Which Garmin GPS

  • Hey Guest, Early bird pricing on the Summer Moot (29th July - 10th August) available until April 6th, we'd love you to come. PLEASE CLICK HERE to early bird price and get more information.

alick

Settler
Aug 29, 2003
632
0
Northwich, Cheshire
OK - I'm looking for a handheld GPS.

Always wanted one but now doing some contracting work so it would be useful to help with in-car navigation too. I'm trying to figure out which model to pick so I'd be grateful for specific advice between these models:

Garmin etrex vista - I'm not hung up on new/small is best. I'm considering this because I expect it's display is better (bigger) than the gecko, it's got 24Mbytes and bigger might also mean bigger aerial.

GPS Map76 - better display that the etrex. WASS EGNOS is important. Another quad helix aerial. Does it have better signal reception ?

The new Garmin 60 - quad filar aerial should give much better reception than the patch antennas used in most other stuff. That's good enough reason alone. 24Mbytes is a bonus. USB is great because I WILL plug into my laptop which doesn't have an old style serial port. Are the colour screens worth having or stick to greyscale and save the cash ?

Priorities: as always I'm looking for a bargain. Signal performance is top priority. garmin not magellan because of reputation and user interface. Map screen.

Thanks for any advice. :biggthump
 

leon-1

Full Member
Alick, I can't honestly tell you, but I found this site wher they have some very good reviews and comparisons of current GPS. They have some good reviews of the Garmin 60, the g76 and the etrex vista.

I am afraid I am in the archive with my old GPS12XL from Garmin, but from what I have heard the new ones are pretty good.

I hope this will be of some use to you :biggthump
 

Hoodoo

Full Member
Nov 17, 2003
5,302
13
Michigan, USA
I got the Garmin etrex legend for Christmas and it's definitely cool. Not much diff between it and the vista except memory. Maybe a compass or something. I forget.

But I can definitely vouch for the legend. I used mine during hunting season (it was an EARLY Christmas present :eek:): ) and I could find my treestand 3/4 of a mile from the road in total darkness with no trail to follow. Try that with a compass. :) I can load topos covering about 1/4 of the state of michigan on mine.

I'm sure there's gps units out there that are better for auto travel but I wouldn't know which one. The legend is the only one I've ever used.

But if you get one, make sure you take a compass too. :lol:
 
Jan 17, 2005
6
5
USA
As you said, these receivers you mention aren't primarily intended for use in vehicles, if that's what you want, good, but the screens aren't going to be that large, of course. My take is that the Garmin 60c is the one to get if you're not going to shop Magellan. The 60c has not only the quadrifilar antenna, waterproof construction, and WAAS, but will also run 30 hours on 2 AA batteries thanks to new technology, no other receiver currently comes close to this ability. All of the eTrex models use a patch antenna (I own one myself & it's a fine receiver), and they work well in open country but do have more difficulty under tree cover. I do like the color displays over greyscale but you will still have the same problems of a too-small screen when afoot, i.e. it's hard to zoom to large-scale map and orient oneself with such a small display.
 
Oct 6, 2004
4
0
51
Kent/London
I have the Garmin GPSMAP 60C and it is a superb unit. I use it in the car, motorbike and on the trail. Battery life is fantastic as is the screen, I think the colour screen is essential if you intend using the unit for vehicle satnav. Extremely accurate now that EGNOS is up and running (+/- 4m), excellent signal lock under fairly dense tree cover.

Downside is price, the unit comes with a basemap of Europe, if you require the satnav features you will need to buy the City Select Europe maps. These contain street level maps of most of Europe and thousands of POI. Fixed internal memory of 56MB was just enough space to include the road detail from Kent to northern Italy, or the complete south of England. Entering addresses can be a little tricky.

I spent a lot of time researching GPS units last June and at the time this was the best do it all handheld unit available. I don't think there are any newer units which can compare. Certainly one for your shortlist.
 

Hellz

Nomad
Sep 26, 2003
288
1
52
Kent, England
www.hellzteeth.com
Hoodoo said:
I got the Garmin etrex legend for Christmas and it's definitely cool.
I agree. I've had one of these for a few years and it has been brilliant, very accurate, lots of features and great gadget factor :wink:

I have a dash mount for it in my little 4x4, but to be honest it's not great for road navigation, designed primarily as a handheld unit. For finding your way on the road I think there are better options, in the woods however it's fab. :biggthump

Hellz
 

NickBristol

Forager
Feb 17, 2004
232
0
Bristol, UK
Does anyone happen to know if the Garmin GPSMAP 60C has voice prompts for directions, especially (only!) when driving using City Select? Only reference i could find was 'audio prompts' which could be voice or just as easily a beep when you've just passed your junction....

