-= 7D2 owners unite! Discuss and post photos!

Spencerphoto wrote in post #18757158
This is a genuine question. I'm not being sarcastic.

Why do you folks need GPS? I have no problem remembering where I was shooting, though perhaps that just means I'm not shooting often enough!

Do you use it on shoots where you're moving around a lot and need to know where you where pretty accurately, or what?

If you have a good memory, then you probably don't need GPS data for your pics.

My memory is not good enough. I will often visit two or three sites in a day. A week later I won't know which pics are from which place. Often I can figure it out from the recorded time, but GPS is better. It might not be important, but it is useful to know a location if you want to go back to it.

Spencerphoto wrote in post #18757158
This is a genuine question. I'm not being sarcastic.

Why do you folks need GPS? I have no problem remembering where I was shooting, though perhaps that just means I'm not shooting often enough!

Do you use it on shoots where you're moving around a lot and need to know where you where pretty accurately, or what?

That’s a good question. For me personally, it’s really something else to geek out over. I’m typically in a place where I remember, and I’ll add that to the tags when I import the images into Lightroom (e.g. “National Zoo, Washington DC”). I don’t really *need* to know the exact coordinates of the tigers in relationship to the prairie dogs, but I think it’s fun to look at Lightroom’s map view after a day out.

That’s me, as a hobbyist. I can see more of a need for a professional who is surveying multiple sites in a day, or in aviation, where you may cover a lot of territory in a flight.

Mike

Archibald wrote in post #18757166
If you have a good memory, then you probably don't need GPS data for your pics.

My memory is not good enough. I will often visit two or three sites in a day. A week later I won't know which pics are from which place. Often I can figure it out from the recorded time, but GPS is better. It might not be important, but it is useful to know a location if you want to go back to it.

My memory is probably no better than yours. I suspect I'm just not that organised when it comes to locations. These days, about the only time location is important is when shooting events, but by their nature, event locations are easy to remember. Other than that, when I go out to shoot bugs, birds or just a photography day, I will usually only shoot in one location, 'Venman Bushland' or 'Brisbane City'. It doesn't matter to me which street I was on, because I'm only shooting for pleasure.

Perhaps I should use GPS on holiday though, because on our last trip to Italy we found a fantastic little coffee shop in Venice and raved about it to my son. Now he and his partner are planning their own trip to Venice and they asked where the coffee shop was.

Well, it was down a narrow alleyway, near a canal ...

Spencerphoto wrote in post #18757158
This is a genuine question. I'm not being sarcastic.

Why do you folks need GPS? I have no problem remembering where I was shooting, though perhaps that just means I'm not shooting often enough!

Do you use it on shoots where you're moving around a lot and need to know where you where pretty accurately, or what?

I travel a lot, and I usually don't know exactly where I'll be some days. The needs of customers will sometimes dictate where I go.

With a GPS, I can take a picture and see what it was when I got home.

For example, this is the Font del Geni Catala, in Barcelona- I could look it up from my position saved as part of the image after I got home:

Photo from Capn Jack's gallery.

Spencerphoto wrote in post #18757174
My memory is probably no better than yours. I suspect I'm just not that organised when it comes to locations. These days, about the only time location is important is when shooting events, but by their nature, event locations are easy to remember. Other than that, when I go out to shoot bugs, birds or just a photography day, I will usually only shoot in one location, 'Venman Bushland' or 'Brisbane City'. It doesn't matter to me which street I was on, because I'm only shooting for pleasure.

Perhaps I should use GPS on holiday though, because on our last trip to Italy we found a fantastic little coffee shop in Venice and raved about it to my son. Now he and his partner are planning their own trip to Venice and they asked where the coffee shop was.

Well, it was down a narrow alleyway, near a canal ...

Just take a pic with your phone. It probably records GPS.

Sometimes I'm out with my 77D, which doesn't do GPS. Not a problem usually. But occasionally I want to record the location. So just shoot it with the phone as well and transfer the GPS data over later.

Archibald wrote in post #18757178
Just take a pic with your phone. It probably records GPS.

Sometimes I'm out with my 77D, which doesn't do GPS. Not a problem usually. But occasionally I want to record the location. So just shoot it with the phone as well and transfer the GPS data over later.

Smarty pants. I just got my phone out and turned geotagging on. Now I just have to remember to use the darn thing for location memory-joggers

When I visit the National Parks I find the GPS recording of position to be invaluable in jogging the memory as to which boiling hot spring, mountain valley, butte, etc. I have in a particular photo. While I remember generally where I was, when I am sorting through a few hundred ( or thousand ) images I don't always remember exactly where I was.

