Reviews Written By: A3S4T9LSDCS98Pprovided by Amazon.com |
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![]() | Canon PowerShot S90 IS 10MP Camera with 3.8x Wide Angle IS Zoom and 3" LCD | |
![]() | "The best compact camera I have ever used" | 2009-10-15 |
| DPReview will present a more thorough review than any of us might care to write, so I will just give my general impressions.
This camera is not perfect. If you are expected it to manage the image quality or low light performance of your Canon DSLR you will be disappointed. But the S90 is the best compact camera I have ever used. You do get more than one stop of performance over the Canon SD880IS, my previous ultra-portable camera. The F2.0 lens, lower density sensor and improved software give you that. Software matters on these small cameras and Canon's software is a pleasure to use. The aperture ring feature, which can be used to control ISO, shutter speed, Aperture and other functions is a pleasure to use and has a very cool visual UI on the back screen when in use (think of the way the old Nikon cameras showed you the aperture ring in the viewfinder). The camers is not quite as pocketable as the regular line of SD powershot cameras, but the improved image quality and control easily make up for that. I like the camera. It has tons of manual controls, nearly all obvious in function without reading the manual if you are a Canon regular. They have increased the amount of on-screen documentation. The Auto ISO feature is better than before. They get that many prosumers don't want a flash and will take a noisy photo over either a flash photo or one too slow to hand hold. I typically own two cameras: a very small camera and a very large camera. This is my small camera and I would say that in the small camera department, if you care about low light performance and image quality more than zoom factor, you will love this camera. How can it be better? well, if it had the sensor they put in the Canon 7D, it would be much better. I suspect Canon is working on such a camera. Size will be the major challenge there. So why the 5 stars if it is not perfect? Because at this price and in this size range, there is simply no better camera on the market that I know of. | ||
| Garmin Edge 705 Bundle Cycling GPS (Heart Rate, Speed/Cadence & Data Card with Street Maps) | ||
![]() | "A comparison of the Edge 705 and Garmin 60 CSx for bike navigation" | 2009-09-08 |
| For me, a bike GPS is primarily interesting because of the possibility of navigating while riding the bike. Having speed, cadence and distance info is nice, but you can get that for a fraction of the price without the hassle of having to remember to keep your bike computer charged. Any Cat-Eye will run for at least a year on a set of batteries. This Edge 705 will need to be charged at least weekly if you are an avid rider.
I like to go out for rides in a random direction and then use the GPS to guide me home. I also like to plan rides carefully at home on the computer, download them to my navigation device and ride a route with turn by turn directions, not needing to ever consult a paper map during the ride. I don't download performance (speed, cadence,heart rate) data to my computer an analyze it. I just don't care about that data. I don't use the heart rate monitor. I used to use heart rate monitors but no longer am training seriously enough to care. I also find that having a mapping GPS on my bike is entertaining. I get to watch the map as I ride and find out the names of parks and other large green areas around me. The idea of having turn by turn navigation on my bike has long appealed to me. I bought a GPS 60 CS when it first came out, and then upgraded to the Garmin GPS 60CSx Handheld GPS Navigatorwhen it came out (but more sensitive GPS reception). To get navigation with that device, I had to buy the city navigator DVDs and plan my routes using Mapsource on my PC. The 60CSx only comes with base maps. Mapsource is functional but primitive and rough around the edges from a user interface perspective. Nevertheless, it gets the job done. The 60 CSx is a wonderful turn by turn navigator on the bike. The screen is easy to read and pretty large. The device is waterproof and mounts to the bike with a solid, if somewhat large, bike mount kit. I bought the 705 because it promised the same basic navigation features of the Garmin 60 CSx but in a much smaller package, and with an integrated cadence sensor. The 705 is much smaller and lighter than the 60 CSx. But to get to that size, the battery in the 705 is rechargeable and not field replaceable. What that means is that I need to make sure the device is charging the night before if I want to ride. The 60 CSx takes AA batteries. Not only can I ride at a moment's notice, but if the batteries are near the end of the their life, I can ride with a spare set and just keep on going. The 60 CSx calculates routes significantly faster than the 705 does, even though the 60 CSx is a 2 yr old design at this point. That mostly does not matter, except when you go off route and need to recalculate the route. Most glaringly, the 705 only supports 100 waypoints. Yes, you read that right. Only 100 waypoints. Why? I have no idea. It seems like an idiotic limit. I don't know what the limit is on the 60 CSx, but it is large enough that I never hit it. Routes created in Mapsource use waypoints. In fact, when you download a route