GPS Coming to Nikon

While this may not be of interest to all Nikon users, it is to some of us, and there have been several threads in the past few months regarding photographers who want to imbed a GPS position in and along with the other information that is stored with the image, whenever an image is recorded on the camera's card.

What has been available in the past is Nikon's MC-35 cable ($90) that plugs into the 10 pin connector on the front of the camera, and into a handheld GPS on the other end, but this system is awkward with the detached hand held GPS - plus co-ordinating the image and GPS position is also awkward using this method.

Then there are two small relatively new GPS antennas, namely the Geomet'r and Dawn Technology units that have a flash shoe mount and short built in cable that plugs into the camera's 10 pin port. The little device that mounts in the camera's flash shoe is a GPS antenna that when activated, imbeds the camera's lattitide & longitude in each jpeg, and these are really slick accessories if you want to record the lat/lon of a shot. They cost $140 and 290 respectively.

However, Nikon has just announced their new P6000, a 13.5mp advanced compact (& high end price wise at around US$500) that includes a built in GPS antenna that will in Nikon's words: "log the location at which the image was taken."

Will a GPS antenna be in the future of Nikon's SLR's? A GPS antenna is smaller in diameter than a dime and half a dime's thickness, so size is not a consideration. Plus, in receive mode a GPS antenna draws miliamps (ie. almost no current), so battery drain is not a consideration when the antenna is receiving, and I would think that turning the antenna on/placing the GPS antenna in receive mode would be menu controlled.

what about the remote car starter, and the ability to pick you granchildrens names, can opener, fire starter...

I just want a solid cam that will take pics....not all this BS.....
--
Thanks,
John
D300, D80, D40X, & D40.

A lot of what goes into camera development is marketable. What can be cutting edge and things that the market will accept. I think GPS is a marketable feature and it can easily be integrated into a DSLR body.

BTW, I pre-ordered the P6000 partially because it does have GPS logging. I plan on using it when I don't want to lug around my D300 and an assortment of lens. Plus I use a P&S for work.
--
Patriotic dissent is a luxury of those protected by better men than they.
http://dgehlsen.zenfolio.com/

John Garth said:

I just want a solid cam that will take pics....not all this BS.....

Click to expand...

Haha... I think we have a solid camera that takes [great] pics.

I'm sure that there will be a setting just for you to turn it off.

I have my Di-GPS on my D300 all the time. I've used it to tag about 14,000 of the 19,000 pictures that I've taken with my D300. Built in GPS is probably one of the only features that I wish the D300 had, but hey, I didn't even realize it had GPS support when I bought it.

I personally think that GPS (in cameras) is going to catch on and be expected on all cameras soon. I admit that I get accused of being a bit nerdy for having GPS on my camera, but it's worth it to me.

I've actually used it to find my way back to my hotel once after walking miles around a city in a foreign country. Just snap a picture where you start, then watch the GPS display to go back to where you started. Not practical, but it worked.

Cheers,
Paul

John Garth said:

what about the remote car starter, and the ability to pick you
granchildrens names, can opener, fire starter...

I just want a solid cam that will take pics....not all this BS.....

Click to expand...

the problem is, for people who DO want GPS, any solution other than built-in is cumbersome.

i think that, when this feature is routinely built in, a lot of people are going to realize they really like it, even though they hadn't been looking for it.

everyone occasionally wishes they could remember where they were when they took a certain photo.

Right, those who don't get it today, will.

The best example is EXIF. People take it for granted today. I bet back in 98 when they came out with it, people looked at it the same as people are looking at GPS today. Some people got it, others don't. Now today people use it heavily. I can just see people going "why do that when I can just right down my shutter speed, aperture, lens, etc on my note book and hope to match it up with the image later to write it on the back"

In time, people won't know what they did without it. And EXIF has been waiting for this for a while as it has had the fields for location.

If we could get companies using DNG and having built in GPS, we could start to get some really great photo management tools.

Don't forget the cellphone, garage door opener remote, HD movie mode, and especially the "Send to YouTube" button...

= Dan =

GPS might be nice in some occasions but I hope that it can be turned off in the Exif Data. I shoot a lot of rare plants in nature reserves and I don´t want to give away the secret where I take my shots to anyone. One reason is to protect the plants and animals from too much tourism.

Regards
Fritz

John Garth said:

I just want a solid cam that will take pics....not all this BS.....

Click to expand...

