gallet

@gpsblake, I read somewhere that the B&W Legend/Venture/Vista If this is true then it is a real irony considering it is the Yellow, Camo and Summit that should be discontinued. It is a disgrace that Garmin should still persevere with the 6 waypoint space name and crocked input method. There can only be one reason why they would do this, I agree that it is good marketing in a sense that as long as people keep upgrading then it's good for business. The H model eTrex will definitely tempt a lot of low end users (it's a fantastic chipset), and I suspect that Garmin is happy for them to have a unit that they later discover is very frustrating to use. Even if one forgets about the terribly clumsy input method for waypoints, (I don't think many people will carry a portable computer in the field with them) then one needs to consider how the hell does one give a meaningful name to 500 waypoints when the limit is 6 spaces. This is not something many consider until it's too late and the way to solve this is to upgrade. Good marketing, yes, good PR, no. Low end model should mean b/w screen, very limited internal memory, no sensors, no memory card. But it should not mean 6 spaces to enter the names of 500 waypoints.

@'gpsblake You've misunderstood me. I'm talking about the monochrome Venture which is a basic unit much like the yellow etrex, it just has the pick stick and the other software improvements that go with it like 10 digit waypoint names. So that if garmin want a low end H model they should have put the h chip in the monochrome Venture and done away with the Yellow eTrex. It's crazy that Garmin keep upgrading models but do not get rid of the previous model. You can get some idea how out of touch with reality Garmin is by the fact that they are still selling the eTrex along side the eTrex H and they are both the same price.

Screen size and resolution are tied to each other. That is, if the HCx is 10% closer then it is the same as the 60. So size and resolution is really a bit of a red herring. It's brightness that makes things visible when trying to gather information quickly, which is what you will want to do when driving. The higher contrast arrow is smaller

Hi I'm also in Australia, The Blue Mountains to be precise, I bought a Vista HCx from US ebay a few weeks ago for $330 delivered to my front door, takes about 7-10 days. I also bought a mint condition Venture yesterday for $104 delivered. Should be here next week My first gps was an eTrex Summit which is why I warn you off the eTrex because both of them do not have a pick stick and that is very bad news.

and orderd the venture cx.. For god's sake man, why? Send it back and buy the VistaHCx from eBay delivered to your front door with USPS express mail international (takes one week) for about £130 from ebay.com plus £30 for VAT and duty. Total £160 for the top of the range unit. EDIT: don't forget that the x units have much better battery life, compare the VentureHC's 14 hours with the Venture Cx's 32 hours.

Sorry there's no news yet but I thought I'd better post. I asked where the latest sheild is and was told I should have it by 18th Sept at the latest. So I'll be writing again to find out what's happening. Re: Boxwave, they were going to send me a file that I could print out and check but rather than print it out I'll just open it in Illustrator and measure it against my already accurately made pdf. However they have informed me that they are busy with a back log of stuff, but that was like well over a week ago. Stay tuned.

@='Alan2' That's a pretty safe bet. Technology marches on. The question is what will be the new features. As I said, if it doesn't have the same fine resolution screen as the HCx then it is wasting it's size.

In that case I think you'd be better off getting a second hand mint condition Venture for $70 on ebay, unless you plan on spending most of your time under very heavy tree cover. I mean a fun thing to do with a gps is to mark a waypoint in the field and give it a name. On the models without a click stick this is a mind numbing experience. It's not fun. You should go down to a shop and check out what it's like. The H series are not about accuracy they are about holding a signal in very difficult terrain.

I can see no reason why it would not be as accurate as any of the other H series. However the basic Yellow etrex is a real pain in the butt when it comes to manually inputting waypoints, and naming them. So much so that I would rather have the Venture then the eTrexH, if I couldn't afford one of the other H models. Garmin have too many models now. It's time to drop the models without the pick stick. The Venture should have had an H chip and been made the new Yellow eTrex and the current Yellow etrex should have been discontinued.

@'freeday Hi, freeday, can I take this opportunity to ask you if the brightness of the HCx makes it more usable in a car, when having a quick glance at the screen. (disregarding the buttons for the moment and assuming that both units are illuminated at 100%)

I haven't used a unit in a car yet so I don't know how it's used but once a route is programmed in, don't you just follow the screen? Do you really need to keep pressing buttons. Surely ease of reading the screen and seeing the route is more important.

