Geotagging GPS Gadgets

So you've just returned from an epic voyage around Europe and have uploaded thousands of digital photos to your favorite photo-sharing site, and now it's time to add captions. But you've visited so many places and snapped so many shots that you can't remember what was taken where. (There sure are a lot of cathedrals in Italy!) Sure, you can check the time and date stamps against your itinerary, but that's no fun. What if you could automate this process and, as you're shooting, tag each photo with its exact location? These three geotagging gizmos track your location using GPS to match each picture with a place. All you have to do is sync up the time on your camera and the device, and the rest is automatic.

The offers the most convenience since it can tag your photos sans PC. Once you synchronize the camera's inner clock with the Photo Finder and enable the device to acquire satellites, you can start snapping away. Then simply insert your SD or MMC card into the Photo Finder's card slot and it will analyze your images, match the time/date stamp on your photos with locations stored in its log and even update the EXIF information in the JPEG files. Our one major complaint is the Photo Finder's minuscule, hard-to-read screen.

works similarly to the Photo Finder, but it uses software to tag your photos. Once you install the software, download your photos to your PC and connect the Trips and Pics receiver to your USB port. Conveniently, once the photos are matched up to the GPS log, the results are displayed either in , , or Microsoft Virtual Earth. Unfortunately, the software's interface isn't terribly intuitive and takes some getting used to.

Finally, our favorite of the group, the is a snap to use and relies on easy-to-see LEDs rather than a tiny screen to indicate satellite acquisition and lock. When you're done shooting photos, download the log files from the device, then load your pictures; the application will update the images' EXIF information with the GPS location. Once your images are tagged they can be displayed on a Google Map view or seamlessly uploaded to photo sharing sites. While this is the top performer of the three, it's also the most expensive of the group.

Intrigued by geotagging? Pick up one of these devices to add GPS capabilities to your camera and context to your vacation photos. Read our full reviews below:

In this Roundup:

The ATP Photo Finder automatically geotags your photos without a PC, but the poor screen makes the device somewhat difficult to use.

The Merax Photo Finder GPS has easy-to-use software that simplifies tagging photos and uploading albums to the Web. The only downside is that it's relatively expensive.

Pharos Trips and Pics logs your journeys and provides geographical information for your photos in popular mapping programs like Google Earth, but its software interface could use some work.