Lorance Ifinder Exporer C

[+Colorado Two]

I see that everyone is into Garmin and Magellan, but I don't see a whole lot of Lowarance fans out there. I use a Magellan Meridian Platunum, which has been a real workhorse I must say, but am looking to update to color screen and newer features. I see the Explorist 600 ($349) as well as the Garmin 60Csx (~$499.99), but with the Lowrance iFINDER Explorer coming in at $254.26.... Its waterproof, 16 hours of battery life (Meridian chews them up in 4 hrs), compatible with topo mapping and fishing maps.. not sure about highway maps yet -- even has an MP3 player (comes in handy on long walks).. How come there are not more fans of Lowrance out there, when it seems to compete on the key features?

[+CTC42]

I am also looking at the Lowrance Explorer and just spent about 2 hours hands on at the Quartzite RV show. Where did you find it for $254.00. I would buy the Plus package with the topo Cd's as they are only about $64 more. Hint you can only load 4 SD cards so if you buy, be sure to use at least a 1GB SD card. The one in the set is only 16mb.

[Hoary]

Hint you can only load 4 SD cards so if you buy, be sure to use at least a 1GB SD card. The one in the set is only 16mb.

As a matter of fact, 5 cards. And you can erase all registered cards once with spec. utility from Lowrance. After that they suggest you to call Cust. Service.

[+miles58]

I see that everyone is into Garmin and Magellan, but I don't see a whole lot of Lowarance fans out there.  I use a Magellan Meridian Platunum, which has been a real workhorse I must say, but am looking to update to color screen and newer features.  I see the Explorist 600 ($349) as well as the Garmin 60Csx (~$499.99), but with the Lowrance iFINDER Explorer coming in at $254.26.... Its waterproof, 16 hours of battery life (Meridian chews them up in 4 hrs), compatible with topo mapping and fishing maps.. not sure about highway maps yet -- even has an MP3 player (comes in handy on long walks).. How come there are not more fans of Lowrance out there, when it seems to compete on the key features?

I use four different monochrome iFinders, Pro, Hunt, H2O and iWay 100. I regularly cache with someone with a Garmin color unit. I still find the Lowrance screen easier to use.

 

I use the mapping for many things, not least of which is caching. My only complaint is that the iWay 100 seems to use batteries a lot faster than the others.

 

If the color trips your trigger go for it, but it might be smart to look at these first generation color units a little closely. The units are rugged, reliable and cheap. I've owned three Garmins and one Magellan. I think I am using much better units now.

[Sagiru]

I'm new to this GPS stuff myself... and only went out in search of my first caches today. That said, I was using an iFinder H20C, and after only two days of playing with it, was easily able to navigate to two caches. I've found the controls to be very user-friendly, and the unit itself was very accurate. It directed me to within 10-15' of each cache. It's a bit bigger than some others (particularly the Garmin eTrex units), but the quality of the screen is hard to beat. I'm very happy with it, and look forward to adding the higher-resolution maps.

 

-- Sagiru

[+Colorado Two]

I believe I created some confusion when I quoted prices I found. The price of $254 was for the Lowrance iFINDER Expedition.... not the plus ("+") version. I was not aware there was a plus version, as I am still in investigation mode. Sorry for the confusion, but I didn't reference plus in my post. I see the plus version comes with an SD Card, Software, a card reader, etc...

Edited January 30, 2006 by Colorado Two

[+synergicity]

I ordered an Expedition C Plus pack for $316 + shipping from Lake Powell Marine Electronics. This includes the 64 mb SD card, card reader, and the MapCreate software.

 

I haven't received it yet so I am reserving judgement on this store. I will report back after playing with the expedition and the mapping software for a while.

 

There is another thread that discusses how to get around the 5 card limit, so look back a few screens.