from Mapsource, you are really downloading an ordered set of waypoints. The Garmin device recalculates the route every time you ride it. This usually works out fine because the routing engine in Mapsource is the same or similar enough that the actual route is the same on the computer and the device. At least that was true for the 60 CSx. For the Edge 705, I have had slightly more trouble with my workflow. Sometimes during a ride, I will get a bad cue to take a turn that I know is not needed. I only know that because I planned the route on the computer. I will skip the turn and the Edge 705 will recalculate. I don't know if this problem is really a problem with the Edge 705 or because of differences between the routing engine on the computer versus the 705. There is also the concept of course points and being able to plot a route that includes course points. To my knowledge, such courses require you to manually stay on course by looking down at the map, versus get cued for each turn. If you go off course, you are expected to find your way back to the course. This holds no interest for me and I don't use the feature. I suspect that Garmin expected me to use the course point feature because there is no crazy 100 course point limit built in - or so I hear. I have never created a course, only a route. And routes use waypoints. The 100 waypoint limit is actually not a huge problem for me. Most routes include fewer than 40 turns, even when they are 40 miles long. And hence, I just upload the route I am currently using. But that is a bit of a hassle I will admit. I bought the 705 without maps built in and also bought the current US city navigator DVD. That was a bit of a nightmare. First, the software claimed to be mac compatible. So I tried it on a Mac. But the map loader would only load 400 megabytes of maps onto the device because that is what the software thought I had available for use on the device, even though I had installed a 2 GB micro SD card. The mac install does not include Mapsource route planning software so plotting routes is not possible! Finally, I gave up and booted my PC and used Mapsource with my 2 yr old maps and was able to deal with the 705 just as I had the 60 CSx. But if those maps worked, I did not even need the new DVD. Oh well. As anyone who is really into Garmin products knows, computer software is not their forte, and that is putting it mildly. Nevertheless, they have great products and their customers put up with all sorts of nightmares to get their solution working. But you have to be an enthusiast to want to try. Overall, I am happy with my Garmin 705 Edge on my road bike. But if feels like much more of fussy bike-specific device where navigation is a feature compared to my Garmin 60 CSx. My Garmin 60 CSx is a survivalist device. It is built like a tank, can run forever as long as you carry your weight in batteries, and greets you with a big bold "Ready to Navigate" after it gets GPS lock. Those words probably best describe why I love the 60 CSx so much. At the end of the day, I want a navigation device on my bike. The Edge 705 is a "bike computer" with navigation. There are compromises there. Other differences. The 60 CSx has no start and stop buttons. After you reset it, it is running and the clocks are ticking. This is mostly fine for me, especially because it also calculates the average speed while moving. On the other hand, the 705 has a start/stop button. That can be used manually to start your clock when you are ready, or it can be set to auto start and stop when it detects movement. I don't really prefer one methodology over the other. The 60 CSx has tons of other cool stuff including sunrise and sunset tables, a geocaching mode, one button marking of weypoints, and a dedicated find button that brings up close by way points. The 60 CSx also a magnetic compass, making it useful for Geocaching and getting your bearings while standing still. The 705 does not have a compass. Note that I would consider the Oregon series of GPS devices for bike navigation, but the word is that they are not nearly as readable in daylight. If you look at the reviews of the Garmin 60 CSx, you will see that it is one of the most beloved products Garmin has ever come out with. They can't get some customers to upgrade to the touchscreen Oregon devices because people love their 60 CSx so much. That is amazing considering that entering an address on a 60 CSx is like winning a game of Asteroids and having to enter your initials with the roller ball. People of a certain vintage know what I mean. I would consider getting a 60 CSx if you don't own one and want one device for hiking and biking. They are dirt cheap now and still as wonderful as the day they were first released. It's also interesting that Garmin still sells the thing. Why? Because people buy them. Go figure. | ||
| Garmin Edge 705 HR Cycling GPS with Heart Rate Monitor | ||
![]() | "A comparison of the Edge 705 and Garmin 60 CSx for bike navigation" | 2009-09-08 |
| For me, a bike GPS is primarily interesting because of the possibility of navigating while riding the bike. Having speed, cadence and distance info is nice, but you can get that for a fraction of the price without the hassle of having to remember to keep your bike computer charged. Any Cat-Eye will run for at least a year on a set of batteries. This Edge 705 will need to be charged at least weekly if you are an avid rider.
