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Where ARE these GPS enabled cameras?

S

seenett

macrumors regular
Original poster
Dec 4, 2007
199
25
On the iLife '09 Guided Tour, John shows a Nikon as an example of the new GPS enabled consumer cameras. The camera appears to be a P6000.

Does anyone know of other point and shoot consumer cameras that are GPS enabled? The P6000 is the only one I could find, and even then I had to dig in the "features" to see it had GPS.
 
mrgreen4242

mrgreen4242

macrumors 601
Feb 10, 2004
4,377
9
seenett said:
On the iLife '09 Guided Tour, John shows a Nikon as an example of the new GPS enabled consumer cameras. The camera appears to be a P6000.

Does anyone know of other point and shoot consumer cameras that are GPS enabled? The P6000 is the only one I could find, and even then I had to dig in the "features" to see it had GPS.
Click to expand...

Nikon also has a GPS attachment for a couple of their SLRs, notably the D90. More usefully, there's a bunch of little keychain sized GPS devices that log your location every 15 seconds or so and then when you get back to you computer you can use various software packages to combine the GPS log and your photos to apply the proper geotagging data.
 
compuwar

compuwar

macrumors 601
Oct 5, 2006
4,717
2
Northern/Central VA
seenett said:
On the iLife '09 Guided Tour, John shows a Nikon as an example of the new GPS enabled consumer cameras. The camera appears to be a P6000.

Does anyone know of other point and shoot consumer cameras that are GPS enabled? The P6000 is the only one I could find, and even then I had to dig in the "features" to see it had GPS.
Click to expand...

Sanyo made a couple and then stopped, Canon made a "combine with a track-log" device.

However, the biggest one I can think of off the top of my head is....


The iPhone 3G!

(It's off on my phone though.)
 
S

seenett

macrumors regular
Original poster
Dec 4, 2007
199
25
As the OP, I certainly hope that manufacturers will SOON start making GPS enabled cameras as a common feature. I am aware that certain SLR type cameras can dongle a separate GPS device that needs to be reconciled before uploading - but how convenient is that? I love the geotagging on my iPhone, but no one seriously uses their iPhone's camera for everyday pictures, do they? I just want a point and shoot camera that iPhoto (and Flickr and Google) can map to my vacation photos.
 
compuwar

compuwar

macrumors 601
Oct 5, 2006
4,717
2
Northern/Central VA
seenett said:
As the OP, I certainly hope that manufacturers will SOON start making GPS enabled cameras as a common feature. I am aware that certain SLR type cameras can dongle a separate GPS device that needs to be reconciled before uploading - but how convenient is that? I love the geotagging on my iPhone, but no one seriously uses their iPhone's camera for everyday pictures, do they? I just want a point and shoot camera that iPhoto (and Flickr and Google) can map to my vacation photos.
Click to expand...

I don't know- the margins on P&S cameras are very low- cell phones have to have GPS, P&S manufacturers need it to be a requested feature- as it's an added hardware cost in one instance and a few lines of code in the other.

You don't need to tether a GPS if you're reconciling on time and your camera is set to the GPS time, you can do it with a track log, two uploads and some software. The tether option puts the GPS into the EXIF so you don't need to reconcile it.

Personally, I'd rather they had to search for the bodies the old fashioned way ;)
 
Canubis

Canubis

macrumors 6502
Oct 22, 2008
425
524
Vienna, Austria
mrgreen4242 said:
More usefully, there's a bunch of little keychain sized GPS devices that log your location every 15 seconds or so and then when you get back to you computer you can use various software packages to combine the GPS log and your photos to apply the proper geotagging data.
Click to expand...

That reads really interesting. Could you post some names or manufacturers for such keyring devices? Or maybe even a link? ;-)
Sounds like a great opportunity to give my camera a lil feature upgrade. :)
 
notjustjay

notjustjay

macrumors 603
Sep 19, 2003
6,056
167
Canada, eh?
Where are the GPS-enabled cameras? Clearly, in the same place as all the video cameras that transfer over USB as opposed to Firewire. :p
 
peskaa

peskaa

macrumors 68020
Mar 13, 2008
2,104
5
London, UK
I'm still waiting for a sensible solution for Canon EOS cameras. Canon's current "idea" is to stick the wireless transmitter on the side, which is then plugged into a GPS unit via USB.

Cumbersome, and utterly impractical in the field.
 
brand

brand

macrumors 601
Oct 3, 2006
4,390
456
127.0.0.1
notjustjay said:
Where are the GPS-enabled cameras? Clearly, in the same place as all the video cameras that transfer over USB as opposed to Firewire. :p
Click to expand...

