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Am I the only one "put out" about no GPS in R5 or R6?

Started Aug 21, 2020 | Discussions thread
HenryL64 Contributing Member • Posts: 559
Re: From the OP
1

hangtime wrote:

HenryL64 wrote:

What you describe is how it works for me as far as connecting, reconnecting and how the GPS icon stops flashing pretty quickly to indicate it has reconnected. Seems getting it paired/connected to the phone is very straightforward.

Did you happen to test establishing the initial connection, shooting a few frames, moving to a new location a significant distance away and shooting a few more frames? For me the location never changes - even though GPS icon in the viewfinder indicates it is connected.

To get the new location tagged on subsequent photos, I have to open bluetooth settings on the phone, disconnect the camera, reconnect it, then reopen the app. I'm hopeful there is something I'm doing wrong, if this is as good as it gets, it's fairly worthless.

So you're exactly right here, Henry. I hadn't realized because I only look at the "map" view of Lightroom really zoomed out. But taking a closer look I saw exactly what you describe - the photos were all clumped together i.e. 84 photos all tagged with the same GPS location even though they were spread out along the hike.

I thought that maybe the "clumps" corresponded to when I would change lenses, and I was re-opening the app to restarted the (apparently unneeded) logging function. On a hunch I looked at the settings for the Camera Connect app on my iPhone and I found it was set to "When using app" and not "Always". I tested this out with a walk in the neighbourhood, using the old setting for the first part and setting to Always for the way back. All the first half photos showed at my home and all the way back photos were nicely spread out.

I didn't test a long walk but this seems like it might be a solution. If you're using an iPhone this might solve it for you too? On my RP, the yellow menu option "GPS device settings"->"GPS information display" shows the position and it updates in real time as you walk around. That might be handy for troubleshooting.

I think you're on to something. I just gave it a quick "yard check" and setting the Connect app to "Always" access location data does show changing location data as you described. I also waited a few minutes to allow the camera to sleep, then woke the camera by hitting the shutter button and the GPS data did change as I continued moving.

I allowed 10-15 minutes to pass, and then although GPS icon wasn't flashing it did appear to revert back to not continually updating location. I also noted that if I connected using the app, then switched to messages or the phone app before allowing the phone to lock itself, it didn't track at all either.

So - quick check showed proper tracking when I connected using the app, stuck the iPhone in my pocket and moved around. If the camera went to sleep and I woke it relatively quickly it continued this "good" behavior. If I switched the app away from Connect, or after "some unknown period of time" resumed connection (as I would if I was paddling to a different location) it reverted back to "bad" behavior.

I would play with it more, but, well, it's NFL Sunday and I, for one, have on time for anything else haha. Thanks for poking around in the app settings. Maybe we can figure out how to get this thing to work. Still...would be much better if it was built into the camera. When I had the 5DM4 it just worked. Always.

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Regards,
Henry

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