I like to go out for rides in a random direction and then use the GPS to guide me home. I also like to plan rides carefully at home on the computer, download them to my navigation device and ride a route with turn by turn directions, not needing to ever consult a paper map during the ride. I don't download performance (speed, cadence,heart rate) data to my computer an analyze it. I just don't care about that data. I don't use the heart rate monitor. I used to use heart rate monitors but no longer am training seriously enough to care. I also find that having a mapping GPS on my bike is entertaining. I get to watch the map as I ride and find out the names of parks and other large green areas around me. The idea of having turn by turn navigation on my bike has long appealed to me. I bought a GPS 60 CS when it first came out, and then upgraded to the Garmin GPS 60CSx Handheld GPS Navigatorwhen it came out (but more sensitive GPS reception). To get navigation with that device, I had to buy the city navigator DVDs and plan my routes using Mapsource on my PC. The 60CSx only comes with base maps. Mapsource is functional but primitive and rough around the edges from a user interface perspective. Nevertheless, it gets the job done. The 60 CSx is a wonderful turn by turn navigator on the bike. The screen is easy to read and pretty large. The device is waterproof and mounts to the bike with a solid, if somewhat large, bike mount kit. I bought the 705 because it promised the same basic navigation features of the Garmin 60 CSx but in a much smaller package, and with an integrated cadence sensor. The 705 is much smaller and lighter than the 60 CSx. But to get to that size, the battery in the 705 is rechargeable and not field replaceable. What that means is that I need to make sure the device is charging the night before if I want to ride. The 60 CSx takes AA batteries. Not only can I ride at a moment's notice, but if the batteries are near the end of the their life, I can ride with a spare set and just keep on going. The 60 CSx calculates routes significantly faster than the 705 does, even though the 60 CSx is a 2 yr old design at this point. That mostly does not matter, except when you go off route and need to recalculate the route. Most glaringly, the 705 only supports 100 waypoints. Yes, you read that right. Only 100 waypoints. Why? I have no idea. It seems like an idiotic limit. I don't know what the limit is on the 60 CSx, but it is large enough that I never hit it. Routes created in Mapsource use waypoints. In fact, when you download a route from Mapsource, you are really downloading an ordered set of waypoints. The Garmin device recalculates the route every time you ride it. This usually works out fine because the routing engine in Mapsource is the same or similar enough that the actual route is the same on the computer and the device. At least that was true for the 60 CSx. For the Edge 705, I have had slightly more trouble with my workflow. Sometimes during a ride, I will get a bad cue to take a turn that I know is not needed. I only know that because I planned the route on the computer. I will skip the turn and the Edge 705 will recalculate. I don't know if this problem is really a problem with the Edge 705 or because of differences between the routing engine on the computer versus the 705. There is also the concept of course points and being able to plot a route that includes course points. To my knowledge, such courses require you to manually stay on course by looking down at the map, versus get cued for each turn. If you go off course, you are expected to find your way back to the course. This holds no interest for me and I don't use the feature. I suspect that Garmin expected me to use the course point feature because there is no crazy 100 course point limit built in - or so I hear. I have never created a course, only a route. And routes use waypoints. The 100 waypoint limit is actually not a huge problem for me. Most routes include fewer