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GiSTEQ PhotoTrackr Lite DPL700 GPS Photo Tracker

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User Ratings and Reviews

2 Stars Great when it works …. but then it doesn’t…..
This is a slick little unit – easy to carry, clip to your camera bag or belt, and schlep it all over. Even performed well inside a plane when I was testing it. It does not have the option to change logging rates while on the go (would be nice to have walk/drive/fly options without having to go back to a computer.)

Liked it so much I sent one to my sister for Christmas to log her once-in-a-lifetime trip to India.

Then on a trip to Scotland, for no apparent reason, it just stopped acquiring satellites and I lost about 1/4 of that trip and all of my next trip.

Customer support at GiSTEQ told me to update the firmware. Once done, the power LED blinked away but could not acquire satellites. Changed batteries, re-updated firmware, reset the unit … still, no acquisition.

Sister had the SAME problem with her unit failing while in India – can’t return the unit until her big trip is over.

My unit is back at the manufacturer at the moment (probably a couple weeks to turnaround, who knows.)

Bottom line: a tool like this should not need much coddling. It should work well for years, the battery should be easy to replace (it isn’t) and the user should not have to wonder whether the unit is working or not.

It should not require having a computer and internet access to update firmware in the middle of a trip.

For me the jury is out – if GiSTEQ can make both units ‘right’ in one fix then it will be worth keeping. If not, I’ll be howling for a refund and go on to another more reliable unit.

1 Star Poor software, proprietary interface, and build quality issues
I purchased a GiSTEQ PhotoTrackr Lite last April. The Windows software was unintuitive and unnecessarily difficult to use. Unfortunately, the logger does not show up as a standard USB device, and so far as I am aware GiSTEQ’s software is the only tool capable of retrieving and reading files from the logger. As annoying and difficult as the software was, it did have a lot of good features and it was able to do much of what I wanted. The logger and software do work, and if the build quality was decent the product might get three stars. Unfortunately, the build quality (or more likely the engineering) is poor, and the plastic case cracked near the latch after fewer than 14 days of actual use. I should also note at this point that the battery life is significantly lower than advertised (I don’t remember the specifics well enough to state a number of hours), which means that the battery door gets more use than you would expect from looking at the specs.

I didn’t discover the biggest issue with this logger until, several months after installing the software, I deleted the installation files from my desktop. One would think that the installer files are not necessary to run the already-installed software, but one would be mistaken. The next time I tried to start the software it refused to start, saying that it needed the installation files. Since I no longer have the installation files, I downloaded the version of the software that is available on GiSTEQ’s web site. The software now runs, but says that I need to update the firmware on my logger before it can be used. If the update were free this would be fine, but GiSTEQ forces you to purchase a Pro version of their software in order to download firmware updates. My logger, which works just fine (in spite of the broken plastic), is now effectively useless unless I pay more money. They do not offer for download the older version of the software that works with the old (less than a year) firmware, and I will not pay a second time to regain functionality for which I already paid. Given that the only way to access the logger is through GiSTEQ’s software, that the software is difficult to use in the best of circumstances, and that the only version of their software available for download tried to make me pay again to let me use a device for which I have already paid, I recommend avoiding this product.

1 Star Save yourself many headaches – get something else
I rarely bother to take the time to submit negative reviews about products, but this one really deserves it. I bought 10 of these units for an educational project, and it’s turned out to be a complete nightmare. The units themselves are flimsy and completely unreliable. When they are working, the satellite reception is tenuous at best, and they often shut off for no apparent reason or simply refuse to receive satellite signals no matter how long you choose to wait.

The most serious problem, however, is the software. If you use a Mac, don’t even think about buying this product. Despite many months (years) of promises from the company, the Mac software still doesn’t function properly. The latest release (March 2009) will finally allow GPS track logs to be downloaded, but the elevation data are lost (which I need).

It seems that every time you finally resolve one problem with the hardware or software, a new problem appears. Today I updated the software on a PC, but now I can’t connect to the unit because the firmware is out of date. But when I try to update the firmware, some kind of error occurs. It just never ends!

This has been one long, frustrating experience. I would strongly suggest that if you are considering one of these, get a low-end regular GPS unit instead. I wish that I had taken this approach.

