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Anyone use a GPS while out shooting ?

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KevinM

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This is a subject I am clueless about (along with many others LOL(atleast I admis it)).

Alot of times I will just go cruising looking for interesting subjects to shoot, turning down any old road. Sometimes, I find something really neat. A few months later I would like to return and take a pic in a different setting (winter as opposed to summer). It can be difficult to relocate.

So, my question is, do any stand alone handheld GPS units allow you mark a location and add a brief text description ?

How about the GPS Compact Flash units you put in a PDA, can you quickly and easily add a description on the map display ?

I do not want to be carring a laptop or fumbling with a big map in the vehicle.

When I return home, I would like to use that info mark up a real map, for future reference.

Thanks,

KevinM

P.S. Not interested in "They should replies", only, "Yes, this xxxx device", or this combination of PDA (Pocket PC) software does.
 
KevinM said:
This is a subject I am clueless about (along with many others
LOL(atleast I admis it)).

Alot of times I will just go cruising looking for interesting
subjects to shoot, turning down any old road. Sometimes, I find
something really neat. A few months later I would like to return
and take a pic in a different setting (winter as opposed to
summer). It can be difficult to relocate.

So, my question is, do any stand alone handheld GPS units allow you
mark a location and add a brief text description ?

How about the GPS Compact Flash units you put in a PDA, can you
quickly and easily add a description on the map display ?

I do not want to be carring a laptop or fumbling with a big map in
the vehicle.

When I return home, I would like to use that info mark up a real
map, for future reference.

Thanks,

KevinM

P.S. Not interested in "They should replies", only, "Yes, this xxxx
device", or this combination of PDA (Pocket PC) software does.
Click to expand...
Interesting.

I thought about this last year when I was looking at the EXIF data fields. I think that in the near future many cameras will have a GPS system built in to record the location automatically just as the date and time are recorded now.

Photo album software will then be accessible via a map interface (actually Sony already have this software available in Japan now but it is only tied in with the cameras on PDAs).

--
Andrew Mullan
 
I use a PDA solution for GPS, and what you can do depends only on the software you are using.

Mine (TomTom Navigator) allows to add 'Points of interest' which can be found later.
Regards,
tc
KevinM said:
This is a subject I am clueless about (along with many others
LOL(atleast I admis it)).

Alot of times I will just go cruising looking for interesting
subjects to shoot, turning down any old road. Sometimes, I find
something really neat. A few months later I would like to return
and take a pic in a different setting (winter as opposed to
summer). It can be difficult to relocate.

So, my question is, do any stand alone handheld GPS units allow you
mark a location and add a brief text description ?

How about the GPS Compact Flash units you put in a PDA, can you
quickly and easily add a description on the map display ?

I do not want to be carring a laptop or fumbling with a big map in
the vehicle.

When I return home, I would like to use that info mark up a real
map, for future reference.

Thanks,

KevinM

P.S. Not interested in "They should replies", only, "Yes, this xxxx
device", or this combination of PDA (Pocket PC) software does.
Click to expand...
--
Some digital cameras, some lenses, 2 eyes

http://www.tom-crowning.com

 
OK Tom,

Interesting. You say it will allow you to add points of interest.

Does that mean you can add a note to the location describing that point of interest ?

KevinM
 
I did come across some threads regarding the inserting of GPS data into the EXIF. That would be great, however, not possible with Canon as far as I know.

I did see some reference to Nikon D1x being able to do so. However really did not follow up on that. That would be a little more of an expensive option LOL.

KevinM
 
KevinM said:
This is a subject I am clueless about (along with many others
LOL(atleast I admis it)).

Alot of times I will just go cruising looking for interesting
subjects to shoot, turning down any old road. Sometimes, I find
something really neat. A few months later I would like to return
and take a pic in a different setting (winter as opposed to
summer). It can be difficult to relocate.

So, my question is, do any stand alone handheld GPS units allow you
mark a location and add a brief text description ?

How about the GPS Compact Flash units you put in a PDA, can you
quickly and easily add a description on the map display ?

I do not want to be carring a laptop or fumbling with a big map in
the vehicle.

When I return home, I would like to use that info mark up a real
map, for future reference.

Thanks,

KevinM
Click to expand...
Kevin, I do pretty much this exact same thing, particularly when in remote areas photographing rock formations or mine shaft entrances, or old mines / buildings in the desert.

I have an older Magellan Meridian model that they no longer make, although they now make upgraded versions of the same unit. I installed a 64 MB SD card in the unit to allow the storage of extra topo maps loaded into the GPS using Mapsend software.

