GPS for the R5

[RDM5546]

I found a hotshot GPS for the R5/R6/R/RP that puts shooting direction and lat/long/alt/UTC time/barometric pressure/barometric altitued in EXIF data of camera images. Barometer barometric altimeter. 18hour lithium battery. Hot shoe or usb connection to camera. large 4GB of data storage.

Model: GMAX-EOS

product_view

https://www.amazon.com/Solmeta-GMAX-EOS-Receiver-Canon-1300D/dp/B01N9HUTLE/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_product_top?ie=UTF8

$200

I have been looking all over for this modern GPS with shooting direction.

 

[JeepCam]

You might want to look at this one for the R5.

product_view

 

[Steve W]

I found a hotshot GPS for the R5/R6/R/RP that puts shooting direction and lat/long/alt/UTC time/barometric pressure/barometric altitued in EXIF data of camera images. Barometer barometric altimeter. 18hour lithium battery. Hot shoe or usb connection to camera. large 4GB of data storage.

Model: GMAX-EOS

https://www.solmeta.com/Product/show/id/31

https://www.amazon.com/Solmeta-GMAX...01N9HUTLE/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_product_top?ie=UTF8

$200

I have been looking all over for this modern GPS with shooting direction.

WOW, are these both for real. Have only looked at them quickly but I may already be hooked. Finally a third party has stepped up to create a good attachment. Clearly not as small as the integrated GPS in my 5D Mark IV (that I no longer own) but looks very nice.
Do either communicate to an EOS R5/R6 via the hot shoe or do you always need a cable?

I guess I will be spending my day reading up on these. Do you know if these are available in the US?

Do you actually own one and have used it?

Tell me more.

--
Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I’m not sure about the universe! - Words to live by. Albert Einstein

 

[Steven Blackwood]

Nice product but if you look at the compatibility list, there is no compass availability on some cameras including the R series.

 

[Steve W]

Nice product but if you look at the compatibility list, there is no compass availability on some cameras including the R series.

I saw that but you don't get that capability with any other approach for GPS like your smart phone do you?

So is there a solution out there that provides that capability in any way? If so I'm all ears.
Thinking of placing an order today since I see its available through Amazon (but not Amazon Plus)

 

[Stakeouttoo]

a touchy and bad subject for me with Canon NOT including GPS on their R series cameras especially with the R5 at nearly $4kUS.. craziness is what I say.. and would have to use sketchy software including the Canon Connect app to try to sync the lat/long--that are all not reliable

 

[Steve W]

a touchy and bad subject for me with Canon NOT including GPS on their R series cameras especially with the R5 at nearly $4kUS.. craziness is what I say.. and would have to use sketchy software including the Canon Connect app to try to sync the lat/long--that are all not reliable

I understand how you feel, especially if you owned one of the DSLRs that included it.

For me though I do not know of any manufacturer including it in their mirrorless bodies.
Owning Canon R5 and several Sony A7x and A9x it is not included. Checks on line show that Nikon Z bodies and Panasonic Lumix S1 and S1R don't appear to have it either.

Its a feature that has been deprioritized across the space it appears to me.
It may be due to the extra power it adds to a mirrorless camera already pushing battery life. Or its cost that the user community has decided is not worth it. Or even both.

So I'm not sure we will see it again.

 

[robgendreau]

Nice product but if you look at the compatibility list, there is no compass availability on some cameras including the R series.

I saw that but you don't get that capability with any other approach for GPS like your smart phone do you?

So is there a solution out there that provides that capability in any way? If so I'm all ears.
Thinking of placing an order today since I see its available through Amazon (but not Amazon Plus)

But it does seem to serve as a pretty good logger, so even if the camera won't write direction (or altitude or pressure or whatever) it seems you could just add that in post.

But speaking of that, Solmeta also sells a GPS for other Canon cameras for $129. It wouldn't directly record to the camera but it looks to be a decent logger, so if you had to do direction in post just sync geolocation then too. And save a few bucks.

In using my phone with my Canon I've found it pretty accurate, although on a recent trip where the phone was left in the cradle in the car while I was just outside taking photos I got some inaccuracies, as if the GPS was just lagging and using a slight older position. Or, possibly more likely, it lost connection and just synched the closest match. It wasn't that the phones GPS location was off (other camera bodies synched fine), it was something about the connection.

