Please bring me up to date... All advice welcome

[Guest]

Thanks all... Show's you how out of date I am or how thing have changed... <br><br>
I was expecting to spark a Garmin vs Magellan fight, but instead got Nokia, BlackBerry, TomTom, Palm...

Apparently the TomTom software for mobiles is only good for in Europe (not the devices, just the mobile phone software)

As for mobile phones, Garmin and other GPS companies are going to be putting their own GPSr that are mobile phones out to market in the next 3 to 6 months.

Garmin released some teaser screen shots today

Also people will cope with mediocre if it does everything, compared to really super duper single purpose devices. A mobile phone these days can do video camera, still camera, gps, mapping, web, and of course calls

I have the Nokia 6220, but haven't tried to use it for caching... It's accuracy is a little worrying as it frequently advises me to do u-turns because it thinks I'm on a road 30m away... Maybe I should just get my old battered Magellan Meridian repaired...

You could just get a bluetooth keychain GPSr, which would "upgrade" the accuracy on your phone without a new device, these are 50-100, dunno what a repair would cost, or it could be the map co-ords are wrong too, so the phone might be right but the map isn't. Find a survey marker that is close by (and it's co-ords) and get the GPS co-ords out of the phone, TrekBuddy is usually good for this.

The diff between WGS84 and DGA94 is about 1m and aussie survey locations usually use DGA94.

[totalube]

As for mobile phones, Garmin and other GPS companies are going to be putting their own GPSr that are mobile phones out to market in the next 3 to 6 months.

Garmin released some teaser screen shots today

Also people will cope with mediocre if it does everything, compared to really super duper single purpose devices. A mobile phone these days can do video camera, still camera, gps, mapping, web, and of course calls ;)

However once your all in one device dies, gets dropped, etc, you loose everything, GPS, mobile phone, camera, media player, PDA, etc.

I have a nokia 6110 and it is the best phone I have ever had, however, I only use it's other features when I have it, I still use my iPod for music, my canon A430/D1000 for photos, and my garmin 60CSx for geocaching.

Stand alone products are a class above multi function devices. If you want a new GPSr, get a new Magellan/Garmin, by all means get a GPS phone, blackberry if you want , as these devices are a good backup, and can be used as a backup if have not got you hand held GPSr with you.

If I were buying a new GPSr, I would get the oregon/Colorado, built in paperless geocaching, wherigo player, compass, waterproof etc.

If you wanted better road navigation a garmin nuvi500 would be good.

[Guest]

However once your all in one device dies, gets dropped, etc, you loose everything, GPS, mobile phone, camera, media player, PDA, etc.

If you want redundency, you can get 2 all in 1 devices or ....

I have a nokia 6110 and it is the best phone I have ever had, however, I only use it's other features when I have it, I still use my iPod for music, my canon A430/D1000 for photos, and my garmin 60CSx for geocaching.

I can yank the SD micro card between the 9500 and 8310 here they both work in a similar capacity, although the 9500 has higher res, but yea GPS bug when out of coverage, which the 8310 doesn't.

Stand alone products are a class above multi function devices.

and you need a sherpa to help carry it all

If I were buying a new GPSr, I would get the oregon/Colorado, built in paperless geocaching, wherigo player, compass, waterproof etc.

Erm isn't that a multifunctional device?

[totalube]

Stand alone products are a class above multi function devices.

and you need a sherpa to help carry it all ;)

If I were buying a new GPSr, I would get the oregon/Colorado, built in paperless geocaching, wherigo player, compass, waterproof etc.

Erm isn't that a multifunctional device? :P

Well you don't need to carry everything with you at all times, thats when multifunction devices are good. Don't get me wrong most handheld digital devices these day have multiple functions to a certain degree. But I think that;

If you need a media player get a media player,

If you need a camera get a camera

And if you need a GPSr, get a GPS receiver.

Also get your multifunction device that can do all this and more, but if you need to take a photo, no mobile phone/PDA camera will be as good as a stand alone camera, no matter how many megapixels they can cram into it. Likewise with all it's functions they will be adequate but not as good as a dedicated machine.

With mobile phones being so small, the miniaturisation of the components mean sacrifices in quality of those components.

No matter how good the phone components are the dedicated device

[Guest]

Also get your multifunction device that can do all this and more, but if you need to take a photo, no mobile phone/PDA camera will be as good as a stand alone camera, no matter how many megapixels they can cram into it. Likewise with all it's functions they will be adequate but not as good as a dedicated machine.

You must of missed my post earlier where I said people will be happy with mediocre if it is more convenient, I have a Digital SLR, along with half a dozen lenses or so, and I know when it's good to use it, almost never these days the quality of pics coming out of my current BB is "good enough", and with phones doing 8MP, sure zoom sucks, but that doesn't mean you can't crop

With mobile phones being so small, the miniaturisation of the components mean sacrifices in quality of those components.