With Mapsend (Topo US in my case) you can download and store to the GPS highly detailed topo maps of the areas of interest to you. The 64 MB card I have can hold about 1/5 of the United States in high detail, and just about all of the rural and main roads you are likely to travel, for the entire United States. This software also allows you to print maps (using a PC)with any downloaded data from the GPS unit, including waypoint, route, and track data. This also means the software will take all of your waypoints (as you enter them when taking an image) and combine them into a file, that you can recall later.

You can enter all the information into the GPS unit at the time you take the image, but this is rather a pain using the GUI that most GPS units have. Moving the curser around on the screen to slect letters and all. Much easier just to assign the point a unique ID number and then take a picture of the GPS unit at the end of the photo string at that location. Or the beginning, or whenever you think you need to. That way when you D/L the images the picture of the GPS, with the waypoint ID number and location information, is right there. When you D/L the waypoint info to the PC with the Mapsend software on it then it is a lot easier to add any custom info you want using the PC keyboard.

T!
 
Token said:
KevinM said:
This is a subject I am clueless about (along with many others
LOL(atleast I admis it)).

Alot of times I will just go cruising looking for interesting
subjects to shoot, turning down any old road. Sometimes, I find
something really neat. A few months later I would like to return
and take a pic in a different setting (winter as opposed to
summer). It can be difficult to relocate.

So, my question is, do any stand alone handheld GPS units allow you
mark a location and add a brief text description ?

How about the GPS Compact Flash units you put in a PDA, can you
quickly and easily add a description on the map display ?

I do not want to be carring a laptop or fumbling with a big map in
the vehicle.

When I return home, I would like to use that info mark up a real
map, for future reference.

Thanks,

KevinM
Click to expand...
Kevin, I do pretty much this exact same thing, particularly when in
remote areas photographing rock formations or mine shaft entrances,
or old mines / buildings in the desert.

I have an older Magellan Meridian model that they no longer make,
although they now make upgraded versions of the same unit. I
installed a 64 MB SD card in the unit to allow the storage of extra
topo maps loaded into the GPS using Mapsend software.

With Mapsend (Topo US in my case) you can download and store to the
GPS highly detailed topo maps of the areas of interest to you. The
64 MB card I have can hold about 1/5 of the United States in high
detail, and just about all of the rural and main roads you are
likely to travel, for the entire United States. This software also
allows you to print maps (using a PC)with any downloaded data from
the GPS unit, including waypoint, route, and track data. This also
means the software will take all of your waypoints (as you enter
them when taking an image) and combine them into a file, that you
can recall later.

You can enter all the information into the GPS unit at the time you
take the image, but this is rather a pain using the GUI that most
GPS units have. Moving the curser around on the screen to slect
letters and all. Much easier just to assign the point a unique ID
number and then take a picture of the GPS unit at the end of the
photo string at that location. Or the beginning, or whenever you
think you need to. That way when you D/L the images the picture of
the GPS, with the waypoint ID number and location information, is
right there. When you D/L the waypoint info to the PC with the
Mapsend software on it then it is a lot easier to add any custom
info you want using the PC keyboard.

T!
Click to expand...
I have a Garmin 2610 in my car I find it very handy and never will use a map again, it does have a way the add "waypoints" which is a location spotter so if needed to go back there no problem.All you have to do is push 1 button.

I am an account rep so to me its the best.

I did try to fit it on my 1d but I realised it was sucking to much power (LOL)
 
Easy to use, no additional card or wires etc.
Go to: http://www.garmin.com/products/iQue3600/

This is a PDA with the Palm Operating system so you can also get some additional neat programs like Focus+ from: http://www.bitwareoz.com/products.htm
and SOL! from: http://www.mew3.com/palm/sol2/

There are a lot of other useful Palm programs for a phototgrapher.

Horst
KevinM said:
This is a subject I am clueless about (along with many others
LOL(atleast I admis it)).

Alot of times I will just go cruising looking for interesting
subjects to shoot, turning down any old road. Sometimes, I find
something really neat. A few months later I would like to return
and take a pic in a different setting (winter as opposed to
summer). It can be difficult to relocate.

So, my question is, do any stand alone handheld GPS units allow you
mark a location and add a brief text description ?

How about the GPS Compact Flash units you put in a PDA, can you
quickly and easily add a description on the map display ?

I do not want to be carring a laptop or fumbling with a big map in
the vehicle.

When I return home, I would like to use that info mark up a real
map, for future reference.