than 40 turns, even when they are 40 miles long. And hence, I just upload the route I am currently using. But that is a bit of a hassle I will admit. I bought the 705 without maps built in and also bought the current US city navigator DVD. That was a bit of a nightmare. First, the software claimed to be mac compatible. So I tried it on a Mac. But the map loader would only load 400 megabytes of maps onto the device because that is what the software thought I had available for use on the device, even though I had installed a 2 GB micro SD card. The mac install does not include Mapsource route planning software so plotting routes is not possible! Finally, I gave up and booted my PC and used Mapsource with my 2 yr old maps and was able to deal with the 705 just as I had the 60 CSx. But if those maps worked, I did not even need the new DVD. Oh well. As anyone who is really into Garmin products knows, computer software is not their forte, and that is putting it mildly. Nevertheless, they have great products and their customers put up with all sorts of nightmares to get their solution working. But you have to be an enthusiast to want to try. Overall, I am happy with my Garmin 705 Edge on my road bike. But if feels like much more of fussy bike-specific device where navigation is a feature compared to my Garmin 60 CSx. My Garmin 60 CSx is a survivalist device. It is built like a tank, can run forever as long as you carry your weight in batteries, and greets you with a big bold "Ready to Navigate" after it gets GPS lock. Those words probably best describe why I love the 60 CSx so much. At the end of the day, I want a navigation device on my bike. The Edge 705 is a "bike computer" with navigation. There are compromises there. Other differences. The 60 CSx has no start and stop buttons. After you reset it, it is running and the clocks are ticking. This is mostly fine for me, especially because it also calculates the average speed while moving. On the other hand, the 705 has a start/stop button. That can be used manually to start your clock when you are ready, or it can be set to auto start and stop when it detects movement. I don't really prefer one methodology over the other. The 60 CSx has tons of other cool stuff including sunrise and sunset tables, a geocaching mode, one button marking of weypoints, and a dedicated find button that brings up close by way points. The 60 CSx also a magnetic compass, making it useful for Geocaching and getting your bearings while standing still. The 705 does not have a compass. Note that I would consider the Oregon series of GPS devices for bike navigation, but the word is that they are not nearly as readable in daylight. If you look at the reviews of the Garmin 60 CSx, you will see that it is one of the most beloved products Garmin has ever come out with. They can't get some customers to upgrade to the touchscreen Oregon devices because people love their 60 CSx so much. That is amazing considering that entering an address on a 60 CSx is like winning a game of Asteroids and having to enter your initials with the roller ball. People of a certain vintage know what I mean. I would consider getting a 60 CSx if you don't own one and want one device for hiking and biking. They are dirt cheap now and still as wonderful as the day they were first released. It's also interesting that Garmin still sells the thing. Why? Because people buy them. Go figure. | ||
| Garmin Edge 705 with Speed/Cadence, HR, GPS | ||
![]() | "A comparison of the Edge 705 and Garmin 60 CSx for bike navigation" | 2009-09-08 |
| For me, a bike GPS is primarily interesting because of the possibility of navigating while riding the bike. Having speed, cadence and distance info is nice, but you can get that for a fraction of the price without the hassle of having to remember to keep your bike computer charged. Any Cat-Eye will run for at least a year on a set of batteries. This Edge 705 will need to be charged at least weekly if you are an avid rider.
