Why is GPS so expensive on SLRs?

Astraeus

Astraeus

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Ciaran
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It is a technology which can be found in nigh on every mobile phone, regardless of price, and it is on the majority of point-and-shoot cameras upwards of £200 so why is GPS such an expensive addition to Nikon's SLRs given that the GP-1 unit costs over £150 and the proprietary connection precludes one from using an OEM GPS unit. :gag: :thinking:
 
you don't need to connect to the body at all - you can use a logger (from~£30) or a GPS-equipped smartphone & combine data on your PC using freely available software.

Sony has GPS built into the body of several of its Alphas (from ~£480) & imo this will become the norm in future.
 
I would love built in gps on my dslr just to keep the clock in sync :)
 
heidfirst said:
you don't need to connect to the body at all - you can use a logger (from~£30) or a GPS-equipped smartphone & combine data on your PC using freely available software.

Sony has GPS built into the body of several of its Alphas (from ~£480) & imo this will become the norm in future.
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I actually bought a GPS logger (iBlue 747A) a couple of years ago to track my ski runs but the software which came with it was absolutely hideous and it proved to be a nightmare to install the drivers so I gave up on it. I would happily recommission it if someone could decrypt the driver installation! :thumbsdown:
 
heidfirst said:
click on http://soft.bt747.org/BT747_J2SE_Latest_rxtx2_2p2.jnlp & select open (at least in Opera)
It installed easily for me on Win7 64 & opened no problem.
As I don't have that logger I can't connect & test (which would take getting to know the app, as well).
http://www.bt747.org/forum/minimal-installation

my logger uses http://www.a-trip.com/download as supplied but different chip.
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The software does install but it doesn't install the drivers alongside it and so the 747A is not recognised.
 
It's not an expensive addition on Canon DSLR's.
 
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Wow. A stroke of luck and it has started working on my PC at the least involved attempt I have made to date!

Interesting, it has plucked off all of my skiing data from a season in Meribel. So what is the best way to view this? Wouldn't mind knowing things like where the fastest point was, how many miles I travelled in a day - that sort of stuff. Any specific program which will do this the best?
 
I input mine into google earth. I think my gps stores in something like kml format. I too was after an amod device but found my garmin forerunner does the same job. I have an etrex as well to cover all bases.
 
Jackwow said:
It's not an expensive addition on Canon DSLR's.
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That's right! For the 7D the WFT-E5 can be had for just £450-500 on sale, add a bluetoot dongle and a bt GPS unit for another £100 and we're only up to around £600 to get geotagging on your photos.

Plus it's real handy shooting with a 7D that has a wireless transmitter grip (that needs its own battery) + a USB BT dongle hanging from it...

:bang:
 
Astraeus said:
It is a technology which can be found in nigh on every mobile phone, regardless of price, and it is on the majority of point-and-shoot cameras upwards of £200 :
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Same reason why sat nav and mp3/ipod support on a car stereo with integration to your car is still stupidly expensive when a 50 quid mobile phone can do it (minus integration of course)...

1) Because they can

2) Because they can

3) errrrm
 
What would be really neat is if you could have some kind of app on your phone to do the actual GPS coordinates but that is triggered by the shutter of your camera. IN other words every time you trip the shutter it tells the app on your phone to take a GPS plot. You could say set the app to have a sequence that starts with the same number as the photos in you camera then you could easily link the data to a given photo by comparing the names.
That way you could use it with any camera.
 
you can already use it with any camera (assuming that you have the phone/logger & camera clocks synchronised)?
Mine lets me take a plot every second if I so wish & how far are you going to move in a second when photographing?

It's also unlikely that I would be using 2 different cameras within the same second (this may not be true of pros with several cameras setup for remote use but then they can afford a better solution :p).
 
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would be handy to have
I do it the old fashioned way tho have got a garmin etrex handheld gps and write down the coordinates after taking the shot :)
 
Are there any iOS apps that people reccomend for this?

In more built up areas I think the maps module in Lightroom 4 will be good for geotagging, but I'd like a solution for when I'm out away from roads etc.
 
The way I do it, is whenever I take photos on a location I also take a photo on my iPhone, then when loaded into my editing software I also add the photo from my phone, then tag all the relevant photos to that location. This only works when I have phone signal....??
 
The Yongnuo GPS receiver for Nikon is around £40 and is apparently as good as the Nikon.
 
Get a GPS logger and use Lightroom 4 (when it comes out) to use the GPX file from your logger to geotag all your images.
 
One of the better [but by no means perfect] progs to co-ordinate your gps data with your photos is Geosetter. It's also free.
 
I've downloaded a GPX tracker for my iPhone, so next time I'm out with the camera I'll see how it works with Lightroom 4. I've gone for one which I can update at each location, rather than one which tracks constantly.
 
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