SONY GPS Cameras

Geotagging Video - Testing the Sony HDR-XR550V with Built-in GPS S

Comparing with Other Video Geotagging Options, Including Smartphones

By Fred Zahradnik, About.com Guide

Of course, most of the new generation of smartphones, including iPhones and a number of Android OS devices can geotag video. The iPhone, for example, automatically tags video location (unless the user has GPS turned off) and displays the video in iPhoto's "places" maps. But it's more more challenging to geotag high-end digital stills and video.

High-end camcorders with built-in GPS are still rare, so I've been using the Sony HandyCam HDR-XR550V ($1,000 - $1,300) with built-in GPS to see what it can do. Consumer camcorder technology has become very advanced, and just to highlight the list of features, they include: full 1920x1080 HD recording, built-in 240GB hard drive and an SD card slot; a big, high-quality, wide-angle lens, hi-res digital still photography (geotagged), SteadyShot image stabilization that works really well... It's a long list. Bottom line is the video capability of the XR550V goes way beyond that found in the mini handhelds and smartphones.

When you start the Sony XR550V, a little satellite icon appears on the fold-out screen, and then shows bars when it is receiving GPS signals. The camera is ready to shoot geotagged video. I found the camera was always able to lock on GPS when outdoors, but rarely when indoors. The XR550V's GPS functionality may be easily switched on or off via a clearly marked physical slider switch right on the camera body. I like this, because there will be shooting sessions for which you don't want to include location data in your digital video file, and this makes it easy to turn off GPS logging.

One interesting feature is the inclusion of basic map data right in the camcorder. A couple of menu layers down, you may select "show my location" and a basic, zoomable, color street map will appear with your position shown (accurate in my tests).

After you've shot your video, you may download it to a PC via an included USB cable, or via a computer SD card reader, if you've saved your video to the SD card, rather than the hard drive (the camera's menu lets you choose). The camcorder comes with (on a DVD) Sony's Picture Motion Browser (PMB) software for Windows PCs. This software makes use of GPS location data, including showing locations of every video on a map.

Movies are recorded with AVCHD 1920 1080/60i format when the FX or FH mode of the high definition image quality (HD) is selected. And when the HQ or LP mode of the high definition image quality (HD) is selected,  movies are recorded with AVCHD 1440

1080/60i format. Movies are recorded with MPEG-2 format when the standard image quality (STD) is selected. You can select the following high definition image quality (HD) recording mode. “24M” of [HD FX] is the maximum bit-rate, and the value other than of [HD FX], such as “17M,” is an average bit-rate.

·         [HD FX] AVC HD 24Mbps

·         [HD FH] AVC HD 17Mbps

·         [HD HQ] AVC HD 9Mbps the default  setting

·         [HD LP] AVC HD 5Mbps

·         [STD HQ] (STD 9M (HQ))

Sony  uses the VBR (Variable Bit Rate) format to automatically adjust image quality to suit the recording scene. This technology causes fluctuations in the recording time of the media. Movies containing quickly moving and complex images are recorded at a higher bit-rate, and this reduces the overall recording time.

The recording mode of the standard image quality (STD) is limited to the following value. “9M” is an average bit-rate.

·         12.0M ( ) Records photos in the highest quality (4,000 × 3,000).

·         9.0M ( ) Records photos in the high quality in the 16:9 (wide) ratio (4,000 × 2,250).

·         6.2M ( ) Records photos clearly (2,880 × 2,160).

·         1.9M ( ) Allows you to record more photos in relatively clear quality (1,600 × 1,200).

·         VGA (0.3M) (Allows the maximum number of photos to be recorded (640 × 480

On the downside, there is no Apple operating system-compatible download and viewing software available from Sony yet. I was able to import video taken by the XR550V into an iMac by using iMovie, but the geotagging data unfortunately does not come along with the file in this process. The story for the Mac right now is that you can import the beautiful video this camera takes fairly easily, but you won't get location data or automatic video location through the various Mac "places" mapping features.

It's a treat to use the impressive zoom, low-light, and image-stabilization features of the XR550V, especially if you've become frustrated with the quality of lower-end camcorder or smartphone video. Mac compatibility issues should give Apple users pause on this unit however.

Other Sony HD camcorder models with built-in GPS include the HDR-XR350V ($899 list), and HDR-CX350V ($799 list).  The HDR-XR550V and HDR-CX550V will record high definition 1920 x 1080 videos using the AVCHD compression method. Both camcorders will record to at a maximum bitrate of 24Mbps.

The HXR-NX5U is the world’s first AVCHD professional camcorder with an internal GPS ($4,000 to $5,000). This important new feature enables users to find the same shooting location when, for example, they need to revisit a location for extra shots that must match existing footage. GPS data is embedded in AVCHD video data files. Mapping data can be created using bundled Content Management Utility sof tware.  Also GPS  data can be extracted  from video  files , using Content Management Utility software, in a commonly used latitude/longitude NMEA data format. This GPS information can be used in several applications.  You can select the GPS time as LOCAL TIME or UTC TIME.