I like to go out for rides in a random direction and then use the GPS to guide me home. I also like to plan rides carefully at home on the computer, download them to my navigation device and ride a route with turn by turn directions, not needing to ever consult a paper map during the ride. I don't download performance (speed, cadence,heart rate) data to my computer an analyze it. I just don't care about that data. I don't use the heart rate monitor. I used to use heart rate monitors but no longer am training seriously enough to care. I also find that having a mapping GPS on my bike is entertaining. I get to watch the map as I ride and find out the names of parks and other large green areas around me. The idea of having turn by turn navigation on my bike has long appealed to me. I bought a GPS 60 CS when it first came out, and then upgraded to the Garmin GPS 60CSx Handheld GPS Navigatorwhen it came out (but more sensitive GPS reception). To get navigation with that device, I had to buy the city navigator DVDs and plan my routes using Mapsource on my PC. The 60CSx only comes with base maps. Mapsource is functional but primitive and rough around the edges from a user interface perspective. Nevertheless, it gets the job done. The 60 CSx is a wonderful turn by turn navigator on the bike. The screen is easy to read and pretty large. The device is waterproof and mounts to the bike with a solid, if somewhat large, bike mount kit. I bought the 705 because it promised the same basic navigation features of the Garmin 60 CSx but in a much smaller package, and with an integrated cadence sensor. The 705 is much smaller and lighter than the 60 CSx. But to get to that size, the battery in the 705 is rechargeable and not field replaceable. What that means is that I need to make sure the device is charging the night before if I want to ride. The 60 CSx takes AA batteries. Not only can I ride at a moment's notice, but if the batteries are near the end of the their life, I can ride with a spare set and just keep on going. The 60 CSx calculates routes significantly faster than the 705 does, even though the 60 CSx is a 2 yr old design at this point. That mostly does not matter, except when you go off route and need to recalculate the route. Most glaringly, the 705 only supports 100 waypoints. Yes, you read that right. Only 100 waypoints. Why? I have no idea. It seems like an idiotic limit. I don't know what the limit is on the 60 CSx, but it is large enough that I never hit it. Routes created in Mapsource use waypoints. In fact, when you download a route from Mapsource, you are really downloading an ordered set of waypoints. The Garmin device recalculates the route every time you ride it. This usually works out fine because the routing engine in Mapsource is the same or similar enough that the actual route is the same on the computer and the device. At least that was true for the 60 CSx. For the Edge 705, I have had slightly more trouble with my workflow. Sometimes during a ride, I will get a bad cue to take a turn that I know is not needed. I only know that because I planned the route on the computer. I will skip the turn and the Edge 705 will recalculate. I don't know if this problem is really a problem with the Edge 705 or because of differences between the routing engine on the computer versus the 705. There is also the concept of course points and being able to plot a route that includes course points. To my knowledge, such courses require you to manually stay on course by looking down at the map, versus get cued for each turn. If you go off course, you are expected to find your way back to the course. This holds no interest for me and I don't use the feature. I suspect that Garmin expected me to use the course point feature because there is no crazy 100 course point limit built in - or so I hear. I have never created a course, only a route. And routes use waypoints. The 100 waypoint limit is actually not a huge problem for me. Most routes include fewer than 40 turns, even when they are 40 miles long. And hence, I just upload the route I am currently using. But that is a bit of a hassle I will admit. I bought the 705 without maps built in and also bought the current US city navigator DVD. That was a bit of a nightmare. First, the software claimed to be mac compatible. So I tried it on a Mac. But the map loader would only load 400 megabytes of maps onto the device because that is what the software thought I had available for use on the device, even though I had installed a 2 GB micro SD card. The mac install does not include Mapsource route planning software so plotting routes is not possible! Finally, I gave up and booted my PC and used Mapsource with my 2 yr old maps and was able to deal with the 705 just as I had the 60 CSx. But if those maps worked, I did not even need the new DVD. Oh well. As anyone who is really