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Garmin Venture vs. Legend


K-9 Cachers

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Just bought a Venture and did my first cache and found it! It was a very easy one that I knew the basic location just from the clues. I'ms still working on figuring out the Venture but I'm wondering while it's still under the 30 day return policy, should I have gotten the Garmin Legend? Can anyone tell me what are the major pros/cons? I don't think I want to spend the extra $175 for the Mapsource CD, but the Legend is only $80 more than the Venture, so if there is a big difference, maybe it would be worth it.

Thanks!! icon_confused.gif

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I'd had my venture for a couple of weeks now and it has definately served me well. I'm more than happy with it.

 

I debated the whole which etrex to buy for a while. I settled on the venture because it included the pc cable. The yellow plus the cost of the cable about equaled the cost of the venture.

I've been hooking up to the pc to use while navigating to the cache area. I also have a Garmin III Plus which has more in the way of mapping features to compare it to. So far I'm finding the venture to be my favorite of the two. Since when in the car I use it with the pc and the map software I don't really miss the extra features.

 

BTW

I did have some trouble keeping a satelite lock til I read a post that said if you hold it horizontaly it tends to lock in better. Since then I've kept my lock in the woods no problem.

 

Hope is the destination that we seek.

Love is the road that leads to hope.

Courage is the motor that drives us.

We travel out of darkness into faith.

 

-=The Book Of Counted Sorrows=-

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I have the legend. It is pretty nice, but I think the calibrartion is off by 100 feet on mine. I tried it near some Geodetic Survey Markers last night and found it was off by that much.

 

The mapping is outstanding. You can get the Mapsource Metroguide USA old edition by asking for a used copy (actual not illegal). Many are trying to upgrade to the Metroguide USA II version so the older version should be availible.

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quote:
Originally posted by ktjensen:

I have the legend. It is pretty nice, but I think the calibrartion is off by 100 feet on mine. I tried it near some Geodetic Survey Markers last night and found it was off by that much.

 


 

Not too unusual, I would say. Let it settle for a few minutes, to make sure that you read as many satellites as possible. How many could be received when you did the test? What was the EPE stated by the unit? As the others wrote, are you sure you were using the correct datum?

 

Anders

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Here is my 2 cents:

 

Upgrade to the Legend!

For the $80 you will get a half decent basemap included that will show you roads and highways, Major city streets, and 8MB of memory to load Mapsource maps (at a later date if you want).

Just the ability to "upgrade" the maps in my opion is worth it.

I agree the Venture is the right choice if you were looking to buy a Yellow - however I feel a Legend is the right choice if you were looking to buy a Venture. However I don't believe that a Vista is the right choice if you were looking at a Legend. The Vista does have more memory 24MB butI don't use all my 8MB on the Legend, The Vista does have an E Compass but my $2 pocket compass does the job, The vista has an Altimiter that is more accurate than the Legends GPS triangulation but I can live with the acuracy of the triangulation. And finally not much I can do about the weather even if I knew how to use the barometericon_smile.gif

 

Okay maybe it was 25 cents worth.

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How different our preferences can be!

 

I think the 24 MB of the Vista is far too small. At least 128 MB would have been more appropriate for my needs.

 

The electronic compass is much better than a conventional one. Not as compass, but as a feature of the GPS. With it, you can simply let the GPS sit on a stone, wait for good satellite aquisition, and see both distance and direction to the cache, without moving, and thus disturbing, the GPS.

 

Having the ability to see the elevation profile after a biking tour, or something else, is nice, as is the value of total climb etc.

 

All this could have been derived from the GPS altitude, but perhaps not accurately enough to give it any real meaning.

 

I think the additional features of the Vista make it a better unit than the Legend. But if you want to pay for that, well, that's up to you and your bank account...

 

Anders

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I was worried about the 8 meg in my Legend not being enough. But I loaded a mapset containing of all of northern NJ, NY up to Albany and some of Southern Vt with room to spare. On a trip out west, it fit the Sacrament valley from San Fran to Tahoe.

 

Of course downloading one mapset erases the other, but its easy enough to switch them as needed.

 

"Life is a daring adventure, or it is nothing" - Helen Keller

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In Sweden, 24 MB covers quite an area, but when I go to the more densly populated continental Europe, it doesn't take much to drive outside of 24 MB of MetroGuide, not alone 8 MB.

 

The entire Western Europe is 600 MB. Now that would have been nice to have downloaded, all at once!

 

But, it does depend upon how frequently you travel, of course.

 

Anders

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If you were refering to our opinions being diferent Anders I don't think they are. I do believe the Vista does have its place. The Vista is the device that has features that one must justify the price difference for. I do believe that if you need 24MB or want the e compass then you will have to shell out some more money for those features. In my case the features were not worth the price difference.

Like I said 8MB is enough for me, I have a magnetic compass, triangulation elevation is good enough, and I don't care about barometric pressure cause I can't change it.

 

In the Venture vs the Yellow, and the Legend vs the Venture (which this thread is about) I do believe that the price difference is worth it to step up one level.

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I live in NYC a metro area with lots of streets. Metroguide uses 12 meg of memory for this area. That's without Topo. Even with Streets and Destinations and Topo, you can eat up lots of memory pretty fast. Alberta, Canada where you're from Mr Show I believe (it would be helpful if everyone would post where they're from in these forums as it may explain answers people give) probably doesn't use as much memory. So where you live can be a big factor in how much memory and therefore which unit you buy.