Thanks,

KevinM

P.S. Not interested in "They should replies", only, "Yes, this xxxx
device", or this combination of PDA (Pocket PC) software does.
Click to expand...
 
KevinM said:
This is a subject I am clueless about (along with many others
LOL(atleast I admis it)).

Alot of times I will just go cruising looking for interesting
subjects to shoot, turning down any old road. Sometimes, I find
something really neat. A few months later I would like to return
and take a pic in a different setting (winter as opposed to
summer). It can be difficult to relocate.

So, my question is, do any stand alone handheld GPS units allow you
mark a location and add a brief text description ?
Click to expand...
I have a Garmin eTrex Vista I am very happy with. Size of a cell phone. Maps, even down to street and housenumber level, but also topo maps available (but only US).

It is much more sturdy than any PDA.
 
I would love a camera that had a built in GPS to record as part of exif.

Addtionally it woudl be nice if it had some sort of compass to record the direction the camera was pointing (prone to error, but better than nothing)

Also instead of the orientation sensor if the camera had both a pitch and a tilt sensor to complete the information needed to know exactly where the camera was pointed. I think these two - especially the tilt could lead to interesting 'auto-level' correction in post processing.

I have this vision of an interactive method to present photos based on a map, their GPS location and with the above directional information recordedand the already recoreded focal length of lens the ability to link photos together. (i.e. if threre is mountain in the photo you could click on the top of mountain to bring up all other linked photos of the mountain and if you shift-click you can bring up all photos take from that mountain.) Using this one could travel the world (or more realistically a mapped area) thru linked photos.

Al
KevinM said:
This is a subject I am clueless about (along with many others
LOL(atleast I admis it)).

Alot of times I will just go cruising looking for interesting
subjects to shoot, turning down any old road. Sometimes, I find
something really neat. A few months later I would like to return
and take a pic in a different setting (winter as opposed to
summer). It can be difficult to relocate.

So, my question is, do any stand alone handheld GPS units allow you
mark a location and add a brief text description ?

How about the GPS Compact Flash units you put in a PDA, can you
quickly and easily add a description on the map display ?

I do not want to be carring a laptop or fumbling with a big map in
the vehicle.

When I return home, I would like to use that info mark up a real
map, for future reference.

Thanks,

KevinM

P.S. Not interested in "They should replies", only, "Yes, this xxxx
device", or this combination of PDA (Pocket PC) software does.
Click to expand...
 
Kevin:

I just picked up a Garmin eTrex Rino 120 for this purpose (yes you can set waypoints and label them). The Rino adds an FRS radio, and an ability to transmit your location to another Rino. I needed a radio anyway, so the package really made sense for me. The Rino has a simple base map -- you will have to download one of Garmin's CD based maps to get all the detail that's available.

Here are a few sites I found useful in my research:

http://gpsinformation.net/

http://www.outdoorreview.com/pscOutdoor,Equipment/Backpacking,Camping,Hiking/GPS/PLS_3013crx.aspx
http://www.gpsdiscount.com/

Good luck!
KevinM said:
This is a subject I am clueless about (along with many others
LOL(atleast I admis it)).

Alot of times I will just go cruising looking for interesting
subjects to shoot, turning down any old road. Sometimes, I find
something really neat. A few months later I would like to return
and take a pic in a different setting (winter as opposed to
summer). It can be difficult to relocate.

So, my question is, do any stand alone handheld GPS units allow you
mark a location and add a brief text description ?

How about the GPS Compact Flash units you put in a PDA, can you
quickly and easily add a description on the map display ?

I do not want to be carring a laptop or fumbling with a big map in
the vehicle.

When I return home, I would like to use that info mark up a real
map, for future reference.

Thanks,

KevinM

P.S. Not interested in "They should replies", only, "Yes, this xxxx
device", or this combination of PDA (Pocket PC) software does.
Click to expand...
--
Alan
http://www.pbase.com/abh
http://www.shutterfreaks.com/gallery/abh
 
For posting this in the wrong forum, you have provided me with quite a bit of useful information.

Now I have to sit back, follow the links and search out your suggestions.

Being able to mark locations and convenieltly tag them will make it so much easier to return.

We have all come across an interesting spot and thought, "Hmmmm, might be better if I return in either a different light, or season"

Hopefully this thread has been of service to others who have been thinking the same thing.

Thanks again, and keep the info coming,

KevinM
 
I'm not too sure about writing a description, but you can do way points for sure. I bought this for my wife who does a lot of walking around. It is waterproof, so rain won't bother it. I plan on using it while windsurfing to mark where I go (and how fast of course). I hadn't thought about it, but if I go on a photography hike, I would love to be able to mark where the pictures where taken. Actually, I am planning on hitting the Pennobscot Bay, Maine this summer. This is a perfect example of where you could use this. I am hoping to get some very memorable shots on this trip.

