Kevin Zeits sent in his diy Nikon d200 gps cable and hot shoe gps mount.
Nikon sells it for $150, but has a 3 to 6 month eta. Ok, it's really just a ttl to rs-232 converter with proprietary connectors - but I love tagging photos with gps info. Now if only I could do this for my canon rebel xt. (It would take a firmware hack at the minimum) If you're not blessed with a d200, check out gpsphotolinker.
2. (another 350D owner) Modifying the firmware is one thing but how would you get the data in? There is no accessory socket like the Nikon so getting data into the camera on each photo is an issue. I suppose something might be possible to use the GPS unit to register way-points as you take photos (probably through the flash-shoe) then simply download the way points from the GPS when you've finished and re-associate with the pictures.
Posted at 3:38PM on Sep 3rd 2006 by Sheldon
3. it could be done if you just use the hotshoe to trigger storing data on a gps unit with onboard memory. Then later use a program to add the gps data to the photos, using time stamps to make sure they are the same photo. Sure its not instantly tagged like this one, but it will work to the same effect
Posted at 3:38PM on Sep 3rd 2006 by rautiocination
4. So very sweet! GPS seems like a great tool to help catalog photos particularly if you combine it with one of those gps cataloging services. (http://www.geosnapper.com/ etc.) Opens up new possibilities both in the cataloging and presentation of photos. It takes some nerve to doing a hack on such a sweet, new piece of gear. Gotta respect that. Too bad the D70 also lacks one of these. #3 has an interesting idea though. If you could rig a gps to record a way point on each snap it could be a nice durable solution that could be transfered to any (decent) camera. On the other hand, that gpsphotolinker software that will linked sounds like it might be an even better and non-invasive option... Anyone out there ever use it? Looks like they only have a mac os build though... Too bad. Seems like simple enough software to implement though... I wonder if a linux equivalent exists or is in the works somewhere?
Posted at 3:38PM on Sep 3rd 2006 by bp
5. Does anyone know if the new D80 is capable of this? Supposedly it has a lot of feature from the D200 but I never read about anything like this.
Posted at 3:38PM on Sep 3rd 2006 by adaminc
6. I don't know for certain but my guess is no based on 2 things: A) If Nikon follows there traditional pattern the lower D will be missing a few features which they deem to be only useful for pros. (Looks like buffer size is the big one this time around IIRC) They do this to protect the higher end camera. (On the D70 the big lack was the battery mount.) B) Looking at this preview (http://www.kenrockwell.com/nikon/d80.htm) I see no mention of a GPS accessory. Also, the wired remote it mentions is different than the one the D200 uses (IIRC) which tends to indicate that it will have a different input port. On the other hand, the D80 will support a battery/vertical grip which suggests that it has some data I/O capabilities. But I wouldn't count on it.
Posted at 3:38PM on Sep 3rd 2006 by bp
7. nexed hack pleas
Posted at 3:38PM on Sep 3rd 2006 by steve
8. simple solution...GPS Grenade complex application...throwing it up a mountain
Posted at 3:38PM on Sep 3rd 2006 by Aeri
9. bird, you could be taking pics as you hiked around a mountain, and if you got a good one you be all like "this was taken from the southern face of mount stevesabitch, we were hiking through the stonedneedstodieinafire national park, in the suckityoutwo forest" then you'd look smart. from the picture, i thought it was a GPS glued to a camera, and i was thinking of moe syzlaks easy steps to turn one gun into five. good job, especially since i forget where i've taken pics. all they need to do now is figure out a way to get some subminiature seven segment led's to burn a long. and lat. onto traditional film pictures. if steve or stoned dissed that one i think i've have to run their dog over
Posted at 3:38PM on Sep 3rd 2006 by Monster
10. actaully thats a good idea but i was thinking about linking it to google earth. because that would be sweet. but now that you give me that point its actually a good idea
Posted at 3:38PM on Sep 3rd 2006 by bird603568
11. Commercial version. http://www.geospatialexperts.com/
Posted at 3:38PM on Sep 3rd 2006 by name_required
12. thats nice, but it would be nicer if you could get a camera with radar gun/receiver that took the distance to the object couped with a compass that added that info to the gps tag r just updated it to be more accurate. Lol, its actually a bit excessive. http://cggallery.blogspot.com/index.html
13. I think it would be pretty trivial to take a GPS reading (and a digital compass reading) every time the shutter fires, then simply corrolate the GPS data and the data from the auto focus (to determine approximate distance to target). Cool idea, I might have to do it...
Posted at 3:38PM on Sep 3rd 2006 by hi
14. http://www.iceburnslair.com/mapper/ You can buy a hotshoe mount - albiet much more expensive. It really is nice to just point a shoot several photos and auto-google map them
Posted at 3:38PM on Sep 3rd 2006 by Tim
15. #14 I believe the autofocus sets lens to infinity after about 15 meters so the setting would be useless for determening range to distant objects.
Posted at 3:38PM on Sep 3rd 2006 by presidentpicker
16. Yay! Another Geko! I have one and I love it... But, isn't it mounted upsidedown?
Posted at 3:38PM on Sep 3rd 2006 by Doug
17. It is infact mounted upside down. However should you not mind that the long portion would obstruct your ability to put your face to the viewfinder you could always turn it 180 as it is just threaded on. That would makenavigation much easier, however removing it from the camera is just as quick and more effective.
19. Another thing you could do is have a gps that does a trail and have the camera and gps time exactly the same. So then you could write an program to find the time the picture was taken then match it to the trail. And boom you got gps enabled photos! And it should work with any camera that embedded the photo with time and date data. :) I started to work on this and I got about 25% done with the coding part and gave up. I may pick this project back up soon :).
20. For my photos in my Google Map on my site I use DI-GPS for use with Nikon D200.
See About page for link.
http://www.camperfan.gr/content/view/32/47/
Posted at 10:00AM on Jun 12th 2007 by Ronald de Heer
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1. Yep, me has a 350d too... Would be awesome to have this thing working on it. Maybe it will come in the future. - Unomi -
Posted at 3:38PM on Sep 3rd 2006 by Unomi