5DIV: Very high Battery consumption when using GPS

[Mt Spokane Photography]

I've seen untold numbers of posts demanding GPS. When they get it, they are unhappy and did not know there was a price to pay, that being battery life.

There are good arguments for having GPS, but one has to be willing to take a hit on battery life.

 

[pwp]

GPS is a major power suck on most any electronic device...

Doesn't seem to hit my iPhone too hard. How is it with other GPS enabled cameras? There will always be a power usage penalty, but this sounds extreme. Something that a firmware update may address?

-pw

 

[CSD]

GPS is a major power suck on most any electronic device...

Doesn't seem to hit my iPhone too hard. How is it with other GPS enabled cameras? There will always be a power usage penalty, but this sounds extreme. Something that a firmware update may address?

-pw

Mobile phones use a wide range of tricks to mitigate the power usage of GPS the biggest one is A-GPS where it uses the telecom towers to triangulate the phone. They also keep a database of satellites in memory to pre-determine which ones to try and lock on to. There are other tricks that MS can use server side triangulation not sure if Apple or Google does this to reduce processor load. A good way to determine how much battery life of a GPS is switch on a SatNav app, that will kill any battery and usually max out the processor. That's also partially due to the display but you can disable that in some apps.

 

[xps]

Thankls for all replies.
Just Contacted Canon support, seems to be an hardware problem. Has to be sent to CPS.
The technican told me that GPS is not an full working Gps system, so I do not have to expect wonders....

 

[kaihp]

GPS is a major power suck on most any electronic device...

Doesn't seem to hit my iPhone too hard. How is it with other GPS enabled cameras? There will always be a power usage penalty, but this sounds extreme. Something that a firmware update may address?

-pw

Mobile phones use a wide range of tricks to mitigate the power usage of GPS the biggest one is A-GPS where it uses the telecom towers to triangulate the phone. They also keep a database of satellites in memory to pre-determine which ones to try and lock on to. There are other tricks that MS can use server side triangulation not sure if Apple or Google does this to reduce processor load. A good way to determine how much battery life of a GPS is switch on a SatNav app, that will kill any battery and usually max out the processor. That's also partially due to the display but you can disable that in some apps.

Triangulation on cell-towers and GPS positions for known wifis.
Like TeT and others write, "real" GPS is a power-hog - think around 30mA while tracking, more when acquiring the location.

 

[LordofTackle]

Perhaps I am just missing something (quite possibly) but don't photographers know where they are? Or were?

Well, sure I usually know where I am and where I was, but GPS can be useful sometimes
For example, I've shot several hundred pictures at the Grand Canyon and the Bryce Canyon last year...but it became very difficult later on, to determine at which point exactly a picture was taken...so here GPS would have been very helpful for me

 

[IglooEater]

Perhaps I am just missing something (quite possibly) but don't photographers know where they are? Or were?

Well, sure I usually know where I am and where I was, but GPS can be useful sometimes
For example, I've shot several hundred pictures at the Grand Canyon and the Bryce Canyon last year...but it became very difficult later on, to determine at which point exactly a picture was taken...so here GPS would have been very helpful for me

Hmm that's annoying, gps could have helped you there indeed. However Date and time are built into exif data and that should solve the puzzle by and large.

 

[weixing]

Perhaps I am just missing something (quite possibly) but don't photographers know where they are? Or were?

Well, sure I usually know where I am and where I was, but GPS can be useful sometimes
For example, I've shot several hundred pictures at the Grand Canyon and the Bryce Canyon last year...but it became very difficult later on, to determine at which point exactly a picture was taken...so here GPS would have been very helpful for me

Hi,
An external GPS is more accurate and consistent, such as the garmin etrex series GPS. Then before you import to lightroom, use the GeoSetter to embed the GPS info into the RAW files.

Have a nice day.

 

[Old Sarge]

Perhaps I am just missing something (quite possibly) but don't photographers know where they are? Or were?

Well, sure I usually know where I am and where I was, but GPS can be useful sometimes
For example, I've shot several hundred pictures at the Grand Canyon and the Bryce Canyon last year...but it became very difficult later on, to determine at which point exactly a picture was taken...so here GPS would have been very helpful for me

Like you, I usually know where I am.....but at my age remembering where I was can be more problematical.

Hi xps.
I found the first lock on my 7DII took ages, and does again if I move by considerable distances (hundreds of miles) before turning it on. Also the battery disappears fast when it can't get a lock, but day to day re acquisition only takes a couple of minutes. There is one thing I have found that appears to hinder signal lock and that is carrying the camera on a sling strap by the tripod mount screw, i.e. upside down, in this condition it won't get gps lock and hammers the battery, turn it right way up and let it lock on and then let it dangle and it stays locked on!
If the GPS stays flashing when you set it to off in the menu that would seem to indicate a problem.

Hopefully Canon will do a firmware update adding a mode 2 off condition to the other GPS enabled cameras like the 6D and 7DII so that we don't have to keep going to menus to enable disable GPS.

Cheers, Graham.

An as usual Graham, you have a great idea. I wish they would do a firmware update adding that ability. Might help me with that memory problem I mentioned....I did mention it didn't I....earlier.

 

[LordofTackle]

Perhaps I am just missing something (quite possibly) but don't photographers know where they are? Or were?

Well, sure I usually know where I am and where I was, but GPS can be useful sometimes
For example, I've shot several hundred pictures at the Grand Canyon and the Bryce Canyon last year...but it became very difficult later on, to determine at which point exactly a picture was taken...so here GPS would have been very helpful for me

Hmm that's annoying, gps could have helped you there indeed. However Date and time are built into exif data and that should solve the puzzle by and large.

