foolography

What is Geotagging?

Please see our dedicated page on this topic.

Who needs it? What is it good for?

Everyone needs it. Location metadata is just as important as the timestamp that we have all gotten used to and couldn't live without anymore. Metadata is vital for searching and sorting the ever-growing archives of digital photos. Geotagging is the way of adding location to the metadata. See details in our Uses Pages what you can do with geotagged files to find some good reasons for starting.

What makes foolography products better than the rest?

There are different levels to this answer:

1. Our products use direct geotagging. No more work at the computer - everything happens in-camera
2. The Unleashed is completely wireless. Using Bluetooth® technology this eliminates all wires and still keeps a direct connection to the camera. No more leash that tethered the camera to a GPS receiver.
3. The Unleashed is compatible with any Bluetooth® GPS receiver. Choose the cheapest or the best or the GPS receiver with the longest battery life. You can upgrade anytime you want.
4. Cool features such as remembering the last known position and more make the Unleashed the ultimate geotagging solution. See details here.

How does it compare to the Aoka AK-4NII?

First of all with the Unleashed you get the original. The Unleashed was developed by photographers for photographers - our competitors copied our idea. But, of course, that is not a real advantage in itself :-) Some differences are:

• Of course, there is the form and design factor. The Unleashed D200+ is half the size of the Aoka and does not disturb the photographer in any way. Thanks to its exact design the Unleashed fits the plug perfectly and there is no danger of falling off or losing the Unleashed.
• We have integrated a two color LED which communicates the current status of the Unleashed to the user (i.e. if the GPS receivers has lost its signal or ran out of battery)
• Our last-known position feature is smartly configured and flags pictures that were taken with old GPS coordinates. This way you can directly check those flagged pictures at home and correct the position if needed. Also the feature is limited to 30 minutes (will be user-configurable in the future) because in 30 minutes you can get pretty far and there is no use in tagging pictures with 45 minutes old GPS coordinates.
• The Unleashed responds very fast so that even the first picture taken is tagged with GPS data. This is possible because it always stores the last GPS data received and instantly sends it to the camera when pushing the trigger.
• We do real pairing: the Unleashed is only paired once with the GPS receiver, always remembers it even after battery exchange and does not connect with any other GPS receiver unless you pair them. This allows a very fast reestablishing of the Bluetooth connection and hinders the Unleashed to accidently connect itself to false Bluetooth® devices.
• Our firmware is updateable by the user and we always are open for suggestions by customers and try to integrate the suggestions whenever possible.
• The Unleashed is completely Made in Germany and the parts built in are of high quality.

Which GPS receivers are compatible?

Any GPS Receiver that outputs GPS Data via Bluetooth® using the NMEA Protocol. Basically this means any Bluetooth® GPS receiver currently on the market. Please also see our compatibility site.

Which GPS receivers do you know are not compatible?

Some Navigation Systems have some Bluetooth® capabilies but usually this is limited to strictly hands-free functionality in combination with mobile phones. Sadly they do not output the GPS data via Bluetooth® so they won't work with the Unleashed. Some popular examples are the Garmin nüvi® and zumo® series.

What about the MTK Chipset incompatibility?

The widely used MTK chipset is incompatible with Nikon DSLRs. Our Unleashed fixes this, and finally makes MTK based GPS Receivers compatible with Nikon. Since neither party wanted to fix it, we solved the issue in our firmware.

Which bluetooth GPS logger do you recommend to use with the Unleashed?

In general the Unleashed can be paired with any Bluetooth® enabled GPS receiver. The choice always depends on the purpose you want to use it for (rough weather conditions, fast moving objects...). We have made good experiences with Holux receivers and are currently selling the Holux M-1000C 4M and the Holux M-1200E. Both work with the latest MTKII chip. The M-1200E is smaller and has a POI-button. The M-1000C has the big advantage of exchangeable batteries which each last about 20 hours. And we have noticed a very good Bluetooth® reception with the M-1000C.

How much power does the Unleashed draw from the camera?

The Unleashed is designed to always stay on the camera. That is why we integrated smart power saving functions. While active and taking pictures the Unleashed D200+ draws 11.0 mA from the camera. After 15 minutes of inactivity the Bluetooth® connection is being disabled. It then only consumes 1.85 mA. After 45 minutes of inactivity the Unleashed goes into a deep sleep and only needs 0.066mA. This is so little energy, it would take several years before depleting the camera battery.

How can I purchase the Unleashed?

