oregon vs colorado

[+yellajeep]

Woohoo! tax refund came in. Now I want to buy a nice gps for geocaching. I have looked at garmin Colorado and Oregon. Can someone who has used either of these or even used both of them give me some advice on which to choose. Also is there a lot of things to purchase after you buy the initial gps?

[+EricRJones]

I have an Oregon 550, and I really like it (the touchscreen is nice). It replaces a 60Cx. The only cons are that the screen is less easy to read, and I find it is slightly less consistently accurate than the 60. By that I mean, the unit can be just as accurate, but it does to tend to bounce around a little more especially when you are under cover. I'm not talking 100s of feet or anything, just that tracks are somewhat more jittery. I wouldn't hesitate to recommend it, and I wouldn't ever go back. My seven year old son likes it too, and has discovered many more features than I ever knew existed. We now have stored tracks that lead us to waypoints like "The Middle of Nowhere".

 

Some points to consider. The Colorado (and I think some of the early Oregons) are being discontinued. While Garmin will likely continue to support them with firmware updates, it may not support them as quickly.

 

Second, recent rumors suggest (to me anyway) that Garmin may be close to announcing new units to replace the 60CSx/76Csx. Those units are considered by many the gold standard in terms of handheld GPS, so if Garmin introduced true replacement units (in terms of accuracy), they would be eagerly anticipated to say the least. I realize that's a lot of ifs, and you may not want to be an early adopter even if all of them are true. It is something to consider though.

 

My two cents.

[+Markarian421]

If you haven't seen it, this might be helpful.

 

GARMIN OREGON VS GARMIN COLORADO GPS COMPARISON REVIEW

[+burtsbodgers]

Hi

I have used both..

Both the Colorado and the Oregon are very good, and with both...

Once you have bought the GPSr their are extras, but they are optional...

Colorado: More rugged than the oregon, but watch the wheel, has been known to fall off.

The rocknroller wheel is slow for entering data..

Oregon: More fragile, Slightly (touch screen) which is much easier to enter data and quicker...

Other than that they are identical to use but with slightly better software on the oregon.

 

Which ever you choose it comes down to the model of each IE 200 300 400 500 550 and whether it is a T(topo) I (inland Water) C( Coastal).

I personally had the Colorado 300 and have since changed to the Oregon 300, i have added the Garmin Discoverer maps which here in the UK make this a very hard GPS to better.

Also at the time their was little difference in the price.

 

If money is tight i would buy a lower end Oregon and add the Free "opensource Maps" available from GPS FILE DEPOT, then wait a while and buy the more accurate maps once i had saved up.

 

The Oregon is the better choice and i would not change now that i have one.

Hope this helps

[+Moose Mob]

I have a Colorado 400 and an Oregon 550T and a Jeep. The 550T is superior by far.

 

The touch screen is much easier to use as you cruise down the dirt road. The ability to reach up and touch the screen while bouncing a little is better than trying to spin the wheel then hitting the center button.

 

The shaded topo maps are awesome.

[+yellajeep]

I am new to geocaching and the only thing I have used so far is is my nuvi 255 for my car and the app on my droid phone. And it really bounces around alot. one minute it tells me I am 10 feet away and then I take a few steps and it will say I am 50 feet away. Do handheld devices do this also? and are the oregon gps hard to learn to use.

[+yellajeep]

I have a Colorado 400 and an Oregon 550T and a Jeep. The 550T is superior by far.

 

The touch screen is much easier to use as you cruise down the dirt road. The ability to reach up and touch the screen while bouncing a little is better than trying to spin the wheel then hitting the center button.

 

The shaded topo maps are awesome.

 

 

My husband was wondering about using them while in the jeep. So thank you for your help. We are both new to using a gps, geocaching but long time jeepers we live in New Mexico so we would use them in the mountains. Does the 550t jump around any and is it paperless

[bigbad401]

I got a reply back from Garmin stating that the Oregon x00 series is discontinued. If you can afford it, get a Oregon 450-550. The screen is better and Garmin is coming out with new features that will not work with the 200-300-400.

