Didn't see this posted anywhere. Good for anyone who needs a geotagging device. $129 @ Amazon. Don't forget 3% FC. Usual Meritline caveats apply - shipping from HK, yadda yadda.
Thanks OP. Never had a need to GPS-tag my photos, but find myself wondering if the need will arise one day. Perhaps by then, all digital cams will just have the feature built-in.
Download of product manual in .pdf from manufacturer's website: Link
Adorama and Meritline are the only two sellers of this device listed on Froogle. BTW, minor point, but it's actually $139 at Amazon (via Adorama) when you factor in shipping. If you buy it direct from Adorama, shipping is free.
May be important to some: this software listing at Adorama leads me to believe that the software which comes with the device does not natively support RAW format. Looks like you'll have to pay extra for that feature. Personally, I find that a lame profiteering stunt. It's $28 shipped at Adorama, $50 extra at Meritline.
Merax also make a Bluetooth-enabled version ($99 at Meritline), I guess so it can tag photos taken with a compatible cell phone (or maybe add GPS mapping capabilities to phones which don't have GPS built-in?).
I'm very annoyed at Canon for introducing the 50D, the 5Dmk2, and the 7D- all without geo-tag abilities (well, unless you buy an 800$ grip). So remote geo-tagging is a HUGE bonus for folks that hike or go sight-seeing.
Not too many software packages support raw tagging- and rightly so, as tagging a raw file in essence 'changes' the raw file. Never ever touch your raw files- keep them as 'negatives'- so if it doesn't come out of the camera raw tagged, there's got to be another way to do it.
Anyway there is one software package that claims to do raw geo-tagging but I haven't tried it yet. Add another 50-100$ for software for Raw for a full priced package.
purduephotog said: Not too many software packages support raw tagging- and rightly so, as tagging a raw file in essence 'changes' the raw file. Never ever touch your raw files- keep them as 'negatives'- so if it doesn't come out of the camera raw tagged, there's got to be another way to do it.
Anyway there is one software package that claims to do raw geo-tagging but I haven't tried it yet. Add another 50-100$ for software for Raw for a full priced package.
Thanks for the info. Not sure I follow this, however. How would plugging some latitude and longitude info into some file header have any kind of negative impact on the image data itself? Does opening and resaving the file somehow reprocess the RAW image data itself, like it does with repeatedly saving JPEGs?
ktg said: purduephotog said: Not too many software packages support raw tagging- and rightly so, as tagging a raw file in essence 'changes' the raw file. Never ever touch your raw files- keep them as 'negatives'- so if it doesn't come out of the camera raw tagged, there's got to be another way to do it.
Anyway there is one software package that claims to do raw geo-tagging but I haven't tried it yet. Add another 50-100$ for software for Raw for a full priced package.
Thanks for the info. Not sure I follow this, however. How would plugging some latitude and longitude info into some file header have any kind of negative impact on the image data itself? Does opening and resaving the file somehow reprocess the RAW image data itself, like it does with repeatedly saving JPEGs?
At the nitty-gritty level, purduephotog is right that it does change the RAW file. But the file has multiple parts: the header and the payload. Although tagging does change the header, it doesn't change the payload, so I don't see a problem with it. purduephotog is taking a very "purist" view (which is fine). But I don't see a problem with manipulating the header info.
jbloggs said: So if you had the wrong date/time set on your camera then the geo-tagging be incorrect, correct? or am I just not understanding the product?
I believe you're right. I think it correlates basted on the date/time.
lostmutt
Member
posted: Oct. 3, 2009 @ 10:03p
Thanks! Been looking at these for a while. Plus, i'm going on vacation in 2 weeks, so great timeing!
Sounds pretty good. Gets my vote (and deduction from my wallet). Regarding RAW support, the others also don't support RAW or you need to add, plus they cost more. So even with this + the Merax Photofinder RAW add on, you're looking at ~$80, not bad.
Why do you want RAW geotagging instead of XMP sidecar files? You won't want to touch the RAW file at all. You can take any GPS and use Geosetter to geotag the files.
I have a 5D Mark II, and integrated geotagging is far down on the list of stuff I need a camera to do. I use a Garmin GPS and Geosetter to tag the files before they're imported into Lightroom. I've geotagged 15,000 photos worldwide for the last 2 years using this method.
So the GPS itself is a good deal, but if you already have one, then why get something else?
Viru
Member
posted: Oct. 4, 2009 @ 10:38a
I have a hack installed on my Nuvi200. It logs at every second to the 2GB SD card. If u have garmin forerunner, u can use it's logs for geo tagging too. If someone wants, I can dig up the Urls for nuvi 200 hack.
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