The Nikon GP-1 is a GPS receiver that attaches straight to certain Nikon SLR cameras, and enables photographers to embed photo geotags (longitude and latitude data) onto pictures taken.
In the box is nothing too special – the receiver, cables to connect to the camera via 10-pin (D200, D300, D3 etc.) or the special accessory cable for the D90, and the usual paperwork. The receiver itself is an lightweight plastic module that can be attached to your hotshoe or the strap with the supplied camera strap attachment. There is also a mini USB port on the dongle so you can attach your computer directly to the dongle, and an extra port designed for a remote trigger (MC-DC2).
We took the GP-1 for a spin over at a local ski mountain, and it fared quite well. A cold start (boot time from extended off) took no longer than 30 seconds, a hot start in 3 seconds. It also geotagged data directly on the picture with no hiccups – easy. See the results on the Flickr map of the day’s shots.
Weaknesses of the GP-1 are few but annoying. For example, GPS data is only recorded when the light is either blinking or solid green. This means that when you move indoors, it expectedly loses signal, but it would be nice if the GP-1 retained and used the last recorded GPS for tagging.
Another weakness is the relatively slow timing of the hot start, coupled with weighing whether or not you will keep the GPS always-on, or on-only-when-camera-is-active. If you decide to use the latter power setting, the GP-1 stops recording GPS data a few seconds after the shutter button is released. This means that if you casually put your camera down between spontaneous shots, you risk not recording GPS data since a hot start takes at least 3 seconds. The only way to compensate is to leave the GPS configured to always-on, meaning you have to be more cognisent when moving from session to session, turning the camera on and off between lulls in action. Obviously there is a battery performance hit, but the drain wasn’t significant.
Overall I am pleased with the Nikon GP-1. The near $300 CAD price tag may scare most hobbyists away, but it’s a step up from merging external track data or worse, manual tagging.