into Garmin products knows, computer software is not their forte, and that is putting it mildly. Nevertheless, they have great products and their customers put up with all sorts of nightmares to get their solution working. But you have to be an enthusiast to want to try. Overall, I am happy with my Garmin 705 Edge on my road bike. But if feels like much more of fussy bike-specific device where navigation is a feature compared to my Garmin 60 CSx. My Garmin 60 CSx is a survivalist device. It is built like a tank, can run forever as long as you carry your weight in batteries, and greets you with a big bold "Ready to Navigate" after it gets GPS lock. Those words probably best describe why I love the 60 CSx so much. At the end of the day, I want a navigation device on my bike. The Edge 705 is a "bike computer" with navigation. There are compromises there. Other differences. The 60 CSx has no start and stop buttons. After you reset it, it is running and the clocks are ticking. This is mostly fine for me, especially because it also calculates the average speed while moving. On the other hand, the 705 has a start/stop button. That can be used manually to start your clock when you are ready, or it can be set to auto start and stop when it detects movement. I don't really prefer one methodology over the other. The 60 CSx has tons of other cool stuff including sunrise and sunset tables, a geocaching mode, one button marking of weypoints, and a dedicated find button that brings up close by way points. The 60 CSx also a magnetic compass, making it useful for Geocaching and getting your bearings while standing still. The 705 does not have a compass. Note that I would consider the Oregon series of GPS devices for bike navigation, but the word is that they are not nearly as readable in daylight. If you look at the reviews of the Garmin 60 CSx, you will see that it is one of the most beloved products Garmin has ever come out with. They can't get some customers to upgrade to the touchscreen Oregon devices because people love their 60 CSx so much. That is amazing considering that entering an address on a 60 CSx is like winning a game of Asteroids and having to enter your initials with the roller ball. People of a certain vintage know what I mean. I would consider getting a 60 CSx if you don't own one and want one device for hiking and biking. They are dirt cheap now and still as wonderful as the day they were first released. It's also interesting that Garmin still sells the thing. Why? Because people buy them. Go figure. | ||
| Garmin Edge 605 Outdoor Fitness GPS | ||
![]() | "A comparison of the Edge 705 and Garmin 60 CSx for bike navigation" | 2009-09-08 |
| For me, a bike GPS is primarily interesting because of the possibility of navigating while riding the bike. Having speed, cadence and distance info is nice, but you can get that for a fraction of the price without the hassle of having to remember to keep your bike computer charged. Any Cat-Eye will run for at least a year on a set of batteries. This Edge 705 will need to be charged at least weekly if you are an avid rider.
I like to go out for rides in a random direction and then use the GPS to guide me home. I also like to plan rides carefully at home on the computer, download them to my navigation device and ride a route with turn by turn directions, not needing to ever consult a paper map during the ride. I don't download performance (speed, cadence,heart rate) data to my computer an analyze it. I just don't care about that data. I don't use the heart rate monitor. I used to use heart rate monitors but no longer am training seriously enough to care. I also find that having a mapping GPS on my bike is entertaining. I get to watch the map as I ride and find out the names of parks and other large green areas around me. The idea of having turn by turn navigation on my bike has long appealed to me. I bought a GPS 60 CS when it first came out, and then upgraded to the Garmin GPS 60CSx Handheld GPS Navigatorwhen it came out (but more sensitive GPS reception). To get navigation with that device, I had to buy the city navigator DVDs and plan my routes using Mapsource on my PC. The 60CSx only comes with base maps. Mapsource is functional but primitive and rough around the edges from a user interface perspective. Nevertheless, it gets the job done. The 60 CSx is a wonderful turn by turn navigator on the bike. The screen is easy to read and pretty large. The device is waterproof and mounts to the bike with a solid, if somewhat large, bike mount kit. I bought the 705 because it promised the same basic navigation features of the Garmin 60 CSx but in a much smaller package, and with an integrated cadence sensor. The 705 is much smaller and lighter than the 60 CSx. But to get to that size, the battery in the 705 is rechargeable and not field replaceable. What that means is