Erm can you justify or clarify your statement, because if that were true we'd still be using valves instead of transistors, instead of integrated circuits. Making things smaller doesn't mean a loss of anything, and in a lot of cases you gain a lot more since you have room for other things.

I'm still hanging out for liquid lens technology, which will give you optical zoom through changing an electric current in a special fluid. This technology has been specifically developed for mobile phones to do away with the need for lots of glass and in theory it should give you optic zoom as good as most consumer grade digital cameras.

No matter how good the phone components are the dedicated device

If that were true we'd still be using box brownies.

Again, most people will opt for convenience over super uber duper.

[Guest]

PS your arguments for a standalone camera, are similar to those that people used to make about film v digital, it's not good enough, will never be as good as film, so on and so forth... Seems most people don't care about which is better, 35mm film is still higher res, unless you have some insane budget, but most consumer digital cameras are more convenient etc.

Kodak doesn't even make film any more, so I guess that argument is no longer even possible to have for the most part. In any case it's simply a matter of time until mobile phone cameras, or cameras of that size supplant most consumer cameras.

Same old same old, newer technology eventually supplants existing, established technology, and then the cycle begins anew.

[Mr Router]

Some spend way to much time thinking

[totalube]

PS your arguments for a standalone camera, are similar to those that people used to make about film v digital, it's not good enough, will never be as good as film, so on and so forth... Seems most people don't care about which is better, 35mm film is still higher res, unless you have some insane budget, but most consumer digital cameras are more convenient etc.

Kodak doesn't even make film any more, so I guess that argument is no longer even possible to have for the most part. In any case it's simply a matter of time until mobile phone cameras, or cameras of that size supplant most consumer cameras.

Same old same old, newer technology eventually supplants existing, established technology, and then the cycle begins anew.

Mobile phone cameras will never better than a stand alone camera. You may miniaturise the sensor, the lenses, but every advance in phone camera will be used in a real camera to make them always better than a phone camera. When it comes to optics size does matter, a digital camera sensor will be larger, lens larger and able to capture more light. Quality in digital images is more than just megapixels.

Sure for a lot of people a phone camera will be all they want, but they will be compromising due to convenience.

Just for the record Kodak and Fuji still make film, and Fuji Velvia and Kodak Kodachrome slide films are still considered by many to be the best image available, supplanting even the highest digital sensor (quoted up to 22 megapixels equivalent).

Back on topic the advantages of a stand alone GPSr are that they are more rugged, waterproof, (and better accuracy) and more likely to survive being dropped than a mobile phone, however, some people will never go to rugged locations to cache and a mobile phone GPSr may be all they need.

[Guest]

Some spend way to much time thinking

Unfortunately in my case I can't easily switch these things off, and it just keeps going, not about this specifically but about everything in general really, I call it my creative curse, some times I come up with some of the most creative ideas as a result, but yea, can't switch it off...

[Guest]

Mobile phone cameras will never better than a stand alone camera. You may miniaturise the sensor, the lenses, but every advance in phone camera will be used in a real camera to make them always better than a phone camera. When it comes to optics size does matter, a digital camera sensor will be larger, lens larger and able to capture more light. Quality in digital images is more than just megapixels.

Some of the best "optical" technology in existence that works brilliantly in all light conditions aren't much bigger than most phone technology, that is the human eye

To date no analog or digital technology, regardless of size, can match it.

[Dutch_Uncle]

Unfortunately in my case I can't easily switch these things off, and it just keeps going, not about this specifically but about everything in general really, I call it my creative curse, some times I come up with some of the most creative ideas as a result, but yea, can't switch it off...

Some of the best "optical" technology in existence that works brilliantly in all light conditions aren't much bigger than most phone technology, that is the human eye

To date no analog or digital technology, regardless of size, can match it.

[Guest]

Mobile phone cameras will never better than a stand alone camera. You may miniaturise the sensor, the lenses, but every advance in phone camera will be used in a real camera to make them always better than a phone camera. When it comes to optics size does matter, a digital camera sensor will be larger, lens larger and able to capture more light. Quality in digital images is more than just megapixels.

This is a subjective choice based on a number of factors, you obviously are willing to sacrifice some size for convenience yourself based on your choice of camera. On the other hand some people won't even touch anything smaller than medium format or bigger.

[Guest]

That may be tiny but that wasn't my point, at this point in time there is no technology that I know of that works as well in the same range of light conditions as the human eye. There is optical technology that magnifies or captures more light over time than the eye does, or can flood in the IR spectrum, but none of this works across as many lighting conditions as the eye can seamlessly cope with.

[Mr Router]

Are you Bronzes Dutch Uncle

[rhinogeo]

That may be tiny but that wasn't my point, at this point in time there is no technology that I know of that works as well in the same range of light conditions as the human eye. There is optical technology that magnifies or captures more light over time than the eye does, or can flood in the IR spectrum, but none of this works across as many lighting conditions as the eye can seamlessly cope with.

... and we're all dazzled by your sagacity df2 but how does it help Leek buy a new GPSr?