Geotagged Photos

pmcke, sideways topic but how do you find the built-in GPS with regard to things like battery use, and does it fix its position realistically quickly in your experience? I've been stamping positions onto photos from my GPX track files for some time now which works fine but still takes a few minutes of effort at a later date. I'm wondering if it's realistic for cameras to just do it now, with the same convenience and accuracy as a GPX from a good GPS, or do you still lose something?

I find it quite good, so far. I have only been through one battery cycle and it does seem to go flat quite quickly with the GPS. There is an option to have the camera record a track but I won't be bothering with that. It does take a few seconds to get the fix and I would imagine that, if you were in a hurry or you weren't checking the icon in the viewfinder, you might miss the geotag for the first photo or two. But it is handy having the locations saved as part of the pic and not having to synch with a separate GPS track. Garmin Basecamp handles the pics quite nicely and shows the coords in NZTM if you wish. Another small advantage is that the GPS also keeps the camera's clock accurate too.

You asked about accuracy. No probs there, it is very accurate.

Thanks. I hadn't thought of the clock thing, which sounds handy. Is it giving you any hints as to its accuracy at the point in time you take the photo? (As in, GPS's will often get an approximate fix soon after switching on, but continue to zero in over the next 10-20 seconds.) I'm curious if it's necessary to wait that length of time whenever you switch it on... or can the GPS remain on or warmed up even when the rest of the camera's off?

GPS is pretty good at warming up once it has been on nearby. The only indication is when the icon stops flashing. But photos I have mapped onto Google Earth are pretty much spot on. You could leave it tracking a log so GPS would be warmed up, but probably at high battery cost. As I said I suspect battery life is compromised so I bought another battery, which brings me to the great Lithium-ion battery racket. New Canon branded battery in the retail store costs over $90. The clone on trade me costs $6.50 and works just fine. Might buy a couple more.

I have a Nikon AW100 with GPS – works well. Battery life : the camera can be set to GPS-tag ON or OFF. If OFF, battery life is unaffected. If ON, the GPS keeps track of satellites even when the camera is turned off so battery life is impacted. How much? haven’t quantified it (but I carry 3 batteries on an 8-day trip instead of 2 – and turn off the GPS-tagging overnight). Start-up time : if a current GPS satellite position file is loaded (7 day currency, can be downloaded from Garmin website) time to fix is very fast. First time on : 30sec, subsequent camera on : up to 10sec, usually less. Without a current file loaded, up to a few minutes for first time on. Less, but still 1+ min, for subsequent camera on. Accuracy : good – photos taken from the same spot can have position drift (a few metres) but so does my Garmin GPS. Software : doesn’t allow track recording (good, I have a GPS if I want that facility), tags in WGS84, Lat/Lon only, doesn’t show position (although the camera has a basic global map and can show location on that) or Lat/Lon co-ordinates in the camera, writes the GPS data into the exif file, writes nonsense data if no position able to be recorded (rather than zeros or blanks).