# How long should it take 7D Mk II GPS to lock in?



## ronaldbyram (Feb 15, 2017)

Hey gang,
I like to Geo tag my pictures. And was excited to see that the 7D Mk II offers this feature. I would not have to carry my Garmin gps with me. Anyway...
When I activate the GPS on the Camera the GPS icon flashes on the Top LCD. But I find more and more that the camera will not lock in. even after I set the game up right and stationary for 5+ minutes. 
A lot of time the over head sky is Clear wide open. No Trees.

Often times I will activate the GPS long before I reach my destination. to Give the camera and I hope time to lock in. Knowing it reduces Battery Life.

Does anyone else have this type of issue?


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## mnclayshooter (Feb 15, 2017)

I find with my 6D and other GPS-enabled devices, if it doesn't re-start in the same vicinity of where it was powered off (ie with some level of saved "knowledge" of the closest GPS satellites), it takes a lot longer to get locked. 

Also, the roof and windshield of a car hamper it's ability to lock (compounded by the movement of a car and the relative fast changing of obstructions to radio signals as the car moves) vs being outdoors with a clear sky as it has to get a pretty clean signal with timestamp in order to stay locked - that's how GPS works, it is measuring the time a signal takes to be received, so movement or obstructions cause the timing count to start over. 

http://www.gps-basics.com/faq/q0113.shtml


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## Don Haines (Feb 15, 2017)

ronaldbyram said:


> Hey gang,
> I like to Geo tag my pictures. And was excited to see that the 7D Mk II offers this feature. I would not have to carry my Garmin gps with me. Anyway...
> When I activate the GPS on the Camera the GPS icon flashes on the Top LCD. But I find more and more that the camera will not lock in. even after I set the game up right and stationary for 5+ minutes.
> A lot of time the over head sky is Clear wide open. No Trees.
> ...


Do you have the camera date and time set accurately? That makes a YUGE!!! difference....


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## Mt Spokane Photography (Feb 16, 2017)

Your experience seems to be common. If you can link to a smartphone gps or your Garmin, it will be faster. Still, my wifes little toy like Nikon P&S records GPS nicely and does not eat batteries.


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## Valvebounce (Feb 16, 2017)

Hi Ronald. 
In preparation for a trip from southern England to Paris I went through the process of checking that the camera was set to sync time with the sattelites and it took a while, about 2 minutes to get a lock, unobstructed view of overcast sky, the clock was within a minute of the satellite time. 
Then when I went to use the camera in Paris 2 days later it probably took 4 or 5 minutes to acquire a lock, unobstructed view of an overcast sky but I was walking too so that didn't help, my experience is that walking typically seems to add about a minute or so to the acquisition of a location lock. 
I can also tell you that the camera needs to be the correct way up, as in not hanging from a Black Rapid connected to the tripod mount! This seems to prevent the acquisition of a lock, however once locked on hanging upside down on my Black Rapid is not a problem, it will keep a lock without issue. 
I don't know if this info helps with your question. 

Cheers, Graham.


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## Wm (Jun 12, 2018)

Hi... I'm new to the forum and have a question or 2 re: GPS of recently purchased EOS 7D Mk II.... Was directed I have to post to an existing topic as I cannot post yet. So sorry to jump on here, but somewhat related. 

I purchased the camera after explaining that I was most interested in geotagging to the sales girl. She instructed me that if I could not use the built in anytime, I could wifi to the phone with my iPhone using the canon app and would be able to get the gps info from the phone. As its a new purchase, Ive just gotten around to trying it - GPS and the app.... Well, it was little disappointing - the camera in an unobstructed area took 20 minutes to get a signal and only after I had shut it down and restarted. The 2nd and 3rd times, much faster, 2 minutes, but still not as fast, 1 minute, as my little Olympus tough. I then wifi'd to the app and could not get any gps info to show up at all on the pics. So, questions.......

Those with experience using the gps on the 7D II, how long do you typically have to wait to get a signal locked in? 20 minutes seemed excessive. 2 minutes, not good, but much better than 20 minutes. 

Should I be able to connect to the app and use the gps info from there(the phone)? As I mentioned the sales person said yes but I could not get it to work. I then called Canon and they said no bc my camera has gps and I will not be able to use the app to get gps info from. So im a little confused here.

Thanks for any help and I look forward to learning and hopefully contributing!.... 
PS 
On the lastest camera firmware. And on a Mac


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## Don Haines (Jun 12, 2018)

Wm said:


> Hi... I'm new to the forum and have a question or 2 re: GPS of recently purchased EOS 7D Mk II.... Was directed I have to post to an existing topic as I cannot post yet. So sorry to jump on here, but somewhat related.
> 
> I purchased the camera after explaining that I was most interested in geotagging to the sales girl. She instructed me that if I could not use the built in anytime, I could wifi to the phone with my iPhone using the canon app and would be able to get the gps info from the phone. As its a new purchase, Ive just gotten around to trying it - GPS and the app.... Well, it was little disappointing - the camera in an unobstructed area took 20 minutes to get a signal and only after I had shut it down and restarted. The 2nd and 3rd times, much faster, 2 minutes, but still not as fast, 1 minute, as my little Olympus tough. I then wifi'd to the app and could not get any gps info to show up at all on the pics. So, questions.......
> 
> ...



