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This unit has two very good features, but several bad ones.
The Good:
When connected to a Canon 5D III or 1DX, it will put the GPS info in the camera file directly without any other software needed.
The unit can be set up to keep the camera clock accurate. It is important that the GPS and camera have the same time if the GPS data for the image is to be accurate.
The Bad:
1. The accuracy isn't as good as hand held GPS units like the Garmin GPSmap 76CSx.
2. The unit can create a track log, but the only way to see it is to use the included software. That software can show the track or the location of the images, but not at the same time. You must switch back and forth between the two. For me, that is unacceptable.
3. The unit can't be seen by a computer, and the software doesn't allow for any export of the track log, except in a Goggle Earth format.
4. When track log files are uploaded to the software, they are stored in a place of Canon's choosing, and it is a pain to find them. The files are stored as NMEA 0183 sentence and it should be possible to convert them to GPX, etc. with an application like GPSBable.
The problem here is that the NMEA 0183 files are defective and can't be converted with normal conversion software because the files have a token saying that the file is corrupt.
I use the Map Module in Lighroom 4.1 which requires that the track log files be in GPX format. That means I can't use this unit and display a track. Because of these problems, I am returning the unit as I write this.
Wil
Edit
Time went, and the bird flew, and a miracle has happened for the GP-E2 and Lightroom, or any other application that needs proper track log files. Here's the story.
1. The GP-E2 can create track log files in the unit itself. The supplied Map Utility application must be used to gain access to anything in the GP-E2. That includes generating a track log file on the computer. It writes that log file to Documents>My Documents>Canon Utilities>GPS Log Files in Windows. It does that very well.
2. The GP-E2 specs indicate that the files are NMEA 0183 sentences, and they do look like such files, but there is a huge problem. Each track location is marked as invalid by the Map Utility application and renders these files useless in any application except Map Utility.
3. Lightroom and many other photo applications require a different kind of file. Lightroom requires a GPX file so the GP-E2 log files can't be used in Lightroom, even if they were proper NMEA 0183 files.
4. The universal application to convert such files to other formats is GPSBable. Just use GPSBable to convert GP-E2 NMEA 0183 files to GPX files and use them in Lighroom. GPSBable would convert the files just fine, but the problem was that only the header and end portion of the file got converted because each of the GP-E2 track positions are marked as invalid and GPSBable honored that tag.
5. Along with me, at least one other person contacted the author of GPSBable about this problem. In about two weeks, he produced an updated version of GPSBable that worked around this issue, and now GPSBable will convert the corrupted GP-E2 NMEA 0183 files to any of the many other formats supported by GPSBable. This is truly remarkable work.
6. Before GPSBable fixed the problem, the only way I could compare the tracks created by the GP-E2 and my Garmin GPSmap 76CSX was to view the GP-E2 track in Map Utility and the track created with my 76CSX in Lightroom. The Lightroom tracks from the 76CSX were always the most accurate.
7. Now I can view the converted GP-E2 tracks in Lightroom and they seem to be identical to the ones generated with my 76CSX. The photo locations have always been "GPS accurate," indicating that the GP-E2 is a good GPS.
8. GPS accuracy is determined by the number of satellites used, the quality of the computing of the location from that satellite info, and the time interval of the readings. For best accuracy, set the time interval to one second. With that setting, it is easy to see that the track is accurate between +/-10 ft. and +/-20 ft. With civilian GPS you can't get closer than that.
9. With the work done by GPSBable, my rating of this unit increases to 4 stars. It would be 5 stars if the GP-E2 generated proper GPX files in the first place. If you have a Canon camera that this unit works on, I highly recommend it, if you follow what is in this edited review.
Wil
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