Clearly your memory works a lot better than mine.

I mean, that feeling has served me well until I go back to a 5 year old stack of pictures and try to remember where they were taken.

I use various GPS solutions for my photos. Most of the time, I leave it shut off, because I doubt that I'll soon forget where my home is. Other times, when I'm in unfamiliar territory, I find it very useful as another important piece of EXIF data.

I personally think it would be great. I've thought about buying the adapter and a smaller GPS...I hate the thought of lugging a GPS around in my pocket, out in the jungle. I have no use for it other than tagging the picture. Not to mention the tether to the camera. And some times when I'm in a small boat I can only deal with keeping one item out of the water at a time. To much electronics means something will get lost.

I strayed from my original thought of why GPS woud be great for me. The main reason is that when I travel to "exotic" places or taking pictures for extended periods outside of my surroundings (say a month in several countries), I lose track of the location of where I took pictures. It would be incredible to be able to know where the picture was taken and tie it to a narrative I'm expressing.

It's almost useless for some professional work like: prodicts, protraits and weddings. And if you want to distribute a picture electronically and keep the location anonymous/secret, you'll need to remove the GPS location. But that shouldn't be a big deal. For allot of us this will be very helpful. I'd pay and extra $100 for the feature.

Like the 100% viewfinder, I've been waiting 5 years for Nikon to GOYA and do something credible with GPS. Marketers have a recurring nightmare that they may supply a feature at extra cost to them that 2 people may not want. I believe that's Apple's excuse for stripping a DVD writer out of the bottom of the lines.

The solution would have been to build GPS into one of their $300 external accessory grips. But like so many Nikon SNAFUs (D700 95% finder, latest Coolpix compatibility problems) that would be too easy. They must have made a bundle selling that expensive piece of lampcord called the MC-35.

Since I refuse to get into the current Rube Goldberg GPS contraptions which include sending $300 to a Hong Kong post office box which doesn't answer email, I just take a jpg of my hand held GPS reading if I need a reference. Has worked for me for 5 years.
--
All I can afford is a (old) half-frame from Thailand.

Times change and electronics have a history of changing/improving on an almost daily basis. The $300 whatever you mentioned is now a compact device costing as little as $140 (postage paid) from California, and the more expensive unit mentioned above is also from a US supplier.

It's nice to have the lat/lon imbedded in the jpeg for use when you might need it.

Mr Fartleberry said:

Since I refuse to get into the current Rube Goldberg GPS contraptions
which include sending $300 to a Hong Kong post office box which
doesn't answer email, I just take a jpg of my hand held GPS reading
if I need a reference. Has worked for me for 5 years.

Click to expand...

Walt Jennings said:

Will a GPS antenna be in the future of Nikon's SLR's? A GPS antenna
is smaller in diameter than a dime and half a dime's thickness, so
size is not a consideration. Plus, in receive mode a GPS antenna
draws miliamps (ie. almost no current), so battery drain is not a
consideration when the antenna is receiving, and I would think that
turning the antenna on/placing the GPS antenna in receive mode would
be menu controlled.

Click to expand...

1. One needs an antenna AND a receiver.

2. A dime sized antenna will not work terribly well. Patch antennas of about 1 inch square seem to work extremely well. Smaller ones do not fair well in less than perfect conditions.

3. A few milliamps of power consumption is most certainly a significant consideration if drawn continuously (24/7). And if the device is powered down and then back on it may take a few seconds to a few minutes to acquire an accurate position.

Having said all of that, I heartily approve of the direction Nikon is taking. I do NOT think they're falling down the same hole as, for example, cell phone makers, who have been evolving their products into entertainment centers (and to the detriment of the primary function).

Adding date/time stamps to photographs (even those quaint old ones on 35mm film) was normal even before the development of the digital cameras. GPS technology has simply made the "where" data as ubiquitous as the "when" data.

I hope Nikon do NOT start adding MP3 players, electronic games and other such nonsense to their DSLRs. I don't really care if they add such silliness to their P&S cameras.

I don't have a clue what size antenna Nikon engineers are starting to use, but I would think that a high quality antenna would not be needed in a camera?

And I agree with everything else you said except on the power consideration, and IMO anyone who would leave their camera "on" 24/7, deserves to find their battery depleated.

malch said:

2. A dime sized antenna will not work terribly well. Patch antennas
of about 1 inch square seem to work extremely well. Smaller ones do
not fair well in less than perfect conditions.