I agree that that the 7D2 can be maddeningly slow to lock position; so can the GP-E2. Usually once locked it stays locked.

Back to more 100 year old museum pieces with the 7D2 and the 100-400 Mk2:

Capn Jack wrote in post #18757119
I presume you were in the open? Were the images taken nearby reasonably placed?

Usually, I see that when the GPS signals are reflected by a structure. It's unusual to be that far off for any length of time and still keep a lock. The GPSr (GPS Receiver) on any of our consumer devices work by solving a series of simultaneous equations. The satellite sends a signal which contains the time of transmission; our devices note the time of reception and can calculate the distance from the satellite from the difference in time and the speed of light (forming a sphere). We can then limit our location to a circle where the sphere with the radius of our distance intercepts the surface of the earth. Other satellites serve to reduce that circle to a point (interception of several circles). As our consumer devices have a cheap clock, we also have to calculate the actual time and correct for that cheap clock. There are also corrections for relativity and atmospheric effects. Since the 7D2 and most modern GPSrs can use both the US GPS and GLONASS, problems with satellite geometry have all but disappeared. In New Zealand, the 7D2 should receive the JIS constellation too.

Essentially, the GPS needs a valid signal from at least 3 satellites to get a 2-D fix; if the signals bounce around too much, the math just doesn't work out for very long and it loses lock.

Yeah, I guess this was very likely the problem. I was in this hide (blind): https://www.flickr.com​/photos/itravelnz/2791​9518551 - so it's possible that the cliffs were compromising the signal. I didn't use the GPS again until I was a good 50 miles further north and it was accurate then.

All this talk about the 7D2's gps: sometimes I find it works very good but mostly not. I usually carry a small hand held gps and take a picture of the screen. Not ideal but it serves the purpose. I like to know where a picture was taken, not satisfied with "it was around here somewhere" .

I'm not familiar with the programs mentioned so maybe this is covered already but for anyone interested it is not hard to add the externally acquired geolocation info to the photo's exif info if so desired. That being said, I usually don't add the info to the exif data, I just record it in my picture catalog.

Rod

Spencerphoto wrote in post #18757158
Why do you folks need GPS? I have no problem remembering where I was shooting, though perhaps that just means I'm not shooting often enough!

Do you use it on shoots where you're moving around a lot and need to know where you where pretty accurately, or what?

Basically, yes. When I was in NZ I was taking so many snaps that I couldn't possibly remember all the locations. Unfortunately the GPS drains my battery so much I had to use it sparingly and, as a result, when I eventually got home I ended up spending hours on Google Earth trying to find the location of some of my snaps!

Earlier this year, I had a go at shooting video with my 5D3. Thinking it would be easier than it turned out to be, I unwisely traded my 24-70 f/2.8L for the 24-105 f/4L, which is better suited for video. It turned out to be too hard.

Now that I also have a 7D2, I'm planning to give video another go. I will attend a small motorcycle trial tomorrow and will shoot video all day, with the intention of putting together a short Youtube movie. I have shot video before using a camcorder and with my LX100 and enjoyed the projects, especially the editing and adding music to make the finished product. So far, they have been pretty amateurish, but I enjoy it and, if the 7D2 turns out to be easy enough to use and it produces good footage, I'll hopefully persevere this time and thus improve.

With a small Rode shotgun mic and the 24-105L attached, stuck on a monopod, it feels like a fairly manageable rig, albeit with no fancy gimbal stabilisation, nor motorised zoom, nor focus puller. It will probably just turn out to be a less wobbly version of my previous rubbish

Fingers crossed. If this works, I will be a confirmed fan of the 7D2. I already like it and use it in combination with the 5D3 on every sports shoot, but if I can also use it to make fun movies without buying fancy, dedicated video gear, that will definitely make it the bargain of the century for me.

Ready to go. Reasonably compact and, while on the monopod at least, OK for long captures. Forecast is for 34C and the venue is rather hilly, so wish me luck.

That's a great idea having that cradle on top of your camera to support that black furry growth you've got on your forehead.

Red Dexs wrote in post #18757362
That's a great idea having that cradle on top of your camera to support that black furry growth you've got on your forehead.

Dead Cat courtesy Mrs Wife, my in-house crafty person.

Linne's two-toed sloth