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Africa Road Atlas - Any Good?
So I've ordered the Africa Map Atlas by MapStudio which is a South African company and overlaid a page of their atlas to some aerial imagery and there was no road/ route in sight.
What's at fault here? The map or the imagery? Anyone used this atlas on their travels? How was it? |
Lots of things to go wrong with here.
"some aerial imagery"? How old is it? What resolution does it have? Is the road newer than the imagery?
Africa is a large place, you would need to give some idea of where your talking about to get a better response. Have you tried OSM to see what they have? e.g printable OSM Make - Field Papers |
Speaking of Africa maps, can you typically purchase them anywhere when you're actually in the country? Maybe better luck in some countries rather than others?
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I only saw a few for sale and these were in capital cities by which time you are typically
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Try again. Thick fingers trouble on a tablet. Meant to continue and say:
By which time you are typically half way through the country. I'd buy them before you go. For what it's worth I had the two Michelin maps covering the south and NE of the continent, plus maps of each country I was visiting and it turned into a large bundle. Doing it again I'd just take the two Michelin for general planning and rely on the OSM maps I also carried on my tablet for getting more detail of a particular area. Maybe not quite as convenient but still very practical. Sent from my SM-P350 using Tapatalk |
Or just scan them in and take them all.
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I'm not sure on the age of the photo. I'm using Global Mapper which is a licensed software with databases built in. It's in their interest to have up to date data on there, so I'm going to assume it's recent. I've compared it to Google Earth and it matches road infrastructure including dirt roads. Their imagery for this area is from 2013.
Below are some comparisons to the various data that I can use to compare. This is in Botswana, so not really that far afield from the cartographers. Below some overlays on top of the Atlas mapping. The other sources have been made 25% transparent. Openstreetmap http://i125.photobucket.com/albums/p...nStreetMap.jpg Mapquest http://i125.photobucket.com/albums/p...20Mapquest.jpg World Topo http://i125.photobucket.com/albums/p...rld%20Topo.jpg World Imagery http://i125.photobucket.com/albums/p...%20Imagery.jpg It needs a good look, but the database data doesn't include the smaller roads (at this scale). They all show the A33 and the A3 but no dirt roads that the Atlas shows. However, the resolution increases at smaller scales. So below are some further details at a smaller scale. The Atlas is way of the track in that way near the population centre of Nata. Openstreetmap lines up perfectly with the aerial imagery at so I haven't shown it here at the Nata area. Looking at an area north of this along the A33 the Atlas show quite a bit of infrastructure. But none of the other data does. Doesn't fill me with a lot of confidence on this Atlas. World Imagery Zoomed in at Nata http://i125.photobucket.com/albums/p...y%20Zoomed.jpg World Imagery Zoomed in at a cross roads along the A33 http://i125.photobucket.com/albums/p...Zoomed%202.jpg Openstreetmap http://i125.photobucket.com/albums/p...p%20Zoomed.jpg Mapquest http://i125.photobucket.com/albums/p...t%20Zoomed.jpg World Topo http://i125.photobucket.com/albums/p...o%20Zoomed.jpg |
Not directly related to the original question about the alas, but I'll note I used OSM maps exclusively on my GPS and tablet all the way up the easy side of Africa and found they worked extremely well with no major discrepancies in either big cities or on back roads (OK, there was one I've just remembered where it wanted me to make a 300 km detour. I worked out it was because their database said a ferry was passenger only and not vehicle capable)
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Map studio make good maps - have been using for some time.
Trust the map. |
Thanks but that's not an argument for. I've emailed them on it but still haven't heard back.
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A good address is "Tracks4Africa". Even Garmin offers map data of Southern Africa, which shows many roads as far north as Tanzania.
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I use Tracks4Africa on my GPS and the Paper Maps from Reise Know How. Good, understructable material and mostly quite accurat.
Greets Claudio Summer 15: North America from East to West; Winter 15/16: South Africa to Kenya and back; Spring 16: Kashmir |
As above for us T4A and paper including the Africa road atlas.
Plus we bought a SD card from UK Ebay with all of Africa on it to plug into our usual European Garmin...we have been shocked at how good it is!!! Even brings up dirt roads and real out off the way places...All for £15!!! Covers almost every African country. |
I've got the t4a app as well as the paper maps for Namibia and South Africa. Then the Michelin maps for Africa and the road atlas. I know how t4a gets its data which is great. The Michelin is only good for the main routes and an overview but got the atlas for a higher resolution. Now I'm scrutinizing it against other sources and it's falling short as the images before shows.
Keen to hear of examples of people using it on secondary and tertiary routes. If you have a route to show I'm keen to test my comparison as well. So far the company isn't letting me know their sources or methods. Sent from my SM-G920W8 using Tapatalk |
I found the Michelin maps very convenient and sufficient for the most part. They're not very detailed, which is great because in Africa things change very quickly, so the most detailed maps would probably be outdated by the time they're printed.
T4A is awesome for Southern Africa, useless for the rest of the continent : OSM is often better, and actually quite useful and accurate in the most unlikely places. Plus the price is right.. Laurent |
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