Sunday Nov 4th 2007
Sony makes a gadget GPS-CS1. it is really just a small plastic tube with a space for a battery and one button to turn the thing on. thats it. To use this GPS deposit a battery and turn it on. it will start blinking with two short green blinks until it get a positive lock. Once it have fixed your position it will blink with a single long green blink.

The GPS comes with a sony software which works well, the software will warn you that your Leica (non Sony) files are not compattible with position data, just save anyway, the info is saved to the info of the image file. and you can then always see where the picture were captured. Strangely the Sony software requires you to tell the software what timezone you are in.

A better solution is using RoboGEO software - unlike the Sony software you do not have to tell the software what timezone you are in, the software finds that information based on the location data in the file from the GPS. Also RoboGEO manages to calculate a altitue for each position, the sony software generally never manages that. Finally RoboGEO also exports to GoogleEarth so you can enjoy a map of your shooting.

The biggest thing for the photogrpher is to make sure the camera is set to a accurate time. as the software compares the image time-stamp to the GPS time stamp. then apply the appropiate GPS fix, or calculates the position in between two GPS positions.

I use my cell phone which show time in seconds and I assume it syncronized with a accurate time - set your camera clock to the next full minute, then wait for your cellphone to get there, when the cellphone change minute, press SET on the camera to save the time. you can also use internet time for this, I suggest using www.time.gov.

Since most pictures are captured while moving slowly, even a little in-accuracy will still get you close. chances are you will not have moved far in a few seconds.

The JELBERT GeoTagger
This is a very intriquing alternative, this device combines a magnetic compas and a Garmin GPS unit - to mount in the hot-shoe of your camera and it records one position each time the camera take a picture. The Photographer then use RoboGEO to combine the position data with the pictures after the shoot, this is very fast and painless. and the added direction data is interesting. My biggest objectin is the size of the thing, as it will feel like having a small flash mounted on the camera. though Im playing with the idea of sticking it on my photo-west and using a wireless release instead.