geotagging

GiSTEQ PhotoTrackr Lite DPL700 GPS Photo Tracker
$99.99
This product seemed like a great idea to me, but it just doesn't work well and is not worth the trouble.

It is too hard to tell if the device is on and tracking, and you have no idea how much battery life is left, so you never know if it will last the day.

But the real frustration comes afterward, when you use the supplied software to tag images. Very confusing to use, and a software upgrade has made it even more confusing. Time zone correction is buried (you have to assign locations, then right-click the image, select re-analyze, then you will see a series of prompts, one of which asks you to set the time zone). Then, once I managed to discover how to do that, time zone correction didn't work -- images retained their original location. Writing GPS info to the photos didn't work either; at least the GPS info wasn't written to the images in a way that my cataloging software (IDImager) could read. Previously I got around these problems by exporting the log files and using other software to write the locations to image metadata, but the export function seems to be removed from the version of the software I was using (or is hidden as well as the time zone correction).

Stay away.

Q-1000X: Qstarz BT-Q1000X Bluetooth Data Logger GPS Receiver (66 ch, 1-5Hz Update Rate, AGPS, 200,000 Waypoints)
$97.79
I have used several GPSs over the years and this one takes the cake. It went on a trip to Ireland the Scotland with me and performed so well I am thinking of new ways to push it to see where it might fail.

First it locked on just about anywhere, inside airports while in my luggage, inside the overhead bin on the plane while inside my luggage, inside cars while in my pants pocket, in buildings, in hotels, in pubs large and small. It locked on everywhere, and when it did not it just kept me in the same location until it did find a lock, meaning it did show me bouncing all over the place when I was really just sitting still.

Secondly the software is OK, I did use it for downloading the data, setting up the GPS, exporting to GPX and Google Earth, and some preliminary review of the days events, but really that was it. So I cannot talk to how it does anything else, nor do I much care. It does what I needed it to do very well with no problems or complaints. I ran it on XP SP3 on 2 machines and it had no issues of any kind.

Thirdly it lasts FOREVER. I left it run almost 2 days, nearly 42 hours, before it died. 42 hours. That is amazing. Plus since it charges via USB I can charge it ANYWHERE. I can charge from my laptop, desktop, car charger, wall charger, even from those little engergizer 2xAA battery thingies. I even made a charger from a USB cable and a 4xAA battery holder. So I can charge this from rechargeable batteries as needed without connecting to my laptop.

Forthly it stores a lot of info. I have easily almost 2 weeks of time, in 1 minute increments about 10-16 hours a day, stored on here. You cannot erase from it , it just overwrites the old stuff, so I can see all the way back to when I first got it still, plus the 9 day Ireland/Scotland trip, plus all the flights to and from, plus misc playing around with it. It is all still on there. Amazing.

The one thing you really really really do have to do though if you plan to geotag photos, and I know you already know this but just listen anyways, is to sync the camera clock to GPS time (in your home timezone if possible). My camera time drifts, I had synced it before maybe 6 months ago when using the Garmin GPS around home, but I was 5 minutes off, which would be fine except that my shots of a given church were blocks away, my shots of the Cliffs of Moher are geotagged from the parking lot, etc until I corrected for the drift. There is no way to tell what time this GPS thinks it is, but since all GPS receivers use the same time it is a simple matter of syncing to any GPS or just to a reputable Stratum 1 or 2 time source online.

Nikon Coolpix P6000 13.5MP Digital Camera with 4x Wide Angle Optical Vibration Reduction (VR) Zoom
Too low to display
I really like Nikon cameras and was looking forward to owning a "point and shoot" for times when I can't take my DSLR with me.

As far as point and shoot cameras go, the P6000 is "OK." The pictures turn out well as long as you don't exceed ISO 400. This was a con for me as I bought the camera to use in lower light conditions. Any thing shot at 6400 was unusable.

The GPS feature sounded good, but in practice, it takes too long to acquire a fix which meant most of the pictures I took didn't have the GPS data attached.

Columbus V-900 Bluetooth GPS Data Logger with Free 1GB microSD card (microSD , Driverless, Push to Log, XP / Vista/ Linux / Mac OSX Compatible)
$99.95
I just bought the Columbus V900 a week ago. I have an iMAC and the software was easy to install, and I'm using a Canon PowerShot SD600. The unit came essentially fully charged. I had to tweak the UTC (GMT) a bit to see the photos I'd taken;i.e., to compensate for DST, I guess. I generated the .kmz file and then double cliked on it to get the path and photos in Google Earth; but you must remember to adjust the time line(upper left) in Google Earth to see the photos. This is great! so that when I travel I know exactly where the photos were taken