--- In Hugh Livingston
<> wrote:
> Does anyone have any experience using the Lowrance iFinder Expedition
> Color in the field while Nature Recording?
I've had no experience with the Lowrance product. However, I'd like to
mention something that does a good job. I take a Sony DSC-T100
Cybershot camera on all of my recording expeditions, a small unit that
easily fits into a shirt pocket or similar. It has a D-cell-sized GPS
accessory called the GPS-CS1:
http://www.letsgodigital.org/en/9323/sony_gps_photography/
I bought it for about $50 AUD, duty free at the airport. It's basically
a USB memory stick with GPS connection; there is no connection with the
camera, it simply logs and stores the GPS data every 15 seconds while
it is turned on. When finished, the pics are loaded into the PC, the
GPS unit is hooked up via USB, and Sony's software correlates GPS
locations with the time and dates in the pictures. A remarkably simple
idea, but you must make sure the time and date settings are correct in
the camera or they won't match (the GPS takes its time and date from
the satellites, so it is always correct).
In the field, all I have to do is turn on the GPS, wait for the LED to
indicate it has locked onto the satellites, and then take a few
snapshots to document the location/set-up. Pressing the camera button
kills two birds with one stone (therefore I'd recommend taking the
photo *after* recording the birds). There's no written or spoken
documentation required.
A friend of mine recently bought a Nokia mobile phone that is also a
GPS unit (complete with maps), and contains a digital camera. If the
GPS data can be stored with the pics it would be a useful device,
depending on the picture quality required.
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