6D's Wifi Drain on Battery (?)

[Marsu42]

EDIT~ As an update to my original post, apparently there is a well-documented issue with the Tamron 24-70/2.8 and the newer Canon bodies, like the T4i and 6D, where the lens drains the battery even if the camera is off.

Doh - that's disappointing, but newer Canon bodies showing strange problems with 3rd party gear is somehow not unusual ...

... BUT the good news is that as far as other forum posts say Tamron is aware of this fact, newer 24-70 versions with serial numbers 002xxx+ don't show this behavior and Tamron replaces lenses if there's a problem with the 6d - that's 6 years warranty and good customer service for you.

 

[wellfedCanuck]

I usually disable wifi, enabling it only when I'm using my phone to remote-shoot or email images. Same for the GPS. Also, I have the tracklog set to 5 minutes- unless you're shooting from a moving vehicle- you don't need anything with more update frequency- you can't move around fast enough on foot to make a signficant difference to your track position.

If I forget to disable the GPS I'll lose a half-charge over 2 days with the camera switched off. The GPS will continue to update which they should fix with firmware. Why track-log if the camera is shut off? This doesn't make sense unless you're using a Lojack-type where-the-hell-is-my-camera system...

 

[Marsu42]

you don't need anything with more update frequency- you can't move around fast enough on foot to make a signficant difference to your track position.

I've been carrying around a small gps logger with my 60d for years now, and I'd tend to disagree - when doing documentary shots it can be very important to see where exactly you were standing, and I can move a lot in 5 minutes, even in 1 minute. But on the bright side, the gps drain on the 6d battery seems to be lower than I feared when I first read about this feature.

 

[wellfedCanuck]

you don't need anything with more update frequency- you can't move around fast enough on foot to make a signficant difference to your track position.

I've been carrying around a small gps logger with my 60d for years now, and I'd tend to disagree - when doing documentary shots it can be very important to see where exactly you were standing,

Interesting. Ordinary GPS is seldom accurate enough to get you within 30 feet, I would have thought that'd be good enough for most photographers. If you're talking accurate camera-shot line-ups- GPS ain't gonna get you there without survey-grade enhancement.

 

[Marsu42]

If you're talking accurate camera-shot line-ups- GPS ain't gonna get you there without survey-grade enhancement.

That's correct, 10m (or less on signal reflection/occlusion) is about the precision of my gps unit and it's certainly not usable for professional surveys - but my point is that I can move 10m in 5 minutes, so the low battery drain in this scenario wouldn't be realistic for me since I'd have to set a faster update interval.

 

[Don Haines]

you don't need anything with more update frequency- you can't move around fast enough on foot to make a signficant difference to your track position.

I've been carrying around a small gps logger with my 60d for years now, and I'd tend to disagree - when doing documentary shots it can be very important to see where exactly you were standing,

Interesting. Ordinary GPS is seldom accurate enough to get you within 30 feet, I would have thought that'd be good enough for most photographers. If you're talking accurate camera-shot line-ups- GPS ain't gonna get you there without survey-grade enhancement.

GPS accuracy is highly dependant on the number of satelites visible in the sky.... best case accuracy for commercial handheld is 2 meters X-Y plane and about 10 meters vertically. Some of the satellites are in polar orbits and some in geosynchronous orbit, plus a bunch of fairly recent LEO's (LEO is Low Earth Orbit, just added two more into the tracking system at work on Thursday). All of the recently launched SARSATs (Search And Rescue SATelites) are also GPS transmitters. Depending on when and where you are, you can see as many as 30 in the sky or in some cases (deep valleys, north side of mountain at high lattitude) you might only see them intermittently. I'm at roughly 46 degrees north and we have five fixed dishes tracking geosynchronous satellites ( all less than 25 degrees above horizon) and eight dishes tracking the moving orbits.... some passes last for three or four hours, some for just a few minutes. In other words, the number of satellites you can see is constantly changing and so is the accuracy of your GPS unit.

Your signal strength is affected by heavy cloud cover (thunderstorms and the like), foliage, buildings, and electromagnetic noise. When using portable GPS in an urban setting it is not unusual to only see two or three satellites, yet 10 meters away you can see six or seven. With just 3 or 4 satellites visible your X Y accuracy can fall to 40 meters and Z location MAY be indeterminate.

There is a good article on GPS at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GPS_signals

 

[Don Haines]

Sadly, that was to be expected - the gps feature probably is just a gimmick because they've got a combined wifi/gps chip, and the gps doesn't even record the camera direction.

GPS gives you position, but not direction. When you are moving, the unit can say "I was there and now I am here" and calculate from that the speed and direction you are moving, but it still will not be able to tell you which way the camera is pointing.

The direction the device is pointing usually comes from sensing the direction of the earth's magnetic field and gives you a direction based on magnetic north. Better devices, particularly those that know location, apply a magnetic declination value to the sensor and calculate a direction based on true north. The best devices also use accelerometers and inclinometers to give you a more accurate direction, plus angle.

 

[Marsu42]

The direction the device is pointing usually comes from sensing the direction of the earth's magnetic field and gives you a direction based on magnetic north.

I know, but since Canon's external gps unit contains an electronic compass I don't think it would have been impossible to also put it into the 6d camera - they managed to squeeze in gps and wifi after all... just the location information simply is underwhelming to me since imho an external logger is better for this.

 

[Don Haines]

I know, but since Canon's external gps unit contains an electronic compass I don't think it would have been impossible to also put it into the 6d camera - they managed to squeeze in gps and wifi after all... just the location information simply is underwhelming to me since imho an external logger is better for this.

I never cease to be amazed at what features get included and which are left out..... And not just with Canon.