Help Selecting 1st Gps

[+JATurtle]

I want to buy a GPS so that my son and I can start Geocaching or Waymarking. I may do more Waymarking than Geocaching, but who knows.

 

I noticed that everyone talks bout GARMIN. What about MAGELLAN products? They seem to be more expensive. I thought that I would get a GMSMAP 60CS, but it seem that this may be too much machine. On the other hand, we are near NYC, and you never know where you may go, once you start. The alternate we are looking at is the eTrex Vista C.

 

Any comments or suggestion are appreciated.

[+Pasha]

The first GPS I bought for caching was an Etrex Legend blue; inexpensive but still feature-rich and easy to learn. When I got more serious I got a 60C and love it for the expanded memory, color screen, and caching-specific features.

 

You'll find this is addicting, but that's no reason to splurge on something before you really find out what you think of caching. I'd go with something reasonably priced over something with a lot of features at this point. I started caching with a GPS12 that I got free when I bought a printer about 8 years ago; if the magic box points to the cache, that's all you really need to enjoy the activity.

[+fratermus]

The first GPS I bought for caching was an Etrex Legend blue; inexpensive but still feature-rich and easy to learn. When I got more serious I got a 60C and love it for the expanded memory, color screen, and caching-specific features.

I think it would be hard to go wrong with teh blue Legend. I have loved mine; got it from the dear wife last christmas and I use it many times a week.

[+Team Cotati]

Magellan 210 @ Tiger GPS $156.00. Magellan 400 @ COSTCO $200.00

[nusis]

I'm still pretty new to geocaching myself, however, I'm very happing with my Garmin E-Trex - it's very, VERY basic but for simply navigating to a known point it's about all you need and costs less than $100.

 

I have a seperate much more full-featured GPS navigation system in my car - it helps me get close to the caches but it's not worth the money to buy such a system for just geocaching, in my opinion, I'd suggest not spending the extra money for more capable system unless you really need it for other things.

Edited December 24, 2005 by nusis

[+Indotguy]

You might want to take a look at the Lowrance iFinder line too. While not loaded with as many geocaching bells and whistles as the other major brands, Lowrance makes an excellent product at a reasonable price. I been using an iFinder H2O for almost a year and would not trade it for any Garmin or Magellan unit (and I've used them both.)

http://www.lowrance.com/Outdoor/Products/iFINDERH2OC.asp

Edited December 24, 2005 by Indotguy

[+twallace]

I bought a Lowrance iFinder Go and it's working great for my 1st GPS unit, plus it cost me under $80.00 delivered to my door!

[+GOT GPS?]

If you want a simple GPS with the longest battery life, it would be the Etrex Legend C GPS with up to 36 hours battery life on just 2 AA batteries.

 

Package Includes: eTrex Legend C with USB interface

One basemap below:

- Americas: - Americas Recreational

- Europe: - Atlantic Recreational

- Australia: - Pacific Recreational

MapSource® Trip & Waypoint Manager CD (Basic non-mapping)

PC/USB interface cable

Wrist strap

Quick reference guide

Owner's manual

 

If you got a $30/year membership on geocaching.com, you can have automatic downloads of GPX files from the site via email, and set up the PC to automatically load all the caches from the GPX file straight into Garmin Mapsource, then with another click within Mapsource, you would do an upload of the caches into the Legend C in only about 3 or 4 seconds. Also with Mapsource, with the latest update can drop all its waypoints into Google Earth in a flash.

Edited December 25, 2005 by GOT GPS?