Geotagger Models

Geotagging is adding the latitude and longitude to an image. We have looked at the subject of Geotagging with an article on this explaining the way it works and how to use the information.

In this article I want to look at the units now available that can be fitted as an accessory on your camera that will allow Geotagging to be undertaken.

Geopic II from Custom Ideas, price £129.99, was our choice, although it draws its power from the camera it has power saving features that make it usable. In the UK I have found the location shown on maps to be extremely accurate, in most cases within a matter of feet, but there have been a small number of cases in the UK where it has given a position that was not correct by up to a hundred yards. When used in Ghana, West Africa, there were occasions where the position was not very accurate, however it may have been the mapping rather than the geotagging that was the problem, as a lot of the country is not fully mapped, or it may have been on those occasions I came out from within the shadow of or from buildings and I just did not give it sufficient time to get a good fix.

Geopic 2
click image to see a
larger version

The Geopic II plugs into the 10 pin socket, and you don't have to do anything then specific, it adds latitude, longitude, altitude, and accurate time to each image. There is additional information to this including, how many satellites it could see at the time, that can be read in Photoshop. The Geopic II operates in several modes, and a single button and the camera controls. It has a socket into which a special cable release can be plugged, as it is occupying the 10 pin socket where a normal cable release would fit.

I have used this unit a lot, and carry it with me all the time now. I currently have its cable taped to my camera strap, but I plan to make a velcro loop that will retain it when I don't want it on, but will also allow me to take it completely off the camera when required. Custom Ideas page on this item.

Nikon GP1

Nikon produce the GP1, recommended UK price £233. This appears to do the same job as the Geopic II, but insufficient information is available to know if it has power saving features or if it has any other facilities. It normally connects to the 10 pin socket but has a second cable that can be used to fit it to a D90. We, at the time of writing this, haven't played with a GP1 but there is a review available , I am unable at the moment to see any advantage unless you have a D90.

Nikon GP1

Dawn technology D1-GPS PRO Priced around £195. Similar in function to the above but users complain it can take a long time to get a satellite fix, sometimes over 30 seconds. Connects via the 10 pin connector and data is written to the Exif data within the image as the above do. Dawn Technology

page on GPS and on this unit

. This unit will also work with some Canon cameras.

D1-GPS Pro

Jobo Photo GPS price £159. This unit uses a different approach, rather than writing the information to the camera it collects it and then later you use the information from the unit in combination with the information on photographs with special software to geotag the images. It has a 10 pin cable so is presumably using this to know when images are taken, there is an output that is used to fire a second camera in parallel when using this, and I suspect its using this to know when to log a position. Just don't delete any pictures until you have experimented with this. Some people like this unit as in combination with its software it can also give street addresses, postcodes, local point of interest and other information to go with photographs. JoBo page on this unit.

AMOD AGL3080 costs £63. This unit does not connect to the camera at all but keeps track of where you go. Later with software it can match up your photos and the locations, but I don't know how. The budget price and not needing to have a camera with a 10 pin socket makes this of interest to some people. The unit is larger than the above units, however it doesn't need to be on the camera it can be in your pocket, on the strap or elsewhere, just as long as it can still see the satellites. More information, manuals to download and more is available by clicking here.

Nikon P6000

Nikon also produce the P6000 camera, that has geotagging built in, and as the price of this has been dropping, we saw it at Focus on Imaging 2009 on the Jacobs stand priced at £299, getting a small camera that can give the location might be another solution and then adding the geotagging data later where you want to. Click here to read Amateur Photographer magazine review of the P6000.

Nikon P6000
click image to see a larger version

All prices quoted here are as at March 2009.

Page Ref: geotagger_models

Classification: Accessories

Last Updated: 03/2009

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