GPS- which brand do you have and are you happy with it?

Status
Not open for further replies.
R

Robert T Higaki

Active Member
Joined
Sep 2, 2008
Messages
455
Location
Monterey Bay Area, CA
All I have is a hand-held Garmin GPS which I use for hiking. I did bring the Garmin with me to China but it had problems getting a fix on the satellites. I complained to Garmin and they said it suppose to work all around the world. To make a long story short, Garmin support want me to update the firmware and something else.
Anyway, I figure this is a good time to buy a GPS unit for the camera so the coordinates are embedded along with the other information.
There are a lot of products out there. I would appreciate any feedback.

Bob- the slide shooter at heart
 
I bought the Selmata N2 Geotagger. http://solmeta.com/

I'm extremely happy with the design -- powered from internal or camera battery, can optionally continue reporting last position when inside, fixes quickly, integrates seemlessly with a D3''.

One "however" -- the first one failed after 4 pictures.

So far with light usage the second is OK after a few months, but I remain a bit leary. But they did replace it (a pain as you have to ship to china).

But it is just about perfect in terms of how easily it works with the camera. I just got back from Kelowna, BC, and in lightroom I click on the little arrow and up pops a perfect map; I upload to Smugmug and the "map this" works fine.
 
Di-GPS Pro Dawntech Dawntech.

Seems to be a new model: PRO L. Do'nt know the new features (besides a tracking option (which I do NOT want). Maybe faster lock on satelites?
 
[quote author=Ferguson link=topic=846'.msg57284#msg57284 date=125891'945]
I upload to Smugmug and the "map this" works fine.
[/quote]
Yes, I also have the Google map on my Smugmug. But, I had to manually input the coordinates which was a pain in the butt.

Thanks for input- Linwood and Willem. Interesting- both Nikon shooters but did not buy the Nikon product.

Bob- the slide shooter at heart
 
I use a Garmin Oregon 3'' as GPS tracker and this haven't failed me once. I've used it in Ecuador, the Amazon, Galapagos, across Europe and was able to tag all of my photos.

The advantage of the Oregon is that I have a very good GPS navigation device when I'm out hiking or on my bike. A dedicated photo GPS tracker is nice but lacks the navigational goodies I need.
 
I bought a Black Friday special Garmin eTrex Vista HCx for use in geotagging with Sony alphas and a Panasonic DMC LX-2. The good news is that the GPS works even inside my house.

The bad news is that the Garmin Map Source software (fully updated) is either buggy or incompatible with Windows 7. I cannot get the program to save tracks to .gpx files without crashing. However, I found a freeware program (EasyGPS) that both downloads the tracks from my device and saves them to .gpx files. More bad news is that the as yet unupdated Pro Photo Tools 2, which I had intended to use to add the GPS data to images, doesn't like the .gpx files and keeps telling me that I took the images some 5'' miles away in Osborne County, Kansas. EasyGPS to the rescue again. I can add the GPS information to files with the program and the results show up properly on Bing maps using Pro Photo Tools 2. The .gpx files also work with Jeffrey Friedl's GPS plugin in Lr3 beta.

All in all, not a bad experience.
 
I went ahead and bought the Dawntech Di-GPS Pro. So far, I am very happy with the product. The gadget does not take long to get fix on the satellites and does not drain my camera batteries. The ultimate test is next year when I travel to Spitsbergen. I will let you know if it passes or not.

Bob- the slide shooter at heart
 
Garmin 255W, and I find it adequate to the occasional use it gets from me.

I bought two brakets and a carrier to share between vehicles.

Don

ps. Carrier to not leave it in any vehicle!
 
Don-

The GPS units I am referring to are the ones that sit on top of the flash shoe and are connected to the camera via a cable. Thus, the coordinates are recorded along with the shutter speed, ISO speed , aperture, etc. Thus, all the information shows up in LR.

Bob- the slide shooter at heart
 
[quote author=Robert T Higaki link=topic=846'.msg58552#msg58552 date=1261413731]
Don-

The GPS units I am referring to are the ones that sit on top of the flash shoe and are connected to the camera via a cable. Thus, the coordinates are recorded along with the shutter speed, ISO speed , aperture, etc. Thus, all the information shows up in LR.

Bob- the slide shooter at heart

[/quote]You know! I knew that from a previous reading! :eek: But for some reason my mind though I should just go and post without re-reading, today, and what do I get...... the grief I deserve! :D
yelrotflmao.gif


Don
 
I have a Garmin eTrex Legend C (the old one before they added the SD card slot) and a Nuvi 265W. On both I use Garmin's BaseCamp to extract a track log and then Jeffery Friedl's GPS support plugin http://regex.info/blog/lightroom-goodies/gps to coordinate the track log to the EXIF timestamps on the photos.
 
So far, I am able to export my images to Smugmug which includes the GPS coordinates. I really do not have to do much since everything is on auto-pilot. Once the image is imported, the spot where I took the picture shows up on my Google map.
I guess there are other applications where you need Jeffrey Friedl's plugin. Thanks for the link.

Bob- the slide shooter at heart
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top