hangtime wrote:
For what it's worth, I have an RP and I use the app running on an iPhone XR. This setup has worked really well for me, unlike what some other people have experienced. You pair once and then you don't have to do that ever again. The only step to remember is that you need to open the app and click the "Start Location Logging" button.
I don't think you even need to "Start Location Logging". That is for older cameras without the feature of transferring location info over Bluetooth.
iOS is much better now about letting apps run in the background without closing them, and the Bluetooth connection is really solid. The connection will last all day, even when using the phone for normal things. I can even leave home and when I come back I can see that the app automatically reconnected to the camera when I came within range.
Yes, very stable on my LG Android phone also.
I haven't noticed any negative effect on battery life. I went on a 6-hour hike recently and took ~300 photos which the app geotagged very well. The camera had ~1/2 charge remaining and my phone battery was about where it normally is by the afternoon.
GPS receivers, while consuming more power than BT, is no way a power hog as the screen.
There is also a function to automatically download photos from the camera as they're taken. I haven't played around with that feature much, but it connects to the camera over Wifi so it probably would hit the battery harder. It only transfers JPGs (RAWs will be converted and then transfer), but I can see where it might be useful in some situations.
Automatic download works as advertised. But you need to keep Wifi on both the camera and the phone on for them to exchange "I am OK, are you OK?" which drains power. If either one sleeps, then the link is broken. It is not reliable for hiking around when you don't pay attention to your gears.
Speaking of Wifi, the Canon Camera Connect app is the worst piece of software I ever used. When connecting, it shows its 3 steps with the third one (between app to camera) taking the longest and failing more. There is no simple way to select all the photos I have not downloaded before. I have to manually select each one. It gets tiresome when I have to select over 100 shots.