3. A few milliamps of power consumption is most certainly a
significant consideration if drawn continuously (24/7).

Click to expand...

Walt Jennings said:

I don't have a clue what size antenna Nikon engineers are starting to
use, but I would think that a high quality antenna would not be
needed in a camera?

Click to expand...

A GPS receiver requires an antenna, period. There's a good body of evidence available on GPS receivers and data loggers. The 1 inch square patch antenna works well. Smaller sizes don't. It wouldn't be hard to fit a 1 inch patch in a DSLR (above the mirror box or in the lid of the popup flash would probably work well). Accommodating a decent antenna in the smaller P&S cameras will be significantly harder.

Walt Jennings said:

And I agree with everything else you said except on the power consideration, and
IMO anyone who would leave their camera "on" 24/7, deserves to find their
battery depleated.

Click to expand...

Perhaps. But the new Nikon DSLR's are ready to shoot within less than 1 second after a power on. Every GPS receiver takes a lot longer than that to acquire the satellites and compute the coordinates. There are lots of power management strategies but GPS devices take quite a while to get a fix and that presents a real dilemma in a camera. Nikon already discovered that users want instant-on and they rose to that challenge. Handling this issue with a GPS will be tough.

For landscape and nature photographers, as well as for travel blogs, this is a truly useful feature -- as useful as EXIF info on exposure. If you are shooting brides cutting cake, and action figures for e-Bay, I agree it's not needed. Still, I really don't think recording location info is in the same league as your (it is to be hoped) tongue-in-cheek features. I will bet that in 2-5 years most DSLRs have GPS built in, and probably wi-fi or bluetooth for remote camera control as well: because its truly useful, not just a marketing stunt. Maybe voice annotation,like the D3, too. I would welcome all three of these (no need for external GPS, shutter remote, or memo recorder).

For what it's worth, I'm an enthusiastic di-GPS and D300 owner.

My 2 cents.

Chris

Dan Nelson said:

Don't forget the cellphone, garage door opener remote, HD movie mode,
and especially the "Send to YouTube" button...

= Dan =

Click to expand...

--
Chris in Red Stick

The GPS signal is very weak, if you wanted to ensure that the GPS signal was captured, you would have to have a large enough 'dome' so that the patch antenna can see enough satellites to make an accurate reading. Since the pro cameras are made out of magnesium, Nikon would have to do some plastic substituting in order to accommodate the GPS antenna.

I think I will stick with the MC-35.

--
Cliff

and the meter still says full charge (that would not be the case with a internal GPS on). The GPS antenna on the P6000 looks to be on the upper left side of the camera. Why should a camera be any different than other GPS devices. If you are thinking of cellular GPS, that's basically aGPS, somewhat different than the GPS that a Nuvi has. aGPS is more akin to dGPS that professional surveyors use.

I have had this argument before. Until Nikon comes up with a bigger battery than the EN-EL3, I want no accessory that will impose additional drain on the camera's battery.

--
Cliff

malch wrote:
[snip]

Member said:

I hope Nikon do NOT start adding MP3 players, electronic games and
other such nonsense to their DSLRs. I don't really care if they add
such silliness to their P&S cameras.

Click to expand...

One of the most bizarre things they did is with the virtual horizon and the camera icon in the center. Trust me, if I spend 3-5K on a camera, I'm very clear that I'm holding a camera. I don't need an icon to tell me that!

Don

How are you using you Di-GPS to map your way back to things?

Don

swarfworks said:

swarfworks said:

I just want a solid cam that will take pics....not all this BS.....

Click to expand...

Haha... I think we have a solid camera that takes [great] pics.

I'm sure that there will be a setting just for you to turn it off.

I have my Di-GPS on my D300 all the time. I've used it to tag about
14,000 of the 19,000 pictures that I've taken with my D300. Built in
GPS is probably one of the only features that I wish the D300 had,
but hey, I didn't even realize it had GPS support when I bought it.

I personally think that GPS (in cameras) is going to catch on and be
expected on all cameras soon. I admit that I get accused of being a
bit nerdy for having GPS on my camera, but it's worth it to me.

I've actually used it to find my way back to my hotel once after
walking miles around a city in a foreign country. Just snap a picture
where you start, then watch the GPS display to go back to where you
started. Not practical, but it worked.

Cheers,
Paul

Click to expand...