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Which To Buy?


ratherbeoutdoors

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Not new to GPS, but new to the latest technology. Sold my Garnim 45 with the boat and looking to replace it.

 

Currently traveling the US so autorouting is a must, will use it in a boat and of course caching. Considering the Meridian color, platinum or the Garmin 60 series. Don't want to go much over $400 unless there is a darn good reason.

 

Recommendations and why?

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Bought my first GPS for geocaching back in July of 2003. I got a Garmin E-trex Vista which works great.

 

Its small, accurate and easy to use. It can hold up to 500 waypoints comes with a base map and has a whole bunch of other cool features which would keep me here all day if I tried to list tem all.

 

Sorry for sounding like a Garmin commercial. ;)

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The 60C is a great unit. Lots of bells and whistles, including some marine-oriented stuff (proximity alarm and whatnot). The autorouting works pretty well. It's only led me astray* once or twice, and I use it often.

 

Keep in mind that whatever unit you get, you'll also need to spend around $100 on mapping software.

 

* By "led astray", I mean that it's gotten "confused" and took me the long way to my destination, or it got into some kind of loop, where it'd calculate the route, find the route, then calculate the route again, find the route again, etc., until I turned it off.

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"It does sound like a Garmin commercial."

 

Well, now that you said that I feel I have to put in my 2cents on the Meridian series from Magellan.

 

I have the Meridian Color that I got as part of the Meridian Color Traveler Value Pack. Paid $360 at www.Vanns.com. Personally I like the color screen but some will disagree as to if it is worth the extra money. The Meridian Gold is almost the same as as the color with the exception of the color screen and the fact you can add an external antenna to the color. Having said that I have never found the need for the external antenna. So that would really depend on if you were going to use it in a "different" location say below deck on a boat or something.

 

The next model is the Platimum. This model also has a eletronic compass and a baro meter. I have never used a Platimum but from just general reading most people will tell you they either don't care for the compass and baro or don't feel they are really that great.

 

So, My recomendation is the Meridian Gold or Color. Get the color if you are looking for a color unit. Otherwise the Gold is fine. The value traveler pack comes with the GPSr, Mapsend DirectRoute software, auto cradle, PC data/Power cord, and a 64 MB SD card. My opinion is you are going to want most of these items anyway so why not get them as part of a package for less money.

 

I think you will be fine with either unit. Garmin is fine, Magellan is fine, really just a matter of prefence. But I didn't want only the Garmin people to respond. B)

I would also recomend trying to get your hands on a few before you buy. See what "feels" good. Some just feel better then others.

 

Good Luck! B)

 

Adam

 

PS - I have been working on a stupid web site about all sorts of stuff, but I have quite a bit of info on the Magellan Meridian Color there if you would like to check it out. The link is below.

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