And while I'd love to have GPS onboard there are some nice things about a separate GPS, especially one like this that has a display.

I'd be interested in knowing if anyone has reviewed the Canon units; couldn't find much.

 

[Steve W]

I'd be interested in knowing if anyone has reviewed the Canon units; couldn't find much.

Not sure if your talking about the Canon GP-E2 or the GMAX-EOS/2 products.

I used to own the GP-E2 and used it on my 5D Mark III and sold it when I got my 5D Mark IV. Now that I am back shooting Canon I think I am going to give the GMAX-EOS2 a try after going through the manual earlier today.

Exchanged email with Solmeta earlier today and they don't sell in the US themselves but you can order it and it will be sent from China. There is an independent seller on Amazon selling it so I decided to try to buy from them. Typically as an Amazon vendor if it needs to be returned they will facilitate that (at least that has been my past experience)

So if should have it within two weeks and we will see.

 

[robgendreau]

I'd be interested in knowing if anyone has reviewed the Canon units; couldn't find much.

Not sure if your talking about the Canon GP-E2 or the GMAX-EOS/2 products.

I used to own the GP-E2 and used it on my 5D Mark III and sold it when I got my 5D Mark IV. Now that I am back shooting Canon I think I am going to give the GMAX-EOS2 a try after going through the manual earlier today.

Exchanged email with Solmeta earlier today and they don't sell in the US themselves but you can order it and it will be sent from China. There is an independent seller on Amazon selling it so I decided to try to buy from them. Typically as an Amazon vendor if it needs to be returned they will facilitate that (at least that has been my past experience)

So if should have it within two weeks and we will see.

Yeah, saw that vendor and contacted them.

Something that concerned me was seeing that they had a driver in their software section...my experience with using drivers for USB connections in any recent version of macOS (which is what I use) is rather bad. It might be that the driver is only necessary for older versions, hence I asked. Would be a deal breaker for me.

Otherwise I'll probably look at the Bad Elf. I have other uses for a standalone GPS, esp if it has a fast refresh rate.

Let us know how it goes.

 

[Steve W]

I'd be interested in knowing if anyone has reviewed the Canon units; couldn't find much.

Not sure if your talking about the Canon GP-E2 or the GMAX-EOS/2 products.

I used to own the GP-E2 and used it on my 5D Mark III and sold it when I got my 5D Mark IV. Now that I am back shooting Canon I think I am going to give the GMAX-EOS2 a try after going through the manual earlier today.

Exchanged email with Solmeta earlier today and they don't sell in the US themselves but you can order it and it will be sent from China. There is an independent seller on Amazon selling it so I decided to try to buy from them. Typically as an Amazon vendor if it needs to be returned they will facilitate that (at least that has been my past experience)

So if should have it within two weeks and we will see.

Yeah, saw that vendor and contacted them.

Something that concerned me was seeing that they had a driver in their software section...my experience with using drivers for USB connections in any recent version of macOS (which is what I use) is rather bad. It might be that the driver is only necessary for older versions, hence I asked. Would be a deal breaker for me.

Otherwise I'll probably look at the Bad Elf. I have other uses for a standalone GPS, esp if it has a fast refresh rate.

Let us know how it goes.

After finding the GMAX-EOS2 on Amazon I asked Solmeta about the company selling their product. They acknowledged that is was a company of theirs representing them. So they new the seller well. Actually made me feel a little better of buying it there and that it was not some complete unknown buying and reselling.

Did not see the reference to a USB driver so I will have to follow up on that.
On the Bad Elf. I actually already own one. Decided to try the GMAX-EOS2 anyway to see if its easier to use. Will find out. The Bad Elf is a very good product as well though.

 

[robgendreau]

I'd be interested in knowing if anyone has reviewed the Canon units; couldn't find much.

Not sure if your talking about the Canon GP-E2 or the GMAX-EOS/2 products.

I used to own the GP-E2 and used it on my 5D Mark III and sold it when I got my 5D Mark IV. Now that I am back shooting Canon I think I am going to give the GMAX-EOS2 a try after going through the manual earlier today.

