Entry level GPS unit?

[+boiseduo]

Hi!

 

my wife and I recently read an article about geocaching and really want to get into it. What would you all recommend as an entry level gps unit for someone who has never done this before, but wants a quality unit without paying $500 or more?

 

Thanks!!

[+Fhantazm]

Your $500 price cap is definitely doable. You can find SEVERAL "quality" units for much less. If you want to go with the unit that everyone seems to like best you can get the 60csx for about $400ish or the 60cx(no electronic compass/altimeter) for about $350ish. Or you could get the Magellan eXplorist 600(includes electornic compass/altimeter) for around $300ish or the 500 (No electronic compass/altimeter). Then theres the Lowrance iFinder Expedition C, which is Lowrances top of the line for around $250(includes electornic compass/altimeter) or the iFinder H20 C(No electronic compass/altimeter) for about $200. All are great units and do GREAT for geocaching, have a lot of features and do great under tree canopy. There are other units that have less features (B/w screen, etc) that are cheaper but still do a great job if you want to spend a little less. As it stands right now the units you may want to avoid, due to multiple people having reception/accuracy issues are the Garmin Legend (black and white unit) and the Garmin Venture Cx/Legend Cx/Vista Cx. There have also been some who complain about the iFinder Go/Go2 being inaccurate under tree cover but I have never found it to be an issue.

Edited September 19, 2006 by Fhantazm

[+thojo]

Hi!

 

my wife and I recently read an article about geocaching and really want to get into it. What would you all recommend as an entry level gps unit for someone who has never done this before, but wants a quality unit without paying $500 or more?

 

Thanks!!

 

Been Geocaching for about 2 months now, started out with a Magellan eXplorest 100. It is a great basic unit and with 14 channels is pretty accurate. We are quickly outgrowing this unit and I am quickly building a wish list for the next upgrade (Hey Santa!) After awhile, you tire of having to manually entering waypoints, and hit alot of deadends because there are no road maps to follow on this model. If nothing else this burns more gas, but it can make the hunt more fun and challenging.

 

My wish list so far...

 

expandable memory (sd or mini sd card)

mapping

PC USB interface

choice between rechargable or standard AA or AAA would be nice

Geocache Manager or other Geocaching friendly features

 

what I don't need

color

altimeter

barometer

mag compass

mp3 player

alarms (thats what co pilots are for!)

[+yyzdnl]

I haven’t been at this long but, I really like my Asus Mypal A632 PDA. I bought it for auto navigation and then stumbled across geocaching. It comes loaded with Destinator software so you can get turn by turn directions for a parking lot nearest to a cache. Then I use navigator II software for the off-road trek to the cache. Paperless geocaching all in one unit with great battery life.

 

If you don't plan to search for extreme caches and can get by without a rugged/waterproof GPS, I highly recommend this option. I don’t know how people manage to get within hiking distance of a cache when in an unfamiliar area. I find auto navigation is a god send for me.

[+team5150]

For a starter unit, I would recommend the Garmin Etrex Venture Cx. It is basically a Legend Cx, but it doesn't come with a micro SD card or a USB cable to connect to your computer. The Legend Cx comes with both, but at a premium price. A lot of people replace the SD card right away (Legend comes stock w/ a 32 Mb card) to hold more maps, and almost everyone has a USB cable laying around to connect your camera, PDA, etc. Wally World has the Venture for 199 on-line (before the $50 rebate) so that brings the price down to 149.

One other things to mention, don't forget to budget for map software. Thats usually around $100.

Good luck and welcome to the fun/sport/obsession!!

[+HaLiJuSaPa]

Your $500 price cap is definitely doable. You can find SEVERAL "quality" units for much less. If you want to go with the unit that everyone seems to like best you can get the 60csx for about $400ish or the 60cx(no electronic compass/altimeter) for about $350ish. Or you could get the Magellan eXplorist 600(includes electornic compass/altimeter) for around $300ish or the 500 (No electronic compass/altimeter). Then theres the Lowrance iFinder Expedition C, which is Lowrances top of the line for around $250(includes electornic compass/altimeter) or the iFinder H20 C(No electronic compass/altimeter) for about $200. All are great units and do GREAT for geocaching, have a lot of features and do great under tree canopy. There are other units that have less features (B/w screen, etc) that are cheaper but still do a great job if you want to spend a little less. As it stands right now the units you may want to avoid, due to multiple people having reception/accuracy issues are the Garmin Legend (black and white unit) and the Garmin Venture Cx/Legend Cx/Vista Cx. There have also been some who complain about the iFinder Go/Go2 being inaccurate under tree cover but I have never found it to be an issue.

 

We have an iFinder GO. Very good unit considering it only goes for about $60-70 retail. It will not let you download waypoints, but whether that's important depends on how much/how often you cache.

 

It is interesting, we've never had reception issues under tree cover, but for the first time we did have accuracy issues. We're in the process of adopting a cache whose owner moved to the West Coast; and the cache is in very very dense tree cover and there have been complaints about the coords given. Two people gave similar "other coords" that would put it 50 ft. from the posted coords. And they are right at least based on Google Earth.

 

So we went there with our IFinder GO and let it average almost 1000 readings. And believe it or not or coords were off! They were somewhere in-between the posted coords and Google Earth. We were astonished because we still had great signal, and the 2 caches we have hidden doing a similar averaging we were told had perfect posted coords.

 

So we think there is something to it....still a great unit, have had no problems finding caches with it!

[+gpsblake]

$500 will buy almost anything on the market for a handheld GPS. A lot of people rave about the Garmin 60cx or 60csx series because of the improved reception over other units in dense environments. It comes with all the bells and whistles. If you want a large sized handheld, consider a Explorist XL or Garmin 76Cx unit.

 

But any unit on the market will geocache just fine.

 

Shop around.

 

http://www.magellangps.com

http://www.lowrance.com

http://www.garmin.com/outdoor

[+briansnat]

For Under $500, you can get a top line unit like the Garmin Map 60CX (thre is a $50 rebate now) AND the mapping software. The 60X line is considered by many to be the cream of today's handheld units.

 

The great thing about the 60CX and similar models is that if you decide geocaching is not for you, you still have a useful unit for navigating in your car. Running City Navigator, the 60X series will give you turn by turn directions to a destination or address and also has a database of over 5 million business and services. So if you need to find the nearest gas station, hotel, post office, restaurant (sorted by type of cuisine), museum, auto repair shop, tire store, shopping mall, school, beauty salon, etc... your unit will tell you where it is and how to get there.

 

If you just want an entry level unit, you don't have to spend anywhere near $500. The Lowrance iFinder H20 Plus package is a bargain at a little over $200 with mapping software and card reader. Its a great unit that is sold at an entry level price point, but has enough features that you shouldn't ever outgrow it. The only think its really missing is the autorouting like the many of the Garmins have.

 

Another possibility is the Garmin Venture CX. Its around $160 with the rebate and if you add a 500 meg memory card and City Navigator V8 mapping software you're still under $300. You'll have all the features of the better Garmins, including autorouting and database. You are just missing the advanced chip set and super reception of the 60X and 76X units, though the reception will be just fine for nearly all of you needs.

Edited September 23, 2006 by briansnat

[+Packanack]

Two, thats right two Magellan 500's for $440.