4 Stars GPS Unit – way to hard to use
This thing works, but it is just way to hard to get it synced to camera, using Nikon GPS unit now on d200. If you don’t have a dedicated GPS option, and want tagging, this is a way to get there, but it requires a lot of post work. a dedicated unit is better, and a standard gps with waypoints might work as well

1 Star Pretty nifty, but too easily broken.
I purchased the DPL700 just over a year ago, and have used it fairly often since then with no major problems… until about a week ago. But I’ll get to that later.

Installing and using the software wasn’t the most intuitive thing in the world, and it feels a bit kludgy, but once you figure out what you’re doing it works very well for getting your photos geotagged.

As I said, I’ve used my Trackr fairly often in the past year… just normal, everyday use — I usually have the device clipped to my camera strap, so it gets the same level of care that I give to my camera. After several months of use, I noticed that the body of the device had a small crack next to the battery door (similar to that seen in the user photo uploaded by E. Richards). This crack did not affect the use of the device in any way.

A couple of weeks ago, we traveled by train from the midwest to Washington State, and I took my Trackr along for the ride. I kept it placed near the window and on at all times, and it was able to acquire and keep a satellite connection for most of the journey. The battery lasted about 10 hours, as expected, so I did need to change that out several times on the trip.

And now for the bad news… While doing some sightseeing in Washington, I was in the middle of snapping a picture when the little black strap that connects the Trackr to the clip unexpectedly fell apart, and my Trackr went crashing to the ground. At first glance, the device appeared unharmed, but when I tried to close up the battery compartment door, it would not stay shut. Sadly, that flimsy little itty bitty piece of plastic that holds the battery door closed had snapped off, just the same as other reviewers have mentioned. I tried holding the compartment closed with my fingers, and the device began working again. However, the force needed to hold the door shut is more than you might expect, so I was unable to hold it closed for more than a few minutes at a time. I then tried to McGuyver it shut with duct tape, which did work for about 20 minutes, until the duct tape began to stretch under the pressure from the battery, causing the device to stop working again.

So… because of the easily broken-ness of the device, and the very poorly designed battery compartment, I’m only giving it one star. If I could find something stronger than duct tape that would hold the battery compartment shut — a portable Incredible Hulk, perhaps, or maybe a small vice — I might have given it 3-4 stars, because the device does still *work* (IF you can hold the door shut), and it is good for tagging your photos. And it did work just fine for 14 months…

Buy/More Info

GiSTEQ CD110BT Bluetooth GPS Digital PhotoTracker for Digital Cameras with NEMERIX Low Power Chipset MAC COMPATIBLE

Think about the last place you traveled to. Do you want to know exactly where all your pictures were taken? Take the GiSTEQ PhotoTrackr with you on your next trip! Utilizing the included mapping software and latest Geo-Mapping technology, the GiSTEQ PhotoTrackr allows you to record and review your trip knowing exactly where you have traveled. Furthermore, if you took pictures on your trip, it will even show you the exact location and time of your pictures. The most exciting feature of all is that you can upload your photos to Flickr online. It’s a cool way to share your trip experience with friends and families. Make your next trip special; don’t let your trip gone by without precise location info. There is no subscription and no monthly fee. Get yours today!!

User Ratings and Reviews

4 Stars Very Handy Device
I purchased the PhotoTrackr with bluetooth in the hope that I could leave my Magellan eXplorist at home and rely on this unit to track my position while photographing in the field. It works perfectly for this. I also like the automatic “sleep” feature which stops recording if there is no movement for a set period. The software is cleverly designed and works well with Google Earth. The bluetooth capability is handy for connection a laptop or PDA for realtime map positioning, which I occasionally do. I did have some problems with the USB connection to the unit becoming read-only after a version upgrade; and the documentation could be better.

1 Star No RAW support for Mac, Horrible Customer Support
I purchased this knowing that there was limited support for Mac OS, but was promised by the company that they would have RAW support for the Mac by the end of the year. I just received an email from them that now they do not plan any Mac RAW support. If this is the way they support customers, I will never buy another product from them and should have known right away not to believe them.