[+yellajeep]

I have an Oregon 550, and I really like it (the touchscreen is nice). It replaces a 60Cx. The only cons are that the screen is less easy to read, and I find it is slightly less consistently accurate than the 60. By that I mean, the unit can be just as accurate, but it does to tend to bounce around a little more especially when you are under cover. I'm not talking 100s of feet or anything, just that tracks are somewhat more jittery. I wouldn't hesitate to recommend it, and I wouldn't ever go back. My seven year old son likes it too, and has discovered many more features than I ever knew existed. We now have stored tracks that lead us to waypoints like "The Middle of Nowhere".

 

Some points to consider. The Colorado (and I think some of the early Oregons) are being discontinued. While Garmin will likely continue to support them with firmware updates, it may not support them as quickly.

 

Second, recent rumors suggest (to me anyway) that Garmin may be close to announcing new units to replace the 60CSx/76Csx. Those units are considered by many the gold standard in terms of handheld GPS, so if Garmin introduced true replacement units (in terms of accuracy), they would be eagerly anticipated to say the least. I realize that's a lot of ifs, and you may not want to be an early adopter even if all of them are true. It is something to consider though.

 

My two cents.

 

how is the battery life on the 550? I have read from some other posts that it does not have a good battery life and that it can also be hard to see the screen when you are out in direct sunlight. We live in New Mexico and will use it mostly in the mountains and in lots of sunshine. What are you opinions also do you have many problems with it bouncing around?

[+yellajeep]

So does anyone know where to get the best deal on the oregon 550t? Where I live you buy just about everything on the web.

[+EricRJones]

how is the battery life on the 550? I have read from some other posts that it does not have a good battery life and that it can also be hard to see the screen when you are out in direct sunlight. We live in New Mexico and will use it mostly in the mountains and in lots of sunshine. What are you opinions also do you have many problems with it bouncing around?

 

Battery life isn't great, at least on my unit. I always carry a couple of sets of spare rechargables just in case. I seem to get in the 6-8 hour range. I think that is low compared to some. I keep WAAS on just in case, although it's pretty hit or miss as to when it is working. I often keep the backlight on, which drains the batteries as well. Finally, the camera drains the battery and kids like nothing better than to play with the camera.

 

I find the unit excellent in direct sunlight (sun hitting the screen). It's also fine when it's dark. The problems are when the sun is out but not hitting the screen for whatever reason (overcast or wrong direction). It's not awful, but you'll need the backlight, which affects battery life.

 

There's bouncing around and there's bouncing around. I'm confident I know where I am on the planet earth within 40' and probably within 10' (the estimated error being only a guide). My sense, however, is that the unit is less confident about exactly where it is. The 60Cx would get a fix and that's basically where it thought it was. It might actually be off by 20', but the unit didn't vary from its determined location by very much no matter how long you stood there. The Oregon gets a fix and then seems to want to "fiddle" with it. In my experience, almost all of its "guesses" are within a reasonable circle around a particular location, but it makes things look jittery when the Oregon is saying "We're here...wait, no, we're actually 5' west...I mean 2' south...or, maybe 7' east..."

 

Anyway, that overstates the situation by a lot. The only time it comes up at all is when we're caching. If you aren't careful, you can start "bouncing" around yourself. It's unrealistic to expect any unit to drop you right on top of a cache, but my experience with the 60 was that you would get to 0 and it would stay at 0. You might really be 20' away, but at least you had a fixed center point to search from. On the Oregon, the 0 moves more frequently. So I reach the cache coordinates and start looking, and then the unit says I'm 10' away, so I move, and then the unit says you're 7 feet away in the other direction, and then I stop using my brain and eyes and become a GPS zombie, which is my fault really. Also, it's possible I don't have some setting optimized (like waypoint averaging?).

 

I think the unit is great, and I think it is very accurate. I just wish it had more self-confidence in its accuracy!

Edited March 26, 2010 by EricRJones

[+Moose Mob]

I have a Colorado 400 and an Oregon 550T and a Jeep. The 550T is superior by far.

 

The touch screen is much easier to use as you cruise down the dirt road. The ability to reach up and touch the screen while bouncing a little is better than trying to spin the wheel then hitting the center button.

 

The shaded topo maps are awesome.

 

 

My husband was wondering about using them while in the jeep. So thank you for your help. We are both new to using a gps, geocaching but long time jeepers we live in New Mexico so we would use them in the mountains. Does the 550t jump around any and is it paperless

The 550T is paperless. It doesn't jump around at all when it is in the holder. Well, unless the Jeep is jumping around.

