ekwang

Hi,

I've owned an EOS 40D since 2008 and it has served me reliably since then. I currently own an L series 24-105 zoom and a consumer grade 70-300 (but plan on upgrading to the new L series 100-400 zoom) shortly.

I currently have a 430EX flash and the BG-2N (I think that's the right product number) battery grip.

I would like to do GPS with my EOS 40D and understand the only way to achieve this is to by a Canon ...-E3a wireless transmitter and compatible GPS device. Given that the wireless transmitter used is about $590 +/- $20 and the GPS device itself probably a good few hundred, my question is am I better off getting a new dSLR or going the current route, which is the device and the wireless transmitter?

Thanks for your thoughts.
Eric

klew97

If you want it all in one unit, I'd recommend a new camera with built-in GPS (I like my Canon 6D, though certainly much more expensive than your proposed accessories). If you don't want to spend that level of money and are interested in geotagging, you can buy a GPS data logger and have software "sync" the GPS data with the EXIF. Or a phone with GPS can act as a data logger, though battery life will suffer. I've tried all 3, and a separate GPS data logger meant extra work, which I preferred to avoid (though took a few years to save up for the new camera). Now I can use the camera to record where I travel on holiday.

ekwang

Yes, I had thought about an upgrade to the 6D. I did have an alternate provided to me, and it's called gps4cam and is an iOS/Droid app that seems to work pretty well and won't require a new investment in a camera body but can instead go towards getting a better piece of glass (the new 100-400 L series zoom).

tentseller

I had no problem syncing GPS data from a logger with my EXIF data. It was a simple program that download the file from the logger via usb and add the GPS data to all newly downloaded RAW files overnight. I have been doing this for 10+yrs to tag my photo locations.

Invest your money in quality glass.
I still use my M mount lenses investment on my Sony A7r.

kenwood

I have the 6d but I found the GPS to be unreliable. If I go in and out of buildings, a lot of pictures will end up with unknown coordinates.

tentseller

Would that be the shortfall of the built in system where the camera's GPS logs the waypoint at moment of capture and cannot get a read on the satellites?

kenwood

^ it is quite possibly as a way to conserve battery.

tentseller

I would think so. My GPS route tracker had to be recharged everynight. You set it to take location reading every 15 30 or 60sec.

ekwang

I will look into this as well in conjunction with gps4cam.

wco81

One of the reasons I went with Nikon is their support for GPS.

You can get relatively inexpensive setups to write directly to EXIF.

Under $100.

James94

Its possible