that I need to make sure the device is charging the night before if I want to ride. The 60 CSx takes AA batteries. Not only can I ride at a moment's notice, but if the batteries are near the end of the their life, I can ride with a spare set and just keep on going. The 60 CSx calculates routes significantly faster than the 705 does, even though the 60 CSx is a 2 yr old design at this point. That mostly does not matter, except when you go off route and need to recalculate the route. Most glaringly, the 705 only supports 100 waypoints. Yes, you read that right. Only 100 waypoints. Why? I have no idea. It seems like an idiotic limit. I don't know what the limit is on the 60 CSx, but it is large enough that I never hit it. Routes created in Mapsource use waypoints. In fact, when you download a route from Mapsource, you are really downloading an ordered set of waypoints. The Garmin device recalculates the route every time you ride it. This usually works out fine because the routing engine in Mapsource is the same or similar enough that the actual route is the same on the computer and the device. At least that was true for the 60 CSx. For the Edge 705, I have had slightly more trouble with my workflow. Sometimes during a ride, I will get a bad cue to take a turn that I know is not needed. I only know that because I planned the route on the computer. I will skip the turn and the Edge 705 will recalculate. I don't know if this problem is really a problem with the Edge 705 or because of differences between the routing engine on the computer versus the 705. There is also the concept of course points and being able to plot a route that includes course points. To my knowledge, such courses require you to manually stay on course by looking down at the map, versus get cued for each turn. If you go off course, you are expected to find your way back to the course. This holds no interest for me and I don't use the feature. I suspect that Garmin expected me to use the course point feature because there is no crazy 100 course point limit built in - or so I hear. I have never created a course, only a route. And routes use waypoints. The 100 waypoint limit is actually not a huge problem for me. Most routes include fewer than 40 turns, even when they are 40 miles long. And hence, I just upload the route I am currently using. But that is a bit of a hassle I will admit. I bought the 705 without maps built in and also bought the current US city navigator DVD. That was a bit of a nightmare. First, the software claimed to be mac compatible. So I tried it on a Mac. But the map loader would only load 400 megabytes of maps onto the device because that is what the software thought I had available for use on the device, even though I had installed a 2 GB micro SD card. The mac install does not include Mapsource route planning software so plotting routes is not possible! Finally, I gave up and booted my PC and used Mapsource with my 2 yr old maps and was able to deal with the 705 just as I had the 60 CSx. But if those maps worked, I did not even need the new DVD. Oh well. As anyone who is really into Garmin products knows, computer software is not their forte, and that is putting it mildly. Nevertheless, they have great products and their customers put up with all sorts of nightmares to get their solution working. But you have to be an enthusiast to want to try. Overall, I am happy with my Garmin 705 Edge on my road bike. But if feels like much more of fussy bike-specific device where navigation is a feature compared to my Garmin 60 CSx. My Garmin 60 CSx is a survivalist device. It is built like a tank, can run forever as long as you carry your weight in batteries, and greets you with a big bold "Ready to Navigate" after it gets GPS lock. Those words probably best describe why I love the 60 CSx so much. At the end of the day, I want a navigation device on my bike. The Edge 705 is a "bike computer" with navigation. There are compromises there. Other differences. The 60 CSx has no start and stop buttons. After you reset it, it is running and the clocks are ticking. This is mostly fine for me, especially because it also calculates the average speed while moving. On the other hand, the 705 has a start/stop button. That can be used manually to start your clock when you are ready, or it can be set to auto start and stop when it detects movement. I don't really prefer one methodology over the other. The 60 CSx has tons of other cool stuff including sunrise and sunset tables, a geocaching mode, one button marking of weypoints, and a dedicated find button that brings up close by way points. The 60 CSx also a magnetic compass, making it useful for Geocaching and getting your bearings while standing still. The 705 does not have a compass. Note that I would consider the Oregon series of GPS devices for bike navigation, but the word is that they