 

If you are referring to the compass arrow, it is pretty stable when moving. Since one of the recent updates, the arrow likes to point South when I pull up to a stop. When walking slow and when close to the cache, it does not always point in the right direction (also true for the Colorado). I tend to use the distance to get to GZ.

[+yellajeep]

I have a Colorado 400 and an Oregon 550T and a Jeep. The 550T is superior by far.

 

The touch screen is much easier to use as you cruise down the dirt road. The ability to reach up and touch the screen while bouncing a little is better than trying to spin the wheel then hitting the center button.

 

The shaded topo maps are awesome.

 

 

My husband was wondering about using them while in the jeep. So thank you for your help. We are both new to using a gps, geocaching but long time jeepers we live in New Mexico so we would use them in the mountains. Does the 550t jump around any and is it paperless

The 550T is paperless. It doesn't jump around at all when it is in the holder. Well, unless the Jeep is jumping around.

 

If you are referring to the compass arrow, it is pretty stable when moving. Since one of the recent updates, the arrow likes to point South when I pull up to a stop. When walking slow and when close to the cache, it does not always point in the right direction (also true for the Colorado). I tend to use the distance to get to GZ.

 

If you could have ANYgps on the market for geocaching and for use also in the jeep would it still be the 550t. I do bot want to spend a lot of money then next week find out I should have gotten something else.

[+yellajeep]

how is the battery life on the 550? I have read from some other posts that it does not have a good battery life and that it can also be hard to see the screen when you are out in direct sunlight. We live in New Mexico and will use it mostly in the mountains and in lots of sunshine. What are you opinions also do you have many problems with it bouncing around?

 

Battery life isn't great, at least on my unit. I always carry a couple of sets of spare rechargables just in case. I seem to get in the 6-8 hour range. I think that is low compared to some. I keep WAAS on just in case, although it's pretty hit or miss as to when it is working. I often keep the backlight on, which drains the batteries as well. Finally, the camera drains the battery and kids like nothing better than to play with the camera.

 

I find the unit excellent in direct sunlight (sun hitting the screen). It's also fine when it's dark. The problems are when the sun is out but not hitting the screen for whatever reason (overcast or wrong direction). It's not awful, but you'll need the backlight, which affects battery life.

 

There's bouncing around and there's bouncing around. I'm confident I know where I am on the planet earth within 40' and probably within 10' (the estimated error being only a guide). My sense, however, is that the unit is less confident about exactly where it is. The 60Cx would get a fix and that's basically where it thought it was. It might actually be off by 20', but the unit didn't vary from its determined location by very much no matter how long you stood there. The Oregon gets a fix and then seems to want to "fiddle" with it. In my experience, almost all of its "guesses" are within a reasonable circle around a particular location, but it makes things look jittery when the Oregon is saying "We're here...wait, no, we're actually 5' west...I mean 2' south...or, maybe 7' east..."

 

Anyway, that overstates the situation by a lot. The only time it comes up at all is when we're caching. If you aren't careful, you can start "bouncing" around yourself. It's unrealistic to expect any unit to drop you right on top of a cache, but my experience with the 60 was that you would get to 0 and it would stay at 0. You might really be 20' away, but at least you had a fixed center point to search from. On the Oregon, the 0 moves more frequently. So I reach the cache coordinates and start looking, and then the unit says I'm 10' away, so I move, and then the unit says you're 7 feet away in the other direction, and then I stop using my brain and eyes and become a GPS zombie, which is my fault really. Also, it's possible I don't have some setting optimized (like waypoint averaging?).

 

 

I think the unit is great, and I think it is very accurate. I just wish it had more self-confidence in its

 

 

accuracy!

 

 

may i ask what waas is?

[bigbad401]

I don't use WAAS and I keep the backlight on at a level that is just readable on my Oregon 200 and the battery life is rather good. I can easily say I get 12-14 hours on a set of Energizer rechargeable batteries.

[+yellajeep]

I just compared the 450t and 550t on the garmin website and it appears the only difference is the 550t has a camera. Any opinions on this?

[+Unobtainium]

Correct

[+Moose Mob]

I just compared the 450t and 550t on the garmin website and it appears the only difference is the 550t has a camera. Any opinions on this?

I haven't researched the 450T - good info.

