I was given two of these Prazi GPS Units with Shutter Release, Remote Control functionality for use on Nikon cameras for testing, evaluation and usage purposes. There are two seperate units. The first unit, the S Adapter, intended for use with Nikon cameras with the rectangular 10-pin connector ( Nikon Z5, Z6 series, Z7 series and all the D series DSLR cameras with the rectangular connector). The second unit, the R Adapter, for use with Nikon cameras with the circular 10-pin connector (Nikon Z8 and Z9 and all the Nikon D series DSLR cameras with the circular connector).
The overall equipment comes in a very nice plastic padded case, with the two units, including the camera adapter and the main unit described below. Also included is a USB-C cable and a detailed User Manual leaflet.
With these Prazi GPS Units there are two main components.
- The small part which mounts on the camera, this is a bluetooth receiver which is powered from the camera and transmits the GPS coordinates to the camera and also can activate the camera shutter remotely. There are two variants of this camera mounting part. The part (R Adapter) which mounts on the circular 10-pin connector, Also the other variant part (S Adapter) which mounts on the rectangular connector. The rectangular part is provided with a safety lanyard, so that the unit can not come adrift and get lost. The circular connector unit (R Adapter) actually screws on to the camera 10-pin connector to make it secure.
- The main remote unit is actually the GPS receiver and bluetooth transmitter, the unit has its own internal battery, an ON/OFF switch, a USB-C charging port, a camera remote shutter switch with two actions, firstly to wake and focus the camera and secondly to operate the camera shutter. The unit also has an LED which is blue at turn on and switches to green whilst searching for a satellite, once locked on to a satellite the LED flashes intermitently green and blue, when charging via the USB port the LED is red and changes to green when fully charged. There is also a safety lanyard. Once logged on to a satellite the unit can be placed in a pocket or if required for camera remote control, held in the hand. The main hand held unit measures 85mm x 35mm x 12mm.
I am a professional electronic Engineer and as a sidekick I also have a great interest in photography, with these interests I love evaluating gear such as these items.
From my viewpoint these Prazi items do look very robust and well manufactured and I will comment on their performance as I see it, in the following discussion.
I have tested these items with both a Nikon D500, DSLR camera and also with a Nikon Z6II, Mirrorless camera. The two images below, show the relative size and positioning of the items attached to the respective cameras.
The items are quite small and do not appear to hinder the operation of the cameras in any way. The R-Adapter if it does not have the lanyard attached to the camera could easily come adrift and be lost, so be aware of that.
These units provide two main functions as follows.
Remote Control Function
The remote control functionality of this equipment is very simple.
- A half press of the button will wake the camera and activate the focus.
- A full press will activate the shutter.
Sometimes I use a camera remote control with flash and I find this very useful with the half press action. A half press of the button in addition to waking the camera, will also wake up the flash when connected to the camera and then the flash will fire with the shutter release. This is an excellent option.
The expected range of bluetooth transmission is normally around 10 meters (32 feet) for most consumer devices, however I have found that with this device the expected range is around 15 meters to get reliable operation.
I have found that sometimes I may want to take images of a bird at a perch and I need to be at a further distance from the camera and use a very long remote cable, in that case with the seperate cable attached to the camera, remote connection of the Prazi GPS unit can not be used.
GPS Function
With the GPS function, once the main unit is switched on and the satellites have ben located, the main unit can then be placed in a pocket and it will continue to be working. The GPS coordinates will be placed in the image file as the images are captured.
- Open Google Maps on your computer or mobile device.
- In the search box, enter your coordinates in one of the accepted formats.
- Google Maps will then locate the location based on the coordinates you entered.
In searching Google Maps you can use any of the following accepted formats;
- Decimal Degrees (DD): xx.xxxxx, x.xxxxx
- Degrees, Minutes, and Seconds (DMS): xx°xx’xx.x”N x°xx’xx.x”E
- Degrees, Minutes, and Seconds (DMS): xx xx xx.x N x xx xx.x E
- Degrees and Decimal Minutes (DMM): xx xx.xxxx, x xx.xxxx
Enter latitude first, followed by longitude.
In order to find the GPS location your image was taken at on the map, go into Nikon NX Studio, click on the thumbnail image required, select “Image / Metadata / Copy Location Data”, go into Google maps, paste the coordinates into Google Maps, modify the coordinates to the format “xx xx xx.x S x xx xx.x E” and then you have it on the map.
You can also find the GPS Coordinates in File Manager by right clicking on the file, select “Properties / Details” and the GPS location details will be there.
The two images below have been taken with the Prazi units and have the GPS location embeded in the EXIF data.
In the case of the image of the person fishing on the rock, the following GPS location is available in the EXIF.
Latitude: S 28d 5m 31.88s
Longitude: E 153d 27m 36.89s
Altitude: 33.00m
If you paste the coordinates into Google Maps, modify the coordinates to the required format, then you have the location on the map as follows.
28 5 31.88S
153 27 36.89E
In my overall testing and usage of the Prazi equipment I have found it to be very useful when GPS data location is required in images and also very useful as a remote controller when reasonably close to the camera, such as when I need to capture macro, landscape or astro images.
Advantages
- If I am on a road trip and stop to take some bird images, I can never remember where they were taken, the usage of this accessory solves that issue.
- The units are small and easy to manage.
- Excellent instructions and packaging.
- The units appear robust for general use.
- No cables required apart from the charging cable.
- Camera remote control option is very useful.
- Some folk for privacy reasons may not want GPS embeded images posted on images taken at their home. This unit still gives that option by simply switching off the hand held unit.
Disadvantages
- It is really only a question of whether you need GPS embeded information in your file EXIF data or not, no real disadvantage.