PhotoPills or Planit: I've just downloaded Steve Perry 's book on wildlife photography and he recommends an app for photography planning. After a little searching I found two apps...

geezer7 Loc: Michigan

I've just downloaded Steve Perry 's book on wildlife photography and he recommends an app for photography planning. After a little searching I found two apps, PhotoPills and Planit. I'm wondering if many users have one of these apps and what they think of it (them). Cost is about $10 which would be a bargain if the apps are useful. Appreciate your opinions. Thanks in advance.

geezer7 Loc: Michigan

Oops! I tried a search and found several posts on this topic. Most looked pretty old so any updates would be welcome.

ahudina Loc: Browns Point, WA

geezer7 wrote:

I've just downloaded Steve Perry 's book on wildlife photography and he recommends an app for photography planning. After a little searching I found two apps, PhotoPills and Planit. I'm wondering if many users have one of these apps and what they think of it (them). Cost is about $10 which would be a bargain if the apps are useful. Appreciate your opinions. Thanks in advance.

PhotoPills is great. They have excellent in depth tutorials and instructional videos and live Utube presentations. There is a bit of a learning curve but the resources are definitely there. Hard to think of anything regarding planning that it cannot handle.

larryepage Loc: North Texas area

geezer7 wrote:

I've just downloaded Steve Perry 's book on wildlife photography and he recommends an app for photography planning. After a little searching I found two apps, PhotoPills and Planit. I'm wondering if many users have one of these apps and what they think of it (them). Cost is about $10 which would be a bargain if the apps are useful. Appreciate your opinions. Thanks in advance.

My approach to night sky photography has not yet required the detailed planning that Photopills provides beyond ordinary "almanac" information, but it is an excellent product. In addition, they provide numerous live and recorded training sessions that demonstrate exactly how the software can be used to best advantage.

repleo Loc: Boston

geezer7 wrote:

I've just downloaded Steve Perry 's book on wildlife photography and he recommends an app for photography planning. After a little searching I found two apps, PhotoPills and Planit. I'm wondering if many users have one of these apps and what they think of it (them). Cost is about $10 which would be a bargain if the apps are useful. Appreciate your opinions. Thanks in advance.

I've never heard of Planit, but I use Photopills a lot. It is particularly useful for dawn/sunset landscapes and Astro / Milky Way planning but I also use it for travel and general landscape shots in conjunction with tide charts. Photopills has an 'Augmented' planner. You frame up the shot with your phone and scroll the calendar / clock until the overlay shows the sun/moon/stars where you want them. Just come back at the selected date/time and voila. I'm not sure how you would apply it to wildlife photos except to predict blue hour or golden hour time slots.

I planned both of these shots nearly six months in advance. I planned the shots while walking the beach in the Spring - different years. I was able to predict exactly when the Milky Way would be where I wanted it. I came back in October and there it was - exactly as predicted.

(Download)

ziggy_nc

geezer7 wrote:

I've just downloaded Steve Perry 's book on wildlife photography and he recommends an app for photography planning. After a little searching I found two apps, PhotoPills and Planit. I'm wondering if many users have one of these apps and what they think of it (them). Cost is about $10 which would be a bargain if the apps are useful. Appreciate your opinions. Thanks in advance.

Hello

I use PhotoPills. It is worth it. I use it to plan my sunrise and sunset and for astrophotography. I was going to the Caribbean in November and I discovered that there will be a full moon that weekend.

CaptainPhoto

PhotoPills is the best. For the price you can't beat it. Great tutorials, both video and PDF.
The Photographer's Ephemeris is another app. It's good, but I still prefer PhotoPills by far.

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

geezer7 wrote:

Oops! I tried a search and found several posts on this topic. Most looked pretty old so any updates would be welcome.

Posts are a lot like food: the old stuff probably isn't worth consuming.

ksmmike

I purchased PhotoPills in August and already believe it's the best $10 I ever spent in photography.

chemsaf Loc: San Diego

Totally agree on Photo pills
Excellent
Use it a lot often in conjunction with Sky Candy

SalvageDiver Loc: Huntington Beach CA

You might want to watch this video describing the various features of Photopills, Planit and TPE before you decide. I currently use Photopills, but Planit looks awfully interesting.

Hope this helps.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ooGmAX9oCCw

Dr.Nikon Loc: Honolulu Hawaii

repleo wrote:

I've never heard of Planit, but I use Photopills a... (show quote)

Good points repleo ...thnx

Dr.Nikon Loc: Honolulu Hawaii

geezer7 wrote:

I've just downloaded Steve Perry 's book on wildlife photography and he recommends an app for photography planning. After a little searching I found two apps, PhotoPills and Planit. I'm wondering if many users have one of these apps and what they think of it (them). Cost is about $10 which would be a bargain if the apps are useful. Appreciate your opinions. Thanks in advance.

Great question ....thnx for posting ...

JD750 Loc: SoCal

geezer7 wrote:

I've just downloaded Steve Perry 's book on wildlife photography and he recommends an app for photography planning. After a little searching I found two apps, PhotoPills and Planit. I'm wondering if many users have one of these apps and what they think of it (them). Cost is about $10 which would be a bargain if the apps are useful. Appreciate your opinions. Thanks in advance.

Regardless of what app you use, it's the planning part that is important. Good for you for thinking about that.

geezer7 Loc: Michigan

Thanks for all the great replies. I was motivated to ask this question by the Steve Perry e-book where he recommended Photographer's Ephemeris. I looked up comments for this app and found many negative opinions regarding the Android version. Since my phone is Android I started looking elsewhere. My interest is mainly wildlife and landscapes. I've never done any astro photography so an app mainly directed at astro photography may not be very useful. I'd like to get an app that would help me improve my lighting. Would PhotoPills satisfy this requirement?