NaviGadget

ATP GPS PhotoFinder Mini Review

Feb 2, 2009 gps navigation, reviews, tracking

Have you ever looked through old photos and wondered, “Where did I take this picture again?” If the answer is yes, then allow me to introduce you to the GPS PhotoFinder mini, the latest geotagging gadget from ATP Electronics. This handy little device will record your GPS position and with the help of a standalone docking station, add it to the image’s EXIF metadata. No need to remember where you shot that photo. After matching the GPS coordinates to the photo’s date and time stamp, your pictures can then be copied from the memory card to a PC and used with a geotagging compatible website such as Flickr. The PhotoFinder mini can also create ‘KML’ route files that are exportable to Google Maps and Google Earth – no computer required.

Click on ‘read’ for the rest of this extensive review:

In the box, the PhotoFinder mini includes the following:

• PhotoFinder mini GPS receiver
• Multi-function docking station
• AC adapter (European plug-type)
• User manuals (printed and CD)

And these are the official hardware specifications:

• Chipset: SiRF Star III
• Channels: 20
• Sensitivity (Tracking): -155 dBm
• Reacquisition: 0.1 sec (typical)
• Maximum altitude: 18000 m (~59,055 ft)
• Maximum velocity: 514 m/s (~1149 mph)
• GPS Frequency Response: 1575.42 MHz (L1 Band, C/A code)
• Operating Time: 16+ hours
• Memory card: 128MB MMC Micro memory card
• Dimensions: 35 x 24 x 60 mm (~ 1.4 x 0.95 x 2.4 in)

The PhotoFinder mini is a compact, plastic fob with an attached carabiner. It fits comfortably in a pants pocket, but I really like the ability to clip it in and not worry about it. The build quality is pretty solid but it does feel toy-like and not nearly as nice as the Qstarz BT-Q1300 that my colleague, Gautam, reviewed. The black casing seemed to attract a lot of scratches during its use.

A rubber flap on the end covers the mini-USB port and MMC micro memory card slot. It likes to fall out a lot, but no big deal. For the memory card, I appreciate that ATP went tiny with the form factor. However, I wish they would have used a more readily available solution. A quick search on Amazon.com for “mmc memory card” returned a result of “Did you mean: sd memory card”.

The mini-USB port is used to charge the unit via AC adapter or to connect it to the docking station.

There is only one button on the fob: an on/off switch. It doesn’t get much simpler than that. After pressing it for a few seconds, the module will try to lock on a GPS signal and begin tracking your location. If you are in a building, then it may or may not work. Four LED lights indicate the status for power, GPS, and memory. Green means the mini is on or has completed charging. A flashing blue means that a GPS signal is active. Orange means that the memory card is full and red means that the unit is charging. My demo unit always acquired a signal within a minute or two.

Once the PhotoFinder mini is turned on, you only to set the date and time on your camera and carry the device around with you. Making sure the correct date and time on your camera is very important (more on this later in the review). The device will log ~1000 hours of GPS data at 10 second intervals. After you return home, you plug the PhotoFinder mini into the docking station to begin geotagging your photos.

The docking station has a small backlit LCD screen and four buttons to navigate the menu options. The PhotoFinder mini plugs in at the top and can be charged via the dock. Your camera’s memory cards plug into the side reader slots. The dock can read SD, MMC, Memory Stick, and CompactFlash. A USB cable for linking to a computer is neatly tucked away underneath. Only the AC adapter can power the dock. The option to use USB for power would have been a nice option, though.

The process to geotag your photos is very straightforward. After connecting the PhotoFinder mini to the dock and inserting your camera’s memory card, you only need to press the Sync button. You can also cycle through the menu options using the Mode button and select “Mapping GPS Data”. The dock will then check the memory card in the GPS device and the memory card in the reader slot.

When it verifies that both exist, it prompts you for the “Time Zone Select”. Your correct time zone is set in relation to your offset from GMT. This will be the time zone that your pictures were taken in. I didn’t know this offhand so I had to Google it. By the time I had figured this out, the screen had timed out (~10 seconds) and selected “GMT+0” in the process. Fortunately, it did not begin geotagging my photos and instead displayed the number of files to process GPS data for. I could then cancel out from this screen and correctly enter the GMT offset. I’m not sure why ATP has a time out on the “Time Zone Select” screen, especially given how important this step is, but at least it does ask for user input one last time.

When the dock begins the process of geotagging your photos, be prepared to wait. It took ~32 minutes to tag 79 pictures. I’m not sure if image resolution affects the processing time, but regardless, who wants to take low resolution pictures just to save probably a couple minutes? In all honesty, though, I didn’t find the waiting time to be too inconvenient. I could plug in my memory card and go off to do other things. Sure a computer can geotag much faster, but the simplicity of the dock is tough to beat. When it completes, a message displays telling you how many pictures it tagged successfully and unsuccessfully.

I’d also like to note that the dock was recognized as a memory card reader on my Mac and PC. This is not really a selling point but it’s nice to have that ability. On the other hand, the docking screen will remain on the entire time.

I did notice two things that disappointed me, although neither is really the fault of ATP. I thought they were worth mentioning, however.

The first is that the PhotoFinder mini can only geotag JPG files and cannot geotag RAW images. The RAW file format is proprietary to each camera manufacturer so it would be difficult to include this support in a 3rd party application such as the PhotoFinder mini. This limitation likely only affects serious photography amateurs and professionals but not a majority of digital camera users. I consider myself in the former category so I was a little bummed out. Even after I converted a few RAW images to JPGs, the dock would still not geotag the photos. In fact, it actually wiped out most of the EXIF data. Doh! A (poor) solution I found was to shoot in RAW+JPG mode. This somewhat defeats the purpose of the product since I end up deleting the
JPGs anyways.

Second, as I mentioned earlier, is the importance of correctly setting the date and time on your camera before using the PhotoFinder mini. When I travel across time zones, I am terrible at remembering this. If the timestamp of your photo does not match the GPS track log, then either (A) your photos may be incorrectly geotagged or (B) your photos will not be tagged at all. Hopefully, you end up with option B. I purposely experimented with option A and I was unable to replace the incorrect GPS data written to the EXIF. Getting it right the first time will save you the headache of remembering what time zone your camera was set to when you took that photo.

Finally, the PhotoFinder mini dock also has the ability to create ‘KML’ files from the GPS track log. These files are importable into applications such Google Maps or Google Earth. Once imported, they allow you to visually trace the route you’ve traveled with the PhotoFinder mini. It’s a pretty cool feature but it left me wanting more. For example, I tried to use the on/off button on the fob to create separate trip routes. Sadly, this didn’t work and I ended up with an awful mess of mixed up paths. I did manage to capture a better example seen below.

In summary, I think the PhotoFinder mini is a useful product that does a good job handling what it’s supposed to do – helping you to remember where you took that photo. It is certainly not a perfect product but I was impressed nonetheless. The setup is straightforward and I’m not sure it can get any easier to use. The idea of a standalone dock is a good one and sets it apart from similar products that I’ve seen, but ATP needs to speed up its geotagging mapping process.

-Albert Lim