Canon Map Utility Being Discontinued, Replaced by Canon GPS Log File Utility

If you have used Canon’s Map Utility lately, you’ve likely seen the following warning message (thanks Henri):

“Map displaying service of Map Utility will be terminated by the end of Oct. 2019.”

We reached out to Canon Technical Advisor Rudy Winston to ask what prompted the change. While the reason behind the change remains unclear, Rudy did let us know that Canon’s Map Utility is reaching the end of its product life cycle and another Canon-developed program has taken its place, albeit without some of Map Utility’s functionality (specifically, the mapping feature utilizing Google Earth imagery).
 
From Rudy Winston:

“Basically, the current Canon Map Utility software is in the process of being discontinued. We don’t know the reasons, so there’s little point in my speculating about possible causes of this. However, the good news is that there is a replacement Canon software available, to work with GPS Log files – it’s called Canon GPS [Log File] Utility, and it was posted on the Canon USA web site as a free download in February.
 
It’s not literally the same as the previous Canon Map Utility – it’s basically a *retrieval* and conversion software, and does NOT have “mapping” functionality itself. What it does do is convert Canon GPS Log files into Google Earth-compatible .KMZ files – which can then be used and read by numerous third-party mapping software programs. So it loses the display portion of the previous Map Utility, but again, that should pose little problem for most users, since various 3rd-party solutions to display the Canon-generated .KMZ files on a map are readily available.
 
There’s reportedly no change in GPS tagging capability either (that is, creation of specific spots where a given image was taken) … again, you just need a compatible 3rd-party mapping software to display them.”

Is the Google Maps API price increase the root cause of this change? I know that one of my favorite dark sky map websites has gone … dark, popping a “This page can’t load Google Maps correctly.” message.
 
Download: GPS Log File Utility
 
B&H carries the GPS Receiver GP-E2.

Canon, Nikon and Sony News, Deals and What’s New at The-Digital-Picture.com

This entry was posted in Photo Equipment and tagged , , , , , . Bookmark the permalink.

Leave a Reply