Exchanged email with Solmeta earlier today and they don't sell in the US themselves but you can order it and it will be sent from China. There is an independent seller on Amazon selling it so I decided to try to buy from them. Typically as an Amazon vendor if it needs to be returned they will facilitate that (at least that has been my past experience)

So if should have it within two weeks and we will see.

Yeah, saw that vendor and contacted them.

Something that concerned me was seeing that they had a driver in their software section...my experience with using drivers for USB connections in any recent version of macOS (which is what I use) is rather bad. It might be that the driver is only necessary for older versions, hence I asked. Would be a deal breaker for me.

Otherwise I'll probably look at the Bad Elf. I have other uses for a standalone GPS, esp if it has a fast refresh rate.

Let us know how it goes.

After finding the GMAX-EOS2 on Amazon I asked Solmeta about the company selling their product. They acknowledged that is was a company of theirs representing them. So they new the seller well. Actually made me feel a little better of buying it there and that it was not some complete unknown buying and reselling.

Did not see the reference to a USB driver so I will have to follow up on that.
On the Bad Elf. I actually already own one. Decided to try the GMAX-EOS2 anyway to see if its easier to use. Will find out. The Bad Elf is a very good product as well though.

I found the driver listed along with other software on the Solmeta site.

And I emailed the Amazon USA seller, Dauphinus. I just got this response re my query about USB and macOS:

There is a FAT32 USB driver firmware inside GMAX or GMAX-EOS/EOS2 device. So you do not need any driver to install on your computer.

My MacBook Pro is 10.15.3, it works well, no problem.

Response was quick, and knowledgeable. Very encouraging.

I still haven't decided what to do. I've got a couple of old GPS units, but one has such old connectivity it's useless for this (Foretrex 101). Another is GPS with only BT, no display at all, and I find it annoying to use for photos since I either forget and leave it on or forget to turn it on. And the app for it is creaky and almost unusable. The tech in some of the GPS modules was old (serial, eg) when I got them, and they don't age well. At least with the GP-E2 or the Solmeta it can run with the camera.

I was interested in the Bad Elf because it's small and has a high sample rate, and good battery life. But OTOH the Foretrex 601 is not far off in price with my REI discount and it has things the Elf doesn't, like a compass and altitude. And even better battery life, with easily replaced AAAs. And just as easy to tote around. So I'm still a bit up in the air. But it does look like the Solmeta is a good option.

 

[KENTGA]

Didn't read all of the replies but I have R5 and bought the Solmeta GMAX- EOS for travels and it works like a champ. Works great on LR Classic.

Kent

 

[robgendreau]

Bumping this a bit after doing some more research.

I had noticed some discrepancies between my RP's coordinates via the iPhone app and other camera's results shooting at the same place. Not sure why.

For that and some other reasons looked in GPS units, and was considering the Solmeta. But then I blundered into a used GP-E2 at my local camera store for cheap. So I took a chance and bought it.

Bottom line, glad I didn't pay much for it, and I'd bet the Solmeta is WAY better.

The GP-E2 is ancient. Takes quite a while to acquire. I upgraded the firmware, which I though might not have worked, and it does work on my RP, but no heading info as others have noted. It's not terribly accurate either, which is probably down to an ancient GPS inside. And having a dongle that requires a computer to download tracks is pretty 2002.... If the Canon software goes away, that won't even be possible in the future, as it doesn't just mount so you can copy the log off.

But hey, it works on the camera reasonably well. Won't show compass direction though.

All in all, if one doesn't get lucky and find a used one I'd go with another solution.

And I had been considering stuff like the Bad Elf, but lately I came to the conclusion that for photo work a smart watch would be better. One can get a killer smart watch that will record for hours, using a choice of GPS systems including GLOSSNASS and Baidu, for less than some of the other dedicated GPS units: look at the Amazfit Trex Pro or Stratos 3. And of course all kinds of nifty watch features...even an ox sensor to assess whether you're dying of COVID....;-) And for less than $180US. I would have it on all the time, it's unobtrusive, and I could just sync up later.

 

[bullet1]

Bumping this a bit after doing some more research.

I had noticed some discrepancies between my RP's coordinates via the iPhone app and other camera's results shooting at the same place. Not sure why.

For that and some other reasons looked in GPS units, and was considering the Solmeta. But then I blundered into a used GP-E2 at my local camera store for cheap. So I took a chance and bought it.

