EOS 5D Mark IV GPS Bug?

[Davoud]

As some of you may know, there is a software fault in the 6D that causes the GPS to remain on when the camera is powered down, causing rapid battery drain. Yes, the GPS can be turned off via the menus, but that shouldn't be necessary. Do you happen to know whether the 5D Mark IV has this same bug, or if the GPS turns of with the camera? Thanks!

[TTMartin]

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@Davoud wrote:

As some of you may know, there is a software fault in the 6D that causes the GPS to remain on when the camera is powered down, causing rapid battery drain. Yes, the GPS can be turned off via the menus, but that shouldn't be necessary. Do you happen to know whether the 5D Mark IV has this same bug, or if the GPS turns of with the camera? Thanks!

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I don't consider it a software fault. It takes time for a GPS to acquire its position. If someone wants the camera to have accurate position information from the moment it is turned on they don't have to leave the camera on all the time. 

The 6D and 7D Mk II both have that same feature.

[Davoud]

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@TTMartin wrote:

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@Davoud wrote:

As some of you may know, there is a software fault in the 6D that causes the GPS to remain on when the camera is powered down, causing rapid battery drain. Yes, the GPS can be turned off via the menus, but that shouldn't be necessary. Do you happen to know whether the 5D Mark IV has this same bug, or if the GPS turns of with the camera? Thanks!

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I don't consider it a software fault. It takes time for a GPS to acquire its position. If someone wants the camera to have accurate position information from the moment it is turned on they don't have to leave the camera on all the time. 

The 6D and 7D Mk II both have that same feature.

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OK, you say to-mah-to, I say to-may-to.

In any event, I now have the Mk IV manual and there are two modes. Mode I has the same fault, er, I mean "feature" that the 6D has. In Mode II the GPS shuts off when the camera is turned off (but not when the camera powers off automatically).

It requires about two minutes, on average, for my 6D to get a GPS lock. I don't use the 6D GPS because of the "feature" to which I referred. For both the 6D and my 5D III I use Lightroom Maps to assign geographc coordinates, or, sometimes, I make a photo with my iPhone to record the location where a photo was made. As for the Mk IV, I'll just wait and see how the GPS performs. I have GPS devices in which signal acquisition is, for practical purposes, immediate—meaning it requires a few seconds.

[diverhank]

I have the 7DII and I keep forgetting to turn the GPS on and off - very annoying, indeed.  At least, the 5D4 has improved on that. What we need now are firmware updates for the 6D and 7D

[Davoud]

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@diverhank wrote:

I have the 7DII and I keep forgetting to turn the GPS on and off - very annoying, indeed.  At least, the 5D4 has improved on that. What we need now are firmware updates for the 6D and 7D

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Bingo. Exactly so. IMO, that is.

[Waddizzle]

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@diverhank wrote:

I have the 7DII and I keep forgetting to turn the GPS on and off - very annoying, indeed.  At least, the 5D4 has improved on that. What we need now are firmware updates for the 6D and 7D

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Usually, I am in one general area when shooting. so I will take a test shot with the GPS turned on [and then turn it off for the rest of the shoot].  I can use the GPS coordinates in that test shot as data to add to the rest of the shots.

[TTMartin]

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@diverhank wrote:

I have the 7DII and I keep forgetting to turn the GPS on and off - very annoying, indeed.  At least, the 5D4 has improved on that. What we need now are firmware updates for the 6D and 7D

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The 5D Mk VI way of doing it is definitely superior.

I agree it would be nice for that enhancement to be added to the 6D and 7D Mk II.

[alanrclarke]

It's not a fault - it's a bit of very bad user interface design and missing functionality.

I complained repeatedly to Canon about the 6D, but to no effect.

Now they have implemented it correctly in the 5D iv. There are 3 options:

1. Off
2. Off when camera is switched off (and GPS takes ~60 seconds to reacquire signal)
3. On all the time, and drain your battery in 3 days or less!

The 6D does NOT have the same functionality - if it's on, battery drains in 3 days period. No option 2

[diverhank]

Not sure if Canon had made the change to give us the option to have the GPS off when the camera is off.

[mplaforest]

Got a new 5d Mark IV just over a month ago. Took the camera to Vermont and decided to use the GPS function. I made sure the GPS was in full-time GPS mode. The GPS geolcation was way off. I was standing on top of a mountain with no tree or other objects to block a signal. GPS icon was show connection and when I checked the picture the geo location had me standing in a swap 50 miles way in New York. I live in Texas and have been doing to different locatoins around town standing in the middle of soccer, baseball and football fields to see if the GPS can find my location. No luck. Geo location has me in another town. The best position I've been able to acheive is 30 from the actual location. I've contact Canon and so far the answer is "look at page 388 of the user guide".  I have a friend with a Mark IV and he is having the same issues with his GPS. I'm wonder if anyone is getting accurate GPS results from with their Mark IV? I've tried the different settings to get good GPS results and yet nothing. I don't want to send the camera to Cannon, because I'm fairly certain they'll tell me there's nothing wrong with the camera and then I'll be charge $$$ for shipping and other costs to troubleshoot the issue.