Geomet'r GNC-35 GPS Receiver for Nikon & Fujifilm Digital SLRs

Comments about Geomet'r GNC-35 GPS Receiver for Nikon & Fujifilm Digital SLRs:

This unit works great WHEN it works... I'm on my second (first replaced by manufacturer at no cost). Now the second unit is not working. I have contacted the manufacturer again, but this time I have received NO response as of yet. VERY disappointing!

Comments about Geomet'r GNC-35 GPS Receiver for Nikon & Fujifilm Digital SLRs:

I bought one of these to see what geotagging was all about and whether I would find it useful. I used this for just over a year until it broke.
It is easy to use and they are generous with the velcro. The plastic I-beam that fits into the hot shoe is sturdy and the velcro means it cna be knocked off without harming the camera or GPS. The unit always seemed to take 2 - 3 minutes to require initial positoning. The GPS co-ordinates were accurate but the altitude always seemed very variable even within short distance changes. It drains the battery quite quickly and on my D200 I think it drained the battery about 10% more quickly under known conditions. The geotagging part of writing to Exif always worked seamlesly. The supplied software is of limited use but flickr maps, etc always read the tagged files very well.
As I said above I owned this for about a year before it broke. It seems the on/off switch no longer works. It was never very positive and caused some complications before the latest D200 firmware. I haven't contacted Geomet'r yet but I don't think I will as I bought a Solmeta instead.
Think of this as a good introduction to painless geotagging but be prepared for unreliability.

Comments about Geomet'r GNC-35 GPS Receiver for Nikon & Fujifilm Digital SLRs:

The product works great when it works. I have had to send 2 back for replacement because the cord shorted out. [...] I recommend this product with reservations until it lasts for a year.

Comments about Geomet'r GNC-35 GPS Receiver for Nikon & Fujifilm Digital SLRs:

This product does work as advertised but I've had to send 2 back to the manufacture as the cord shorted out. [...] I was told they had a faulty batch and somehow I got 2 from that batch. The third one I'm using now seems to not have the problem (fingers crossed). Otherwise, I love making maps on iPhoto.Until I make it a year with this third unit I recommend it with reservations.

Comments about Geomet'r GNC-35 GPS Receiver for Nikon & Fujifilm Digital SLRs:

I received the Geomet'r GNC-35 and promptly took it on a four night backpacking trip in the Sierra Nevada Mountains of California. It survived 5 days attached to the camera which was out and ready for use rather than in a case. When the device is switched on it draws power from the camera even when the camera is off. To conserve battery life I kept it off except when using the camera. In preparing to capture an image I would switch on the GPS unit first. Most of the time I had a solid red light, indicating a location lock, by the time I had the shot framed. I expect this would have taken longer if there had been more distance or time between shots. I have not used any other system for geo-tagging so I have no baseline for comparison. However, my assessment is that this unit works quite well.HardwareThe unit is compact fits nicely on top of the camera. The cable is long enough that it can be taken off of the camera, for example to be attached to the neck strap to make room for a flash, and the cable coils nicely out of the way when it is on the hot shoe. AccuracyI checked position and altitude data for about 20 photos which I could independently locate my position on a map or aerial photograph. Position, latitude and longitude, was within approximately 10 meters for all of them. In one case, when I was standing on a large rock at the limit of aerial photo resolution, it was within 3 meters. The altitude was usually within 20 meters and within 40 meters for all photos that I could check. The altitude for the entire trip was in excess of 3000 meters and usually with an unobstructed view of most of the sky. I am not an expert on GPS but I expect both of these factors improve accuracy in general and perhaps also reduce the time needed for a lock. Battery LifeI was using this unit with a Nikon D300 and two lenses. The lens I used most, 70 percent, of the time had an internal focusing motor, AF-S, while the other required the camera's motor for autofocus, AF-D. There were no other unusual draws on the battery. I used the flash for 6 photos and did not spend inordinate amounts of time using the camera's LCD screen. My first fully charged battery made it 677 shutter releases before the camera shut off due to low charge. A second battery finished out the trip, 984 total shutter releases, with charge to spare. Software (Mac)Simple. It reads the location data and will show it on a map. It will also output a columnated text file with the vitals for each photo in a folder. The programs does not seem to support NEF files but works fine with JPG files. Other programs, Aperture and mypicturetown.com, seem quite happy to read the location out of the meta data for NEFs.

