On 4/28/2016 4:57 PM, Where in the world is Mike wrote:
Oriented Moose writes:
<<You did post it before, and it was a factor in my buying a Garmin Foretrex
401.
Hmm, so what prompted the purchase? Would a phone app like Viewranger not
suffice?
All phone apps and the IgotU depend on the GPS chip in the phone. I don't know if some phone(s) or other have high
sensitivity GPS chip(s?), but mine doesn't. Under serious tree cover, I've had tracks that jump wildly all over the
place from both IgotU and iPhones. Does it really matter, as it gets them in the right general place anyway? Well, it
bothered me. :-) When we hiked 5+ miles, with a lot of elevation change, in Calaveras Big Trees SP, it bugged me,
partly because the images were rather randomly geocoded, but also because I couldn't follow our path on the map.
Much like the example Mike posted, the track doesn't follow the path, only I've had quite a bit worse examples. He
didn't have 200-300+ foot trees close together overhead.
The software looks like a bit of a learning curve and overall system less
robust but one already has the device.
I'm not sure what you mean here. Are you saying that the phone is less robust, but already in hand? Certainly true, as
the Garmin is water resistant and generally built for tougher use. And that's why I went with the relatively small 401,
rather than a full size GPS unit. Although it has a very limited screen, it does allow control that's not possible with
the screen-less IgotU. Also, the use of AAA batteries, with a NiMh setting, makes it much more flexible than either
other fixed battery device.
I have several phone apps that can show where I am on its screen accurately enough for my needs, hence again, I don't
need the large color screen and other maps of a full size unit.
What will you use for geotag?
Garmin's software is definitely unintuitive to me. There is a logic, maybe a worldview, in both device and software that
seems askew to me.
OTOH now that I've learned how to Import from Device then Export to .gpx file, I don't need anything else. The output is
just .gpx files. So far, I've used Geosetter. LR will also do it. Garmin's BaseCamp software should do it, as well, but
is again not straightforward, so I've not actually used it.
Here I Am Moose
--
What if the Hokey Pokey *IS* what it's all about?
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