At the beginning of the month, I posted my initial review of the Phottix Geo One GPS image positioning module for cameras.   As I mentioned at the time, I have no experience with other similar products, such as Nikon’s, so I can’t compare it to others.  I did find another review – one where the reviewer has the Nikon GP-1 and could do a comparison and said that the two units function almost exactly alike, the biggest difference that he noted being the difference in price – Nikon’s unit costing almost double the price of the Phottix.  He also notes that the Phottix comes with a better selection of accessories than the Nikon.

(above images from Phottix’s web site)

I’ve wanted to keep on using this throughout the month but as you may have noticed, we had not only a lot of bad weather but also that nightmarish air pollution.  GPS devices need to get signals from at least 3 satellites (4 is better) to function properly and the clouds, rain and smog all served to mostly keep me away from shooting outdoors and the Geo One was mostly unable to get a signal on the few days that I tried.  Narrow streets lined with tall buildings also didn’t help much.

I brought it along with me to the Rugby 7s and used it for about half the day and was really pleased with the results.  I kept it on the camera while I shot more than 600 photos and the first thing to know is that there was still plenty of juice left in the battery at the end of those 600 shots.  For the most part, the Geo One had no problem quickly acquiring satellite signals in that huge open space.

The end result was actually quite useful.  My media pass allowed me to walk anywhere I wanted along three sides of the pitch (I wasn’t allowed to walk along the west side, where the officials and hoi polloi were all seated).  As I looked through my shots of the fans, which ones did I shoot of people in the South Stands?  As I looked at the game shots I took, which ones were shot from midfield and which were shot from the far end?  I walked around a lot, back and forth multiple times so I couldn’t remember and it wasn’t always obvious from looking at the photos.  But it wasn’t a problem getting definitive answers with the Geo One.

Loading my photos into Picasa (like most sports photographers, I was shooting JPEG-only that day) and clicking on the “Places” button to bring up the view of Google Maps in a side bar, the readings from the Geo One were so exact that I could literally trace my steps as I walked around the pitch.  I know exactly where I was standing for each photo.

While this sort of information is not going to be useful to everyone, some people will see the value in this – I certainly did.

My final conclusion is that I’m very happy with the Phottix Geo One’s performance and considering the huge price difference with Nikon’s GP-1, I can say that once I return this unit (loaned to me by the company for review purposes), I’m definitely planning to go out and buy one.  Unlike lenses, where I believe there are certain benefits to sticking with the Nikon brand rather than going with third party choices, I’ve got no hesitation now about choosing Phottix over Nikon for GPS.

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