Red Hen Blue2CAN Bluetooth adapter for Nikon Cameras review

[MikeB]

Last year Nikon announced the latest in their range of Digital SLR cameras, the D3 and D300. These are targeted at the top of the range with a price tag of £3400 for the D3 and a slightly more affordable £1300 for the D300. Red Hen Systems have produced a tiny Bluetooth adapter that connects to a bluetooth GPS and transmits the GPS data to the camera: the Blue2CAN.

In the last year I have reviewed a number of GPS systems that offer a mechanism to match GPS tracks to digital photos. Whilst these do work they add an additional step into the workflow and the possibility of errors creep in with each additional step. The beauty of this system is to have the camera save the position data with the image when the shutter is pressed.

Click here to read the full review...
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Mike Barrett

[imrananwar]

Thanks for a great article. I ordered the Red Hen thingy and use it on my Nikon D300 DSLR with a Sentinel Blue Bluetooth GPS. The pictures show the GPS coordinates both in Aperture AND in iPhoto. When the pictures are loaded to Picasa, they do NOT show geocoding, and Picasa asks me if I want to place them on a map. I am not sure i recall a button on Picasa pages to expose EXIF etc. data.

Ironically, I can see the GPS data in the Flickr info for the uploaded photo but even that does not automatically place the image on a map.

What may I be missing in this process? Thanks.

Imran

[imrananwar]

Answering my own question:

Bummed that it is not turned On by default.

http://flickr.com/account/geo/exif/


Picasa is a setting at:

http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/settings


Imran
http://imran.com

[condyk]

Truly superb review. I have considered the Red hen as looks an ideal solution, even more so when you have a BT GPS dongle or two lying around unused as I have. However, I think the price is pretty steep for what is a very simple device - particularly now the £ is so poor v's the $. I can also see Nikon building in wireless and BT in next generation bodies and so the investment becomes just another 'early adopter' bit of junk that retains little value. If it was better priced I think many would love to give it a go; as is I'd say good product but over-priced.

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