1 Star Never Worked Properly for Me
The device has never worked properly for me.

The problem is that software is rudimentary and fell over all the time. You cannot access the logs without the software. i.e. not a driverless device you have to use their software. Since the software did not work properly I could not get the firmware to update.

I tried to get it working on PC and then Mac but could not access or download any logs. Turns out other people have had similar problems.

The design of device is such that buttons are easily accidentally pressed if carried inside a bag, so the device turns itself on/off or changes states. It is then difficult to determine what state the device is in.

Also had to use sticky tape to stop the battery door falling off.

I paid to upgrade to pro version of software, but still nothing worked. I have given up on this device and purchased a different driverless logger (i.e. can be mounted like a usb thumb drive) and so does not rely on (flaky) proprietary software to download the logs.

I really wanted this device to work out but despite spending a lot of time and money on it, it just doesn’t work properly.

4 Stars Great little device for geotagging or just a GPS receiver
I bought this item to have GPS data to match up to my photos so my friends and family could view them on Picasa. The GiSTEQ met my expectations providing a fairly simply process to add the location data to the JPG files.

My previous GPS experience is with a Garmin Nuvi navigation unit. With that in mind, here are my specific opinions about the device:

1) The GiSTEQ finds the satellites faster than the Garmin and holds them better as well. It of course loses the satellite fix in tunnels or in buildings, but compared to the Garmin it does a better job of receiving the signals, holding them, and reacquiring them.

2) The battery life is great. I used it each day for 10-12 hours, but have no doubt it would go much longer. I recharged it every night just to be safe.

3) It has Bluetooth which I use to connect it to my Blackberry Pearl. Many newer phones have GPS built in, but if you have a laptop or cell phone with Bluetooth and no built in GPS, you can connect the GiSTEQ to add GPS functionality to your mapping programs.

4) The time on the device is set according to your PC’s clock and it does not change when you travel meaning the GiSTEQ will not adjust to the local time zone. I found this convenient because I only had to synchronize the clocks on the cameras once. Some people may not like that the photos have a timestamp matching your home timezone, but there are ways around that. The important piece is that the time on the device and the cameras match. My photo timestamps were 6 hours off from the time zone where I was photographing, but because the device and camera times matched so did the GPS data which is all I cared about. You can check it to the minute at anytime by pressing a couple of the buttons. The device will speak the time using the external speaker. Using the software and time display on the PC screen, you can match the camera clock to the device to the second.

5) The GiSTEQ holds 250,000 GPS data entries. You can adjust the logging interval to ensure you don’t fill up the internal memory before you have a chance to save it to the computer. I set mine for 6 seconds and used the device for two weeks. At 6 seconds, I figure I could have used it 24 hours a day for 17 days before needing to save the data to the computer.

6) The accuracy is acceptable. I found it to be accurate within several feet (probably less than 10).

7) The software is user friendly, but maybe a little less stable than you would hope. I have only used it on one PC; a Pentium 4 running Windows XP sp3. It sometimes freezes on me, but it processed 2,845 photos adding GPS data to them with no problems. I like the software and got a kick out of the novelty of being able to play back my trip seeing a little dot move on the map tracing my path showing direction and speed.

The GiSTEQ has a setting which will turn itself off when it has sit undisturbed for a configurable amount of time. Or you can just have it stay on until you turn it off. The speaker volume is adjustable from silent to fairly loud. The LEDs flash red, green, and blue indicating various status. I don’t recall if the LEDs can be disabled.

4 Stars Photo Trackr great for tracks, imperfect for image file geo-tagging.
I bought this product a month ago and have used it frequently and had four communications with the company which makes and sells it. The device is an amazing addition to the life of a field biologist: it takes about 90% of the work out of keeping accurate field notes and makes the final notes more automated and more complete. You just carry this GPS logger, turned on, all of the time, manually keeping time-noted observations as you go. When you get back to your office, you DL the tracks by USB with the included the software. THAT almost works perfectly.

As far as automatically geo-coding the image files you’ve taken with all your time-synchronized digital still cameras at the exact Lat-Long locations of the photos were taken — that works Ok, except with each file-write it corrupts the Exif tags which cameras place inside each image. Specifically, my Nikon 990 images emerge fine, but my Nikon D70 images are all corrupted. It is not the Lat or Long tags which are mis-written, it is some of the camera information which is rendered useless.

