[Menneisyys]

Yes, that expansion connector is what i'd love to see. Or better yet, the ability to listen to a bluetooth signal and use that for embedding it.

Yeah, completely agreed. BT should be the way to go. In addition, BT would also allow for (assuming these profiles are implemented):

1.) file transfer, should you need to quickly upload / mail some files via, say, your PDA or mobile phone; that is, a device not necessarily having a (micro/mini)SD slot.

2.) audio transfer: both to headphones (either high-quality, stereo A2DP or via a simple, monophonic headset profile) and from a wireless (!) microphone. The latter, given the available Bluetooth audio input profiles not allowing for high-quality / stereo recording, not the best, but if you absolutely can't use an external, wired mike, that'd be a great alternative for, say, interviews.

Then you could keep the geocoder in your pocket and let that eat batteries (though bluetooth does add to battery drain).

Let me disagree: even with a constantly active, serial BT connection to an external GPS unit, you wouldn't encounter more power consumption than, at most, 10 mAh, not even with four-year-old BT technology (I've benchmarked the power consumption of old(er) BT implementations quite a lot). That is, unless you kept the camera all the time powered on, you wouldn't notice almost any difference in battery life.

[falconeye]

Now, where to buy?

"Copyright©2007 XAiOX Technologies, USA"
And probably too much to hope for Mac compatibility to boot. Ah well.

It is strange. So, I invested a bit of my time to research this for US folks.

Seems,
XAiOX is a brand targeted at EU and the actual manufacturer is
"Wonde Proud" from Taiwan.

The device there can be found here (BT-CD110S):
Wonde Proud - ©ô´¶¬ì§Þ¦³**¤½¥q
Note that they have a CD111 device too. I am sure I have the SiRF-III unit.

Now, GiSTEQ seems to resell Wonde Proud in the US. I imagine the following device is similiar (NOT THE SAME) as mine (GiSTEQ PhotoTrackr CD110BT):
GiSTEQ Corp. Explorer
Most likely, it is the Wonde Proud BT-CD110M device which lacks the SiRF-III chipset.

GiSTEQ has the CD111 device too. And Mac drivers However, I fear you won't be able to buy my SiRF-III unit in the US

[Menneisyys]

I watched the marketing video and initially I was captivated, but after a while I thought... hey wait a minute, 720p HD video? Big deal! There are less expensive DSLRs with 1080p HD! In my opinion, unless the camera is going to excel at a certain feature, don't bother adding it. Video is one example of this. It's not a video camera, it's a still camera. If Pentax wants to design a combined semi-pro still / video camera that doesn't compromise on either, great.... I'm all for that. Bring it!

So far, based on the specs, the video mode of the K7 is far superior to that of the 500D and the D90. Its only real competitor is the GH1. Assuming there are no major problems like sensor overheating (unlikely; see the 25-min / 4 GB restriction, as opposed to the D90's 5 minutes) or major aliasing problems like those of the 500D in 720p mode. And, of course, it has a stereo mic in, high-speed (!!!) MJPEG (which might be even better than that of the 5DMKII and is certainly better than GH1's AVCHD at 1080p / MJPEG at 720p) and 30 fps in 1080p (24/25 fps for the GH1 and 20 fps for the 500D).

I can only hope it indeed delivers...

[Menneisyys]

Yes, that expansion connector is what i'd love to see. Or better yet, the ability to listen to a bluetooth signal and use that for embedding it.

Yeah, completely agreed. BT should be the way to go. In addition, BT would also allow for (assuming the necessary profiles are implemented):

1.) file transfer, should you need to quickly upload / mail some images via, say, your PDA or mobile phone; that is, a device not necessarily having a (micro/mini)SD slot. Some higher-end DSLR's support this - via Wi-Fi (and consumer P&S cameras via IR). Just think of it: you press a button; an image is transferred in (depending on whether BT EDR is implemented or not) in some seconds and you're ready to mail it right away. NO need to take out the card. Especially useful in, say, rain, where noone would want to open the SD slot.

