SilentWolf

That's awesome - Bravo!

Since I just bought my Oregon 300, I had the same questions since the owners manual doesn't say much on the subject, so I did two things.... First I got on Garmin's website, checked the FAQ's, and it says they "recommend a standard speed 4gb card" be used in the Oregon's. Well, being very familiar with the cards as I am a semi-professional photographer, I know that standard speed cards are very hard to find in a 4gb format, since the majority of them will be sdhc. So, I sent their techies an e-mail asking what the deal was, and would an sdhc card work? After I submitted my query, I found it would take 3 days to get a response..... well that wasn't good enough. So then, I got on the phone and endured their 20 minute hold-time, but got hold of someone in their technical department. I told him what I was after, and what I had read on the website, but was curious because "standard speed" sdhc's are extremely out of place in today's world.... He immediately snickered and knew exactly where I was coming from, stating that "I have been trying to get those website guys to change that wording for a long time now". So, I asked "well then, will a 4 gig sdhc work then?" His response, "Yep, so long as it is formatted FAT32". THEN, yesterday I got the e-mail response from them, and it was contradictory. The response : "I have never been able to get a HD/HC card to work on that unit. There are a few 4 gig non HD/HC cards out there but as you are finding out they are hard to find. Most people just use a 2 gig card in their unit because it is very hard to fill that up with maps." So.... hm...... now what? Well, I decided to take the risk and ordered a 4gig sdhc from amazon since I was ordering the city navigator DVD from them anyway, so I'll let y'all know what I find. The guy I talked to said he saw "no need" to go bigger than a 4gig himself since the maps didn't take up as much space as people think they do..... so we'll see - i'll report back when I get things going.

What's your computers specs? What OS you running?

I have the Oregon 300 myself, and from what I've heard the info that you transfer via gpx file is basically the same between them all.... You get the cache name, coordinates, size, difficulty, terrain, description, hint (if wanted - it's on a separate screen), and the last 5 log's. I don't believe there's any kind of driving or parking directions, but just get the City Navigator maps to go with whichever unit you get, and you'll have routing capability. I love my Oregon, even though I've only had it for like 5 days now I was between it and the Dakota, but personally I found the Dakota to be a little smaller than I wanted (but I'm a big guy with big mits...) I don't think you'd go wrong either way.

I noticed it's also showing available on the Groundspeak store page today.

Oh I'll eventually get a mount for it, probably one of the suction cup ones, but it works for now

Well, my first impressions of the Oregon 300 are that it's awesome! Finally had the chance to get out this morning and find a few cache's, and it performed well. I love it's menus and interface - it's so easy and quick to do what you want it to. Out of the 10 caches' I went looking for there were only 2 I didn't find, and I'm sure it's my fault not the GPS's.... both of them were listed as micro's, and I'm still new at this I do also have to say that I don't know why people are complaining about being able to read the screen out in the sun - I found it very easy to see.... even when it was sitting wedged between my windshield and dashboard, and the backlight went off after a minute or so I could still read it easily, and I'm not using a power cord yet, just batteries. (Which by the way are also performing very well so far, the Sanyo Eneloop rechargables.)

or you could try this. LOL - yea God forbid someone actually read the manual! But honestly, I have the 300, and it's probably the most straight-forward piece of electronics I've ever used.

I haven't used one, but to my knowledge they don't - not without some third-party software and plug-in's, which from what I've read seem to be a hassle..... I'm fairly new at this, but I don't really see the need of having the aerial images loaded in - I think they may be fun to play with on your computer, like overlaying tracks or stuff like that on, but what's the fun in trying to find a cache if you have a detailed photo of exactly where it is? Just my opinion....

That's weird - on my Oregon 300 when I log the cache as found, it still shows on the map but it changes from the little green and white box to a yellow "opened" box.... and it no longer shows on my normal list, but under the "found" list.

Well, after waiting patiently all day, UPS finally threw a box on my porch at almost 7pm..... I tell ya what a long day! But it's here! Bad news is that I've got myself looped into a repainting project this weekend, so it's gonna be a few days before I can take her out, but as soon as the opportunity arises I'll let y'all know what I think - Thanks again everyone for the advice and help!

Having just bought the 300 I have researched them extensively - they all use the same chipset and antennae, so I highly doubt there would be any accuracy differences between them. Really the only differences between them is that the 200 doesn't have an electronic compass at all, the 300 and 400 have a 2-axis, and the 3-axis is only on the 550. I honestly haven't used mine yet, as it just arrived hours ago and i've been in the middle of a paint project, but from what i've read on the forums and FAQ's make sure you have downloaded the latest updates from Garmin as others have reported that will help immensely. I hope to get out this weekend and do some caching so I'll report back on what I think of mine.

I think it is a good choice. I have a Colorado which is similiar to an oregon. I have a mount on my snowmoible dash. I can see the screen just fine. The built in topos has never not got me out of a remote location that I did not know where I was. The thing with snowmobiling, your not looking at the screen the entire time. You usually slow down or stop so you can study where you are. The larger screen size of the colorado/Oregon is nice for a quick glance and shows more area. I also found no reason to run power. With NIMH rechargables I can get 8-12 hours with the backlight on. I carry at least 2 extra sets. The paperless geocaching is nice as well. My friend has teh 60CSX and I like the colorado much better in both outdoor activities and geocaching. Cool - thanks man! And sweet pic - it's been in the upper 90's here most of the summer, and I am so READY for some snow!

