New Garmin Oregon 550 Brings CameraGPS

Garmin just announced their new top of the line Oregon 550t handheld GPS unit. $600 buys a 3.2 megapixel camera (slightly better than cellphone quality), a 3D compass that display a direction without having to hold the unit level and a new sunlight-readable display. Other than that, you get the usual Oregon touch screen, preloaded 100k scale US topographic map set, yadayada.

I don’t know if the Best Buy crowd is too excited about the 3.2mp camera –especially when point and shoot cameras are hitting 14.7mp. BUT- a small, waterproof unit that has the ability to PID a target or an area of interest with a geotagged photo may be interesting to ground guys and secret squirrels.

On the flip-side of the geotagging coin is the Nikon Coolpix P6000, a 13.5mp camera that will geotag your images. The camera won’t do navgation and it’s a more delicate device, but it will take far more useable photographs.

Still, if you regularly carry a GPS into the field anyway, a cameraGPS is better than nothing. It takes up less space and weighs less than a separate camera and is one less battery charger you have to keep around.