Bottom line, glad I didn't pay much for it, and I'd bet the Solmeta is WAY better.

The GP-E2 is ancient. Takes quite a while to acquire. I upgraded the firmware, which I though might not have worked, and it does work on my RP, but no heading info as others have noted. It's not terribly accurate either, which is probably down to an ancient GPS inside. And having a dongle that requires a computer to download tracks is pretty 2002.... If the Canon software goes away, that won't even be possible in the future, as it doesn't just mount so you can copy the log off.

What do you mean by the dongle, the micro-USB cable?

But hey, it works on the camera reasonably well. Won't show compass direction though.

All in all, if one doesn't get lucky and find a used one I'd go with another solution.

I don't have the R5/R6 but I have the R. Coming from the 6D (follow up of the 5D/5D2), I also missed having the onboard GPS on the R series. However, I had the GP-E2 since 2016 and it has worked well as the standalone logger and hotshoe GPS tagger.

I was not aware that the GPS on the GP-E2 was ancient and slow but I thought it was slow acquiring signal because it was not always on like the GPS on smart phones. Now that you said that, I will be paying attention to the Solmeta units or alike in the future.

I have been using the GP-E2 since 2016 as a GPS logger to tag photos taken by my Canon and non-Canon cameras without the onboard GPS, such as the Sony A7III, Panasonic FZ1000, Canon M3/M5, Canon G5X and the R. It has been working great to record GPS locations for places that I traveled around the world.

I also purchased the GPS Photos app for my phone as a backup GPS logger.

I left the GP-E2 in a church at Sweden in 2019 and had to buy it again. Luckily, I found a used one on Amazon for less than the full price. The used GP-E2 can still be found on Amazon for about the same price.

Canon have removed some features from the GP-E2 software. The GPS log generated by the GP-E2 is not in a standard format and may have to be converted to be usable. However, I found the good and old Downloader Pro can read the GP-E2 log files and tag the image files on the fly while downloading. If the GP-E2 is attached to the R/R5/R6, the image files are tagged automatically. So the GP-E has been a reliable part of my workflow.

 

[Steve W]

I found a hotshot GPS for the R5/R6/R/RP that puts shooting direction and lat/long/alt/UTC time/barometric pressure/barometric altitued in EXIF data of camera images. Barometer barometric altimeter. 18hour lithium battery. Hot shoe or usb connection to camera. large 4GB of data storage.

Model: GMAX-EOS

https://www.solmeta.com/Product/show/id/31

https://www.amazon.com/Solmeta-GMAX...01N9HUTLE/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_product_top?ie=UTF8

$200

I have been looking all over for this modern GPS with shooting direction.

So as I said I decided to give the GMAX-EOS2 a try and it arrived today. A little more than the GMAX-EOS but I thought I might use the Bluetooth enabled remote control (via my cell phone) functionality. Charged it up and spent a few minutes with the manual and away I went. Attached it to my Canon EOS R5 and took about 8 shots walking around my yard. Took me longer to get the EOS R5 set up for GPS than the GMAX-EOS2, a least to get just Latitude and Longitude. Was able to easily see the data in Photo Mechanic, which I use to ingest and rename images. Easily saw the data in Lightroom Classic as well on the map portion of the app. Of course all the locations mapped seemed to be about 30 feet off the actual location (around my house that shows up in the LRC).

So now hopefully I can spend the week learning more and then give it a work out this weekend.

 

[robgendreau]

Bumping this a bit after doing some more research.

I had noticed some discrepancies between my RP's coordinates via the iPhone app and other camera's results shooting at the same place. Not sure why.

For that and some other reasons looked in GPS units, and was considering the Solmeta. But then I blundered into a used GP-E2 at my local camera store for cheap. So I took a chance and bought it.

Bottom line, glad I didn't pay much for it, and I'd bet the Solmeta is WAY better.

The GP-E2 is ancient. Takes quite a while to acquire. I upgraded the firmware, which I though might not have worked, and it does work on my RP, but no heading info as others have noted. It's not terribly accurate either, which is probably down to an ancient GPS inside. And having a dongle that requires a computer to download tracks is pretty 2002.... If the Canon software goes away, that won't even be possible in the future, as it doesn't just mount so you can copy the log off.

