[Lowell Goudge]

10K points is pretty lame for a dedicated tracker (that doesn't have a card option).

not so, early devices were limited to 2000 track points, later ones to 10K. it is just something to keep in mind. also note that this is the active track log, which gets used for a lot of other functions such as trace back etc.

It can be a pain to set-up the first time, but speed is not a problem.

but the real point is you don't want to be bound by the track log being full, you may ot have a computer with you if you are hiking. that's why I prefer to have one that can save to a chip, because any reasonable SD card will never get filled.

My initial thought was to use a pretty tight window, but when walking/hiking 5 seconds is overkill unless you need to know the EXACT spot you were standing on, which I can't imagine why you would. It is not like the pictures themselves are of that spot (except maybe for a macro) -- the camera could be pointing anywhere and to something far away from where you are standing. Also, when you are taking pictures, you are generally milling around the same area or stopped, so all those other points are keeping track of your position while moving but you'll never need those to actually geotag a picture.

perhaps, perhaps not. while walking for example, I would agree, a strong pase on the street is 100 meters per minute or about 5 feet per second, so you have only moved 25 feet, but, remember that over the course of time you will be driving, walking, boating, skiing, on a train etc.. your speeds will vary all the way to 200mph (TGV in france for example) and unless you want to consider changing your time scale for every transportation mode, it is better to leave it fast. just keep in mind that 5 seconds at 200 mph is 1500 feet, so you have moved a long long way.

Yeah, I think the Holux has all those options, along with the ability to act as a GPS antenna for other devices via bluetooth. In any case, I haven't run in any limitations with it -- it saves my tracks, and I can tag them easily. I think it was about $60 new.

not familiar with that one, but if it does what you need go for it.

One other note: set the clock on your camera accurately so that you can sync up the pics properly later. The GPS will generally get its timestamps from the satellites, so there will probably be a time zone difference. Some recommend setting the camera time to the same as the GPS time, but I like my pictures denoted in local time. You just need to figure out the offset later so you can put it in the program that will set the stamps.

don't worry about this really, most programs allow time correction, what is important is to know the relative difference . some people do this by taking a photo of the time display on their gps unit.

Jennifer, after you get your device, come back and we'll walk through the process of actually getting the tags into your images. Much of the included software with these things is totally lame, so don't worry too much about that because there are other options out there (free, like Geosetter).

I agree, as long as you can get a gpx file out of the gps you are free to do what you want, and we can and will help

Only if you need some particular feature that a particular brand is offering with their software (presumably something other than plain geotagging -- many of them have functions for runners, etc). Otherwise, you just need it to spit out .gpx files and that's it...

how true. I have 2 GPS units,
one which is a high end Garmin GPS76CSx. This has a color display can upload maps, which is great added feature for hiking and kayaking, and as I said earlier is water proof and floats, so if I dump my Kayak it stays on the water. water proof and sinking does no good.
my second unit is a forerunner, which I use for running, as it also incorporates a heart rate monitor. It is smaller (a watch on steroids) but requires garmin software to download,

When travelling, either of these will be in my bag/pack to log the trips. long trips I take the good GPS, because I like to have maps in it.

[JenniferLeigh]

Thanks again for the insight guys. I finally had a chance to fit down and look at some of the recommendations in this thread today. Hard to find a unit that supports microSD AND removable batteries AND is under $100.

As I'm looking around, I'm pondering over getting something with more features. Mapping would be really handy for all our summer activities, hiking & dirtbiking. I sure would have loved to have something when we got lost on our last backwoods hike. Correction, my boyfriend says we weren't lost - we just misplaced the trail. The Garmin eTrex 20 GPS is about $170 has everything I wanted and more but is also larger and over my budget.

With that said, I'm also looking deeper into using smartphones, as I don't want to spend more money then I need to :P I've read a couple articles using iphone/android for backpacking and on maximizing battery life. I'm wondering, that Thailand a phone might be sufficient, if I can maximize the battery life.

The Holux takes a single AA, so I just use eneloops and switch it out everyday. So if you can charge at night that should be no problem and you'll only need to carry a few batteries.

No problems with the rechargeable batteries? Their website warns against using rechargeable batteries to avoid malfunction,

[JenniferLeigh]

Jennifer, after you get your device, come back and we'll walk through the process of actually getting the tags into your images. Much of the included software with these things is totally lame, so don't worry too much about that because there are other options out there (free, like Geosetter). Only if you need some particular feature that a particular brand is offering with their software (presumably something other than plain geotagging -- many of them have functions for runners, etc). Otherwise, you just need it to spit out .gpx files and that's it...

I have used my iPhone for geotagging in the past. I used Jeffrey’s “Geoencoding Support” Plugin for Lightroom with the outputted GPX file and the whole process was pretty simple and painless

[vonBaloney]

Thanks again for the insight guys. I finally had a chance to fit down and look at some of the recommendations in this thread today. Hard to find a unit that supports microSD AND removable batteries AND is under $100.

As I'm looking around, I'm pondering over getting something with more features. Mapping would be really handy for all our summer activities, hiking & dirtbiking. I sure would have loved to have something when we got lost on our last backwoods hike. Correction, my boyfriend says we weren't lost - we just misplaced the trail. The Garmin eTrex 20 GPS is about $170 has everything I wanted and more but is also larger and over my budget.

