Gary the Possum Posted November 27, 2003 Share Posted November 27, 2003 (edited) If you own any of the Garmin Etrex GPS units (Navigator, Summit, Legend, Vista, Camo) which one do you own and what would you say the major pros and cons of your unit are? Edited November 27, 2003 by Gary the Possum Quote Link to comment
Neo_Geo Posted November 27, 2003 Share Posted November 27, 2003 Love my Legend!! Pros are pretty much everything except the one con in my opinion: I wish it had more/expandable memory!! I can't load enough MetroGuide map segments into it for long road trips. So, I also bought an eMap with 128MB for the long trips and use the Legend locally. I very well might sell both of them and get a new GPSMAP® 60C! ...or I might end up with 3 GPSrs! Aside from the memory issue, I've been very happy with the Legend! Quote Link to comment
Karl360 Posted November 27, 2003 Share Posted November 27, 2003 I own the Garmin Etrex.. the basic model.. Only thing I dont like is that it looses reception very easily under trees. Its such a small reciever Quote Link to comment
+Desert_Warrior Posted November 27, 2003 Share Posted November 27, 2003 I have had a Basic E-Trex Yellow, a Venture, and now a Vista. All worked. But I do make more use of the Vista's capabilities than I ever thought when I had the others. I would buy a Vista again! Quote Link to comment
premise Posted November 27, 2003 Share Posted November 27, 2003 I own the Garmin Etrex.. the basic model.. Only thing I dont like is that it looses reception very easily under trees. Its such a small reciever Same problem, but I did not realize it was a problem until I had the Meridian Yellow for a week. Reception was dissapointing but other than that I liked it. I hope the Garmin GPS V I just bought does better. Quote Link to comment
+Wild_Bill Posted November 27, 2003 Share Posted November 27, 2003 I've owned a Garmin Vista for well over a year now and I like it very much. Pros are most of the options available and the available memory. I'm able to upload planty of mapsets. With the vista, I've encountered very few cons. The only one I haven't figured out a fix for is intermittant lock up of the click stick. If I had to replace my GPS I'd probably purchase another Vista. Quote Link to comment
Vlad Posted November 27, 2003 Share Posted November 27, 2003 i've used all of the etrex's except for the camo and venture but without a doubt my favorite is the vista - it's the do all, be anything of the entire garmin product line (the 60 series might knock it off the top of the hill but will have to see either the product or a manual before that can be determined). as many have no doubt pointed out in prior threads the memory in the etrex's is not upgradeable so at least the vista has 24mb to work with. with ecompass and baroalti the vista is about as accurate as consumer gps's come - best case 3m horizontal, 3m vertical. the trip computer page is awesome because in big numbers mode the digits are larger than those on the 76 series (which is a much bigger unit sizewise). as well one of the fields on this page can be the "pointer" which means i can have four fields of info and include the pointer as one of these. in this way i don't need to switch back to the compass screen when i'm on a goto or navigating a track. it's got yards mode for those people that want to use it as a poor man's golf rangefinder and also includes several info types (glide ratio etc) that are suitable for gliders and flyers (and jumpmaster mode if you happen to skydive). huge track log of 10,000 points and fully configurable by time/distance. nice overall size and really hi-res screen. cons of the vista might be battery life for one but if you set up your vista properly the ecompass only comes on when you turn it on with the side (page) button. in this way the ecompass is not draining your battery constantly. you turn the ecompass on only when you need it and turn it off immediately afterward. also the patch antenna is not quite as sensitive as the quad helix found in other garmins and all magellans however the difference is not that great (about 2db). on the plus side the patch antennas are designed for a lay flat orientation as opposed to quad helix prefered upright orientation. this makes the etrex better suited for use on a mountain bike than a unit using quad although since both types will likely be sitting at about 45 degrees orientation to you it makes no big diff... and i could go on and on... Quote Link to comment
team_tar Posted November 27, 2003 Share Posted November 27, 2003 Had the yellow, now own a Legend. Considering the price tag the yellow was perfectly OK. The pros: is very small, very accurate, cheap, simple and sturdy. If you are used to trek by "traditional" means (map, compass) is a powerful aid without many things you don't actually need. Two cons: the name insertion is very slow, and the rubber around the sides that came loose after more or less a year. Not a big problem, but would have preferred that did not happen. It seems that is a problem that sometimes arises with the etrexes. Ah, and I would have preferred a little more options in the trip computer. The legend: the software is extremely complete and customizable, you may have almost any conceivable information about your navigation. The trip computer is powerful. Generally any page is built in a way that may be not so easy to understand at the beginning, but that always allows you to see and do all the things you may need. I'm extremely pleased about its software. The stick is very practical, but see the cons... The tracklog is powerful, you have plenty of space in it and is fully configurable. And all this stuff is inside a toy of this size and weight... The cons. I don't use mapping too much, so it's not being a problem for me, but I understand that memory space is never enough. Probably if I had to load topo maps in it (I live outside US so no topo) I would feel the issue more. A meridian-like sd card slot would have been a great plus... but where are you going to put it inside an eTrex? A concern, more than a con, because up to now I haven't had any problem, is the "lifespan" of the click stick... it seems potentially fragile to me. No reception issues with both. Quote Link to comment
+bob393 Posted November 27, 2003 Share Posted November 27, 2003 I have used an eTrex Vista for the last 3 years with the usual complaints, poor reception under tree cover, I loose reception just from having it on my belt. The pros are all the advance features, the memory, altimeter, mapping features, flux compass, and the size, that one is a double-edged sward since a complaint is the screen size. These units are built like a brick. You can’t imagine the number of times I have dropped it in the last 3 years. I even lost it one time while I was bush whacking and found it a month later between two rocks by a stream, the case was soaking wet. I wrung the case out, toweled off the unit changed the batteries and continued to the cache I was after in the first place. When I replace it will be a new Map76s. It has the three important features for geocaching I want. Larger screen, external antenna, and waypoint averaging. Quote Link to comment
Overland1 Posted November 28, 2003 Share Posted November 28, 2003 Ditto on the Vista! I have had mine since early this year; replaced and ICOM GP-22 with it and have been very happy. There was a problem with losing reception that caused some strange displays and readings (i.e., 1229 MPH in a 6-cyl Jeep), but Garmin replaced the uint under warranty. The new one works perfectly so far. The "lockup" thing is something that I noticed occasionally on the first Vista, but the replacement does not seem to have that problem (yet). Whenever it happened to me, it was when using the click-stick and the screen change buttons in rapid sequence. If I do the same sequences at a slower speed, there is no problem (yet). I would buy another one without hesitation, although the GPS Map60CS is another that I would consider. Quote Link to comment
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