In most cases that would be enough, indeed. However, in that case we travelled all the vista points on the south rim of the GG and I had a really hard time to identify which photo was taken at what point. In the end, I had to go to google maps and compare pictures from the respective points with my own pictures. :-[

 

[LordofTackle]

Perhaps I am just missing something (quite possibly) but don't photographers know where they are? Or were?

Well, sure I usually know where I am and where I was, but GPS can be useful sometimes
For example, I've shot several hundred pictures at the Grand Canyon and the Bryce Canyon last year...but it became very difficult later on, to determine at which point exactly a picture was taken...so here GPS would have been very helpful for me

Hi,
An external GPS is more accurate and consistent, such as the garmin etrex series GPS. Then before you import to lightroom, use the GeoSetter to embed the GPS info into the RAW files.

Have a nice day.

Hi Weixing,

yes that would be a possible solution.
However, most of the time, as others pointed out, it is sufficient for me to look at the time and to know where in general I have been. Also, I don't really want to carry around another item, additionally to all the photo and hiking stuff. (I know, it would be rather light, but still..).

Now I have the 1DXII and have the possibility to use GPS when I need it.
(most of the time it's off though, as it sucks to much power for my liking)

Cheers,
Sebastian

 

[Deleted member 91053]

Perhaps I am just missing something (quite possibly) but don't photographers know where they are? Or were?

Well, sure I usually know where I am and where I was, but GPS can be useful sometimes
For example, I've shot several hundred pictures at the Grand Canyon and the Bryce Canyon last year...but it became very difficult later on, to determine at which point exactly a picture was taken...so here GPS would have been very helpful for me

Thanks I see your point. We don't have things like the Grand Canyon over here so it hasn't been an issue for me, but now I could see a use for it somewhere like that.

 

[xps]

Got my 5D IV back from repair center.
GPS works. Found the position after 1 min.

Maybe Sony offers more inventions and is better in a lot of specs. BUT: Fixing my cam took just a few days (thanks CPS Gold), Sony took a lot of weeks and did not solve my problems....
This is why I stay with Canon

 

[LordofTackle]

Got my 5D IV back from repair center.
GPS works. Found the position after 1 min.

Maybe Sony offers more inventions and is better in a lot of specs. BUT: Fixing my cam took just a few days (thanks CPS Gold), Sony took a lot of weeks and did not solve my problems....
This is why I stay with Canon

Nice to hear that they solved your problem
CPS Germany?

 

[Luds34]

Got my 5D IV back from repair center.
GPS works. Found the position after 1 min.

Maybe Sony offers more inventions and is better in a lot of specs. BUT: Fixing my cam took just a few days (thanks CPS Gold), Sony took a lot of weeks and did not solve my problems....
This is why I stay with Canon

Awesome, glad to see you got it fixed!

I just want to throw in my 2 cents on GPS. Generally speaking I don't really use it. Sure I leave it on, and it's kind of a "nice to have". However, the last couple years I've taken the 6D on my canoe trips into the Boundary Waters Canoe Area that borders the US and Canada. I can tell you the GPS is an awesome tool to help document the trip, the various places we made camp, the portages we crossed, the lakes we visited, etc. In short, it's a great tool to help document your trip with not only pictures, but locations as you're moving through the wilderness.

 

[xps]

Got my 5D IV back from repair center.
GPS works. Found the position after 1 min.

Maybe Sony offers more inventions and is better in a lot of specs. BUT: Fixing my cam took just a few days (thanks CPS Gold), Sony took a lot of weeks and did not solve my problems....
This is why I stay with Canon

Nice to hear that they solved your problem
CPS Germany?

Yes, CPS partner in Berlin

 

[xps]

Got my 5D IV back from repair center.
GPS works. Found the position after 1 min.

Maybe Sony offers more inventions and is better in a lot of specs. BUT: Fixing my cam took just a few days (thanks CPS Gold), Sony took a lot of weeks and did not solve my problems....
This is why I stay with Canon

Awesome, glad to see you got it fixed!

I just want to throw in my 2 cents on GPS. Generally speaking I don't really use it. Sure I leave it on, and it's kind of a "nice to have". However, the last couple years I've taken the 6D on my canoe trips into the Boundary Waters Canoe Area that borders the US and Canada. I can tell you the GPS is an awesome tool to help document the trip, the various places we made camp, the portages we crossed, the lakes we visited, etc. In short, it's a great tool to help document your trip with not only pictures, but locations as you're moving through the wilderness.

I+1
And it is nice to add pictures to Google and other sites so that others can see, what it is looking like there

 

[LordofTackle]

Got my 5D IV back from repair center.
GPS works. Found the position after 1 min.

Maybe Sony offers more inventions and is better in a lot of specs. BUT: Fixing my cam took just a few days (thanks CPS Gold), Sony took a lot of weeks and did not solve my problems....
This is why I stay with Canon

Awesome, glad to see you got it fixed!

I just want to throw in my 2 cents on GPS. Generally speaking I don't really use it. Sure I leave it on, and it's kind of a "nice to have". However, the last couple years I've taken the 6D on my canoe trips into the Boundary Waters Canoe Area that borders the US and Canada. I can tell you the GPS is an awesome tool to help document the trip, the various places we made camp, the portages we crossed, the lakes we visited, etc. In short, it's a great tool to help document your trip with not only pictures, but locations as you're moving through the wilderness.

I+1
And it is nice to add pictures to Google and other sites so that others can see, what it is looking like there

That's how I "reverse-engineered" the exact location of some of my photos

 

[jeffa4444]

I mainly use the GPS on my 6D when shooting in wilderness areas so I know what the landmarks were at a later date, such as the Tors on Dartmoor. For all other locations I leave it off after all if your shooting scenes at Hadrians Villa for instance you know where you are!