Garmin 550t Handheld Gps Navigator

By Author: john damon
Total Articles: 16
Comment this article

The Oregon 300 brought touchscreen technology and Ordnance Survey maps to handheld navigation, and newest in the Oregon line is the 550t, which comes with a extra detailed topographic map as standard and a built-in camera. The Garmin 550t's primary specification is similar to the 300. It weighs the same 193g with batteries, is ruggedised to resist knocks and drops, and is waterproof to IPX7 standards. Which means that it might survive as much as half an hour under a metre of water, so it ought to cope in the event you fall in a river by accident or your tent will get flooded. There's a mounting backbone on the again for a karabiner, so you can attach the 550t securely to your clothes or backpack.

The 2 essential new hardware options are the aforementioned digital camera and a triple-axis digital compass. The camera sports 3.2-megapixels and is constructed into the back of the system in a similar fashion to a cellular phone. It affords autofocus, and takes acceptable pictures. Even in comparatively poor mild, it picks up a better image than ...
... a lot of smartphone cameras.

But the 550t's digicam will not be really there to interchange even your smartphone's photographic ability. Its true energy lies in its geotagging function. This is one thing which can be a little bit of a gimmick, particularly in camcorders. But in the Oregon it makes complete sense. If you wish to take a visual file of where you've got been, a GPS-outfitted camera will require a minute or two to seek out its bearings before location information will be stored along with your pictures. In distinction, assuming you've got been using the 550t throughout your journey, it will likely be prepared for action straight away.

While you browse pictures within the library, you can simply call up a map exhibiting the situation of any which might be geotagged, and this can be displayed on the installed topographic map quite than the very restricted ones provided by cameras and camcorders with this facility. Better of all, photographs present one of many destination options, so you can navigate to any geotagged image, which is good for all method of purposes, corresponding to naturalists monitoring the location of plants they've discovered. Couple this with the 550t's skill to send knowledge wirelessly to other Garmin Oregon gadgets, and you have a strong extension of the outside GPS's usage.

The show has extraordinarily poor viewing angles, but in practice that is solely a difficulty once you're trying to show something onscreen to someone else. Most of the time, you possibly can angle the gadget so you'll be able to see fairly clearly, although care must be taken to avoid reflections. Because of the triple-axis compass, the Garmin 550t could be held at any angle and the map should stay correctly oriented with regard to the actual world. It is because it detects the earth's magnetic discipline in X, Y and Z directions. Gadgets with dual-axis compasses solely work reliably when held parallel to the ground.