So I decide to purchase a dedicated Geotagger for my Nikon D5000, ordered last week and after 10 days its in my mail box all the way from Hong Kong, I ordered it from : Here and it cost me USD 100.00 inclusive postage paid by PayPal.
The package is small, and inside it is the GPS, a cable for connecting it to the camera a Canon type shutter release thrown in the deal and a pouch. The GPS is tiny and weight almost nothing.
As photo below, it fit to the hot shoe, slight problem there it block the pop up flash. A USB extension cable should fix this or a something that hold it to the strap may do same job, but thats only if you want to use flash to fill in your shots or at night. Worst case you can let it dangle on the cable.
On this D5000 the port for GPS are covered by a common cover for other port and located top most lefthand side. Its a bit awkward since the port cover is always open. However during shooting it doesn't cause any problem since my left hand is on the lens. But with that cover always open I afraid the plastic hinge may get damage.
The cable also need to have a 180 degrees loop as seen in picture, this is because Nikon D90 and D5000 share the same connector but due to Nikon ultimate wisdom, the D90 port located at the bottom left hand and individually covered and at a 180 degrees away orientation to the D5000. Since the D90 was out first, the cable was made for it. On another note Nikon GP-1 have a straight connector, which protrude out a lot, so others maker produce an elbow connector which is better, then Nikon throw a bomb on the D5000 they make it 180 away making the elbow connector twisted 180, and theirs stay the same- Thank You Nikon... Maybe a new connector is in the making for the 5000.
You will need to manually switches the GPS OFF since once connected it will be powered by the camera, not much just about 30 mA so that equate to about 10% of battery drain the most. I got 1000 shot on this camera, so OK I now got 900 from a charge.
Power ON it took about 30 second to get a GPS lock, that's fast for a first time from the box so Cold start about 30 second. Hot start is almost instantaneous, you blink and its lock. The GPS indicated in the screen will blink if no lock is obtain and becomes steady as its lock.
GPS data can be obtain from menu at GPS selection it will give Latitude, Longitude, Altitude and UTC, the Heading is blank due this GN-1 do not have a compass build in, than it will be more expensive. The Nikon GP-1 cost 3x this unit and still don't have Heading, so its ok.
On exif file you can get the GPS information recorded inclusive the UTC time. On Irfanview it also enable a link to be open by Google Earth or that GeoHack Wiki something, which I don't have a clue what it does. On Google Earth its easy enough it will put a location pin on where you take the photo.
The manufacturer also make cables for existing GPS that have serial output to be hook up to Nikon cameras, you can check their web site if you need any.
Below specification of the GN-1 Geotagger
For other Nikon
I only have the unit for a few hours, and testing few shots on it. Will write more as time goes by.
NoX
