Sony GPS-CS3 is a Mac compatible GPS logger

Like its predecessor, the CS1, the GPS-CS3KA mounts as a USB drive.
Unlike the CS1, there are no problems mounting it on a Mac.  I tested on Mac OS X 10.4.11 and the CS3 switched to USB mode when plugged in, and mounted on the desktop.

While this is only hardware compatibility (Sony does not provide Mac software), it's still very good news because you can use the NMEA-0183 .log files it records to create map traces or for photo geotagging.

The GPS-CS3KA is available from Amazon.com: Sony GPS-CS3KA GPS Digital Imaging Accessory (White).

The .log file, like the CS1's is NMEA with a Sony header at the beginning.  If you're writing parsers, the new header is

@Sonygps/ver1.0/wgs-84/gps-cs3.0

(incidentally I think this is the first time I've used the <samp> HTML tag)

The new logger is reasonably good.  It has a much better chipset than the CS1 (the CS3 has a 20-channel chipset, exact chipset model not specified).  I still wouldn't rate it fantastic in urban canyon, as you can see below, but it has a fast "time to fix" (that is, it is quick to obtain a position).

Magenta is Sony acquiring a position downtown followed by going east, quite noisy. Blue is me returning later in the day, travelling west.

Sony has made to me what is a very weird engineering decision.  They've made it an in-device photo geotagger, so like the Photo Finder, you can insert a camera memory card (SD or Memory Stick Duo) and it will do the time matching, and embed the locations into the photos.  Except that "You can match a maximum of 60 images in one session."  What this means is that if you're like many photographers who may have taken hundreds of photos in a day, you have to use the menu, select Matching, do 60 images, go to the menu, select Matching, do the next 60 images, over and over again.  This makes no sense.

I guess the use case they are imagining is that if you want to do some quick geotagging on the fly, you do it using the Sony itself, and if you want to do serious geotagging of hundreds of photos, you download the .log file and the photos to your computer and do the matching there.  It seems to me odd that they would add a card reader (which must add complexity and cost to the device) for this one very narrow use case.  At a minimum, they should enable the card slot so that you could record .log files there - this would be an incredibly powerful capability, taking you from the current 360 hour limit of the device, to as many hours as you have storage.  I don't understand why they DID NOT enable the card slot to do this.

Also, I am surprised that although they have a display and a control menu, the options you can set are very limited.  The logger is set to record every 15 seconds, which is a bit slow even if you're just walking quickly.  They even provide a helpful note "Since the GPS records positioning information every 15 seconds, the positioning information applied to the image may not be exactly the same as that where the image was actually taken."  I don't think people get a GPS logger so they can know roughly where a picture was taken, they want as much precision as possible.  This long digression to get me to this point: amazingly the menu DOES NOT allow you to change the recording interval.  This is unlike many other loggers which give you granular control to set your interval to 10 seconds, 5 seconds, or even fractions of a second.

Recommendations:
1. Add a mode that does continuous Matching until all photos are matched.
2. Add an option to change the time interval, at least down to 10 and 5 seconds.

I will be doing a full review later.  If you want detailed information, the manual is available for download.  Inexplicably though, copying of text from the PDF manual is blocked, so I had to type all the manual excerpts by hand.

Previously:
September 15, 2006  my review of the Sony GPS-CS1 datalogger with photo geocoding

Comments

[Brandon]

Thank you for posting a review on this Richard. I originally had this pre-ordered and then decided to hold off until I saw a report on OS X compatibility.

This looks like it will do the job on my camping trip at the end of the month.

[Allen Huffman]

I would be curious to see a line-map comparison between the CS1 accuracy and the CS3. The CS1's main flaw, for me, was how long it took to acquire a signal. I have tagged tens of thousands of photos with my CS1, and when I take it to someplace like Disney, where you go in and out of covered areas and show buildings all the time, that causes issues.

The CS1 (or the Mac software I used?) will estimate where photos could have been, between old signal and new signal. I hope to CS3 also does this?

The Sony HDR-XR500V camcorder has GPS built in, and locks very fast, but if it loses signal it just stops tagging the images until it finds the signal again. There also appears to be no way to extract the GPS log, in case I wanted to use the data to tag images taken on a still camera at the same time. (And, it does not allow the GPS to remain on, but place the camcorder in standby mode.) Sony could have given us quite a bit of GPS3 support in their new camcorders.

[matt]

has anyone tried this with the new iPhoto 09 Places feature? Does it work easily?

[rcfa]

Silly that it doesn't have a CF slot, this makes the unit pretty useless for owners of many of Sony's DSLR models, incl. the a900 (nobody in their right mind will give up UDMA access CF memory for MS, just to use that GPS module...)
Big question is, if at least it would also tag ARW (raw) images, or if it's limited to tagging jpegs...

[harvey]

Will it work on a Canon D500?

[harvey]

And also Richard, where do you personally clip it? do you just keep it on your pocket? and also I work on windows 7, any idea if the software works on windows 7? thanks for the info really good job on the review I found it very helpfful.

[Jim]

Anybody have any recommendations for how to use this with a mac for creating a tagged map given that you cannot use the software?

Thanks,

Jim

[Dmitri]

thanks for the updates and review. one piece is missing though - the MAC software that can use .LOG files to geotag all photos. I have no Windows anywhere, not even in parallels so it will be an adventure for me to tag photos without a software. I did find a software for MAC that uses .GPX files but not sure if this will work >>> http://www.earlyinnovations.com/gpsphotolinker/

do you know if structure of .LOG and .GPX is the same but just different extension, perhaps? they both must be XML files, i assume...

Anyway, any thoughts, ideas or links to the software for MAC to make this happen?

thanks!

[Fritz Jörn]

The inner works of CS3 seem feeble, the menu is weak (the display goes dark while tagging, etc.), the best is the idea. Careful: Save your pictures to the PC before tagging them in the CS3, just in case. I had pictures tagged but destroyed, probably due to my nervous handling. Another hint: If the CS3 seems dead and gone forever, switch off the hold slider. Fritz@Joern.De

[Anaxagoras]

Mac OSX. Try using Houdah GPS or Load My Tracks - both work with CS1 and are freeware. If you use Aperture for your photos get a copy of the excellent MaperturePro - about $40 from Ubermind (I think there might be an iPhoto version coming soon)

[AussiGraz]

Forgive me but I am not familiar with this GPS-CS3 terminology. My question is; I am thinking of buying a Sony a850 DSLR camera. Will the CS3 allow me to tag GPS coordinates when I am on on location, say in remote countryside (assuming I get a signal)? I believe Canon has a USB device that will allow this on my other camera of interest, the EOS 5D MkII. I have a Mac computer running Tiger. Thank you.

[AussieGraz]

Footnote to my comment re Sony a850 and GPS-CS3. I have a Garmin Nuvi. Will this work coupled to the a850 via USB on location - as it will with Canon 5D MkII? Thanks again.

[Eric Wu]

Does anyone know what is the max size of the SD memory you can insert into the the unit and be recognized. Will it recognize a 16gb or a 32gb stick?