Current TOPOs vs older TOPOs

[+c&s 143]

I have a Garmin 60CSx and was talking to a coworker about maps. He mentioned that he had an older set of the Mapsource TOPOs that were unused that I could have. I got them and have installed them on my PC (haven't moved them to the GPSr yet). The software is at home and I am at work but if I remember, the maps were copywrited to 2003.

 

Is there a lot of difference between the current 2008 set and ones from a few years ago? Is there something compelling reason to spend the money?

 

I am a geocacher and typically only hike national/state/local park trails using park-provided maps. I plan to use the GPS for some lake and coastal kayaking as well but I don't think TOPOs would help much there.

 

Thanks!

 

Craig

C&S 143

[+embra]

Someone else will have to comment on the differences between the two programs, but I can offer the more general observation that while streets and commercial POI data may change a lot, topography doesn't. I find the USGS quad data very useful on my PN-20 even though its 50 years old or more.

[+Willibauer]

I believe you can view the most up to date Topo maps at the garmin website. If so, that should give you a pretty good idea of whether you need to upgrade or not.

 

Willibauer

[+embra]

I forgot that I had saved a link of this comparison/review.

[+c&s 143]

Thanks for the comparison site. It looks like the differences are not that great. I think what I will do is stick with what I have now. If in the future I come across something to make the cost of the newer ones worth it, I will check into it again. I just wanted to make sure there was not some grand thing in the new ones that was a cant-live-without-it feature.

 

Thanks!

 

Craig

C&S 143

[+Miragee]

If you installed the older Topos on your computer, but haven't visited the Garmin site to get the Mapsource update, you should do that. The newer version of Mapsource has more features and tools for working with Tracks.

[anethema]

If you do most of your hiking in national parks, Garmin has some nice and very detailed topos.

 

http://www8.garmin.com/cartography/mapSour...po24knpeast.jsp

 

They are based on the USGS 1:24k topo maps. Looking at the preview they look pretty nice, might be worth a look.

[+Idahogreggory]

I have both the old topo maps and the 2008, depending on where you are there can be quite a bit if difference between the two. One of the things I noticed right off was that there are more back country roads and trails on the 2008 version. I can easily load the contiguous 50 states on my Vista HCx with the the old topo but I can only load western third of the 2008. I noticed that there is a lot more detail added in the central and eastern regions. If you use memory size as a gage the 2008 map segments range between 2x-4x larger then the old version. It still doesn't match the Delorme Topo USA ( I am still on version 3), but it is quite an improvement and worth the inverstment IMO.