Sony GPS-CS3KA GPS Digital Imaging Accessory (White)
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GPS Image tracker (GPS-CS3KA) is virtually compatible with any digital still camera and camcorder. Record the time, date and location to each shot you take. You can use with any of camera since now Picture Motion Browser software is included in GPS-CS3KA. Once the images and data are on your PC, the supplied image tracker software synchronizes the photos with latitude, longitude and time reading from the GPS-CS3KA unit. Activate the Picture Motion Browser software are your photos will pop up next to push pins on Google maps by the actual location where you shot the picture.
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Technical Details
- Identifies the location of both photos and videos- Precisely records location, date, and time of photo
- Built-in dual card slots for MS/SD memory cards
- Long life battery for a one-day trip, up to 15 hours
- Powerful Picture Motion Browser software (v.3.0)
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By A. Tegtmeier (Northern Alabama)
The good:
- Accuracy of position finding is very good
- The bundled software is excellent
- Battery life is very useful, 15 hours are easily reachable
- Set-up and operation is very simple
- Relatively short time to find satellites (usually around one minute after start up)
- Small size
- Display for set-up and operation data
- Theoretical possibility to geo tag your photos without a computer
The bad:
- Documentation is spartan - you need to go on the internet to find additional information
- Set-up of GMT is not intuitive - you have to figure out the Daylight Savings Time settings first, which is not mentioned in the documentation
- You have to absolutely set your camera time exactly in sync to the GPS time; the unit records a measurement every 15 seconds, so if you are off a few seconds and move your position quickly, like in a car or so, the tag will be a couple of hundred yards off; believe me, that happens more often than you think, and the only way to remedy this is to undertake a manual correction in the bundled PMB software - which, thankfully, is very easy to do ...
The ugly:
- You have to remove the cover to access the SD card slot ... what a boneheaded design decision ...
I use this unit extensively to geo tag my photos now - bought it originally to have this functionality available for my blog ([...])
It took me a couple of (frustrating) days to figure out, why my photos were not tagged correctly at first: the device uses GMT as basic time and to set your local time, you have to figure in the effect of Daylight Savings Time ...
But after that hurdle was taken, the tagging worked great.
The in-device tagging functionality also works flawless - but you have to remove the cover every time you want to insert a SD card. It also drains the battery more quickly.
Because the device will hold several hundred hours of geo logs, there really is no need to tag the files directly on the SD card. It is much more convenient to this via the bundled software, where you can correct single tags if you need to - and believe me, the need will arise as soon as you are hooked, and you only will accept the most precise location data possible anymore ... :)
To sum it up:
The GPS functionality works great, battery life is great, the software is great, the position of the SD card slot is stupid. I am very happy with this little gadget.
By B. S. Bishop (Atlanta, GA USA)
This makes geo-tagging easier.
I had a different GPS logger before which was Windows-only. It worked well but the software was a bit kludgy. It did things I didn't care about. All I want is the GPS coordinates in the photo's file. It was trying to be a photo-organizer. When I moved to a Mac I saw the Sony GPS logger and the fact that it doesn't require an OS and does everything on the fly and thought, "This is what I want - it's just shy of actually having the camera do it but it's getting pretty close."
This GPS logger includes Windows software for organizing your photos and importing them and showing them on a map, etc. I haven't tried it.
Anyway, the basic deal is this: You synchronize your camera to the clock in the display of this device (which is better than my old one which didn't have a display - you had to synchronize it at the computer or using a separate GPS or some other synchronized timepiece). You go out and take pictures and carry this logger with you. At the end of the day you slide your memory stick or SD card into this device and it will add the coordinates to each of the pictures. Nothing more you need to do. If you take those photos and load them onto Flickr then they'll show up on the map there.
Two annoying things:
- You have to open/close the back cover when you insert your flash memory. The back-cover is more like a traditional batter cover but there is a little switch there that looks to see when the cover is open or not and the unit will not function if the cover is open. I suspect that this is to stop someone from pulling the flash memory when it's updating but it seems like a needless extra step.
- It will only update photos in batches of 60. You leave the flash memory in the device (with the cover closed) and just cycle through multiple sets of 60 photos (it sees whether the photo already has the info and excludes it from the next batch). Still, kind of annoying that you can't just put the flash memory in and say, "do it!," and have it update the entire lot.
It uses a single AA battery which is nice as you can just take some rechargeable batteries with you and swap them out as needed and recharge them when you get home. My old GPS logger had a specialized internal battery, which worked fine, but I had to remember to bring something that would let me charge it each night (a USB mini-B cable and some kind of power source). With this I can just swap the batteries out when needed and, if I forget, I can just buy some AA batteries when I'm out.
By Jefferson Harkins (FL, VI, NS)
This is a simple GPS data logger that does not need a computer. Thus no Windows vs Mac stuff. Set the time and time zone, strap it to your camera strap, and go. When you're ready, take the SD card (or silly Sony memory stick) from the camera, put it in the CS3KA, select "Match" and you're good. Geotag info is written to your photos. Then import them into iPhoto, or Google Earth, or whatever. No software needed, no computer needed. Just like much acclaimed Photofinder, but the GPS lock takes only seconds. The LCD screen is even readable in bright sunlight without back-lighting. My only complaint -- it should come in black to match most cameras.
By Brian J. Immel
Been using this little guy for a few weeks now and I like it but its not best in all areas like the canyons of any metro city or in the valleys of Yosemite (for example).
After seeing how the GPS info is written out, I probably wouldn't have brought this knowing that there is over software out there that can be paired up with your time stamps on the photos with any general GPS units (like a Garmin).
The packaged software is rather generic and overly simple.
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