p.3 #1 · Will Canon ever release a successor to the GPS Receiver GP-E2?
lsquare wrote:
What do you mean by neither? I usually set my cameras to UTC and I want a reliable way to sync the time to keep it as accurate as possible.
Sure and I'm not against it, but please make a GP-E3 at a minimum!
The GP-E2 will synch the R5 II time clock exactly to the GPS satellites, but you need to set the time zone manually as Stan says. You can find a used GP-E2 at reasonable cost, especially cheaper if it has no cable or case. It works with the R5, R7, R5 II and presumably most of the similar cameras that have a traditional Canon hot shoe.
p.3 #3 · Will Canon ever release a successor to the GPS Receiver GP-E2?
stanj wrote:
Neither the GPS gadget nor the Canon connect app will set your camera to UTC. Therefore, neither is faster. That's how the question was phrased. Sorry if that wasn't your intent.
p.3 #4 · Will Canon ever release a successor to the GPS Receiver GP-E2?
lsquare wrote:
That's not what EB-1 is saying.
And yet he said "...as Stan is saying," so I think we actually are saying the same. The GPS will not set your time zone to UTC. You have to do that by hand.
p.3 #5 · Will Canon ever release a successor to the GPS Receiver GP-E2?
stanj wrote:
And yet he said "...as Stan is saying," so I think we actually are saying the same. The GPS will not set your time zone to UTC. You have to do that by hand.
p.3 #6 · Will Canon ever release a successor to the GPS Receiver GP-E2?
lsquare wrote:
Last I checked, GPS time is UTC.
Even though it's a common misconception, GPS time is not the same as UTC. For our purposes here it doesn't really matter though, but I'll explain later.
Due to the differences between actual time and human perception of both date as well as time time many modern computer systems internally use something similar to UTC. Things like timezones and daylight savings time are applied when it's needed for humans. That helps to avoid some (but not all) pitfalls that exist b/c we humans still use ancient and messy concepts of time, date and calendars that became almost impossible to change nowadays.
I don't know if Canon does this with their camera firmware. However, the effect that GPS time info has with Canon's cameras (at least since the GP-E2 was introduced in 2012) is that it adjusts the internal clock. The date/time the camera displays is based on the timezone and DST settings of that camera. The same TZ/DST adjusted date and time is also used for certain EXIF fields, such as DateTime or DateTimeOriginal.
But there's more in EXIF. Canon adds the timezone and DST settings at the time the image was created in vendor proprietary EXIF fields ("maker notes") since at least 2012 (5D Mark III).
Data of GPS position fixes including date & time, have been part of EXIF versions 2.0/2.2 and Canon has been adding that to images since at least the 5D Mark III.
A quick note: The GPS time in EXIF does NOT represent the time the image was taken but the the last time a valid GPS position fix was obtained by the camera. If the position fix was recorded 5 minutes before the image was taken, then that time will be in the GPS Date/Time EXIF fields.
In 2016 the EXIF 2.31 introduced introduced EXIF fields to record the UTC offset used by the camera. Don't remember when exactly, but that got added to the 5D Mark IV and 5Ds via a firmware update at some point.
About that remark I made earlier that GPS time is not UTC - a simplified explanation:
Since 1972 UTC includes leap seconds by definition. A lot of (most?) software is ignorant of leap seconds. So whatever is presented as UTC might or might not be actual UTC.
The atomic clocks in GPS satellites just counts time. Actual "GPS Time" starts on 1980-01-06T00:00:00Z and only at that time GPS time is actual UTC.
Now, independent of "GPS time", the messages that GPS satellites send down to earth also include information that allows GPS receivers to relate GPS time to UTC. The NMEA protocol standard often used to communicate with GPS/GNSS receivers uses that to provide actual UTC time in addition to GPS Time to software using it.
