Garmin: Legend, Legend C, Or 60?

[tarotreader3]

I find myself in a bit of a pickle. You see, I currently have the legend, and I enjoy everything it has to offer. The one draw back? No autorouting. I've decided, after playing with it the last few days, and seeing what it can do when hooked up with CanadaTOPO that auto routing is a feature that would be incredibly useful. It would increase its functionality ten fold. that is what i imagine right now, anyway.

 

So now I'm thinking of the LegendC. 3 times the mapstorage space, USB cable, colour... wait. that's the problem for me, isn't it? I don't really like the colour screen. And maybe it's just me wanting something that feel "rugged" but the colour screen seems to take away the functional outdoorsman tool, and turn it into a new trendy cyber toy. (please, tell me this isn't so, if you own the Lc and love it. any feedback on what the colour is like would be fantastic too. does it improve maps? help you out at all?)

 

So now I'm looking at the 60. It's only 40 bucks more than the Lc and it brings back that rugged monochrome screen. It gives me the space. It gives me the autorouting. It throws in that external antenna to boot.

 

So now, clearly, I have no idea what one I should end up buying. Any suggestions would be great. Thing's I'd like to know the advantages/disadvantages of are as follows:

Auto-Routing

Colour Screen

Ext. Antenna.

 

Thanks ever so much.

[+lordfishman]

I just today in fact purchased the new Etrex Legend Cx which is basically the C with an Micro SD card

 

Now I used a Legend for over a year (it broke at the autoshow this week!!) and i found it to be ok however it was slow, only had 8 MB. For my area that is enough to load up Hamilton and about 60 k around it excluding toronto which seems fine but whever I go on any trip I had to go and upload the maps all over again. The monochrome screen does get tiring after a while.

 

Anyways this is the advanatage I have seen so far about the Cx (C as well)

 

AutoRouting: this really does come in handy to be honest, when I do lunch time caches I have to get out mapquest and look at where the cache is or when I am going on trips I have to do the route in Mapsource then upload it.

 

Averaging: I always wanted this feature, basically when hiding your cache you can let it sit there and average out a series of readings

 

Colour: Really makes a difference I did not think It would matter but it makes the maps that much more readable.

 

The C has 24 MB of storage which mean you can have a lot more map coverage

 

Also the Cx not sure about the C but it is way faster, boots up in seconds and I can pan maps to my hearts content now. I hated how sluggish the Legend was.

 

Now I was going to buy the C but the Cx has the micro sd card therefore expandable. Just so you know I bought my GPS at Radio World in North Toronto they are having a sale, Cx for 329 and the C for 269,

[+Capt.Picard]

I like the legend c alot also have the plain legend

[tarotreader3]

lordfishman: thanks for the tips. So colour is a good thing, huh? I wish I knew someone with the unit to check it out. I was wondering if I'd want the Cx perhaps. The memory cards seem like it would be great (however, I hear that units with the memory cards no longer have a permenant basemap. Is this true?)

 

Also, what mapset do you use for your auto routing? I read something somewhere (gpscentral.com i think) that led me to believe that autorouting does not work with canadaTOPO. I'd like to be sure that it does before I go out and purchase the unit.

[peter]

The memory cards seem like it would be great (however, I hear that units with the memory cards no longer have a permenant basemap. Is this true?)

No, it is not true. The various 'x' models with TransFlash cards still have basemaps stored in internal memory.

 

TopoCanada does support auto-routing, but not on all of the roads and trails that are shown on the maps (I don't know what percentage support routing). Other options would be CitySelect-NA for street-level maps in both the US and Canada and MetroGuide-Canada, v4 for somewhat more complete coverage of just Canada. Both of these support auto-routing. [if you're going to get a larger TransFlash card anyway then CityNavigator-NA would work just as well as CitySelect-NA. The map regions are larger and therefore don't work as well if you have limited memory space.]

Edited February 26, 2006 by peter

[tarotreader3]

Would any roads that support auto routing in the MapSource program on a desktop computer support auto routing on the gsp?

 

(thanks for the info, by the way. Good to know there's a basemap on the x units)

[+gpsblake]

The basemap of the Legend-C is far less detailed than the basemap of the B&W legend.

 

Why? I wish I knew.

 

But it is a great unit.

[+lordfishman]

Yeah the C and Cx comes with the Americas Recreational vs the BW Legend which comes with America Highways.

 

THe Recreational only has Interstate and Main Highways. I never noticed a difference because I live in Canada and the coverage is the same for both in Canada which is practically nothing.

 

I noticed the real improvement to the C from the B and W version is the speed of redrawing, auto routing, and the thing is way better at acquiring a signal which trust me is worth it.

I just got it so I have not had a chance to play with it much but I was able to get reception in my house away from the windows (ok with 20M accuracy) but the old legend this would have been impossible.

[+G & E]

I know somebody else that was going to buy a Legend C and when they went to buy it, the dealer said Garmin discontinued the Legend C. They now make the Legend Cs so it has the removable SD card. If you are looking for a barain, look for any non-colour Garmin such as the Legend or the MAP60. They are going at fire sale prices.

[+gpsblake]

I've noticed the software is generally faster on the Legend C also over the B&W Legend.

 

I love how this unit looks using the backlight at night. I think it is a great unit. You can even change color schemes on it. However, one other beef I have with the unit is the cookie crumb trail that is displayed. Those real small dots I don't care for much. I like the thicker grayish line of the B&W unit.

 

The added SD memory card is nice for the Cx series but if you are like me and too cheap to buy the mapping software like me to use the extra memory, it doesn't mean much.

 

If only I could get the America highways on the unit. I've got a cheap way of putting in local roads on my unit without buying the software using Street Atlas 8.0 and g7towin.

[+roadrage64]

I just upgraded from the Legend (the blue one) to the Vista C (very similar to the Legend C) about 4 months ago. I also was a little aprehnsive about the color screen, but believe me, it was worth every penny I spent on it. Much easier to read, batteries last longer, "boots" much faster, and map transfers over the USB cable are a godsend. As far as being rugged, I've dropped in many times and never had a problem with it.

[+Chuy!]

Looks like the only remaining feature to discuss is the external antenna connection, which the Legend C lacks. The GPS MAP60 has the ext antenna and does not have a color screen. These units can be had for $240 at most GPS retailers ( I use offroute.com).

 

Good luck.