2.) audio transfer: both to headphones (either high-quality, stereo A2DP or via a simple, monophonic headset profile) and from a wireless (!) microphone. The latter, given the available Bluetooth audio input profiles not allowing for high-quality / stereo recording, not the best, but if you absolutely can't use an external, wired mike, that'd be a great alternative for, say, interviews to continuously check whether the sound recording is OK.

Then you could keep the geocoder in your pocket and let that eat batteries (though bluetooth does add to battery drain).

Let me disagree: even with a constantly active, serial BT connection to an external GPS unit, you wouldn't encounter more power consumption than, at most, 10 mAh, not even with four-year-old BT technology (I've benchmarked the power consumption of old(er) BT implementations quite a lot). That is, unless you kept the camera all the time powered on for days (!), you wouldn't notice almost any difference in battery life.

If Pentax do implement this and the video mode isn't considerably worse (more restricted; with lower low-light IQ etc.) than that of the Pana GH-1, I'd go for the K-7 (instead of the GH-1) without hesitation. Assuming the K-7 indeed delivers in practice - just like in the specs.

[Nimrad]

JOBO AG international: photoGPS
Jobo PhotoGPS looks awesome. The only thing I don't like is that you can't use your blitz while using the GPS.

[falconeye]

Jobo PhotoGPS looks awesome.

- 120 mAh rather than 1100mAh battery only.
- Can store 1000 rather than 200,000 locations only.
- Can only write to XMP sidecars, not RAW itself.
- 80g rather than 56g weight.
- Inferior chipset to SiRF-III.
- Inferior software to GeoSetter.de.
- Blocks hot shoe and adds to bulk of camera, not photo bag.

So, where exactly is the awesomeness (even acknowledging that the product is made in my country ...)?

[jdmccol]

This company has several types:

GPS Data Logger - GPS Hardware & Acc.

[Entropy]

I thought the built-in geotagging was going to be incorporated in K-7 !

What happened?

Because it severely limits you to using a GPS receiver that is physically tethered to the camera?

It's a lot easier to get a cheap GPS datalogger (AMOG AGL3080, i-Blue 747A+, etc) and "tag afterwards" than to either:

1) Integrate a GPS into the camera that can't be upgraded as GPS receivers improve. Remember, in the next 2-3 years there's going to be a civilian L2 signal getting turned on, giving civilians dual-frequency benefits.

2) Use a proprietary connector that requires the user to get a special GPS receiver and/or adapter cables, and have the receiver tied to the camera

Also, "tagging after" lets you take a single log and tag photos from multiple cameras. I did this the first weekend after purchasing a GPS logger - me with my K20D and my girlfriend with my old K10D.

Edit: Just to clarify, I own an AGL3080 and have an i-Blue 747A+ on order.

The Amod is really easy to pull logs from, but doesn't recharge the batteries in the unit and I can't tell if WAAS is working or not - I see conflicting reports on whether it's even supported by the Amod firmware. The SiRF Star III is an excellent chipset but is a bit old - the MTK v2 chipset is the new king of the hill.

The 747A+ appears to offer:
1) Accuracy of the MTK v2
2) Simultaneous logging and Bluetooth position reporting
3) Charging of the battery while operating without removal of batteries from the unit

More when I get to play with it for a week or two.

Edit 2: Oh yeah, I got both units from Semsons (linked above)

[falconeye]

The SiRF Star III is an excellent chipset but is a bit old - the MTK v2 chipset is the new king of the hill. [...]
Edit 2: Oh yeah, I got both units from Semsons

Oh, I am just seeing that Semsons has the GiSTEQ/Xaiox device I was talking about with MTK v2 chipset as well. And GiSTEQ says it supports MacOS (Semsons doesn't say so). So, then this would be the thing to shop if a motion sensor is of interest (personally, I couldn't live without anymore -- switching on/off wouldn't be my thing and I don't "recharge" my photo bag on a daily base).

