Your choice Oregon 400t or 550t

[+Whipster]

Which would you choose and why. I need to get one or the other.

[+Xantos10]

I bought the 400t because I could not justify the difference in cost for the difference in the two models.

[+grateful cacher]

If you want to take pictures with your GPS, then the 550t is the one you want. Otherwise the 400t will do you just fine. One other advantage to the 400t is that you can store any or all of your geocaching data on the external microSD card. The 550t will only read geocaching data from the internal device memory. You can always look at getting a 300 and putting all of your maps on the external storage device, which would allow you to update you topo maps easier. I had a 300 with the topo and city navigator, and went to a 550t simply because of the camera.

[+MrRocketMan]

This is the first I have heard of not being able to store caching data on the external card. The Garmin website says,

 

The Oregon 550/550t holds up to 5,000 geoaches*. The user is able to store all of the geocaches on the internal memory of the device or an external memory card.

 

http://www.garmin.com/garmin/cms/site/us/s...arch_key=Oregon

 

So this has really confused me.

Edited August 12, 2009 by MrRocketMan

[+Jeep4two]

I carry at a minimum a cell phone with a camera which will do in a pinch (purely for snapshots or earthcaches). Usually I have my shoulder bag and a 6MP point and shoot Canon that does a great job with the exception of macros and of course a fairly bland bokeh. When interested in caching and getting quality photos I carry my Canon Digital Rebel with a few lenses in my Lowepro waist pack.

 

So - long story short - Oregon 400t. I like the idea of the all in one but I'm carrying my swag bag 90% of the time so having the point and shot along side will yield me much better photos and it's easy enough to match the Exif time stamp on the camera with the GPS track log if I really need a firm waypoint to go with a picture.

 

I'll add that I haven't see the quality of photos that come from the 550 but doubt that they can touch even a modest $100 6MP point and shoot.

[+afh3]

I'd like to try out the tilt-compensated compass in the 550t. The one in the 400t can get a little old with all the "Hold Level" messages.

[+g-o-cashers]

The issue with the 550t not being able to load from SD card is bug according to Garmin and will be fixed.

 

As for 400t vs 550t you'll need to decide if the extra $150 for the 550t is worth the camera/geotagging support, 3-axis compass, USB 2.0 interface, slightly brighter screen and 5000 geocache support.

 

I have both and I can tell you I always reach for the 550t because of the camera. I take pictures of everything now and hardly ever mark a waypoint since using the camera gives me a waypoint with a picture.

[+sduck]

Just picked up a 550t for less than a new 400t on ebay. Clever shopping can work wonders!