We sell and ship our Unleashed worldwide through our online shop.

What software do I need? Is it PC/Mac compatible?

None! Everything happens in-camera. That's the cool thing about direct geotagging - no more work needed at the computer.

How do I transfer money to you with PayPal using your email address?

For Paypal the procedure should be the following:

1. Log in to your paypal account:
2. Click on send money
3. Enter paypal@foolography.com as the recipient email address
4. Enter the total amount in EUR and change the currency to EUR
5. Choose Goods (other) or similar and optionally add a subject and notes
6. Click Continue
7. Just follow instructions from there on.

You can then choose the source of the funds, which can come from your paypal credit, bank account or credit card - whatever you want.

What info is actually written to the EXIF data?

Latitude, Longitude, Altitude, Date & time (UTC), number of satellites used to calculate position. It can also store the compass heading, but that requires a Bluetooth® GPS with compass and there is only one that we know of: the Wintec WBT-100, which has been discontinued for a few years now. It is also of limited use, since it's a 2D compass, meaning it must be held as horizontal as possible to give an accurate reading.

What happens with the rubber cover when using the Unleashed Dx000? Do you offer a replacement cover or would I have to consider cutting the cover out?

Using the D5000 and D3100 we have actually just taken it off entirely - if you pull on it slowly but firmly, it will come out - if you do so at an angle, it comes out undamaged, so you can always replace it if you want to. Some customers have chosen to cut a hole in it to keep the sealing effect. We do not have a replacement cover but might look into it in the future.
For the D7000 we did not come up with a satisfying solution yet. The rubber does not come off easily and we have not been able to test it properly. One of our customers solved the problem by cutting a whole in the rubber which still allows the Unleashed to connect with the port. Of course a destructive method is not the best solution and we will try to come up with something useful.

How do I get the Unleashed to talk with the GPS receiver?

The initial pairing is described in the instructions of each product. The instructions can be downloaded in English and German at www.foolography.com/support/unleashed. The pairing only needs to be done once at the beginning. From then on the Unleashed remains paired with the GPS receiver even if you change the batteries of the camera or GPS receiver.

Can I use the Unleashed to connect via Bluetooth to my computer instead of using a USB cable?

No, the Unleashed cannot be used to transfer data via Bluetooth® to your computer. It is designed to communicate only with GPS receivers.

Can I use one GPS receiver for two different Unleasheds at the same time?

No, you cannot use two Unleasheds with only one GPS receiver at the same time. However you can of course pair two or more Unleasheds with the same GPS receiver and use them separately. For example, you are using your D300s with your Unleashed D200+ and a Holux M-1200E. Now you want to change to your D90 with your Unleashed D90 plugged in which is paired to the same Holux M-1200E. Just unplug the Unleashed D200+ on your D300s wait for 30sec and then turn on your D90 with your Unleashed D90 plugged in. It will then connect to the M-1200E. Alternatively, instead of pulling out the Unleashed D200+, you can just pull out the battery on your D300s, wait for 30 sec and then turn on your D90 with your Unleashed D90 plugged in.

Does the Unleashed connect to the iPhone? Can I use the iPhone as GPS receiver?

In theory yes but in practice no since Apple won’t allow direct access to the Bluetooth interface for developers. Any hardware that wants to communicate with the iPhone needs a special chip which is not yet built into the Unleashed. Therefore the current Unleasheds cannot communicate with the iPhone.

Hi. Today I took some photographs, using the Unleashed for the first time. I wanted to upload the pictures to Picasa, but the upload strips off the gps data. Is there a way around this?

Hi, The GPS data is in the standard EXIF Fields. Google should know better than to always strip these out. You might have set some privacy settings in your Picasa Web Albums account, which stops the GPS data from being displayed. I just checked, and there are two settings that might do this: If you log in to your Picasa Web Albums account, click on the Settings Wheel at the top right (next to your login name), then click on Photo Settings. Click on Privacy and Permissions. Under "Locations" you'll have two options: - Automatically map photos if they contain location data. - Show my photo locations to others on all new albums. The second one is off by default, so that might be causing the problem... Several Image resizers (even Photoshop) also might be the cause of the GPS data being stripped, so try uploading a full-sized file, and a resized one, to see if there's a difference.

I am planning to get one for my d5000. Will it act as a remote trigger. I can program my Android phone with any custom command.

A customer is currently in the process of writing an Android app, which will work, including remote triggering support. He plans to release it as open source, so stay tuned!

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