With that said, I'm also looking deeper into using smartphones, as I don't want to spend more money then I need to :P I've read a couple articles using iphone/android for backpacking and on maximizing battery life. I'm wondering, that Thailand a phone might be sufficient, if I can maximize the battery life.


No problems with the rechargeable batteries? Their website warns against using rechargeable batteries to avoid malfunction,

Eneloops work fine, that's all I've used actually. If I was going on a multi-day backwoods hike and I didn't want to carry a bunch of batteries and save weight, I'd use lithiums as they weigh nothing (much less than normal or rechargeables) and they last the longest. But they are also expensive. They have those solar panels now so you can charge while you hike, but then that's more weight. I also have a handheld GPS unit with maps and even a satellite communicator thing so I can call for help when I break my leg on one of those backwoods hikes. I can make tracks with the mapping unit as well, but generally I don't leave that on that whole day so I can maximize my batteries, and for most trips where I know where I am I don't need it at all so I don't bring it all the time. So nothing beats the dedicated logger which I take with me always (car, bike, hike) -- you just turn it on and forget it and it logs everything. The least other features the better as they just use battery life, although the Holux does have a tiny display which shows me the time or the coordinates, I can see when it doesn't have a fix, etc. I'm not partial to the Holux -- there are other units just as good. The ones with removable cards or that act just like a thumb drive are easier to get the data off of later, but I've got my procedure down now so it is no big deal. Waterproof is also a good option, which the Holux is not. My smartphone is not up to the task, but the newer ones probably are. Mainly battery life is a concern, and sometimes they don't work well when there is no cell service even if all they need is the internal gps.

Always try to find real user reviews and forums for devices like these -- they aren't mainstream enough that they are made from well-known brands (which is why the software tends to be lame -- good software development is expensive and the market isn't big enough) and so you need to pour through user experiences for reliability and things like "did they fix that in the latest firmware". (Plan on updating firmware for whatever you get.) I think I found out about the Holux on this very forum. Almost went with a different unit that also sounded good, but I actually can't remember why I eventually choose the one I did -- none of them sounded perfect (plus I didn't want to spend a fortune). Anyway, works fine for me -- with the eneloops I plan on using a fresh one each outing. I did test to see how long a battery would last when I first got it, and I think it died in the middle of the second day, so with a fresh one each day it is always on -- it might crap out on a really long day, but realistically I'm never out that long. It also can be powered via usb so in the car I just plug it in and no batteries are used (it won't charge from the usb, but it will stay on).

[JenniferLeigh]

I just wanted to pop back in and thank everyone again for the responses. I spend weeks researching different options and finally decided on the IGotU gt600.

The Holux model looked really nice but I ended up deciding against it because of the AA battery, while I would love this for longer backwoods camping trips, it seems like a hassle for a 30 day trip to Thailand. The iGotU gt600 has the best battery life out of all the devices I looked at. It has a motion sensor and claims to be able to last over 80 hours. For my Thailand trip, charging via USB will be convenient and it turns out I will have access to a netbook to unload data if neede..

The gt600 should make it here by the weekend, then I'm off the following Wednesday. I'll post an in depth review after my trip.

Thanks again for all the advice

[vonBaloney]

I just wanted to pop back in and thank everyone again for the responses. I spend weeks researching different options and finally decided on the IGotU gt600.

The Holux model looked really nice but I ended up deciding against it because of the AA battery, while I would love this for longer backwoods camping trips, it seems like a hassle for a 30 day trip to Thailand. The iGotU gt600 has the best battery life out of all the devices I looked at. It has a motion sensor and claims to be able to last over 80 hours. For my Thailand trip, charging via USB will be convenient and it turns out I will have access to a netbook to unload data if neede..

The gt600 should make it here by the weekend, then I'm off the following Wednesday. I'll post an in depth review after my trip.

Thanks again for all the advice

Try to figure out how to use it and extract logs before your trip so it all goes well. And keep the clock on your camera set properly...

[JenniferLeigh]

Will do Von Hoping to take it out this weekend to get familiar before I leave!

[Lowell Goudge]

Don't worry too much about your camera clock. Using geosetter you can compensate for the error between clock and GPS. I would set the camera clock Once, and once only, as playing with it may cause more errors than leaving it alone. More important is if you have 2 bodies to either sync the camera clocks, or post process the images separately for each so that you can fix the clock errors separately.

Remember the proverb. A man with one watch always knows what time it is, a man with two is never quite sure

[vonBaloney]

Don't worry too much about your camera clock. Using geosetter you can compensate for the error between clock and GPS. I would set the camera clock Once, and once only, as playing with it may cause more errors than leaving it alone. More important is if you have 2 bodies to either sync the camera clocks, or post process the images separately for each so that you can fix the clock errors separately.

Remember the proverb. A man with one watch always knows what time it is, a man with two is never quite sure

You can't set the correct offset later if you don't know what it is, so you have to set the clock at least once -- all I was getting at. But I have had my clock go changing time on me for no apparent reason (other than the passage of it!) -- I probably hit the wrong button, but it is worth it to check to make sure it is still on correct time once in a while. Also if going to Thailand I personally would set it for local time as I like to see that on my images so I know it was 2 in the afternoon where I was and not the middle of the night back home or whatever (even while still on vacation and reviewing images before I've done any geotagging). But yes, you can use geosetter to make those kind of offsets later as well...