 

To answer the other question about which GPS I would buy today, it would be still be the 550T for the camera and geotagging (coordinates embedded in photo's data). If you don't want the camera or otherwise can't see yourself needing the coordinates of where you took the picture, then you should look into the 450T.

[+Styk]

I recently upgraded from an Colorado 300 to a Oregon 450, if you are into off-roading, one thing that I haven't seen brought up is the Colorado's lack of colored tracks.

 

I am into ATVing and due to the dust the colorado wasn't compatible with that enviroment so I used my trusty 60Cx for that activity. For geocaching, the Colorado was nice because of the paperless feature however I find the Oregon even easier to use plus it can hold 5000 geocaches versus 2000.

 

The Colorado hold 20 tracks where the Oregon holds 200.

 

In the Jeep add the auto adapter and the screen back-light is brighter and should help with visibilty as will adding an anti-glare screen protector. I installed one on my Oregon doubtful it would help but I was amazed, on an ATV, you have no shade for the GPS so glare can be a problem when riding. Definitely worth the slight loss of visibilty when glare is not a problem.

[+yellajeep]

the info everyone is giving me is very helpful

[+baja_Traveler]

I have the Oregon 400T and love it - I highly recommend ordering a set of the new 2950 mAH rechargeable batteries for it, and setting it up so the backlight is on all the time. This makes the screen alot easier to see, and the unit can be used all day with plenty of battery life.

[+Tequila]

The Colorado is a discontinued product.

[+yellajeep]

when the 550t talks about creating your own custom maps does anyone know how this part works?

[+Unobtainium]

Click for the garmin way.

 

Click for the easier way.

[+yellajeep]

what other important things should I learn before choosing between 450t and 550t

[+OldA'sFan]

what other important things should I learn before choosing between 450t and 550t

The only differance is the 550t has a camera and the 450t doesn't. I have the 450t and love it. I use my Blackberry to take photos when out caching, so spending the extra $100 was not worth it to me. However, there are many folks that only want to carry one unit. You won't go wrong with either unit. They are both super.

 

OldA'sFan

[+Redwoods Mtn Biker]

Click for the easier way.

 

Bad link.

[+Redwoods Mtn Biker]

Unless you travel a lot, you could save money by getting the 450 instead of the 450t. There are toms of great, free maps at http://gpsfiledepot.com

[+yellajeep]

Unless you travel a lot, you could save money by getting the 450 instead of the 450t. There are toms of great, free maps at http://gpsfiledepot.com

 

My husband said he would like to have the topo maps for when he is out on the trail in the jeep.

[+yellajeep]

what other important things should I learn before choosing between 450t and 550t

The only differance is the 550t has a camera and the 450t doesn't. I have the 450t and love it. I use my Blackberry to take photos when out caching, so spending the extra $100 was not worth it to me. However, there are many folks that only want to carry one unit. You won't go wrong with either unit. They are both super.

 

OldA'sFan

 

Someone mentioned in one of the post earlier in this forum that with the camera when you take a picture it will also record the coordinates of where the pic was taken. I have a droid phone and there is an app called footprints it is suppose to take a pic and then give you directions how to get back there but I think it is only for use when you are in town. Does anyone know anything about this app

[+Redwoods Mtn Biker]

Unless you travel a lot, you could save money by getting the 450 instead of the 450t. There are toms of great, free maps at http://gpsfiledepot.com

 

My husband said he would like to have the topo maps for when he is out on the trail in the jeep.

 

The pre-loaded maps on the 450t are 1:100,000 scale. There are more detailed 1:24,000 scale free maps available for most states.

[+yellajeep]

Unless you travel a lot, you could save money by getting the 450 instead of the 450t. There are toms of great, free maps at http://gpsfiledepot.com

 

My husband said he would like to have the topo maps for when he is out on the trail in the jeep.

 

The pre-loaded maps on the 450t are 1:100,000 scale. There are more detailed 1:24,000 scale free maps available for most states.

 

where is the best place to download free maps from that is trustworthy

[+Redwoods Mtn Biker]

This is a great source:

 

http://gpsfiledepot.com

[+yellajeep]

This is a great source:

 

http://gpsfiledepot.com

 

Thanks for the info now I just have to decide between 450 and 550. Choosing the best gps is not easy I don't want to buy one and then next week find out the I got sucks.