Comments about Geomet'r GNC-35 GPS Receiver for Nikon & Fujifilm Digital SLRs:

I have gaffered taped this unit to my camera strap permanently. I plug it in to my Nikon and all images are geotagged right inside the images. When I turn it on, it usually takes about 30 seconds to lock onto the satalites and then keeps tracking as long as it is on and I am outside. I can get a quick map of the location from within Lightroom and when I upload to flickr, the images are added to my flickr map. Previously, I had the external Sony unit, but it was a pain syncing the images with the GPS after the fact. This unit is way better. I use it primarily for location scouting and it is great to be able to return to a good location.

Comments about Geomet'r GNC-35 GPS Receiver for Nikon & Fujifilm Digital SLRs:

Product works great when I'm going out to take pictures I turn it on and leave it on. Only flaw in the product that I have found is the on-off switch, I wish it was a slider instead of momentary push switch. No noticable drain on the battery of my D300, but I do have a spare jic.

Comments about Geomet'r GNC-35 GPS Receiver for Nikon & Fujifilm Digital SLRs:

Not perfect, but still a very good, sturdy, relatively inexpensive tool for tagging photos. They are generous with the velco attachments, so you can mount it to your camera strap rather than the hotshoe. I used with a D300. This unit can drain your battery power faster than you'd expect, and as others have noted can be accidentally turned on in your camera bag. The software that comes with the unit is very poor and buggy, so make sure you have another software solution for showing where your photos were taken. Recommended.

Comments about Geomet'r GNC-35 GPS Receiver for Nikon & Fujifilm Digital SLRs:

Used in all outdoor shots. Pin points exactly where I took the picture once I down loaded to iPhoto. Just returned from Grand Canyon - very impressed with accuracy of this device. I could follow our footsteps once I downloaded the information the GNC-35 gave to iPhoto.
But one must wait about 40 seconds on the first shot while the receiver picks up the satellite. After that I found a picture every 3 or 4 seconds worked fine. In short, I just love it.

Comments about Geomet'r GNC-35 GPS Receiver for Nikon & Fujifilm Digital SLRs:

a change in the ergonomics please. This little gizmo does a flawless job of encoding the GPS coordinates in my raw files. It drains power, however. The only change I'd make is to put the on/off button elsewhere. I put my camera in my bag, glass down and the button gets turned on - batteries down to nothing in short time.

Comments about Geomet'r GNC-35 GPS Receiver for Nikon & Fujifilm Digital SLRs:

I use this GPS on my Nikon D300, it's really simple to hook up and once you turn it on, "cold" takes no more than a minute for me to lock on to GPS satellites. What is great about this little unit is that its not bulky and doesn't seem to get away when taking pictures. The GNC-35 runs on the battery power of the camera, which is a great and bad thing. Great since its keeps the weight and size down of the GPS, bad that if you forget to turn it off after use, the unit will keep eating at your battery life, so keep extra's on hand. There was not a whole lot of cons to point out other than there is no auto shut off, so you can deplete your battery, and I know on the D300 there is a place on the geocache exif for a heading either degrees or N E W S, however, the GNC-35 does not include this in it's readings, but for the price by far definitely not a deciding factor of whether to purchase or not. Supposedly this device is also water resistant, but I have not yet tried this functionality as of yet, since I don't tread into many wet situations. I would definitely recommend this GPS to other consumers, since its lightweight, accurate, and stores easy in your camera bag when not in use.

Comments about Geomet'r GNC-35 GPS Receiver for Nikon & Fujifilm Digital SLRs:

Easy to use right out of the box. True plug/play. Gives lat/long coordinates, as well as UTC time and altitude embedded with your picture metadata. Great for travel or natue photography - most likely useful for other pursuits as well. I have not tried software that came with it (and can share with others) that allows you to email pictures back to friends and they can see map (googlemaps) tagged with location of where your picture was taken.

Mounts on hotshoe with hotshoe plastic adapter and hook/loop connector. If you carry camera on strap on side, be careful as if you brush by something it MIGHT come off! Has done this once while tracking birds on bird shoot. Luckily I noticed right away.

