EOS 7D and GPS

<p>I am on the fence to buy an EOS 7D. This year I will travel to various locations in Asia and I am interested in geotagging my photos. Also it would be great if I could have a track of where I went.<br>

What options do I have in conjuction with an EOS 7D for geotagging?<br>

Is it best to use the Canon GP-E2, or a separate solution?<br>

I only shoot RAW, will the RAWs be geotagged or only JPEG?<br>

I do not have a smartphone and have no interest in buying or using one.<br>

I use a new Mac Book Pro Retina, it would be necessary that the GPS solution is compatible with this hard- and software-wise.<br>

Also I would be interested what your general opinion on geotagging with the EOS 7D is, is it worth the hassle? Or is it hassle in the first place?</p>

<p>I use a Garmin GPS unit for geotagging (and keeping track). It works on RAW and JPGs, in Lightroom or other software. I'm not familiar with Apple, someone else may advise you on this. IMHO it's worth the hassle.<br>

I spoke with a Canon rep a few days ago about the GP-E2. There's no magic involved, the unit requires just as much power as any GPS. The only thing is that you can set it so that it takes a reading every 15 minutes or so, in that way it will work longer on a battery. <br>

For the price of the GP-E2 I would buy a nice Garmin unit but YMMV. </p>

<p>I would buy a separate GPS because then you can keep track of your movements even without carrying the camera visibly all the time. Remember, a GPS unit needs to see the sky.</p>

<p>I have a Canon 7D and I would love to geotag my images as well. In fact, I've been waiting for a 5D Mk XX that has GPS built in, just like my little point & shoot camera does.</p>

<p>I considered the Canon GP-E2 until I saw these restrictions on the Canon website. Having to use a cord instead of the hot shoe made me pause.</p>

<blockquote>

<p>When the EOS 7D is used with the GP-E2 the following restrictions will apply: <br />a) geotagging function will not work for movies while recording<br />b) geotagging features will not work for movies when using the Map Utility<br />c) electronic compass information and automatic time setting is not available<br />d) transmission via the hot shoe is not possible</p>

</blockquote>

<p>Jos -- does that Garmin unit work with the hot shoe or do you need a cord to route the GPS data to the camera?</p>

<p> </p>

<p>Dave, I think what Jos means is to use a GPS completely unconnected to the camera, and then do correlation of GPS track to images in software later. This is how it used to be dones years ago... that was one reason why I posted the question, I did some research and there seems to be no progress on that front at all.</p>

Anton, as you still don't have the 7D, why not "upgrade" to a 6D? The 6D is a full frame camera with an integrated GPS

unit, so this may be a great combo for travel photography.

 

While the 6D autofocus system is not on par to the 7D for sports, I understand the central focus point in the 6D is a very

good cross-type sensor capable of focusing at -3 EV. Another difference would be that you can't use EF-S lenses with the

6D, but you may go really wide with excellent lenses like the 17-40mm f/4 L (equivalent to an 11-25mm on the 7D).

<p>Thanks, Anton. That makes sense.</p>

<p>I have used the approach that Jos and Ed addressed. I bought a relatively cheap ($100 several years ago) basic Garmin (ETrexH) that is quite good about finding a signal and has been pretty accurate based on photos I took of gravestones in cemeteries; much better than iPhone tagging of photos taken at the same time. The GP-E2 seems like a very expensive alternative. It is very easy to download a track and apply to the photos using Lightroom or other software. The only thing you have to be careful about is having the time synced between the GPS and camera, but there are software fixes to adjust for that if needed.<br>

<br />The other thing that I have tried to find is someone's assessment on how the GP-E2 or 6D GPS units stack up against a regular GPS unit. Does anyone know if they are as accurate?</p>