SL2 and GPS tagging

[Simone_DF]

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10 hours ago, hotshew said:

Spoken like an SDE living in an ivory tower. OS vendors break apps all the time despite their best intentions by documenting breaking changes and rolling out developer previews. Even small changes can break things in very unexpected ways -- happens all the time. Getting an app out, like Fotos, is relatively easy but keeping it current takes serious commitment ($$$).

Oh yes, companies break apps all the time - been there, done that! But they also fix the most glaring issues. Leica's app never worked from day 1. We are now at the 3.1 release and it's still broken af. 

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Unlike app examples listed, Fotos must proxy location to camera in real-time to be effective -- much more complex than running in background and polling location services at regular intervals for local app consumption only.

No, I disagree. My Ricoh GRIII doesn't have this issue. In 4 months of use, all my photos have GPS tagging via the Ricoh app. If Ricoh can do it, then Leica should be able to do it too, especially since the Ricoh is 900€, not 6500. 

There are also workarounds to inconsistent bluetooth connection on the camera hardware side. Third party apps like Geotag photo tracker above, they cache your position on your mobile device and sync it based on the timestamp on your photos.

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I suspect Leica is aware of the geotagging issue and are working on it, but they'll be chasing their tails for as long as they're married to the idea of proxying via Fotos instead of putting a dedicated GPS receiver back into their cameras. My guess is the majority of engineers at Leica know the Fotos approach is a terrible design choice, but the emperor has no cloths, and we'll need to wait for a leadership change before can expect a reversal.

We won't see a GPS receiver anytime soon. Leica even removed it from the new M11 EVF. It's an additional piece of hardware (cost) and the even though GPS modules are small, they still occupy precious space.

[laowai_]

6 hours ago, Simone_DF said:

 It's an additional piece of hardware (cost) and the even though GPS modules are small, they still occupy precious space.

In addition you need to deal with interference (WiFi, Bluetooth, fast processors/readout speed, every little stub becomes an antenna) not to mention power consumption.

Obviously this can be done. Modern phones have many more radios. But they don’t deal with electro-mechanics. Mechanical shutter, stepper motors/BLDCs and associated inverters/drivers can be a real challenge to deal with. 
Moving some of the radios to an external device is a sound decision. 
 

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[Simone_DF]

3 hours ago, laowai_ said:

Obviously this can be done. Modern phones have many more radios.

Yes, but apart from the issues you highlight above, modern phones are sold by hundred of millions of units per year. Companies have good reasons to invest for this kind of hardware optimization. Camera manufacturers do not.

[beewee]

6 hours ago, laowai_ said:

In addition you need to deal with interference (WiFi, Bluetooth, fast processors/readout speed, every little stub becomes an antenna) not to mention power consumption.

Mitigating interference literally requires 1 filter capacitor on the RF circuit. Trust me, it’s not rocket science. I’ve designed such circuit myself and it was for GPS with other radios operating nearby.

I’m not suggesting we go back to having GPS receivers on the camera. I do strongly believe that leveraging the sensor fusion capabilities on an iPhone is the way to go but it requires making the system as a whole - including the BLE radio on the camera - work seamlessly. This is where Leica totally shanked it.

[hotshew]

Just want to say I recently picked up a Z9 and it's very nice to have a camera with built-in GPS that just works, all the time. Seems to also work in conjunction w/ SnapBridge because getting location when indoors. Not a single photo yet -- indoors or outdoors w/o accurate GPS tagging.

On 2/21/2022 at 3:43 PM, beewee said:

I’m not suggesting we go back to having GPS receivers on the camera. I do strongly believe that leveraging the sensor fusion capabilities on an iPhone is the way to go ...

I disagree for a camera at SL2's price point for reasons previously stated and, again, there's a reason Canon and Nikon include built-in GPS on their flagship cameras even though they have smartphone app solution similar to SL2 for their lower end cameras. Their flagship cameras are less expensive than SL2 btw. I think Leica can do better in this department.

Edited March 8, 2022 by hotshew