thott Loc: GERMANY, Hessen

Exactly, what I do not understand.

Why is GPS not in the d7xxx or not even in the D500/D5?

Battery lifetime?
No space?
Promote Nikon GPS GP-1A?
Or what else?

Greetings
Thomas

JD750 Loc: SoCal

My best guess is space, and perhaps cost. And also what is the competition doing?

Thott That is a very informative report. May I ask, what is it you expect from the GPS unit? What type of accuracy are you expecting? Is there any particular reason you don't want to use a phone based GPS tracker?

Ctrclckws

Nikon also took gps out of the D5500. Sony had gps in the a77 and a65, but took it out of the A77m2. Personal opinion is that they feel that we will use the smartphone for gps and geo-tagging with there apps.

thott Loc: GERMANY, Hessen

We travel a lot. And later at home again, we have a lot of photos to sort and for
post-processing. Now the sixty-four-dollar-question, were was it ?
With the GPS data within the EXIF, you get immediately with Googlemap exactly
were we took the photo.


It's quite exact enough or even more than I would need.



Frankly speaking, I find it to complicated.
I want to have the position data in each of my travel pictures EXIF file, immediately
available at any time.
May be its possible to copy the mobile phone tracking into the EXIF. But if you have
hundrets or even more pictures....that will be a lot of work.

Greetings
Thomas

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

I used cell phone apps and separate devices to record GPS info, but it was a bit of a nuisance coordinating the GPS info with the image when I got back home.

Ctrclckws

Agree, and that's why I have the D5300.

thott Loc: GERMANY, Hessen

As I mentioned it already, you are right. The Velcro will not solve the risk to damage the connectors if you stick somewhere.
A L-Plate for my D750 for a better position change at the tripod was already on my wish list.
And now...beside the easier tripod work it protects also the GPS-Receiver. The GPS-receiver is within the frame so it do not disturb the
position change at the tripod.

Too bad, you can not reach anymore the ON/OFF switch. But a little bit fine mechanic and a extension is installed at the tiny switch.

No risk anymore in the camera bag and during carrying... and it can always be installed.

Greetings
Thomas

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

Very interesting. As for the On/Off switch, when I'm out shooting, I leave it on. I've heard that some people never turn off their DSLRs.

thott Loc: GERMANY, Hessen

If it is right specified, the AK-G750 needs
16mA within sleep mode. The EN-EL15 of
the D750 has a capacity of 1900 mAh.
That means the accu will last about
119 hrs when the camera itself is off.

During a shooting session it must not switched off, you are right.

Greetings
Thomas

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

Good to know.

RobertAltman Loc: Minneapolis

Very informative. Thanks

thott Loc: GERMANY, Hessen

Correction:

Sorry, my mistake!
The sleep modus power consumption is not 16mA but only 2mA
That means 950 hrs........wow, that is more than one month!

Greetings
Thomas

JD750 Loc: SoCal

Understood. Having the camera stamp the GPS coordinates is the ideal situation.

There used to be a phone app that would work with Apple's depreciated program, Aperture, (RIP). You would turn it on in the phone and it would record GPS track while it was on. Then later download the images the App would sync to the time stamp on the images add the coordinates. The down side is the phone battery would run down faster when using the App.

Thanks for the detailed review.

JD750 Loc: SoCal

I used to leave mine on all the time, except when removing the flash card or changing lens or batteries. I was wanting to limit the cycling of the on-off switch. Then I realized my sensor was not getting cleaned except for those times. So now I turn the camera ON before a shoot and OFF after the shoot.

And as feared, the on-off switch on my D7000 is getting sticky and hard to actuate. It will have to go back to the shop one of these days to be replaced.

thott Loc: GERMANY, Hessen

To continue this thread:

I bought a new Aokatec GPS modul G750 for my D750.
My older version has the previous GPS receiver "u-blox M7" built-in.

The new one has the GPS receiver "u-blox M8".
The M8 has a better sensitivity and therefore a faster satellite tracking.
And the M8 receives simultaneous GPS and GLONASS satellites.
Furthermore it is supposed to has a more stable satellite reception.

I gave the older version to my friend but he damaged it during
a transport in a photo bag. The connection is broken.

That is the reason, why I protect it by a L-bracket.

But now we know the inside of the Aokatec module

Before he damaged it, we could compare both versions.
And indeed the M8 version is faster for the first satellite tracking.
M7, outside in the field, 30-50+ seconds
M8, outside in the Field, 25-35 seconds.

That is not such a big difference, but in the house the M8 found
without problems satellites, the M7 didn't.

That means in critical situations, e.g. in the city with it's high
buildings, the performance of the M8 will be better.

The disadvantage is, that the M8 version don't has anymore
the compass function.

If you have already a G750 and no compass, you can be sure
it's the M8 version.

Who is interesting in technical comparison M7 vs M8:

https://www.u-blox.com/sites/default/files/products/documents/u-blox-M8-7-Multi-GNSS_WhitePaper_%28UBX-14002009%29.pdf


Greetings
Thomas