I have been geo tagging my photos over the last year. I currently use an external GPS logger to provide the location data. The process to tag a photo is tedious due to the requirements of matching up the location information with the time that photos where taken. This can also be error prone if the incorrect time is chosen.
I use myTracks to help with this syncing process. I recommend myTracks for this task. It has given me the best results over the past year.
I got excited when Canon announced the Canon Powershot S100 with its integrated GPS support. Well the camera arrived the other day and I could not wait to try out the GPS functions.
The camera GPS provide two main features. The first is automatic location tagging of photos. This works great. It is not tedious anymore. I just works! I was able to import the photos into iPhoto and they were already tagged. No more jiggering with GPS track files and figuring out how to match the photo to the correct time/location.
The second feature is that the camera can act as a GPS logger. I will be using this for photos that I take with my Canon 5D Mark II. This is nice because it means I do not need to carry my current GPS logger. The canon logs location information into NMEA-0183 compatible log file, even when the camera is off. The green LED by the fund set dial blinks when this mode is enabled and the camera is off.
The GPS function can also automatically set the clock when enabled. If they had only done this with my VCR twenty years ago...
The GPS function has a couple of drawbacks. The first relates to the logger feature. There is no way that I can see for logging an interest point. I typically use this to give me a mark for helping to align the track to pictures that I take with the Canon 5D. I hope they add this capability with a software update.
The other issue is the time it takes the GPS to resync when you turn the camera off. This lends itself to leaving the logger function on when you are about taking photos. It should be noted that the sync time is not out of anything that I have not seen with other GPS loggers.
All in all its a nice addition to the camera. I hope all cameras incorporate this capability. Look for more information on this new camera as I explore it capabilities.
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