Comments about Geomet'r GNC-35 GPS Receiver for Nikon & Fujifilm Digital SLRs:

I use mine on my D-300 and it works just as the manufacturer says. There's only one thing that makes me a little nervous. When the cord is pluged in the front of the camera, the on/off switch sticks out a little further than I would like. I'm afraid that if I'm not real careful, I might bump it and either snap it off or destroy the plug to the point that it might not work, or work only sporatically. So far so good though. The other thing about the plug is that it's not real easy to screw it into the camera recepticle as I have to use my fingernail to help screw it in. It's not real difficult, but if you're in a hurry, you're not going to be real fast doing that. The cord hanging off to the side is a little bothersome, but you get used to it quickly. It boots up very quickly even from a cold start and even faster when it's been used recently. I like that !! The unit consumes very very little power so that's not an issue, but don't forget to turn it off when you're done using it or your battery "might" be drained when you come back. The software that comes with it could use cleare instructions but eventually you'll figure it out. The secret is to make a new folder and download it into that, and the folder MUST be on your "C" drive or you will not be able to use it. It will not work if that folder is on your desktop....it must be on the "C" drive!! (go figure). I'm real happy with it though and I'm sure the manufacturer will address these inconvienences. They are not major problems....just slight bumps in the road. Buy it...you will not be disappointed if you do.

Comments about Geomet'r GNC-35 GPS Receiver for Nikon & Fujifilm Digital SLRs:

FINALLY, no more hassles in Geotagging images. This unit is super easy to use and works great. My only wish is that I didn't have to buy this as an add-on to an expensive Nikon DSLR like the D700. This function ought to be built into the camera body these days but until that time this little add-on does the trick very nicely!!!

Comments about Geomet'r GNC-35 GPS Receiver for Nikon & Fujifilm Digital SLRs:

I had no clue these products existed until a friend recommended it to me. I was a little clueless at first on how to use it but I read some reviews [...]Price is great as well! =)

Comments about Geomet'r GNC-35 GPS Receiver for Nikon & Fujifilm Digital SLRs:

Works perfectly with my D300. It's simply plug and go. The receiver is very sensitive, I can often get a signal indoors. Battery usage seems reasonable, just don't forget to shut it off or unplug it when not in use as it can draw power even when the camera is off.

The base unit seems very well made but they could have done a better job on the hot-shoe mount. It works well enough but seems a little unsubstantial when compared to the rest of the unit. Time will tell.

I also applied a piece of the supplied industrial Velcro to a small clip to allow me to easily clip the GNC-35 to my camera strap.

The supplied software is not needed. You can either upload to Flickr or use other software that supports Geotagging (i.e. Photoshop Elements).

Comments about Geomet'r GNC-35 GPS Receiver for Nikon & Fujifilm Digital SLRs:

At first I thought, GPS, what for! But after traveling for two weeks in three states it really is well worth it. Power consumption is very low. I let it run from 10AM to 6PM plus shooting hundreds of shots with VR lenses and used 60% of one battery. It works well but the program to map the location is somewhat not user friendly.

Comments about Geomet'r GNC-35 GPS Receiver for Nikon & Fujifilm Digital SLRs:

I like the idea of geotagging, but with my D300, it's proving a little more awkward than I'd like.

First, let me say that yes, the unit works as advertised and does exactly what it says it does. That's not the problem.

I suppose the main issue is the extra cord dangling from the side of the camera. I've rigged mine to my camera strap using one of the supplied velcro connectors, but the cord always feels like its in the way, and I always seem to be untangling something from it.

Then there's the power management issue. Seems like your choices are to leave the power on continually, or have it go on and off as you activate the camera meter. It takes about 30 seconds to acquire a satellite lock, so if you go with the mode where it's going on and off, you end up not getting GPS coordinates a fair bit of the time, especially if you're the type to turn the camera on, fire off a few shots, then turn it off again.

If you set it up to be on continuously, the problem you run into is that it stays on, even when the camera is turned off. If you forget to turn the GPS off, you're likely to find that it's drained your camera batteries. Not sure what the best solution would be, but seems like a self-powered GPS would be a good idea.

And of course, given the small size of the device, I'm a little puzzled why Nikon can't simply build it into the camera or integrate it with something like the MB-D10 grip.

So all in all, mixed reviews. It works as advertised - just not as pleasant to use as one might hope.