MapSource vs. Topo USA vs. National Geo

[Guest geofly]

I am fairly new to gps and the whole map software thing and I was wondering what everyones opinion was on the various software that is out there.

 

What do you all think of Garmin's MapSource US Topo, Delorme's Topo USA and National Geographic's State Topographic series?

 

Also, is it possible to actually load the contour data to my gps receiver (etrex Vista)or can you only do waypoints and routes? If I can upload them then at what scale (1:100K or 7.5 minute)? How and how easy is the upload in each package (I understand the hardware end of it)?

 

Thanks in advance for any help that you can offer.

[Guest bob_renner]

I have the NG Topo! State series. It works great for waypoint management, waypoint and route generation for upload to the GPS, and tracklog download for plotting on the maps. However, only the Garmin maps are capable of being loaded into the Vista. I haven't used that product. My understanding is that the maps are comparable to 1:100,000 scale maps, whereas the NG Topo! maps are scanned 1:24,000 scale USGS maps.

 

Bob

[Guest Elwood]

I have the vista and the us topo maps to go with it. imho the usgs 7.5 minute quads are much better detail than the garmin maps but the garmin maps are plenty accurate for my geocaching needs. Elwood

[Guest Artful Dodger]

Some useful info on Garmin's various Mapsources:

 

Mapsource

 

 

[This message has been edited by Artful Dodger (edited 13 July 2001).]