Hi, welcome to the forum!

For GPS, there are many factors that affect how fast it locks up...

If you are starting from scratch, or if the camera has been moved a significant distance since the last time GPS was used, or the camera time is set wrong, it is going to be slow.... and for any of those cases, make sure that you have a really good view of the sky.

If the above has been done, subsequent use should have it lock on in a minute or two....


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## Wm (Jun 12, 2018)

Don Haines said:


> Wm said:
> 
> 
> > Hi... I'm new to the forum and have a question or 2 re: GPS of recently purchased EOS 7D Mk II.... Was directed I have to post to an existing topic as I cannot post yet. So sorry to jump on here, but somewhat related.
> ...



Thanks Don, that’s reassuring. I only have a limited return policy if it’s not going to work well. Do you know anything about the iPhone app and whether or not it should work in giving gps data to the camera? It’s all a big investment for me and I do like the gps option. Tks again for the quick reply and the welcome.


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## Don Haines (Jun 12, 2018)

Wm said:


> Don Haines said:
> 
> 
> > Wm said:
> ...



I have never connected my 7D2 to a phone. Which app are you using?


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## Wm (Jun 12, 2018)

Canon Connect by Canon. From the App Store. iPhone.


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## stevelee (Jun 12, 2018)

I have a 6D2 and sometimes it takes a couple minutes to lock on to GPS. I've never tried to use the Canon Connect app with it.

My small G7X II does not have GPS built in, but will use the Canon Connect app on the phone to get the info. When I have that running, the metadata tagging works great.


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## Frodo (Jun 12, 2018)

My 6D takes a while to get a GPS, normally around a minute. That is much slower than my Garmin Etrex 20 GPS. But once ithas a fix, it hangs on pretty good. Ihave used it to log a motorbike ride when placed in a tank bag and that worked well.
I walked through Switzerland in 2016 and took my M3 which doesn't have GPS. However, Lightroom allows you to geotage photos easily if you upload the GPS file. Make sure the camera and GPS times are synchronised. Also you may have to correct for summertime in Lightroom.


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## weixing (Jun 12, 2018)

Hi,
I had the 7D2 and I Geotag almost all my birding photo, but I don't use the 7D2 built-in GPS.... I use a Garmin GPS unit and use GeoSetter to embed the GPS info into my RAW file. The Garmin GPS is a lot faster and the battery can last very long... unless you need the compass info provide by 7D2. 

Anyway, base on my experience, 7D2 is very slow in initial acquisition and sometime will affect shooting speed... also, it consume quite a lot of power. I only use it once in a while to update my DSLR clock or if I forget to bring my Garmin GPS unit. 

Have a nice day.


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## Wm (Jun 12, 2018)

okay, so I was able to confirm today that I was misinformed - the canon connect apple app will not transfer gps info to the 7D Mk II. Bummer as I was hoping to keep it simple and use the phone to try and cut back on battery drain hopefully. Oh well. Going to test the camera gps in a bit.


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## Wm (Jun 12, 2018)

weixing said:


> Hi,
> I had the 7D2 and I Geotag almost all my birding photo, but I don't use the 7D2 built-in GPS.... I use a Garmin GPS unit and use GeoSetter to embed the GPS info into my RAW file. The Garmin GPS is a lot faster and the battery can last very long... unless you need the compass info provide by 7D2.
> 
> Anyway, base on my experience, 7D2 is very slow in initial acquisition and sometime will affect shooting speed... also, it consume quite a lot of power. I only use it once in a while to update my DSLR clock or if I forget to bring my Garmin GPS unit.
> ...



If you don't mind - a few questions.... Which Garmin do you use and do you know if GeoSetter comes for Mac? Do you mind explaining the process ? Im interested in geotagging and looking for an easy process but I think the battery drain is going to be too much on the canon. Im guessing you turn on the Garmin when ready and just start taking pics. But how do you mark on the Garmin where each photo was taken? Guessing you look at the time stamp on the picture then compare to the route???? Im also new to raw imagery and then I need to figure out that.  Tks for the help!!


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## Frodo (Jun 12, 2018)

I presume it works like in Lightroom. It knows when the photo was taken (photo exif data) and where you were at the time (GPS log).
I have an Etrex20. That should work fine. Good battery life. But I don't find the battery usage with my 6D in GPS mode is all that bad.


