Hand held GPS devices

Hey Everyone,

Is anyone here using a hand held GPS device for when you go shooting? I am debating picking one up. Any advice on features to look for, and what I can get the most bang for my buck with will be appreciated.

James

I have a Garmin 60CSx. It is quite full-featured and very readable. I do not, as yet connect it to my camera directly, (although with a couple of adapter cables you can do this) but have used "Photo Tracker" software that coordinates the time stamps (camera and gps) and, in post processing, can identify the location where the picture is shot.

I mainly have it to assist me in hikes at new, unlearned locations, to get home before people start worrying about me.

Thanks, Durwood! Let me ask you, how easy is it to download the information into your car's GPS?

Thanks
James

James:

Do you plan on using it for land navigation purposes, for geo-tagging photos, or both? I have a JOBO photoGPS that sits in the hot shoe and works extremely well for geo-tagging images, but that is all it is good for.

The biggest positives are:

1. It is extremely fast and accurate in the field.

2. The software is very fast and easy to use.

The biggest negatives are;

1. You need an internet connection to geo-tag images rather than having the mapping data on a file on your own computer. The unit will store at least 2,000 or 4,000 locations depending on the model and you can save its contents to a file on your computer/laptop for later use when you do have an internet connection.

2. It only writes the gps data into the EXIF data for jpeg's. It creates a sidecar file for RAW files.

Jim

Hi,

Essentially, I guess I am interested in geo-tagging. Not necessarily in the form of "place tripod here," but to be able to make sure that I can get easily back in the future. For example, I am going to Maine in a few weeks, and we will be up by the Canadian border. I will be out 'in the woods' for much of it - and in places I have never been before. It would be nice to be able to tag a location, be able to port it to my Tomtom and be able to get back in the future.

James

James,

I have never tried to transfer the info to my car GPS.

Top of the Day James,

Assuming that your TomTom is similar to most auto Garmin GPS and will run on battery, turn your TomTom on, throw it into your pocket or camera bag, and go into the woods taking photos. Your TomTom should be tracking your every turn as you walk and recording this information into a file in memory that can be downloaded to your computer and used for such goodies as geotagging the photos you took on the hike. If you come to a point on the hike that you may want to return to later, set a waypoint for that location that will be stored in GPS memory.

Plug your TomTom back into its car charger and drive to your next hike. If you take photos while driving and the TomTom is on, there will be downloadable "tracking" information for those photos too.

Battery life on my Garmin 265wt is about 4 hours. Wish I could turn the screen off.

If you use Windows PC, take a look a freeware GeoSetter for geotagging photos. There is geotagging software for Macs also but I have no experience with any of it. GeoSetter will generate the files needed to view your 'track' and corresponding photo thumbnails on Google Earth which is kind of cool.

Cheers!

Warren

James, I use a Garmin Vista CX, for my hikes. You can upload your tracks to Google Earth, and generate topographic maps easily once you learn how. Very useful, and you can mark waypoints easily. I use it every hike and ski tour. They make even more elaborate ones, but this basic older unit serves me well.

Recomend ability to upload extra maps, in particular Topo's, ie extra storage card. The best antennae you can afford, the newer ones lose the signal less and are more accurate. Large color screen, And a well read instruction book.

As for hikes, I believe most of the handheld gps can meet your needs.

As for geotagging, only some of Nikon, Sony, Pentax, Fuji can geotag directly. http://www.photolife.com/blog/?tag=gps

And I am just waiting for one which can both do the geotag and show hike routes.