I love the Garmin eTrex Vista HCx and Geotagging

Filed Under Gadgets & Hardware, Geek, Photography on 2008-01-06, 03:19

I love GPS receivers. There’s something great about knowing exactly where you are, plus being able to track where you’ve been. They come in handy while hiking, walking around a city, or driving. And I have a very long history with these things. I used to have a carputer that combined a GPS receiver with software long before it was standard on cars. My carputer consisted of a shoebox+miniITX+LCD imported from Hong Kong. I’ve used a handful of GPS receivers that are meant to interface with laptops, but up until recently, have only owned one handheld receiver, a Garmin eTrex Legend (unless you count the Boost Mobile i415 or the Helio Ocean). I loved that little device, it got me into geocaching and was primarily bought for that purpose. I used to also enjoy taking it on plane flights and tracking our flight across the country. It also rode shotgun with two other GPSrs during my cross-country move from Chicago to San Francisco. But I always felt like it was lacking. With only 8mb of internal memory, I could barely load enough maps for trips. I couldn’t even squeeze the entire Bay Area on it. And the monochrome screen? So 2002. I’ve been meaning to upgrade for quite awhile, and prompted by a New Year’s trip to Joshua Tree, I finally caved during a last minute trip to REI.

I picked up a Garmin eTrex Vista HCx unit for $299.99 (you can get it cheaper, but I love REI’s return policy). It’s almost the same size as the old Legend, just a little shorter and fatter. The screen on it is gorgeous though. It’s amazing how much easier it is to read maps with colors. The best part about it though is the sensitivity of the receiver. With the old Legend, I had gotten accustomed to having to leave it on the dashboard in the car or carrying it in my hand while walking. It consistently complained about needing a clear view of the sky in order to lock onto satellites. The new Vista HCx scoffs at these needs. It was able to pick up satellites while stashed in the seat back pocket in the middle of my car! Amazingly it was also able to pick up a signal while inside! So armed with my new toy, we headed out to Joshua Tree. I basically left it on for the entire drive and most of the time we were out in the desert and it did a spectacular job of hardly ever losing a signal. It came in handy when trying to find our campsite that was a little over a mile from our cars and hidden amongst desert foliage that all looks the same. It also allowed me to keep tracks on where we went, whether it was climbing a mountain, scrambling over boulders, or even just wandering away from camp to *ahem* dig a hole.

This tracking all came in handy when I got back home and wanted to geotag the photos I had taken out there. I loaded up EasyGPS to download a .gpx file containing the tracks and then used gpicsync (a Google Code project) to stamp the GPS information into the EXIF header of the actual image files. From there I uploaded the photos to Flickr, which automatically interpreted the GPS coordinates and placed my photos on the map. The other cool thing about gpicsync is that it will create a Google Earth file that will let you load up Google Earth and fly around the world, seeing where your photos were taken. Quite awesome when you’ve been taking photos in the mountains and you can actually see which ridge you were on in 3-D.

So I highly recommend the Garmin eTrex Vista HCx. And no, they aren’t paying me to say that. :) Although, if you do want to pick one up, use this link: Garmin eTrex Vista HCx and Amazon will give me a few bucks. They’ve actually got a damn good price for it there.

And yes, it comes in handy when you need to mark a waypoint to point out where you found your girlfriend’s toothpaste when you’re practicing “Leave No Trace” camping. ;)

Comments

Del Simmons

Thanks for the tips! My Vista HCx just arrived today and I was wondering how to geotag my photos. Any other interesting uses or hacks you’ve discovered?
Del Simmons

Thanks for the tips! My Vista HCx just arrived today and I was wondering how to geotag my photos. Any other interesting uses or hacks you've discovered?
http://www.geeked.info Ed

I haven’t found anything else yet, but I’ve only had time to play with it on that one trip. I’m really looking forward to taking it on some photo walks around the city, enjoying the ability to lock onto satellites amongst tall buildings
http://www.geeked.info Ed

I haven't found anything else yet, but I've only had time to play with it on that one trip. I'm really looking forward to taking it on some photo walks around the city, enjoying the ability to lock onto satellites amongst tall buildings
Bill

I bought a eTrex Vista to use when I am hiking/metal detecting in S. Korea. I am a dumby when it comes to these new gadgets, so thought I would let my son – U.S.Army Scout-type – set it up for me. We went out, and he said he was setting it up. Great! I need all the help I can get. So, ready to start hiking. We went up a ridge, marked a site, then on up the ridge, to where we could see my van (first setting.) Hit the button to see where my van was (I was looking at it, so really was checking out the etrex.) It gave me an exact OPPOSITE reading. So, my son handed me the unit and said that he didn't know how to set it up in Korea. He had used these things in Iraq and in the States, but never in Asia.
Anyhow, I have an etrex that must have been set up wrong.
My question: How do I undo whatever my son did? Erase all enteries, and start over again. I have to do it, or this is an expensive piece of junk, as far as its usability. Can anyone help me? My email: hikeinmts@hotmail.com Thanks.
sofauxboho

GPRRs handle location, not orientation. They
need something else to tell what direction you're facing.

If it's a Vista, it has an integrated electronic compass, which may
need calibration. You do this by going into the bearing screen (the
one with the compass on it) and choosing “Calibrate” from the menu.
It'll make you spin around in place in circles for a bit.

The compass may also be turned off. Try turning it on by holding the
top right button.

Or, if you can't get the compass working, try turning it off by
holding the same button.

If your eTrex for some reason has no integrated compass or have turned
the compass off, you have to walk in a straight line for the compass
to derive your bearing. Walk 10 feet in a straight line with good
reception, and see if the GPS starts showing the correct reading.

There's really not much to set up. As the “G” in GPS implies, it's a
global system. When first starting up in a wildly different area, it
will often ask you to search for a totally new location, and you can
say yes. This tells it to stop looking for the satellites it used last
time and start over. If it didn't do this, you can ask it to get a new
location from the menu on the satellite screen.

If it's still not behaving properly, I'd need to know a bit more about
what it's doing wrong. When you say it gave you the “exact opposite
reading” what do you mean? If you try to plot a course (off road) to
the waypoint, does it tell you to circumnavigate the globe? Does it
tell you to walk the few kilometers back to the car, but point you in
the wrong direction? If that's the case, when you try walking in the
direction it indicates, does the distance to waypoint measurement
increase or decrease?

If all else fails, Garmin has a support line: 1-800-800-1020
Or, if you're still outside the US: +1 (913) 397-8200
http://www.geeked.info edrabbit

Thanks for the info Reed! I've also emailed a copy to him. :)
andy

is there any way to set the contrast on the on the etrex vista hcx, when i turn it on it is dark
http://thegpsnavigationstore.com/ Bob

I use my hand held for hunting and now I don't get lost
http://garminetrexhhandheld.blogspot.com/ Tom

Yeah these thing are nice for when your in the woods
http://thegpsnavigationstore.com/ Bob

I use my hand held for hunting and now I don’t get lost
http://garminetrexhhandheld.blogspot.com/ Tom

Yeah these thing are nice for when your in the woods
http://www.gpscardvd.com/wholesale-car-gps-dvd-players-car-gps-dvd-for-nissan_c2477 dvd car gps nissan

Thanks for the tips!There’s really not much to set up. As the “G” in GPS implies, it’s a
global system.
http://www.portablegpsnavigation.net/garmin/ Cheap Garmin gps

Good post overall. Enjoyed reading it.