|
July 07, 2009
|
 |
|
550 (Courtesy of Garmin)
|
I want to buy a GPS that will help me drive through unknown cities as well as record points while I'm hiking and photographing nature.
— Kristina
Tampa Bay, Florida
 Last May Garmin came out with the Oregon 550/550t (550, $499; 550t comes pre-loaded with topo maps, $599; garmin.com), a scarily sophisticated, easy-to-use device that makes you wonder why people still get lost.
In the wilderness, the three-axis electronic compass shows your heading even if you're tilting it in the wrong direction. The barometric altimeter tracks your precise altitude and helps you keep an eye on changing weather, and the satellite prediction technology combined with the WAAS-enabled GPS receiver quickly locates and maintains your position in the middle of a dense forest or at the bottom of a deep canyon.
|
|
Do you have a question of your
own?
|
|
In the city, insert a MapSource microSD card preloaded with detailed maps and you'll have turn-by-turn directions even in squiggly San Francisco. But what really sets this touch-screen GPS apart is its 3.2 megapixel digital camera with a 4x digital zoom that creates geotagged images so you can return to the exact spot in the future or post and store your images online so that your friends and family can virtually tag along. The 550 and 550t are also compatible with Garmin's heart-rate monitors and speed/cadence sensors so you can track speed, distance, and elevation in addition to location.
Stephanie Pearson: The Gear Girl
When it comes to gear, contributing editor Stephanie Pearson lives by one rule: What you own, owns you. That's why the skier, hiker, biker, runner, canoe paddler, and sometimes yogini is on an eternal quest to find gear and clothing that will enhance her life rather than make her a slave to dysfunctional stuff. During her seven-year stint as a travel editor at Outside, Pearson received three honorable mentions in The Best American Travel Writing series for stories on Guatemala, New Zealand, and Bhutan. Now that she's no longer in the office at Outside HQ in Santa Fe, Pearson hopes to be on the road more and is always in search of functional and aesthetically pleasing gear that's easy to use or clothing that's elegant to wear. Pearson is based in northern Minnesota and Santa Fe. Her latest adventure was on the fringe of the Amazon Basin in Brazil.
|
