I generally find that my handheld GPS provides more reliable location than my smartphone’s GPS, so I prefer to use a handheld GPS rather than a smartphone to record tracks that I will later use to georeference DSLR photos (for example).
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Separate phone and gps can also have battery management advantages for longer sessions. Charging a phone in the field on a multi-day trip can require power banks (plenty of small ones these days but I’ve never met a cheap one that was reliable) or solar chargers, which may not always work well. On the other hand a lot of gps units run for days on dirt cheap AAs, and carrying backups is no issue.
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Er1kksen - battery management argument is a clincher. As for phone gps precision; the GPS app from Ordinance Survey (the UK national mapping agency) tracked me on one side of the road cycling one way and the other side coming back.
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Phone gps can be highly accurate but it depends in part on the app, as phones also use inputs from nearby cell towers and wifi networks as location inputs. In my case on a minor carrier that piggybacks on a major network (which might add a layer of complication) I’ve noted that the phone’s location services jump around in response to these inputs and apps like google maps that run on the location services as a whole (or photos geotagged in-phone) are unreliable for this reason. Apps running strictly off the gps hardware are much better and I rely on one of those for shorter days. More discussion of this in the “improving gps accuracy” discussion topic.
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My Garmin etrex 20x weighs about the same as my phone but rides in the outer pocket of my backpack so the extra weight is negligible. It’s also much more reliable and accurate. My phone GPS isn’t terrible for the ebird or inaturalist app but when I use it to tag DSLR photos in Lightroom it often tells me that all the photos were taken at the same point and that I was two counties over.
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I always carry with me my phone, knife, flashlight, keys, and wallet. When I think I’ll go somewhere after work or on the weekend I carry my Maxpedition Sitka Gearslinger backpack. It’s the perfect size and I can sling it around to change camera lenses or grab something out of a pocket. I always keep the same things in it and take it everywhere in case I see something neat.
In the main pocket:
*Nikon D500
*Tamron 150-600 for birds and other wildlife
*Nikon 16-80 for landscapes, plants, and everything else
*Vortex Viper HD 8-42 binoculars
*RØDE VideoMic Me
In the front pockets:
*Garmin etrex 20x GPS
*Leatherman Rebar multitool with a ruler on the side
*Rite in the Rain memo book
*Pencils
*Spare AA and nikon batteries
*Anker powercore
*Flash
*Lens cleaning kit
*Cords for the GPS and camera so I don’t have to hunt for them when I get home
In the side pocket:
*Nalgene water bottle
*Walmart bag for trash pickup
I always wear my orange Auburn University hat for good luck and to see if there’s any other AU alum around me. If I know I’m going somewhere overnight I’ll take a second bag with toiletries, change of clothes, etc.
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i’ve actually found the iphone iNat app GPS to be more precise than a lot of the hand held ones. Battery time, that’s another story. I often bring spare batteries
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In addition to some of the other items mentioned already:
- A walking stick/treking pole that is helpful on some vertical ascents/descents and crossing creeks, doubles as a non-fixed monopod - great for stabilizing those really long field shots and for stabilizing sideways against a windy rock wall , and can also be for protection - my wife calls it the whacking stick.
- A binocular harness for my combersome DSLR and telephoto zoom lens. I attach it to the lens tripod mount so that the weight is not on my camera body. This frees up my hands.
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I like to have an external GPS unit to supplement my phone and camera (often gets better data and more quickly), clear jars & vials for viewing insects and other small fast organisms, and sometimes bring a small garden hand tool to gently sift through leaf litter with less risk of animal bites, touching poison oak, encountering sharp objects, etc.
Of course, I rarely remember to bring all the gear I’d like to have!
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Is there a list of “iNaturalist” gear or must-haves? I am asking, because when I joined iNaturalist in 2017, I first used it through my iPhone. However, I currently rely on two camera’s with built-in gps. Which I listed below. I am now looking into other tools to enhance the iNaturalist experience. e.g is there a portable microscope that would allow observing the real micro-life?
If such a list does not exist, can this topic be the start of creating such a list?
Camera
- The Sony DSV-HV400X for photo’s where the organism is 2 meters and beyond from the camera
- Olympus TG-5 Used for photos where the camera is less than 2 meters from the observed organism
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You may want to look here, it is more how to optimize your naturalizing but may cover what you are looking at
https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/whats-in-your-field-kit/1421/58
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Not exactly a microscope, but I have found the Pentax papilio ii binoculars extremely useful for observing insect behaviour. They are very light weight and the front lenses slide closer together as you focus closer, which gives a stereoscopic view without double vision (for most people) down to a minimum distance of about half a metre. It is made in either 6.5 or 8.5 magnification with the 6.5 being brighter and easier to hold still, and the 8.5 giving more magnification. I first learned about it on the photomacrography website and having bought a pair, am surprised they are not more well known. The first shop assistant I asked about them said, “Sir I cannot see why you would want binoculars to look at a bee” I’m glad I persisted though because they have allowed me to watch many things that I could not have seen otherwise.
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We use these binocs for lizard IDs and they are awesome!
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I’ve moved this and responses to it to this topic.
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Welcome @steveball
You may be aware of this or have alluded to it here and I missed it but binoculars are great for using as macro field microscopes - just inverse the way you look into the binocular when you are looking at something say like a forget-me-not flower. If you hold the eyepiece about 1.5cm or so from the object and look into the objective lens, you will get magnification of your object.
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For the last year and more I have been using a black aluminum cane with a foam-padded handle. (I am in a very slow recovery process from Achilles tendinosis (bad flareup of chronic A. tendinitis).
The cane has a hooked top, and that has proven to be incredibly useful, for bending down branches, for pulling over to you things on the ground that are out of reach, like behind railings. The straight end is great for poking around in stuff you don’t want to touch, or for raking through piles of shells, and so on. It is also great to lean on when you have to do a lot of bending, and helps you get up and down from a kneeling position.
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That handle is great for pinning down a snake, too.
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Cool, I hope I have the opportunity to use it for that. Here there are only harmless snakes (garter snake, De Kay’s Brown Snake) that I can grab by hand, although I guess if they are running away, the cane might come in handy to hold them until I can pick them up.
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I have a waist pouch that holds water, snacks, hand lens and a field guide and/or camera. My camera is my wife’s old Sony 15X DSC-H7. It is old, with a few minor mechanical issues (slow to focus, and switches to picture taken mode when zooming on photos you are reviewing intermittently). I have a Pentax Papilo binoculars for most trips and Vortex binoculars for birding. When I do dragonflies, I have a collapsible insect net (18" rim) plus chest waders.
Since I got my camera I bring field guides with me into the field much less often. The Newcomb’s Field Guide to Wildflowers is usually the only one I bring into the field or the Field Guide to the Dragonflies and Damselflies of Algonquin Provincial Park and the Surrounding Area.
What I bring into the field will evolve over time.
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I have original papilio binoculars and ironically I use them more than my birding binoculars (even though they have close focusing as well to though to just five feet). I can get closer to not just insects plus plants, lichens etc as well. With chest waders they can be easily tucked into the waders so you can swing a net with more vigor versus a heavier pair of binos.
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