I'd like to hear how this turns out - I've got me a 300 on order, and from what I've read they are only able to accept up to a 4gb card. I'd like to know if the 8gb card works. And yea, sounds like your PC may be a little out-dated, probably a fairly low FSB (the speed that your RAM communicates with your processor) But I'd think you should be able to load most of it to the internal memory - the 400 and 300 have the same 850mb's internal. And, I do remember reading on garmin's FAQ's that you're good for about 4000 segments.

First off, just wanted to say thanks again to everyone that threw in their 2cents here - I really appreciate the help and assistance! This morning I pulled up to Sportsman's, walked straight back to the GPS display, and saw NEITHER the Oregon 300 or the Dakota! Man, what a buzz-kill! They had an Oregon 200 and a 400i, but no Dakota's at all. Oh well. I fiddled with the 200 for a minute, and really like the feel of it, and the interface seems real nice. It was actually a lot smaller in my hand than I thought it would be, which led me to believe that the Dakota would probably be too small for my liking. But I knew I wanted the bigger memory of the 300 and at least the 2-axis compass, so I left empty-handed. But not all is lost, as soon as I got home, the laptop was fired up, and I am having shipped 2-day from Amazon.com the Oregon 300 ($355), some enerloop rechargeable AA's, and one of the Lacrosse chargers (after reading the other thread here sounds like that's the way to go) I can't wait! I know eventually I will want the routing street maps from garmin, (which I noticed were $77 on amazon) and a DC cable amongst other things, but that can wait for another order.

Roddy and Maingray - thank you so very much for your input! I really appreciate it. I'm heading to Sportsman's Warehouse tomorrow to put my fingerprints on a few units, and who knows.... I may just come home with one. I'm still bouncing between the Oregon or the Dakota so we'll see how they feel to me. Maingray you mentioned the aerial maps of the PN-40, which yea might be nice for flying, but to be honest - if I want an aerial image, I'll just look out the window Thanks again guys!

OK, I've spent the last few days reading every review and forum I could find on the couple of GPS' I think I'd like, and after doing so I've pretty much narrowed my search down to either the Garmin Oregon 300 or the Dakota 20. I've steered away from the Delorme, as it's battery life seems rather disappointing, screen I think is somewhat smal, and I don't like the idea of being limited to only their maps - even though they do seem extensive..... I also like the idea of a touch-screen unit, and knowing that I can plug into my 12v while in the car to brighten the screen is a nice thought. I'm wondering if anyone out there that has used the Oregons and the Dakota's can give me their thoughs - what do you like and/or not like about them? Is the screen really that hard to see outside as some people have reported? I know the Dakota has the 3-axis compass and the Oregon doesn't (without going to the 550, which I don't need a camera so can't see myself spending that much to jump up to it) - do you find the 3-axis to be advantageous to have? My big curiosity is on the microSD cards - I have read that the Oregon's are pretty much limited to a 4gig card, but can't find anything on the Dakota's for sure - can it use bigger or no?

Yea, it would be nice to have a "discount" if you pay for say 3 or 5 years at a time. I'd have nothing against a lifetime membership either.

Yea it can definitely be misleading sometimes - just today I was out caching after printing off the cache descriptions with the maps attached, and one of the maps showed the wrong street name we were on, and another showed the cache location across the street and probably 200 feet from where it really was. I was using a borrowed Garmin etrex vista, but it had us within 15 feet or so of every spot today.

Cool - thanks for that info Biker - knowing that I'm now kind of leaning towards the Oregon - I think I'm down to the 400t or the Delorme PN-40 Keep in mind those maps won't route you, just show more detail than a basemap! What about the National Geographic maps? A buddy told me about them and said he thought they were some of the best out there.

Cool - thanks for that info Biker - knowing that I'm now kind of leaning towards the Oregon - I think I'm down to the 400t or the Delorme PN-40

Just wanted to add my thanks for your comparison here - it's answered a lot of the curiosities I've had.

Without a lot of work, this isn't paperless...and then even with the work, it's not truly paperless. There are units which do a lot more (caching wise at least). That's what I noticed too - the 60CSX looks like an awesome unit, with the exception of not having full paperless caching capability.

First off, thanks again everyone for your comments and suggestions - they have been incredibly helpful so far! And speaking of so far, from what I've read and checked into further, I've kind of narrowed down my shopping list to a couple that have been suggested - After checking it out I do like the looks and sounds of the Delorme PN-40, seems like it would be a solid unit and do what I'd like, and from what I can tell would be the clear-cut winner when it comes to the maps. I'm still drawn to the Lowrance Sierra as well, and like Tahoe Skier mentioned I of course realize they are new and will have some bugs to work out, but should be a solid unit as well. And I also really like the Garmin Oregon 400t, seems like it's features and setup are real nice, but I'm still leary about the screen for some reason - I don't know why, and it's probably a fine unit, I've always just been paranoid about 100% touch-screen things. And correct me if I'm wrong, but I'd have to buy whatever additional maps I'd like to have, and it appears they aren't exactly cheap for the Garmin line of products... whereas the Lowrance supposedly has "premium content maps" pre-loaded, and the Delorme has a $30 subscription per year that I could download whatever I wanted from them. I'd still love to hear anyone's suggestions and thoughts, I'm probably about a month or so out from actually making my mind up and making the purchase. Maybe, are there any things (like features or whatnot) that I haven't listed but should consider? I know battery life is always a thought, and I was surprised to see that the Delorme seems to suffer in that aspect. (Thank heavens for rechargeables, but who wants to carry about 5lbs worth of batteries?)