2shibas Posted June 17, 2009 Share Posted June 17, 2009 I'm new to this and have narrowed my choices down to the Oregon 300 and the Colorado 300. My primary uses will be, in order of importance: 1. Trail use 2. Boating 3. Geocaching 4. In the car Which model would work best for these? My next question is about the maps for them. There seems to be so many choices. Do you have to use Garmin maps or will other brand maps work? Some maps are regional specific. Do these maps offer more detail then if you buy the map for the whole USA? I was looking at the Topo and Bluechart maps. Thank you for your help and I look forward to your replies. Dean Quote Link to comment
+StarBrand Posted June 17, 2009 Share Posted June 17, 2009 If you are strictly limiting the choice between those 2 units, I would go with the Oregon 300. I actually perfer the Colordao 300 myself but mostly for its striong Geocaching performance and slightly better reception. However, at least a few users report some degree of waterproofness issues - so if boating is important - I'd go with the Oregon. Given your list of priorities and uses, I might actually suggest a Garmin 76CSx. Excellent feature set for trail use and it floats for boating. Only big drawback is no native, easy paperless Geocaching. If you want autorouting in the unit - your only choice for mapping is the Garmin maps. Hopwever, there are a number of free maps available for other uses - www.gpsfiledepot.com - all very nice and accurate but no turn by turn autorouting. Quote Link to comment
2shibas Posted June 17, 2009 Author Share Posted June 17, 2009 I also considered the 76csx but decided against because it doesn't have paperless Geocaching. Regarding the maps. Would it be a good idea to buy the cheaper 300 instead of the 400 and download the free maps? How do the free Topo maps compare to the Garmin branded maps? Quote Link to comment
+StarBrand Posted June 17, 2009 Share Posted June 17, 2009 I also considered the 76csx but decided against because it doesn't have paperless Geocaching. Regarding the maps. Would it be a good idea to buy the cheaper 300 instead of the 400 and download the free maps? How do the free Topo maps compare to the Garmin branded maps? The free topo maps have as much if not more detail compared to Garmin. Quote Link to comment
+Zelanzy Posted June 17, 2009 Share Posted June 17, 2009 I'm pretty new myself, but in playing with these 2 devices and reading quite a bit of posts, a fairly good plan seems to be: 1. Buy Oregon 2. Buy City Navigator as card, put into Oregon 3. Download free topo online for internal memory. Quote Link to comment
+NYPaddleCacher Posted June 17, 2009 Share Posted June 17, 2009 I also considered the 76csx but decided against because it doesn't have paperless Geocaching. Regarding the maps. Would it be a good idea to buy the cheaper 300 instead of the 400 and download the free maps? How do the free Topo maps compare to the Garmin branded maps? The free topo maps have as much if not more detail compared to Garmin. On the other hand, the free topo map versions (and I have created a few myself) do not include any waypoints. Quote Link to comment
2shibas Posted June 17, 2009 Author Share Posted June 17, 2009 After doing even more research the Delorme PN-40 also looks attractive. They also offer a cheap map download option. The more I look the tougher my decision gets. The big thing holding me back from the Oregon are the display complaints in bright sunlight, I've read about in reviews. I live in Florida so that can be a problem. Please help with my decision. Quote Link to comment
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