are not nearly as readable in daylight. If you look at the reviews of the Garmin 60 CSx, you will see that it is one of the most beloved products Garmin has ever come out with. They can't get some customers to upgrade to the touchscreen Oregon devices because people love their 60 CSx so much. That is amazing considering that entering an address on a 60 CSx is like winning a game of Asteroids and having to enter your initials with the roller ball. People of a certain vintage know what I mean. I would consider getting a 60 CSx if you don't own one and want one device for hiking and biking. They are dirt cheap now and still as wonderful as the day they were first released. It's also interesting that Garmin still sells the thing. Why? Because people buy them. Go figure. | ||
| Eye-Fi Wireless SD Memory Card 2GB | ||
![]() | "Huge step toward wireless camera of the future" | 2007-11-01 |
| We all know that in the future you will take photos and videos and they will wirelessly float up to the net, but camera manufacturers have failed to deliver a compelling product in the category that works with a wide variety of online services. I have been using the eye-fi card on and off for a while now (beta and gamma programs). Overall it works very well and increases the convenience of digital photography a lot. In my mode of use, I shoot with it around the house and then the let the photos float up wirelessly to phanfare (disclosure: I am CEO of Phanfare). With Phanfare it works especially well because I can still get to the fullsize original images from the desktop client and from my Phanfare website. You configure the card in two places. First, you have to configure it communicate with wireless networks you trust. Second, you need to configure your account at Eye-fi to transmit to the online service of your choice. That means telling Eye-fi your username and password, for example, for Phanfare. You do this once. After the initial provisioning, which is the most difficult step, the card just works. Because the camera sees the card as a standard SD card there is absolutely no increase in complexity from the camera side. You shoot and the images show up in your online account. The good folks at Eye-Fi set an option for Phanfare to allow you to suppress publication of new images by default. That way I can shoot, and then go into Phanfare and choose what to publish, shoeboxing the rest. Because there is no way to see what the card is doing from the camera side, you need to have the camera on long enough to transfer the images. That is why I said I mostly use it when shooting around the house, because there the camera gets enough on-time within my wireless network that the images float up without my thinking about it. Also, the eye-fi card uses more battery power than a standard card and it is around the house that I worry least about that. I own a DSLR and a point and shoot. It is with the DSLR that I find the card most useful (Canon EOD-5D with compact flash adapter for Eye-fi SD card). I rarely shoot raw and the the DSLR only shoots images. With my point and shoot, I almost always take one video along with the photos and Eye-Fi won't move that up to Phanfare. Hence, I still need to tether the card to get the video, and that is tedious. Plus Phanfare has no built-in de-dupe to figure out what is already on the service versus on the card. Note that the Eye-Fi card can also be used in studio mode where it just moves images to your PC. That is not interesting to me and I don't use it that way. I am far from unbiased, but for Internet mode, the Eye-Fi card works especially well with Phanfare because it meshes so well with out vision for merging the desktop and Internet. Our desktop client automatically synchronizes with the network cloud, showing you your whole collection (unlike a Picasa for eg. which just gives you a view of your local disk). Hence, even when I use the Eye-Fi card, the images I take feel like they are locally accessible on my PC, even though they really live on the net. the pros on this product are: *moves images in the background to internet without USB acquire wizard. *greatly enhances the convenience of still image photography *works with all cameras *works with 17 online services the cons are *reduced battery life *no way to see what the card is doing or control the card from the camera *does not handle video *does not handle raw *does not automatically connect to open public access points All in all, this is a very innovative product and a great gift, especially for a parent who is challenged by their camera. You buy it, provision it, and then they have a magic camera. I love mine. When you get it, you will just stare it and wonder how they packed a full wifi implementation plus memory card into the diminutive form factor of the SD card. | ||
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