Re: GPS and Digital Photography

David Lee wrote:
J. Clarke wrote...
Keep the compass turned on and you battery life goes to Hell though.

I'm not sure that is necessarily true.

I've heard many claims that it is.

I've never really played with the compass settings before, but
looking at my Vista, the default setting for the Auto Compass Switch
is to use the compass heading when the speed is less than 10mph for
more than 90sec. Hence, when it is enabled, the compass will be in
use for almost all the time when moving at pedestrian speeds.

Yet most of the time, my GPS is clipped to my rucksack strap recording a
track and I'm not even looking at it. How often does one need to stare at
the GPS for the entire duration of a walk? Actual navigation is something
that only needs to be done now and again, when you're unsure of which way to
go next.

Changing these settings to 1mph and 5sec, the compass indicator
disappears and the receiver uses the GPS heading as soon as I start
moving but the compass kicks in again rapidly when I stop. Whether
this saves power will of course depend upon whether the compass is
physically turned off when enabled but not in use.

I'm pretty sure that does save power, which is fine if you're the kind of
walker who rarely stops, but being a photographer, (which is what this
thread is about) I tend to stop a lot, so I turn the compass off completely.
I only switch it on if I actually need to use it.

Paul


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