 

Alan

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quote:
Originally posted by Mr. Plow:

If you were refering to our opinions being diferent Anders I don't think they are.


 

I just read that you were happy with 8 MB, and that you didn't care about neither the compass nor the altimeter. I have a different opinion.

 

quote:
Originally posted by Mr. Plow:

In the Venture vs the Yellow, and the Legend vs the Venture (which this thread is about) I do believe that the price difference is worth it to step up one level.


 

This thread, as far as the headline says, has nothing to do with the yellow. Somebody just brought it up. So then it had, until I brought the Vista up. So now it's soon easier to tell which eTrexes that aren't mentioned.

 

Well, what the heck, Camo and Summit, and perhaps the Mariner, but that's just a customized Venture. Now this thread is about all of them.

 

I'm not angry with you, Mr. Plow, I'm joking a little, but the serious hard core in that soft cloud of jokes is, that none of us should feel uneasy about posts, that doesn't answer a specific question. That's how our common knowledge is expanded.

 

If you don't get me, think of the correct answer to this problem: My house is on fire. Should I through caroseene or gasoline on it? The correct answer is probably: "Try water", although that wasn't asked for. icon_wink.gif

 

Anders

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According to GPSSource.ca, GARMIN is offering a $50 rebate starting today to both US & Canadian citizens buying either the Legend or the Vista.

 

I ordered the Venture yesterday but after seeing this special I decided to switch to the legend so I could get the mapp display functionality.

 

I think you should return it and get the Legend at, almost the same price...

 

Cheers - o_geeks

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quote:
...I think the additional features of the Vista make it a better unit than the Legend. But if you want to pay for that, well, that's up to you and your bank account...

 

Anders


 

I agree but not only because I have a Vista. The actual cost of a Vista is really not that much more than a Legend. SInce the additional cost of Mapsource Topo and R+R adds about US$180, the acutal percentage is only about 10% when you add in the extra costs of the maping software that you would buy for either unit. Add in extras like cables, RAM mounts, etc and theoverall cost gets down to about 5% difference.

 

Alan

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I wonder if the Mapsource topo maps take up less space than the Roads and Recreation or other street maps. Seems here the people who had a problem with the Legend's 8 meg were using the street maps. I'm using the topo maps and have plenty of room for the maps I need.

 

BTW, the topo also has streets. I've used my topo to find my way around Sacramento, Jersey City and NYC.

 

"Life is a daring adventure, or it is nothing" - Helen Keller

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The rebatecovers all the modelsthat are WAS capable. That is the main reason I bought it. Mapping is just a pain in the butt for Geocaching. Let there be some sport. I spent an extra 30 minutes going around a pond I didnt know was there just yesterday and enjoyed all 30 minutes of it.

 

Good luck and at least youve decided on a Garmin.

 

Howell Dodd

 

The Dodd Family

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quote:
Originally posted by HalDodd:

Let there be some sport. I spent an extra 30 minutes going around a pond I didnt know was there just yesterday and enjoyed all 30 minutes of it.


 

LOL! That's the spirit! icon_smile.gif

 

I went back and forth on the Legend and the Venture a few times and decided on the Venture. I said to myself, "it'll save me a few bucks and I'll still get where I'm going to go."

 

So far I'm happy with it. Team FatCatz (Christy and I) went out hunting our first cache on Sunday -- getting rained on in the process. As we approached the waypoint, the park had closed the trail due to weather conditions. It was a blast getting to that point, tho.

 

Having looked at a bunch of units and read all the opinions on the boards here, I guess I can offer this to newbies (like myself) looking for a GPS: take a look at what's out there and figure out what's best for you.

 

Happy caching,

 

CB

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Mapsource Topo is on 3 CD's for all 50 states while Roads and Recreation is on 1 CD for all 50 so Topo eats up more memory. It also depends on location. Metro areas with lots of streets will use more R+R data than more surburban and rural areas.

 

While Topo show the streets most are not named.

 

Alan

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I also just purchased (last week!) an etrex Venture after much hand wringing over all of the models (I did want to stay in the Garmin line). I purchased the 'yellow' for my father a few years ago (he's an avid hunter and over 70 and he occasionally gets lost these days...) but he found it too challenging to use. I think my brother has the unit these days.

 

As a graduate student I'm on a rather tight budget this year, so I went with the Venture. I agree with expatriot that I'll wait for the price to come down for more cool features, and be happy today with my Venture. I found my first cache on the first try, and I'm having way too much fun (at the expense of my homework...;-) )

 

lisa4pride

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I have had a Venture since March and really like it. I have about 45 finds so far. I do not feel that yoou need the mapping function on a GPS for caching. I look at the Mapquest and/or Topo Zone map on line to get a general idea of where I am going (print if necessary) and "go search". Many of my finds are quite far from home and I was not familiar with the area at all. So far it has been great fun.

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I just bought the Legend after doing the Etrex line review. The pre-loaded basemap for North and South America, the 8MB of memory (for loading all sorts of map data), WAAS corrections, AND the $50 Garmin rebate (good for the rest of 2002 on this model) make this the right choice. Having the street network makes this so much more useful and enjoyable... great for driving trips! Have fun!

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