I notice that I can plot my tracks and waypoints on maps.google. Is it possible to do this in reverse? Am I able to transfer a maps.google route into the gps? Or can I send the centre of maps.google directly to the gps as a waypoint?

OMFG it works! Plugged my VistaHCx in searched it and displayed my home on maps.google precisely where it should be to perfect accuracy. OMFG (again) You can see how we mac users are starved for compatibility.

My guess is that there will be an updated 60CSx it probably will have a Media Tek chip but I think the new feature on any updated 60 will be the screen. As it is at the moment the 60 has an inferior screen to the HCx models, it is both lower resolution and less bright. So although it is bigger is shows less map area. If one is going to have a big unit with a big screen then it makes sense that the extra screen size should be used. So expect a new 60 series soon with the same size screen but much higher resolution and brighter too.

Both the 60CSx and VistaHCx have the same preloaded base maps, not sure how good they are in the US but Australian basemaps are pretty crap. I suspect that US basemaps are not much better otherwise they wouldn't be able to sell add on mapping. If you get Auto routing it's the dearer City Navigator maps otherwise Metroguide will do. Check out Garmins website for prices. It's worth pointing out that for in car use the new VistaHCx will most likely be better for visiblilty because you can run it off the car power and the screen is brighter at 50% than the 60CSx is at 100% The 60 CSx screen is a little bigger but the resolution is worse (which is why it shows less of the map), meaning the brighter screen is more useful than the 10% larger size. You can over come the slightly smaller screen on the HCx by placing it 10% closer, but you can't do anything about the duller screen on the 60. For quick glances at the screen, brightness will win every time which is why laptop manufacturers make such a big deal about the brightness and contrast of their LCD screens. The only other consideration is the button placement.

FWIW, in Australia where we do not have WAAS, my new HCx gets 3 metres accuracy and no cache I found has so far been further than 6 metres from ground zero. So I'm pretty impressed.

Any eTrex with an H in the name will have the same hi sensitivity receiver. It is worth noting that the VentureHC has a very poor 14 hours battery life unlike the VentureCx which has 32 hours. If you are seriously looking at adding maps and your budget is $250 then surely you must consider the VistaHCx for $220, which has everything. You'll not be wanting to upgrade for many years, if ever (unless it breaks).

That's great, thanks for the link

That's good but am I to understand that if say a gps map76 was bought from the US and used in Australia that, the built in tide tables would not be valid anyway for Australia?

I was under the impression that the screens were the same but I've just noticed that Garmin lists in their specs that the 76 screen is "trans reflective" TFT whereas the 60 screen is just 'TFT', are both screens in fact 'trans reflective' and this is just Garmin being Garmin, or is there really a difference. Particularly with regards to brightness.

I'm sure that I read somewhere that it is possible to load the VistaHCx (or other etrex) with the tide tables that are in the MAP 76's, however a forum search found nothing. Was I imagining this? If it is possible where does one get these tables from.

@='Newb888 I think any inaccuracies are not down to the gps units. I used maps.google recently to navigate by foot to an address I looked up and it took me exactly to spot on the pavement that lead to their front door, and I have repeated this many times with exact addresses on maps.google who have now added street numbers. btw this is with the Vista HCx but my old mono Vista was the same. The MediaTEK chipset is quite energy efficient. This is very confusing. I have also seen reports that the Media Tek is more efficient however I note that for example, if one looks at the specs on Garmin's website that the Venture HC with the Media Tek chip gets 14 hour battery life and the Venture Cx with removable media and the old chipset gets a whopping 32 hours! Yet when comparing the VistaCx with the VistaHCx, the HCx loses 7 hours of battery life with all other specs equal except for the chipset. So it appears that the H chipset pulls an extra 7 hours off the battery life and somehow untis that have removable media (x) get a boost of about 10 hours battery life. Not sure what to make of this.

Until the Vista HCx came out a couple of months ago, that is. It trumps the 60 in a brighter screen viewable in bright sunshine, and it's more compact too. Not too mention better battery life. Shows about 10% more map area too, and easy one handed operation. Not to mention cheaper.

Doh!, I've just discovered the problem. I was navigating to the proximity point. I didn't realise that they operate anyway. I suppose it's obvious now that I think about it. When I was navigating the beep I heard overrode the proximity beep. So it's sorted now.

OK, thanks at least I know it works on yours. It only beeped when I arrived at the waypoint with a number 7 beep no beep when approaching though. Although I had it set on 8 and 15. It beeps fine when I set it up. I set them manually through the unit.