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## stevelee (Jun 13, 2018)

Wm said:


> okay, so I was able to confirm today that I was misinformed - the canon connect apple app will not transfer gps info to the 7D Mk II. Bummer as I was hoping to keep it simple and use the phone to try and cut back on battery drain hopefully. Oh well. Going to test the camera gps in a bit.



I know with my G7X II both it and the phone are using battery when paired, so I’m not sure that would be a good reason even if it did work on your camera. 

I turned on my 6D2 this afternoon just to make some settings to get ready for some video I plan to shoot tonight. Just before I turned it off, I noticed that the GPS had already locked in, even though I was indoors. I had last used the camera on my deck, so only a matter of feet away. That fits with the notion that it locks in faster when in the same general vicinity. It is not so much looking for satellites over other parts of the world. 

If your camera is like mine, there is a setting that turns off the GPS when the camera turns off, so you can set that to save battery, at the expense of time pairing when turning on. Switching the camera off manually and letting it shut itself down can use different behaviors, so check out the modes for your model and set to hit the compromise between battery and lock in speed that fits what you are doing.


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## Valvebounce (Jun 13, 2018)

Hi Wm. 
First of all, I used this method on my 40D and 7D before I got my 7DII, I used GeoSetter (not available for Mac but there are alternatives) to tag my images using the gpx file created by an iPhone app, even after much mathematics adjusting the time offset to the second in the right direction and knowing exactly where I stood (on the point of a Y junction in the road) the tag put me about 50 yards away! The 7DII puts me in the right place with greater accuracy and gives the direction the camera was pointed too! 

Hi Stevelee. 
As yet (unless Canon has snuck it in on a firmware update and kept quiet about it) the 7DII does not have the extra mode of control of the gps, it has on which is ON whether the camera is sleeping or powered off with the switch or off which is OFF as one would expect, no off when power is off or whatever they added to the newer gps enabled cameras, not that there is a newer 7D model yet! 

Cheers, Graham.


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## stevelee (Jun 13, 2018)

Thanks for the 7DII info. I’ve not used one myself. I’ve known parents of high school athletes who found it the perfect model for them.


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## weixing (Jun 13, 2018)

Hi,


Wm said:


> weixing said:
> 
> 
> > Hi,
> ...


 Currently, I'm using the Garmin Oregon 650, but if you don't need any other feature, a basic eTrax 10 should do. 

The process is quite simple, you copy the recorded track log from the Garmin GPS unit to the same directory as your image files. Then use the GeoSetter to open the folder. From the GeoSetter, select from the menu "Images"->"Synchronize with GPS Data Files...". Use the option "Synchronize with Tracks in Current Directory" and click "OK". GeoSetter will match the date and time in your image files to the track log data and assign the coordinate to the image. The image and location will also mark on a google map in the GeoSetter. Then just use the menu "Images"->"Save Changes" and GeoSetter will save the GPS coordinate to the image file itself.

Anyway, as some had mention GeoSetter do not have a mac version. If you use Lightroom, the Map module can also import the track log and assign GPS coordinate to the image. Please note Lightroom only save the GPS data in the Lightroom database and XMP sidecar files (if you use them), but not the image files itself.

Have a nice day.


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## lion rock (Jun 13, 2018)

Have you tried Canon's GP-E2?
I use it on my cameras, including my 7DII (_edit: the built-in 7DII GPS drains its battery quite fast. If left on the 7DII, it lasts less than a day's worth of shooting. Well, much less than 1000 shots._)
The GP-E2 uses a single AA, either an alkaline or an Eneloop. The former may work for 2 days and the latter for over a day.
It is attached to the hot shoe ( a drag, if I want to use a speedlight.) It's supposed to connect using USB, as well, though I have not tried. The data is written directly to the EXIF.
From power on to signal lock takes about a minute or less. Signal sensitivity is exceptional. The logging track works inside a car. I had inadvertently left it on in a bag on an airplane from Australia to Hong Kong, and I got the full track. Long/Lat/Alti. Oh, when properly calibrated, the EXIF records the direction of the shot, too.
The data (in many files) can be exported from GP-E2/Canon MapUtility to Google Earth Pro and can be assembled to a single track for the whole trip.
It is expensive for a single use item. But, quite useful.
-r

note: I don't own Canon stocks. Just their products.


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## Wm (Jun 15, 2018)

Sorry for the delay - for some reason I didn’t get any notifications of replies since the 12th ??? Anyhow, I went out and tested the gps and it locked in in about 30 secs(in different location than the 1st try). Maybe my 1st try took longer bc it was 1st initial use? So now I have a little home work to investigate the other info provided in re: other gps means - may investigate as a back up and just for reference. I am glad it’s working much faster. I think I’m right here - I don’t believe the 7DII gps can be programmed to go off when the camera is powered down. I think I saw in the manual a warning to shut off each time it’s not in use or the battery will drain. Thanks all


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