takes around 5 seconds before a shoot and around 30 seconds after the data is imported. I don't mind 35 seconds out of my life to geo-tag my photos and not spend money.
   
2. If you switch data off, it's off. In addition there's a simple user profile you can install and activate meaning data can not be used over anything but WiFi.

However each to their own. Normally when giving advice that someone doesn't want I would expect a simple - "Thanks, but it's not for me". But if the arrogant, ungrateful approach works for you, that's cool.

 

[robanga]

Two reasons. One, that sounds like a major pain in the arse. Two, I'll be out of the country and even with data roaming off, I don't trust the iPhone to not try to use data to find my location. I'm not risking that.

I have roamed with the iPhone several times out of the country and with data roaming off, you get charged nothing. I'm guessing that without the network your location fix will still occur but it will be slower. I turned it on in the UK and it found my position no problem.

PS: I also have a Garmin Colorado 400T and it's a great GPS, but I am not sure how you will take that position into the exif data automatically. It seems like one of the photologger devices would be the best for that.

 

[yg17]

1. That's 35 seconds per photo, right? I plan on taking hundreds of photos. Unless there's an easy way to geotag a bunch of photos with the iPhone method, then it's not an option I'm interested.

2. Fair enough

And I do not think I was being rude, I was stating why it was not a solution I was interested.

GotMyOrangeCrus, that looks pricey I was thinking something along the lines of those keyfobs you hang off your pants or camera bag or something that logs GPS location, and comes with software to tag photos. I have a Nuvi 660 for my car, but it's not exactly portable and I don't think it can track locations like that.

 

[ThunderRobot]

1. That's 35 seconds per photo, right? I plan on taking hundreds of photos. Unless there's an easy way to geotag a bunch of photos with the iPhone method, then it's not an option I'm interested.

And I do not think I was being rude, I was stating why it was not a solution I was interested.

1. 35 seconds per location, not per photo.
2. You opinion on politeness, manners and the niceties of responding to a suggestion clearly differ from mine. Your reply was brusk which is commonly interpreted as rude.

However, let's draw a line under it and allow this thread to concentrate on the subject.

 

[notjustjay]

I thought this thread was going to suggest camera-specific GPS units, but we seem to be discussing general-purpose GPS, so I'll chime in and say that I really love my Garmin GPSMAP 60csx for hiking, geocaching, road navigating, etc. A lot of us think this is the sweet spot in price vs. features.

I guess with these units you would download the tracklog and look at the date/time stamps associated with locations (or manually mark a location yourself), but I haven't done it.

 

[Cliff3]

You may want to read this article: http://digital-photography-school.com/how-to-geotag-images - it suggests a solution appropriate to your equipment. In the comments there is a link to an iPhone application site that promises to create and retrieve GPS tracking log information from an iPhone, which could then be matched up to photos via timestamp matching. I have not tried it - you're on your own for that.

I doubt there is an out of the box solution for what you want to with the camera body you have. In the case of my Nikon bodies, I can buy an $80 interface cable (10-pin on one end, DB9 serial on the other). Canon has a brutally expensive solution for the 5DMkII, and hopefully something less costly for the 1D bodies (edit: nope - freakin' expensive for the 1D* bodies too).

 

[Krikke68]

Cliff,

I'm using the app you're referring to (GeoLogTag) for some time now and I'm pretty happy with it. With the GPX export functionality I can geotag all my photos and the ones I upload to Flickr are geotagged automatically by GeoLogTag. That's really cool.
The accuracy is awesome (most of the time it's just within a couple of meters of the location where I took the photo) and battery life is more than sufficient for me (I used it once for more than 4 hours).

To yg17: If you already have an iPhone this app is a good geologging/geotagging solution. I wouldn't buy extra hardware.

 

[jaseone]

To yg17: If you already have an iPhone this app is a good geologging/geotagging solution. I wouldn't buy extra hardware.

Unless they don't want to kill their iPhone battery while geotagging!

A better solution would be something like this:

http://www.pocketgpsworld.com/amodphotologger.php

Needs no drivers, takes AAA batteries and gets about 15 hours of usage out of the batteries.

 

[yg17]

Unless they don't want to kill their iPhone battery while geotagging!

A better solution would be something like this:

http://www.pocketgpsworld.com/amodphotologger.php

Needs no drivers, takes AAA batteries and gets about 15 hours of usage out of the batteries.

Thanks, I think I'm going to go with that.

Another reason my iPhone isn't an option for me is battery life. I read that those apps only get you around 4 or 5 hours, and I need much more than that. 15 hours sounds perfect.

 

[Cliff3]

Cliff,

I'm using the app you're referring to (GeoLogTag) for some time now and I'm pretty happy with it. With the GPX export functionality I can geotag all my photos and the ones I upload to Flickr are geotagged automatically by GeoLogTag. That's really cool.
The accuracy is awesome (most of the time it's just within a couple of meters of the location where I took the photo) and battery life is more than sufficient for me (I used it once for more than 4 hours).

To yg17: If you already have an iPhone this app is a good geologging/geotagging solution. I wouldn't buy extra hardware.

It's good to have a positive endorsement. It's hard to go wrong with a $5 iphone app and free OS X software - if it doesn't do what you want you're not out of pocket much. And if it does do what you want, you're not out of pocket much

 

[grahamtearne]

I would also like to give a shout out for GeoLogTag.

You already have an iPhone 3g and this app is just $4.99, why not give it a shot before you jump in and buy some hardware you may find out you didnt need? If then you find out you do want the hardware well you havent lost a great deal and you still have a handy app on your phone for more casual shooting outside of this planned trip.

I too thought like you did about the battery life but it really wasn't much of an issue for me as you just turn it on when you begin shooting then when you are done at that location turn it off and move on, 4-5 hours is a long time when you consider, its just a simple switch to turn it on and off, then a simple overnight charge gets you going again for the next day...

Again if this is not for you then dont get it but it is a great app and well worth the money, I recommend it for casual future shoots regardless of whether you go for the hardware option or not, especially with the new geotagging craze it is very useful to have an app on your phone that is more than likely with you at all times, flick a switch and shoot and you have geotagged images from your local park where you would have never thought to have taken that external hardware...

just food for thought