What do you mean by the dongle, the micro-USB cable?

Yes, sorry: one needs to attach to a computer via USB, and use the proprietary Canon software to download a log file (it's NMEA, with a .log suffix).

But hey, it works on the camera reasonably well. Won't show compass direction though.

All in all, if one doesn't get lucky and find a used one I'd go with another solution.

I don't have the R5/R6 but I have the R. Coming from the 6D (follow up of the 5D/5D2), I also missed having the onboard GPS on the R series. However, I had the GP-E2 since 2016 and it has worked well as the standalone logger and hotshoe GPS tagger.

I was not aware that the GPS on the GP-E2 was ancient and slow but I thought it was slow acquiring signal because it was not always on like the GPS on smart phones. Now that you said that, I will be paying attention to the Solmeta units or alike in the future.

I can't say for certain but I'd guess like a SiRF chip in the old Canon; in my experience the MTK in more recent devices is faster. In fact the GPS in my Pentax K-1 and K-3 seemed faster. And of course something like the Bad Elf would probably be faster too, or the units in wearables.

And newer devices can use more satellite systems, like Galileo, GLOSNASS, and Baidu. I'd say that's overkill for just a photo tagger maybe, but the price of the GP-E2 puts it in competition with those devices; an infinitely more capable Garmin Foretrex 600 is cheaper for example.

I have been using the GP-E2 since 2016 as a GPS logger to tag photos taken by my Canon and non-Canon cameras without the onboard GPS, such as the Sony A7III, Panasonic FZ1000, Canon M3/M5, Canon G5X and the R. It has been working great to record GPS locations for places that I traveled around the world.

I also purchased the GPS Photos app for my phone as a backup GPS logger.

I also use my phone to backup. But sometimes it's still mounted in the car, and not getting a signal, which is one big plus with the on-camera devices.

I left the GP-E2 in a church at Sweden in 2019 and had to buy it again. Luckily, I found a used one on Amazon for less than the full price. The used GP-E2 can still be found on Amazon for about the same price.

Canon have removed some features from the GP-E2 software. The GPS log generated by the GP-E2 is not in a standard format and may have to be converted to be usable. However, I found the good and old Downloader Pro can read the GP-E2 log files and tag the image files on the fly while downloading. If the GP-E2 is attached to the R/R5/R6, the image files are tagged automatically. So the GP-E has been a reliable part of my workflow.

It actually is NMEA sentences, and if you select that GPS Babel can export it as GPX or in other formats. Garmin's Basecamp or Google Earth can read the kmz files it generates as well.

 

[bullet1]

It actually is NMEA sentences, and if you select that GPS Babel can export it as GPX or in other formats. Garmin's Basecamp or Google Earth can read the kmz files it generates as well.

You are absolutely correct about the log file being in the NMEA format. I did use GPS Babel to convert the GP-E2 files to the GPX format.

In the past, Google even allowed the timeline on Google Maps from those GPS points. Those days are long gone. But Google still provides the timeline captured by our phones which can serve the same purpose of showing where one went and by what route.

After spending countless hours converting GP-E2 files to the GPX format, I discovered that the Downloader Pro by Breeze Browser, which is way more than 10 years old but updated regularly, could read the non-standard Canon GP-E2 files directly WITHOUT conversion by GPS Babel. That is a huge help since I already own a copy of Downloader Pro which is fantastic piece of code to download, rename, rotate and GPS tag image files all in one step regardless the camera maker.

 

[Stakeouttoo]

and ALL this 'jumping thru hoops' , doing a 'tap dance' using outside software as well as their own Connect app that works only some of the time plus GPS attachable units that do not work properly most of the time just because Canon wouldn't include GPS internally in an overpriced $4k R5 camera.. mind-boggling.. Canon ought to hold its head in shame.. disgusting..

 

[Vestlander]

Moving to R6 from 7DMkII, I was quite disappointed that it misses in-camera GPS. But I have the bluetooth link with phone active and get the georeferencing that way. Actually it works better than with 7D which sometimes took 10 minutes to get the signal. The only downside is that it quickly drains the battery of phone. I have been thinking of getting a cheap phone and leave it in camera bag with GPS on during the photo trips.

Veljo