As for new chipsets ... I've heard that the forthcoming generation will work in buildings, too. Another reason for it not to be built in ...

[Entropy]

I got the i-Blue 747A+ unit yesterday and it's NICE.

Locks fast, wicked accurate. I pulled up a log in Google Earth and could even see the lane change I performed to pass a pickup truck.

It's a little harder to work with than the AGL3080 since it requires special software to download logs and the serial chipset in the A+ variant is very new and not as well supported (I'm 90% certain there was a Mac driver in the archive, and there's also support in Linux 2.6.29 and above, unfortunately Ubuntu 9.04 has .28 by default )

It also uses the same battery as the Holux GPSlim236. (Which, as far as I can tell, is a Nokia 3650 battery).

There's a third-party Java application (BT747) that supports the MTK chipset devices on any OS that has the right drivers for the USB-to-serial chipset in the device.

Unfortunately, out of paranoia about "remote bricking", i-Blue chose to disable the ability to send commands to the device via Bluetooth by depopulating a resistor. It is possible to add Bluetooth downloading with a little soldering.

As to GPS chipsets working in buildings - that's already there for some definitions of buildings. The Qualcomm GPSOne in my phone can't lock inside my apartment, but the SiRF-based GPSlim326 and AGL3080 can, as can the MTKv2-based i-Blue 747A+. I'm on the top floor though, and the situation is likely different for a metal or brick building. BTW, the dismal performance of the built-in GPS of my phone is one reason I'm heavily against devices with built-in GPS - they have a nasty habit of substandard performance and hence only drive cost, weight/size, and power consumption. I've taken to using a Bluetooth puck with my phone despite the inbuilt GPS because the performance difference is like night and day.

[Prognathous]

Here's why not:

Twitter user says vacation tweets led to burglary | Security - CNET News

Prog.

[mattyjm]

You can buy an attachment by JOBO. It works very well.

JOBO AG international: photoGPS

[Entropy]

mattyjm: The JOBO unit has been mentioned already.

If I recall correctly, it was something like $150 for a unit that has only a 120 mAh battery, an unknown chipset, and ties its antenna location to your camera location. (Despite what they claim, this is a BAD THING. What about portrait orientation? What if you want to mount something on the hotshoe? I clipped my old GPS logger to my backpack with a carbiner so the antenna would always point up regardless of camera status. The new i-Blue unit doesn't have a lanyard hole (one of the few cons of it) so I'm going to have to move to Velcro.

Edit: As to the linked article, it's best to selectively geotag. I geotag when I'm "out and about", but not when I am at my home, a friends' home, or relatives' homes.

[lawsonstone]

As others have noted, you can actually you can do all this now. I use a Gisteq PhotoTrackr Lite hanging from a carabiner on my backpack. Then just copy the RAW files to my hard drive and run HoudahGeo, which is one of many programs that use the time-stamp on the pictures to correlate with the timestamp on the GPS logger. It then re-writes the RAW files with the EXIF location and altitude data. I can then import the pictures into my DAM program.

I rather like the flexibility and control of having my geo-tagging external to my camera. That way any major advances in GPS technology, geo-tagging software, etc. I can take advantage of by upgrading cheaper, simpler devices than my DSLR.

Also like others, i don't want this going on all the time. No need to geo-tag shots at home or around my little town. But when I'm in Israel or Europe traveling, especially in connection with research, it's a godsend.

I don't like the hot-shoe JOBO unit. Reviewers have noted that it does not always fit tightly in the shoe but can pop out. That's bad.

But hey, bring out a DSLR with automatic geotagging…I'd probably bite!

[lawsonstone]

On the Gisteq and mac support. I have the Gisteq PhotoTrackr Lite. The Mac software is pretty rudimentary, but if you just get the log files from it, you can use HoudaGeo which can add the geodata to the metadata of RAW files before importing the re-written RAWs into your digital asset management software.