Richard's Tech Reviews

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

Map Room reviews Nikon GP-1

I don't have a DSLR of any kind, so I can't review GPS units for those cameras.  Fortunately Jonathan Crowe does, so you can read his review of the Nikon GP-1.

Previously:
August 27, 2008  Nikon GP-1 GPS unit

Google MyTracks - Android GPS track recording and sharing

Today Google announced in their Mobile blog an application for Android phones to record, display and share GPS tracks.

Today Dylan Casey, a former professional cyclist, announced another location-based service from Google. My Tracks is a new Android application that makes it easy to record your routes when cycling, running, hiking, or doing pretty much any outdoor activity.

Record your training routes with the My Tracks Android App - Google Mobile blog - February 12, 2009

The application site

http://mytracks.appspot.com/

includes a video explaining the application, sample maps, and other information.  The FAQ says you can get tracks out in GPX or KML format (in an email attachment, which seems a bit inconvenient, or saved to the phone's memory card).

This is another step in the mainstreaming of GPS track logging.

You can get a T-Mobile G1 through Amazon.com (as is usual, the price is based on you getting a T-Mobile service plan).

Sony GPS-CS3KA - next generation GPS logger finally announced

After essentially creating the category of GPS loggers for photo geotagging with the GPS-CS1 in 2006, Sony inexplicably let the product languish for three years with only minor upgrades.  They fell so far behind I have been recommending other brands rather than the CS1.  I had been waiting for a "GPS-CS2" to appear, but they've skipped all the way ahead to GPS-CS3KA.

Some key features:

• built-in Memory Stick Duo and SD card slots, apparently to support hardware geotagging (similar to ATP PhotoFinder)
• LCD display
• 128 MB internal memory
• compatibility with Sony camcorders for geotagging video (it's not clear to me how it does this; there is no video geotagging standard)
• comes with Sony Picture Motion Browser version 4.2 software ("Mac not supported")

It takes one AA battery, but they offer "Long life battery (sold separately) for a one-day trip, up to 15 hours" - the Sony LR6 battery, apparently.  Or if I'm reading it right, 7 hours on an HR6 NiMH battery (it lists 14 hours, but that appears to be by using two HR6s, one after the other).

The downsides:
* There is no information about what GPS chipset it is using.  (More discussion on this below.)
* There is no indication of Mac compatibility (if it's not, it would be very disappointing - it took a ridiculously long time for the previous CS1 to finally be Mac-compatible)
* List price is at the high end, at US$150

It's not clear if you can use the memory card slots to store GPS tracks, or only for inserting memory cards from cameras in order to geotag the photos they store.  It's also not clear if it mounts as a USB drive, like the CS1, or whether it uses some custom serial-to-USB protocol like other loggers.

Sensitivity

I wish manufacturers would make it easier to know exactly what chipset they're using, and its sensitivity.  An older version of the SonyStyle page lists (rather incongruously under audio - presumably someone was confused by the listing of frequencies and dBm)

* Frequency Response : 1575.42 MHz (L1 band, C/A code)
* Sensitivity : -159dBm or less (average, while tracking)

Screenshot from cached version of SonyStyle.com:

If this is true,

it indicates a modern high-sensitivity chipset, and a dramatic improvement over the
-150dBm of the CS1.  (For GPS sensitivity, more negative is more sensitive, and even a single dBm is a fairly substantial improvement.)  Unfortunately, the current version of the SonyStyle USA page no longer lists these specifications.

I will try to find out more information about this device.

UPDATE 2009-05-01: I now have the GPS-CS3 so here are answers to some of the above items I crossed out:

* It mounts as a USB drive, like the CS1, and the USB drive is Mac-compatible, so you can download the logs (processing the logs on the Mac is left to you; no Mac software is provided).  See my posting Sony GPS-CS3 is a Mac compatible GPS logger for more information.

* The external memory cards you insert cannot be used to store logs, only for geotagging digital camera photos

* The manual lists specs of 20-channels, -159dBm

ENDUPDATE

You can see the menu (GPS, Matching, Tools) in the large version of the following image.

Images from Sony Image Gallery - GPS-CS3KA  Image Album.

Amazon.com is currently (May 1, 2009) showing it in stock.

Previously:
June 03, 2008  GPS-CS1 reported fixed in Mac 10.5.3
January 31, 2008  Sony announces GPS-CS1KASP, everyone yawns
September 15, 2006  my review of the Sony GPS-CS1 datalogger with photo geocoding

The GPS Revolution - NHPR radio interview

Most of us know GPS, or global positioning systems, as the things that give talking driving directions. Now smart phones like the Google Phone and the iPhone have dozens of applications that use GPS to connect with others and to find everything from the nearest coffee shop to identifying constellations in the night sky.

New Hampshire Public Radio (NHPR) - The GPS Revolution - February 4, 2009

They interview Mat Honan, who wrote the Wired article about GPS applications.

Interview is 9:40 into the audio of the show - listen to the audio in your browser or download the MP3 from Word of Mouth - February 4, 2009.