Actually many new Digital Video Camcorders utilize USB instead of FireWire. Unfortunately the new Canon HF10 HD Camcorder I just bought has USB instead of fireWire.
 
shady825

shady825

macrumors 68000
Oct 8, 2008
1,861
101
Area 51
peskaa said:
I'm still waiting for a sensible solution for Canon EOS cameras. Canon's current "idea" is to stick the wireless transmitter on the side, which is then plugged into a GPS unit via USB.

Cumbersome, and utterly impractical in the field.
Click to expand...

I just glanced over an article yesterday that said you can plug something into the shoe mount for GPS data... Im trying to find it now...
 
S

SWC

macrumors 6502
Jan 6, 2004
332
179
S

SWC

macrumors 6502
Jan 6, 2004
332
179
shady825 said:
I just glanced over an article yesterday that said you can plug something into the shoe mount for GPS data... Im trying to find it now...
Click to expand...


http://www.jobo.com/web/photoGPS.447.0.html

that loosk pretty interesting but still needs to be synced up. I know know how the canon solution works which requires an external GPS and a grip that is about $1000 if i remember correctly. But at that price it's not worth it.

Nikon definitely has the most elegant solution here with a cable that plugs in to their own gps unit (that can be shoe mounted) and inserts the geo data right into the exif on the camera for around $250~
 
S

spice weasel

macrumors 65816
Jul 25, 2003
1,255
9
compuwar said:
However, the biggest one I can think of off the top of my head is....

The iPhone 3G!

(It's off on my phone though.)
Click to expand...

I was going to post a new question about this, but then I saw this post, so I'll ask here:

I'm checking out the new iLife '09 and I like the geotagging support in iPhoto. I figure that if I take a quick pic with my iPhone 3G before I start shooting with my dSLR at each location, then when I import my photos I'll have the geotagged iPhone pic and then a series of dSLR shots. I can then manually add the geotag data to my "real" photos.

I just took a test shot with my iPhone (I never use the camera on it), emailed it to myself (I'm at work, on a PC), and opened the file in Photoshop. I can't see any GPS data in the EXIF data. Am I doing something wrong?

EDIT: Ok, I think I know what's up. I assume emailing a photo file strips it of geotag data?
 
compuwar

compuwar

macrumors 601
Oct 5, 2006
4,717
2
Northern/Central VA
spice weasel said:
I just took a test shot with my iPhone (I never use the camera on it), emailed it to myself (I'm at work, on a PC), and opened the file in Photoshop. I can't see any GPS data in the EXIF data. Am I doing something wrong?

EDIT: Ok, I think I know what's up. I assume emailing a photo file strips it of geotag data?
Click to expand...

Yep, known issue. You must download the photos to get the geocoding and you must tell the phone it's ok that the camera uses the GPS. That's the extent of it.
 
mrgreen4242

mrgreen4242

macrumors 601
Feb 10, 2004
4,377
9
numbersyx said:
Yes. But these are not GPS systems - they plug into any surrounding wifi areas - which may not be there or be secured so they can't get in...
Click to expand...

It doesn't actually need to connect to a WiFi network to use it as a location datapoint, just connect to A wifi network, other networks that broadcast their SSID can still be used to pinpoint location.

Still, not terribly useful in general practice outside of large cities.
 
B

billabong

macrumors 6502
Jan 7, 2004
397
0
After seeing this feature I want to go out and buy the Nikon P6000! I really hope that this starts to become a regular feature with new release cameras. Has any heard and news on GPS camera's at CES?
 
numbersyx

numbersyx

macrumors 65816
Sep 29, 2006
1,155
100
mrgreen4242 said:
It doesn't actually need to connect to a WiFi network to use it as a location datapoint, just connect to A wifi network, other networks that broadcast their SSID can still be used to pinpoint location.

Still, not terribly useful in general practice outside of large cities.
Click to expand...

So it does need to connect to a Wifi network....
 
H

Hmac

macrumors 68020
May 30, 2007
2,130
4
Midwest USA
The Nikon dSLRs have been able to support GPS for years using an add-on hand-held GPS, or something like their GP-1 module. IIRC these things run around $300.

I doubt we'll see this as a built-in feature on any camera due to the relatively high expense and relatively low usefulness, but I do see it as it is now - an option that can be added if the user wants it.

51vAyeRK77L._SS400_.jpg
 
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