July 09, 2008

Aerial imagery on a Magellan Triton

Triton_aerial_imagery

It's now possible to add aerial imagery to most of the Magellan Triton line, thanks to National Geographic's new TOPO! Explorer application. You can download a "SuperQuad" that includes aerial imagery and a 1:24,000 scale USGS topo map for a dollar at their Map Store.

Unfortunately, the resolution is only 4 meters/pixel, so don't expect the kind of detail you'll see on a DeLorme PN-20. Of course, DeLorme's imagery will cost you a lot more; it was averaging $38.75 per quad the last time I checked!

I tried this out on the trail the other day, and while the aerial imagery wasn't that useful, I was reminded once again just how convenient it is to have an actual USGS quad on the screen of your GPS.

I have a Triton 2000 in for review, so I hope to be able to expand on this soon and also see how the newest Triton firmware performs.

Garmin , where art thou?

So now that we have Magellan, DeLorme, Lowrance and even Bushnell offering backcountry GPS receivers capable of displaying aerial imagery, can Garmin be too far behind? We know that the Colorado platform is capable of it, even if it was only implemented on the marine units. Maybe we'll see it on the Garmin Oregon line. One can only hope.

Related post:

Jul 9, 2008 6:00:00 AM | Aerial imagery, Magellan

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