Ok, I’ll admit to having a bad sense of direction. While in Japan, I have no trouble at all navigating the extensive train network but once out in the streets, get lost with alarming regularity. I’ve always wanted to find something that would help me in unfamiliar places. This Casio Exilim EX-H20G with it’s hybrid-GPS system and map in memory seemed just like the ticket.
I’ve used my iPhone in Japan last year, and works very well but without an unlimited data plan outside the borders of the US one has to pay by the bit it. I’m sure you’ve heard of horror stories where the bill ended up being thousands of dollars, or even tens of thousands. It’s really such a sad state of affairs. A portable GPS unit might seem like an option, but have you ever tried to buy a map for one? They don’t seem to be readily available and buying one in Japan still expensive. Incidentally, while in Japan, I’m able to make calls much like a local one with the iPhone, though I have to dial the area code. Now, when people call me, they have to dial the country code and pay for an international call! Death to the cell phone companies!
Back on track, I’ve been looking at various GPS devices both supplementary and integrated, especially digitizing my negatives and slides. This may not be important to you, and won’t help for these older shots, but I find it sad that I don’t remember were many of these shots were taken. Now rather than bore you with what has been mentioned already in other real reviews listed below. Hope to cover new ground with future posts, my observations while using the camera.
GPS Passion
Digital Camera Review
Imaging Resource
Casio USA
First of all run, don’t walk to Casio’s support pages and download version 2.04 if you don’t have it. Mine came with 1.00 and almost returned the camera since I was not able to access any tracks. The camera would have been of limited use without it in my eyes. I bought the thing as a quick, dirty and easy way to take pictures of whatever got my fancy, record locations of where I’ve been for later use with my DSLR shots and help me navigate unfamiliar tourist traps. I had already found the latter lacking, so without the tracks would have been just another camera!
The new firmware allows you to specifically save tracks to the memory card. Nice thing about it is the fact that it automatically divides the data in one day slices when you choose to output the log to your memory card. One not so nice “feature” is the fact that it won’t do this automatically. One can set the data logging length up to 14 days. I assumed that once the set period is reached the camera would save the data to the card, then start afresh in it’s own memory, it’s just not clear in the directions. However, when set the time to 1 day, it still had the data from the day before. I had to save the data manually to the card to confirm this. Hmm, guess it makes sense to keep the data for a day then purge. I just don’t have the patience to play around with this. Out vacationing, I know I’m going to save the data first to confirm that the camera is indeed recording, then play with this every few days just out of sheer curiosity or pure boredom during layovers. I’ll just set it to the max and not worry about it!