GPS for D200 / D300

So I’ve been looking at GPS units for the D300 because you know you can plug a GPS into the D300 and it will record the GPS data in the metadata. You have some choices.. Nikon’s offering is the MC-35 cable. Ya know something.. too much cable.. too much bulk for me.. and it doesn’t include the GPS! You have to buy a PS and then a serial cable to connect to the MC-35. There are some other options such as Dawn Technologies di-GPS line, and the Solmeta GPS line. These options are in the $250+ neighborhoods.

So I found some mention of the Geomet’r GPS in some of the forums (either Nikonians or DPReview). So what makes this one so special? Well… honestly… the price. At $129 on Amazon it is within my reasonable range for testing. Everything has pro’s and con’s. This one’s pro is the price and simplicity. Plugs into the existing port on the D300 and draws it’s power from the D300. The con’s are that you can’t use a shutter release cable when using the GPS. It plugs into the same port. Most of the other options mentioned above have a pass-through port of some sort. The MC-35 lets you plug a standard D300 cable release into the unit. The Solmeta and Dawn Technologies units let you plug a Canon or other third party shutter release into it (one even comes with the shutter release cable!).

I ordered the Geomet’r cable so I will let you know what I find out after using it for a while.