Ta v much for any info, Nick
 

Adi007

Bushcrafter (boy, I've got a lot to say!)
Sep 3, 2003
4,080
0
If you want reasonably good road nav, take a look at the Silva Atlas Pro with additional maps on storage cards ... I've got one that I'm reviewing right now and I'm impressed with the road maps. Otherwise, it's an accurate, albeit rather big unit (but it does have a big, clear screen).

http://www.silva.se/outdoor/products/gps_atlaspro.htm
 
Oct 6, 2004
4
0
51
Kent/London
NickBristol said:
Does anyone happen to know if the Garmin GPSMAP 60C has voice prompts for directions, especially (only!) when driving using City Select? Only reference i could find was 'audio prompts' which could be voice or just as easily a beep when you've just passed your junction....

Ta v much for any info, Nick

No voice prompts, but beeps. Approaching a turn approx. 200 yards you get a couple fairly piercing beeps, then just before the turn you get more beeps of a different tone. Works well when you're used to it. The nice thing is that at the first set of beeps the screen changes to show the junction with your route in detail, it changes again during your turn so you can see if you're heading in the right direction. If might seem that you need to stare at the screen but a quick glance is sufficient to figure out what's going on. I've only used the routing with City Select so I don't know how it performs with only the basemap.

I don't find it any worse that the NAVMAN 4410 I used to use with a PPC. Voice prompts are OK, but not really that much of an advantage. If you've anymore questions I'm happy to help.
 

bambodoggy

Bushcrafter (boy, I've got a lot to say!)
Nov 10, 2004
3,062
50
49
Surrey
www.stumpandgrind.co.uk
Sorry I can't help with Garmin as never used one but I can echo what was said below about Magellan being very good. I was issued mine in the TA and "forgot" to give it back when I left....
OK so it's the mil-spec one so it's going to be rugged but it's fairly bombproof and I believe their civvi range is built the same....

If you want only Garmin then that's cool but Magellan might be another option for you to look at...

http://www.magellangps.com/en/

Above link gives you an idea what theyhave available....

Hope that's of help to you Mate even if just for comparison :eek:):
 

alick

Settler
Aug 29, 2003
632
0
Northwich, Cheshire
Cheers guys, good info there. I appreciate the user comments and the pointers to sources. Based on the signal performance I think I exclude the etrex - the newer models seem to get consistently better reviews. The magellan sportrak gets added in and it sounds like I should go try before I buy.

Thanks again :You_Rock_
 

Adi007

Bushcrafter (boy, I've got a lot to say!)
Sep 3, 2003
4,080
0
alick said:
Based on the signal performance I think I exclude the etrex - the newer models seem to get consistently better reviews.
Depends what you mean by "signal performance".

I have several new GPS receivers for testing right now (two are the Magellan eXplorist 400 and the Silva Atlas Pro) and I would say that the antenna performance difference is small, if not negligible. I can compare these units to my old trusty eTrex Vista and I find little difference under trees or in-car. There are units that appear to hold lock under trees better than others but most fake this (it can be easily proved by changing direction and watching the arrow continue along the same route as before).

There are GPS antennas based on SiRF technology that are very good but none of these are found in consumer GPS receivers (they are more widely found in GPS antennas and Bluetooth devices).

I'd say get some hands-on time with GPS receivers in a shop and buy online afterwards and reap huge savings!
 

bambodoggy

Bushcrafter (boy, I've got a lot to say!)
Nov 10, 2004
3,062
50
49
Surrey
www.stumpandgrind.co.uk
Alick, are you coming to the Ashdown meet up? I know it's a bit of a trek from where you are but if you are going let me know and I'll bring my Magellan if you want to have a play with it.... :wave:
 

HAM

Member
Sep 6, 2004
19
0
53
Aberdeen
I've been using the ETrex Legend for a couple of years now and I really like it. Hooked up to the laptop in the car with Garmin mapping software its excellent for in-car navigation, on the hill on its own it holds more than enough data. They've also recently brought out a colour version.

I guess the best thing I can say is that if mine were to break I'd just buy one of the same (in colour of course).
 

Adi007

Bushcrafter (boy, I've got a lot to say!)
Sep 3, 2003
4,080
0
I've not been impressed by colour displays on GPS so far ... I either find that they are awful at night or put too much of a drain on the battery. What I've done in hook mine to my iPAQ, onto which I can load Memory-Map or Anquet maps onto massive SD and CF cards. This gives me far more capacity than any GPS would for maps.
 

Adi007

Bushcrafter (boy, I've got a lot to say!)
Sep 3, 2003
4,080
0
arctic hobo said:
What's the battery life like on your iPaq when you run it as GPS?
With my Garmin eTrex Vista connected and running Memory Map I get about 3 hours standard or about 5 hours with the expansion pack. But this is for an exeranl GPS conencted by a cable.

Running a GPS sleeve (such as the NavMan) on the iPAQ will reduce this dramatically. Kath has a CF card GPS but I don't think she's done a battery life test yet.
 

BCUK Shop

We have a a number of knives, T-Shirts and other items for sale.

SHOP HERE