wickedsprint

While glare may be an issue with magellan screens, garmin color screens get brighter in direct sunlight, the 76C might be a better choise for you in kayaking since it floats. It also has the color screen and usb you are looking for.

Maybe with the new versions they willlet you pick and choose what POIs to add to save map memory.

the 96C is for aviation including airspace, runway layouts, navaids, instrument intersections, final approach waypoints for published instrument approaches, obstacle database and a better HSI (heading bug plus the ability to set OBS course and hold as oposed to just living with whatever course you start your "goto" from), also has 119mb as oposed to 115mb of the 76C, although the 76C has a better basemap, the basemap of the 96C is the same as the 60C. The 96C is also 699 bucks, the 76C is a bargain at under 400 bucks, I just recently sold one to get the 96C since I wanted a more dedicated flying handheld. Garmin claims 40 hr battery life with the 96C, preliminary reports from reviews show users getting over 35 hours with it, whereas the 76C claims 30hrs. If you are not flying very often the 76C is a better deal as it has a better basemap plus essentially the same amount of addable detailed map memory. For flying obviously the 96C gets the nod, sure you can load aviation wayoints through an online filter, but to get the level of aviation detail of the 96C, you would use all of your waypoints and be limited to roughly a 250 mile radius, and you still would not have the airspace warmings and special use airspace nor all of the obstacles, TOPO is good, but nowhere near shows all of the towers. I don't mind the less detailed basemap since examples like the gps III pilot have too much detail, they clutter the map, I don't care about small streams when I am looking at a screen the size of a matchbook, as such when flying I will just turn off the mapsource data and just use it for driving in unfamiliar areas. If you have any more quesions feel free to ask since I have owned both of the units you are asking about. The online pictures don't do these garmin screens justice, they are flat out awesome when you see them first hand.

I had the 76C and it was a wonderful unit, the only reason I sold it was to get a 96C. I would definitely get another one without any hesitation, I got mine from gpsdiscount, they ship very quickly and afte 3 units from them they have always given great service. The 76 case also lends itself very well to one handed operation, likely why the aviation units use the 76 case as oposed to the 60 case.

...is AWESOME..it even shows the dirt roads in the local cemetary, it seems to have the same if not better detail than the TOPO series maps with the smaller dirt roads and streams/lakes, the only thing CS6 does not seem to have is the land contours, but otherwise for my area, CS6 is flat out amazing, I am glad I made the purchase. The map chunks seem to take up a sizeable amount of memory from what I recall the very first edition of city select using, but no biggie since the 96C can hold 119 MB and they are in smaller chunks, so the added benefit with using the GPS V it will be easy to pick and choose what to use. One drawback to using them in the 96C is it clutters the map when flying to have the city grids, so I just turn off the mapsource map data when using the aviation mode.

My computer has the same issue with online adobe, do exactly as said above, right click, "save target as", save to desktop so it is easy to find..then happy viewing!

If you are lost in the woods the breadcrumb trail on both will suffice, but giving directions to say search and rescue, it might be nice to say..I am 2 miles east of this intersection if they are not gps equipped.

The city select software is like 100 bucks give or take. The basemap on the color etrex units are pretty much useless.

I'm still partial to the V, especially since it comes with city select 6 for a total of 230 bucks, it literally has no equal int hat price category. If the 76C came with city select for its 400 dollar price tag, it would likely eclipse the gps V in sales. The funny part is my 96C holds 5 times the amount of the gpsV 119mb vs. 19mb, but the V is still a better roadtrip tool, it sits on a dash better with a lower profile and because of its more heavily detailed basemap only needs a few megs of map data for the exact area you need to find the adress. Lets be realistic, you don't need to have all of florida loaded if your destination is a house in tampa.

...seems then that the meridian is a better choice based on his desires then, it floats, wateproof, SD card, and autoroutes.

Does the meridian autoroute? Do they offer streetlevel maps for europe?

Well the 96C arrived yesterday, seems to be perfect, the screen colors look nothing like the pictures, in the pictures the yellow looks fairly offensive but in real life it is actually pretty nice. Basically standard garmin quality, although I have had bad luck with the last two 96 black and whites they sent, so i just paid the difference since I have always had great luck with their color units. One of the users mentioned using the aviation units in microsoft flight sim to navigate around, it actually works, but I had to use a program called GPSOUT, which is easy as pie to setup. It was neat using the goto to setup the HSI to fly around the local area and go to destinations and do course intercepts..etc and this makes for an excellent "realtime" tool to get very familiar with using the exact gps you will be flying with, that way the first time I use this on a crosscountry or whatnot it is second nature.

Another Vote for the Garmin V, at 230 bucks on amazon it is a bargain and nothing comes close in that price segment.

Are the detail levels not configurable for zoom settings like the garmins?

Use them for airspace warnings for general aviation flying if you don't want to pony up the $$ for a dedicated aviation handheld. I LIKE the idea mentioned above for the traffic cameras..that is brilliant!

I find it hilarious where gps technology has come, a year o two ago the GPS V was topdog for routable handhelds.

The V is not obsolete, and I think youmean the 2610, which is a decent unit, but the 76CS as well as the Garmin V will do EVERYTHING the 2610 will, just not all at once, the 2610 has the ability to hld routable highly detailed residential level zoom maps for the whole USA, whereas the the two handhelds will hold chunks...usually more than you are driving in a few days anyhow. I would so give that salesman a piece of my mind, they rarely know their equipment and they likely just want to take advantage of your wife and sell the higher priced unit..if ya wanna screw the salesman..buy the expensive one so he gets his commission, then return it so they yank it back. Buy online since you don't pay salestax.

Garmins 480 panel mount for aircraft updates 5 times a second so the technology is definitely there and being used.

But had you needed city select the Garmin V would have cost you 130 bucks

Could be interesting, whatever happens will likely surface here first, I remember the 60 series (monochrome/color) getting leaked here with pictures a LONG time before garmin released them, so hopefully that happens again. Garmin even tried to deny the images were real, all sorts of speculation about photochops and whatnot..but the resleased models looked exactly as the ones someone posted a pic of.

No worries, all in good fun. I'm just glad this worked out, since I had to either buy city select or get another unlock anyhow, I essentially picked her up a Garmin V for less than 150 bucks, and no gps less than 150 bucks will touch it, so it is a win win situation.

It should work like the color units, make sure ya got the detail settings inthe map setup page not set to "minimum", then go to maposource info under the menu accessed from the map page and see if any of the boxes are unchecked.

Well I ended up just grabbing another V from discount gps, pretty close to amazons price when ya include similar shipping plus I don't mind paying them a bit extra since their service has always been very nice, the GF did not want the new one anyhow, she's afraid she is going to damage her first one *shrugs* so she gets the barely used one. She is pretty competetive so now it appears we will be racing for each cahe as soon as we get out of the truck. The 96C ought to be pretty nice with the city select since it holds like 119mb although its basemap sucks.

I think your logic about the free unlock is sound, but your thinking about giving her the used V rather than the new V is seriously flawed. The reason I want to give her the used one is because it is unlocked for an older version of city select, that way I can have her gps unlocked on ehr computer at her house, and both of my gps units unlocked witht he same version of city select on my computer, keeps it alot neater. It is a moot point calling it used, it is in flawless shape and save for the used unlock deal I could easily sell it as "new" never used on ebay and not have anyone question it when they get it delivered.

You have to have adress searchable maps loaded into the unit like city select metroguide or city navigator..etc