Having said that, I also note that opening each JPEG with Adobe CS2 Photoshop (Tm)and “Save AS” the file, un-corrupts each image file. When I told GiSTEQ service of this problem, they asked for an example file, before and after, which I immediately sent them. After two weeks of waiting, I called California and talked with “Sean”, and he promised to get back to me. After another 10 days he had neither returned my messages nor phoned.

What is so useful to me is the tiny cell-phone-sized device that picks up satellite locks from almost anywhere, and blue-tooths the present location (but longer tracks need USB cable) to my palm-top computer (Sony VAIO)and also USB downloads long tracks to the computer after several days of fieldwork. For consulting cases which might wind up in expert-witness court cases, it will be invaluable. I recommend buying one, (and ignoring my above complaints about file corruptions).

Buy/More Info

Magellan Maestro 4040 4 3 Inch Portable GPS Navigator with Bluetooth and Text to Speech Refurbished

MAGELLAN MAESTRO 4040 WITH TEXT-TO-SPEECH & BLUETOOTH

User Ratings and Reviews

4 Stars Maestro 4040
I will never take a trip without this again. It is the most valuable tool you can have in an area you are unfamilar with.

I bought the refurbished unit because it was very inexpensive. It came with every attachment I need, the mounts, plus wall and car chargers.

As it was a refurbished unit the maps were 2006 versions. I ordered the 2007/2008 map upgrade. It was difficult to install the maps, but now the unit is up to date and still was a bargin.

1 Star Poor Customer Service and Out of Date MAP… dont buy it
I purchased this unit FACTORY REFERB. After testing it out, I realiezed the MAP on the GPS is out of date 5+ years old. I called the Magellan Customer support and recevied the following e-mail.

******

We do regret to inform you, but we will not be able to provide the 2008/2009 free of charge as the unit is refurbished. Refurbished units are sold as is. Per our policy, we can only provide the map update free of charge (customer would be responsible for the $10.00 shipping charge for orders shipped with in the US or $26.00 for an international order) for new units purchased within the last 30 days. We do apologize for any inconvenience.

***

The GPS is bascially worthless without the updated MAP. I returned the unit immediately. DO NOT BUY IT!!!!!

4 Stars Great deal at the price
This GPS navigator proved easy to use quick to lock onto the satellites, quick to recalculate (often finished before we reached the end of the block after making a wrong turn!).

The voice instructions were very helpful, but the bell when the turn is reached could have come a bit sooner.

The maps are a little out of date, lacking some very recent changes, but this wasn’t a big deal for me.

For under $150, this is a completely satisfactory gadget!

4 Stars Purchased 2 of them
I purchased 2 of these, 1 of which I had to send back because it would not lock on the satellites, and the color was a bit off. The other one works perfectly. I downloaded the firmware update, and the AAA update from AAA and it works great. It is my first GPS, bluetooth works, but will not keep the connect information in the unit for some reason, but well worth the $100 I paid for it. Not sure if I will update the maps, it comes with 2006 maps, but have not run into many errors yet, we will have to see.

5 Stars The best feature loaded GPS for $100 (refurbished)
I bought this refurbished for just $99 bucks as my first ever GPS. I had tried my friends Garmin c330 for a trip and decided to buy my own. The Garmins were too expensive for the features I wanted (4.3″ screen, text to speech, and large POI database). Well this unit has all those features and adds bluetooth, AAA service, trip planner, and exit POIs to the list. It even has a voice recognition add-on option in case I want to upgrade in the future. So many features for a $99 unit is absolutely incredible. The routing calculation and re-routing calculation, if you miss a turn, takes slightly longer (by a few seconds) than the Garmin c330 but it is perfectly acceptable for my needs. I do prefer Garmin’s menu system as I feel it is a little bit more intuitive but the Magellan 4040 does the same thing and after a small learning curve I am quite happy with this unit. I’ll take all the extra features in exchange for the slightly easier to use Garmin. The Magellan Maestro 4040 is a great buy.

Buy/More Info