Thanks for the idea!

I like the wrist idea because I don't want to carry other objects with me. Having it on my wrist removes the need to 'carry' it. ;-)

It is the Garmin Forerunner 201
Tom Crowning said:
KevinM said:
This is a subject I am clueless about (along with many others
LOL(atleast I admis it)).

Alot of times I will just go cruising looking for interesting
subjects to shoot, turning down any old road. Sometimes, I find
something really neat. A few months later I would like to return
and take a pic in a different setting (winter as opposed to
summer). It can be difficult to relocate.

So, my question is, do any stand alone handheld GPS units allow you
mark a location and add a brief text description ?

How about the GPS Compact Flash units you put in a PDA, can you
quickly and easily add a description on the map display ?

I do not want to be carring a laptop or fumbling with a big map in
the vehicle.

When I return home, I would like to use that info mark up a real
map, for future reference.

Thanks,

KevinM

P.S. Not interested in "They should replies", only, "Yes, this xxxx
device", or this combination of PDA (Pocket PC) software does.
Click to expand...
--
Some digital cameras, some lenses, 2 eyes

http://www.tom-crowning.com

Click to expand...
--
Regards,

Bill

http://o2bnme.fotki.com/
 
Sorry to add 'I wishes' or 'they should' comments, but this is where I wish the 300D or 10D had an audio record feature like the Canon Powershots do. No purist can complain that it is gimicky like is oft said of the movie features. In fact I can think of more 'pro' and 'serious hobby' uses for this than for the general 'P&S' type shooter.

Al
Bill Bradstreet said:
Thanks for the idea!

I like the wrist idea because I don't want to carry other objects
with me. Having it on my wrist removes the need to 'carry' it. ;-)

It is the Garmin Forerunner 201
Tom Crowning said:
KevinM said:
This is a subject I am clueless about (along with many others
LOL(atleast I admis it)).

Alot of times I will just go cruising looking for interesting
subjects to shoot, turning down any old road. Sometimes, I find
something really neat. A few months later I would like to return
and take a pic in a different setting (winter as opposed to
summer). It can be difficult to relocate.

So, my question is, do any stand alone handheld GPS units allow you
mark a location and add a brief text description ?

How about the GPS Compact Flash units you put in a PDA, can you
quickly and easily add a description on the map display ?

I do not want to be carring a laptop or fumbling with a big map in
the vehicle.

When I return home, I would like to use that info mark up a real
map, for future reference.

Thanks,

KevinM

P.S. Not interested in "They should replies", only, "Yes, this xxxx
device", or this combination of PDA (Pocket PC) software does.
Click to expand...
--
Some digital cameras, some lenses, 2 eyes

http://www.tom-crowning.com

Click to expand...
--
Regards,

Bill

http://o2bnme.fotki.com/
Click to expand...
 
Digital voice recorder (DVR) would be interesting, but, half the time I do not know exactly where I am LOL. I'll drive down the road to some new area start cruising the most rural of roads finding many dead ends in the process, looking for access to the bay/river whatever. I have found some really cool places like that.

The voice recorder option I think would be excellent for a journalist or someone shooting sports. Making verbal notes while still being able to shoot at the same time. Kind of like you uttering things out loud after buying some that has "Some assembly required" LOL.

If they ever did offer something like DVR, it should go on perhaps a seperate card, like an XD or SD. This way you would not eat up your picture card.

KevinM
 
Stephen Jones said:
I have a Garmin 2610 in my car I find it very handy and never will
use a map again, it does have a way the add "waypoints" which is a
location spotter so if needed to go back there no problem.All you
have to do is push 1 button.

I am an account rep so to me its the best.

I did try to fit it on my 1d but I realised it was sucking to much
power (LOL)
Click to expand...
The Magellan I use also adds waypoints at a touch, one to set it, a second to confirm. But if you want to add information (such as a title or discription) to it it takes a lot more key strokes.

T!
 
(already replied via email, but thought others may want to know as well)

Yes, when you add a point of interest you can add some text.
Regards,
tc
KevinM said:
OK Tom,

Interesting. You say it will allow you to add points of interest.

Does that mean you can add a note to the location describing that
point of interest ?

KevinM
Click to expand...
--
Some digital cameras, some lenses, 2 eyes

http://www.tom-crowning.com

 
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