I'm in no position to do a professional or even scientific review, but I could probably find a way to show my two GPS tracks I recorded at Walnut Canyon National Monument shown on a map at full map-zoom and post screenshots here. I had both the Canon GPS as well as the P-10 Pro running at the time. The camera around my neck, so the flat patch antenna of the camera was facing the sky while the P-10 Pro was either in the side pockets of my cargo shorts facing sideways.
Can also send you the log files if you want to have a look.
Does it lock into all constellations simultaneously or use one at a time?
That's a good question. Of the three multi-band & multi-constellation chipsets I'm aware of (Broadcom BCM47755, u-blox F9P, Septentrio mosaic-X5) none seem to make an explicit statement. U-blox has a *lot* of information on their chipsets, so I might have missed something. Broadcom seems particularly tight lipped, at least when it comes to publicly available information. For the 47755 they make a statement about simultaneously receiving the signals, but that does not necessarily mean they're all tracked and used to calculate the position.
Also worth remembering: there are only 4 global(!) GNSS systems at the moment: GPS, GLONASS (Russia), Beidou (China) and Galileo (European Union). The other GNSSes are not global or rather just augmentation for other systems.
My understanding of the topic is that the biggest gains in terms of accuracy and reliability comes from using two bands. The Broadcom chip supposedly used by the P-10 Pro supports two bands only for GPS and Galileo as well as GZSS. The latter seems to be essentially an SBAS to GPS.
Can it record at 1 Hz and output it in a GPX format?
I'm logging at 1 Hz in NMEA format because, like with my photos, I usually want the "rawest" format possible. Converting the NMEA files to GPX is quick & easy when needed. The logger supposedly is able to log at 5 Hz as well, but I've never tested that as I don't need that for photography use-case.
I'm reading that it can also record heading/directional information?
As far as I'm aware it doesn't have a compass built in, so the heading information is likely to be calculated based on the current and the previous position. Which means it won't be of much use or reliable when standing relatively still and just turning around. Over all those years I only came across one (long discontinued) GPS logger that had a compass and logged that data (in a propriety NMEA statement) as well. Wasn't fun to deal with to say the least.
Too bad the unit doesn't use USB-C!
Indeed. But then, I got mine in 2021, USB-C was still relatively rare at the time. Got some other (non GPS) devices from back then that use USB-C ports to charge but don't support USB Power Delivery and they're a royal pain to use b/c normal USB-C cables often don't work at all.
p.3 #8 · Will Canon ever release a successor to the GPS Receiver GP-E2?
lsquare wrote:
Last I checked, GPS time is UTC.
I suspect the confusion is that he means the UTC offset rather than UTC. In any case the Canon GP-E2 sets the camera clock, but not the offset (time zone).
Of course the accuracy of the cheapie camera clocks are poor so whether the GPS time is exactly UTC doesn't matter much. Some of the Canons drift 5 seconds a week and others barely any. Averages that I find are about 2 seconds per week.
If you don't have the GPS mounted in the hotshoe all the time then it's important to have the camera clock fairly accurate to synch the images with the GPS track logs, whether the GP-E2 or other source.
p.3 #9 · Will Canon ever release a successor to the GPS Receiver GP-E2?
lsquare wrote:
Is it still possible to buy a brand-new GP-E2 in Japan? I don't know if it's believable or not, but I'm seeing new ones being sold by a seller from Japan. It's quite expensive, but new is new even though the product isn't fully compatible with RF cameras. If I can get one from a reputable store in Tokyo then I wouldn't mind picking one up later this year when I go back to Japan.
I scoured all the camera shops when I went to Singapore and India early this year and could not find any new ones. A few had used ones, but the prices were very high. I don't believe that you can buy one new, @lsquare. I was watching ebay for a while and all the offers were upwards of $350 for used. I pulled the trigger on one and the seller then informed me that I'll have to wait at least 45 days. When I pushed as to why, the answer was very iffy. I cancelled my order.
Just recently, there was an offer from Robert's Camera, Indiana. Used but was at $175. I bought that one.
