New Quick Poll - GPS In Digital Cameras

I just added a new Quick Poll. What do you think of GPS in digital cameras?

GPS In Digital Cameras Quick Poll >>

It's been around for a while in very select cameras or with GPS accessories. And you could always tag your images later if you had the GPS data available. But this year a whole bunch of point-and-shoots were introduced that have in-camera GPS tagging. I didn't get it at first but it's all about better photo searching. I was shown software where you can search for photos with a map and that made a lot of sense to me.

I have no use for it, but don't think I would have said 'stupid idea'. - TF

I don't get outdoors much with my camera. Is a GPS function really necessary to have in my camera? There better be similar model cameras that don't include GPS for those people who don't want to pay for this feature.

It's only in a few high-end point-and-shoots now. So you're going to pay a premium if you want it. As far as necessary - there are a lot of things that aren't *necessary* that we find out are super useful. Here's an example of how it could be really valuable. You go on a road trip and you don't want to go through directory after diectory of photos, or worse - hundreds of unorganized photos. With GPS, you could just click on the location on a map that you want to see photos from.

This feature just struck me as something that might be valuable. I am a trail builder and trail steward, mountain biker. It can be hard to describe to a ranger or others where a tree is down that has to be removed or give club members directions for new trail features or trail design issues.

So, much to my surprise the Panasonic ZS7 and HX5 seem interesting. It looks like they would solve camcorder, camera to make wife happy (she hates to carry much stuff) and some extended utility for me.

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Originally Posted by bitflogger

This feature just struck me as something that might be valuable. I am a trail builder and trail steward, mountain biker. It can be hard to describe to a ranger or others where a tree is down that has to be removed or give club members directions for new trail features or trail design issues.

So, much to my surprise the Panasonic ZS7 and HX5 seem interesting. It looks like they would solve camcorder, camera to make wife happy (she hates to carry much stuff) and some extended utility for me.

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Yup, that sounds like a very good use for it. You could carry a separate GPS device. But if it's in the camera, you don't have to bother. And you'll get much better photos with those cameras than you would from any smartphone. Let us know if you decide to buy one of those cameras for the GPS capabilities. Of course, their both also very powerful point-and-shoot cameras.

I remember starting a thread about GPS tagging a while back. I wasn't too excited about the idea back then, and I'm still not. It's not that I think it's stupid, just not something I need, or would pay extra to have. At the time of my original post I think the GPS was all done through attachments to the camera which equals more gear to carry. No thanks. If it's built into the body that would eliminate that problem but at what cost? More expensive & more weight?

On the other hand, could the GPS be used in reverse? If my camera is lost or stolen could the GPS help me/police locate it? If that's the case, I may be more interested.

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Originally Posted by Photo-John

I just added a new Quick Poll. What do you think of GPS in digital cameras?

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I'm in the camp of shooters that really has no use for this now, but certainly welcomes having the feature available. I mean, look at all the innovations in personal electronics, and how long it took some of them to be accepted. The idea of cameras and music players in mobile phones was originally scoffed at, now it's standard, and high quality.

Not too long ago, embedding things like META data and keywords in images files was considered only the realm of the serious professional, now it's the norm for amateurs as well.

I agree with John: the number may be small, but to a growing group of particular types of photographers, this feature could be extremely valuable and time-saving...

My company, Eye-Fi, makes a wireless SD card that also has an optional geotagging feature. While it is based on reverse WiFi lookup as opposed to actual GPS, it does geotag the vast majority of my photos and add relevant geocoded information like city and state to them. The accuracy is perhaps not ideal for some features, and it certainly won't work in unpopulated areas without wifi, it does a good job for me and I'm glad for the automation.

Hey - thanks for mentioning the Eye-Fi card, Demetri. I forgot about that. Is it able to actually add the GPS data to the EXIF? And how do you use the data? What is the value for you?

Personally I think its very cool, but not cool enough to pay a bunch for the feature. I remember when GPS systems were over $500 a pop, now you can find some for $50-$100. On a DSLR, I would pay an extra ~$80 for the built in feature.

I bought the Nikon GPS module and use it on my D200. Since I do a lot of off roading, as well as other types of travel, I love having the coordinates for each shot in the EXIF data. It helps sort photos, and when used in conjunction with mapping software like GoogleEarth, you can view your photos at their locations (on a map).

I'm not that interested but can see why some would be. Especially if you are into wilderness shooting.

I would love GPS in my camera. I am geo tagging a lot of my photos these day and applying them to maps. Having GPS data embeded in my photos would make this process automatic. I am probably one of the few but this is of particular interest when I travel. Sometime I forget where a particular photo was taken and to have GPS and timestamp I think would be awesome.:thumbsup:

In addition, I see a lot of other useful aspects of this as a collective. I already will use Flickr to see recent photos taken of a place I am traveling to and when GPS is automatic the abundance of photos that have useful search criteria will result. At the moment we are at the mercy of people putting in tag words which often don't make sense. Tag your photo with the word 'cat' so that you can get lots of views as an example.:mad2:

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Originally Posted by Photo-John

Hey - thanks for mentioning the Eye-Fi card, Demetri. I forgot about that. Is it able to actually add the GPS data to the EXIF? And how do you use the data? What is the value for you?

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Eye-Fi cards add data to the EXIF as you mention. I upload my photos to flickr, and use the map functionality built in to their site. The value for me is to be able to retrace my steps and easily gather similar photos based on where they were taken, even if I don't remember exactly when. It's just another vector for me to organize my work.

Here's an example geotagged by Eye-Fi. Note not only the geotags but the geocoded information, in this case the city and state, were automatically added on upload.

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3584/...5b9252dece.jpg

For native in-camera GPS, a colleague just handed me a DMC-ZS7 from Panasonic. Of all the GPS P&S cameras I've seen to date, this has the best integration and goes so far as to show you the number of GPS satellites it has locked onto.

Finally, I've messed around a bit with the GP-1 add-on from Nikon. I don't recommend it as it is bulky and the cable broke the connector on my D90.

[QUOTE=dmourati]Eye-Fi cards add data to the EXIF as you mention. I upload my photos to flickr, and use the map functionality built in to their site. The value for me is to be able to retrace my steps and easily gather similar photos based on where they were taken, even if I don't remember exactly when. It's just another vector for me to organize my work.

Here's an example geotagged by Eye-Fi. Note not only the geotags but the geocoded information, in this case the city and state, were automatically added on upload.
[QUOTE]
I pop the Lat/Long into Google Earth and it shows a field in eastern China - correct? - TF

Half way round the the world from there maybe?

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&sour...9&ie=UTF8&z=16

Any kind of outdoor or location shooting where the Receiver can get the signal can benefit.

GPS can be decoded to show altitude (not common thought of but it is part of the schema) as well as map coordinates. Shooting from the side of one mountain across a valley? So how far up the hill were you? Now you know.

It also provides one more 'verification' of where and when the photo was made for journalists and documentary photographers.

A few comments were made previously and I'll add that a lot inspection is now being done with GPS enabled. Ranging from tower (cell, radio, TV) inspection, to highway, railroad, bridge, rivers etc. it has started to become invaluable as one more piece of data. Also its harder to 'fudge' for the unscrupulous who might not want to get out and look at one more &*$#& site and tries to substitute another image!!

Of course you may want to obscure the GPS waypoing in your public data if you discover some magic vista or vantage that you are not keen on sharing immediately.

On a darker note, those who take pictures with GPS may also find that someone could point out that they were where they were not suppose to be too!