Garmin Vista C

[+third-degree-witch]

I'm thinking of getting the vista c........any working knowledge anyone ?

[+kitmonster]

Yes - lots. It's the reason I'm here as it has a geocaching menu and being curious, look where I ended up.

 

I bought it after my etrex was stolen and realised the series had grown up in the 6 years since I bought the yellow one. I bought because I liked the format. It's also small and has excellent battery life. And being a kit monster it was the most feature rich etrex at the time! Another than that, it's pretty bomb proof and water proof. And isn't too big to be mounted on handlebars.

 

So what exactly do you want to know that's not in the sales blurb?

[+third-degree-witch]

Im intrested to know if the colour mapping makes life easier then the black & white vista....Ie infill of the blank areas left by the b&w version.

I like the look of the b&w version and it certainly helps one navigate through the streets etc but maybe its worth leap-frogging it to get the colour ?>

[+KiwiGary]

The colour does help (I have the Legend C), but it has the same mapping as the Vista but less memory and no compass.

 

I have yet to find anywhere that sells TOPO maps for it, only roadmaps which are good to get to the carpark. But a TOPO would be better in the field. And if you don't have a car like me, good for finding bridleways

 

Still useful to determine what side of the canal a cache is on, very handy for Ali's cache series.

 

The battery life is amazing compared to the old yellow etrex.

 

See ya...Gary

[+third-degree-witch]

Thats certainly food for thought..thanks

[+John Stead]

useful to determine what side of the canal a cache is on

I would not trust Mapsource maps to tell you which side of a canal, river or railway you should be on as their positions are not accurate and can easily mislead.

 

As for the question of the value of colour - I graduated from a Black and White Vista to a GPSMap 60CS and find the colour makes it much easier to read but then it has an appreciably larger screen as well.

[+Pengy&Tigger]

I have yet to find anywhere that sells TOPO maps for it, only roadmaps which are good to get to the carpark.  But a TOPO would be better in the field.

Have you read this Thread about topo for mapsource, and they are free

 

Pengy

[+KiwiGary]

I have yet to find anywhere that sells TOPO maps for it, only roadmaps which are good to get to the carpark.  But a TOPO would be better in the field.

Have you read this Thread about topo for mapsource, and they are free

 

Pengy

No I will go and have a look, thanks

 

Gary

[+third-degree-witch]

I now have a nice shiny Vista c....Big jump from a yellow it has to be said , Sussing it bit by bit.

[+derrylynne]

I have yet to find anywhere that sells TOPO maps for it, only roadmaps which are good to get to the carpark.  But a TOPO would be better in the field.

Have you read this Thread about topo for mapsource, and they are free

 

Pengy

I can vouch for the free topo maps. I put them on my quest and they are super. A warning though, don't put them on unless you have a valid copy of mapsource...

[+Sue and Bernie]

If you do consider a Vista C, do not buy it for "auto-routing" - or you may be in for a nasty surprise!

 

The auto-routing capabilities of the Vista C are only available if you own either Garmin's City Select or City Navigator software. Both are very expensive to purchase as standalone products.

 

If you already have one of these bits of software that came bundled with another Garmin product, you laughing! You are allowed to "unlock" the software for use to two different Garmin GPS units.

 

I already had a Streetpilot with CN so the Vista C was a good choice for the bicycle and field use.