+c2rm Posted November 29, 2004 Share Posted November 29, 2004 This is all new to me and I only found out about Geocaching through a friend but it looks like my kind of thing. My problem is which GPSr to get. I am minded to go for a Garmin but then I don't know if it should be a Legend or Vista or Colour or Monochrome. Having made that decision is there much difference buying from USA if I live in UK? I have read about Base Maps but also that I can load the european map onto a US sourced GPS. This is all far too complex for Mrs Santa who likes to see an order ready to go so that all she has to do is press the confirm button. So, what to get and where from? Any guidance gratefully received. Quote Link to comment
+briansnat Posted November 29, 2004 Share Posted November 29, 2004 (edited) It all depends on how much money Santa has to spend! If he has extra money, get the better unit. The 60CS wouldn't be a bad choice, but the eTrex's are nice because of their compact size. Edited November 29, 2004 by briansnat Quote Link to comment
Bobthearch Posted November 30, 2004 Share Posted November 30, 2004 76CS would be my first choice for Santa to buy. The 76S is an excellent unit too, and personally I don't think the color screen is worth paying that much extra for. The eTrex line is lighter weight - more suitable for backpacking, where every ounce matters. Again, I wouldn't pay a lot extra for color, but I would pay extra for the built-in compass, ie the eTrex Vista. The eTrex Legend is an excellent unit, although it doesn't have all the extra features. The Basic eTrex yellow is perfectly fine for geocaching. At the Garmin website you can do a side-by-side comparison of any of their units. Then it's up to you to figure out which features are worth paying how much extra for. Happy shopping, Bob Quote Link to comment
+briansnat Posted November 30, 2004 Share Posted November 30, 2004 76CS would be my first choice for Santa to buy. The 76S is an excellent unit too, and personally I don't think the color screen is worth paying that much extra for. Doesn't the 76CS have a lot more memory than the 76S? I think (but I could be wrong) that the 76S has 24 meg, while the 76CS has over 100 meg. Quote Link to comment
Bobthearch Posted November 30, 2004 Share Posted November 30, 2004 Yep, they've really added a ton of memory to the 76 line. However, I find that 24MB is plenty. Like I said, it'd be more first choice on a wish-list, but I wouldn't pay that much extra if buying it myself. Best Wishes, Bob Quote Link to comment
+Mr.Benchmark Posted November 30, 2004 Share Posted November 30, 2004 76CS would be my first choice for Santa to buy. The 76S is an excellent unit too, and personally I don't think the color screen is worth paying that much extra for. I think the 76CS has a much faster CPU, too. I've noticed that my 76S display gets bogged down displaying maps in some highly dense urban areas when I'm using it in a vehicle. (I only do this when someone else is driving...) Also, the UI is S-L-O-W sometimes. Another thing to consider is that the USB map downloads on the 76CS are going to be a *lot* faster than the downloads on the 76S. If you don't change maps often, this is a non-issue, but downloading a big chunk-o-north texas into my 76S can take 30-45 minutes. If I did this a lot, that would become very tiresome. It's something to consider though, if you frequently travel between a lot of different states. None of this is intended to knock the 76S - I've got one, and it's a terrific GPS, I've been thrilled with mine. Good as it is, there's room for improvement beyond the pretty color display, imho. The extra memory would be nice - I can't load the entire state of texas in mine, but really, this hasn't been much of a limitation, at least for me. Quote Link to comment
+Team BigW Posted November 30, 2004 Share Posted November 30, 2004 Depends on how good you have been all year. Just in case I would have a back up plan. Nothing says the lump of coal can't be placed into a cache right? Quote Link to comment
+Cache Rabbits Posted November 30, 2004 Share Posted November 30, 2004 I have the Etrex Legend. Worls great for me, and at a reasonable cost. Quote Link to comment
+tirediron Posted November 30, 2004 Share Posted November 30, 2004 I can't suggest where, although my first inclanation would be somewhere in the UK if possible, just to save all the shipping, customs etc. I currently have a 76CS, and just recently sold my Legend... The 76CS is an awesome unit but it is a tad pricey.. I would recommend the Legend monochrome as an excellent starter unit. It's got an excellent display, a good featureset, and enough memory (8mb) that while you won't get the whole UK in it, you should easily get your local area, or the day's caching. It's basic enough that it's not gonna rip your wallet price-wise, but advanced enough that there's no need to upgrade unless you want to. If you can afford the 60/76CS, I would say buy the Legend (or even the Legend C) and put the extra money to Mapsource maps. Hope santa's good to you! Quote Link to comment
+c2rm Posted November 30, 2004 Author Share Posted November 30, 2004 Folks This is all good stuff and I keep leaving the screen open on these posts for when Mrs Santa sits at the computer! She is getting the idea. Does anybody, I guess from UK, have a view on preloaded base maps and whether or not buying from US will be a problem if I want to use the item in Europe. The cost of postage is far overshadowed by the much cheaper purchase price. Thanks Quote Link to comment
+nfa Posted November 30, 2004 Share Posted November 30, 2004 tell Mrs. Santa to check out the December edition of "Today's Cacher", appearing tomorrow... nfa-jamie Quote Link to comment
+DavidMac Posted November 30, 2004 Share Posted November 30, 2004 (edited) Does anybody, I guess from UK, have a view on preloaded base maps and whether or not buying from US will be a problem if I want to use the item in Europe. Well, I'm from the US, but I do know that Garmin units sold in different areas have different basemaps, and unfortunately these cannot be changed. All that this means is that, if you purchase a unit with the Americas basemap, the built-in map will have much higher detail when viewing the US than when viewing Europe or the UK. I can upload some screenshots of the 60CS showing what the map of the UK looks like with the Americas Basemap if you are curious. You can certainly use any GPS anywhere in the world, no matter what the basemap, and can load Mapsource maps (which have much more detail than any basemap) from any region into any GPS (well, any GPS that supports mapsource). Since even the most detailed built-in basemaps only show large cities and roads, I would reccommend getting a Mapsource product anyway if you want mapping, in which case you won't even see the basemap unless you zoom the map out pretty far. Edited November 30, 2004 by DavidMac Quote Link to comment
+c2rm Posted November 30, 2004 Author Share Posted November 30, 2004 If I add a map from Mapsource, does that get stuck in the 8 or 24 Mb of memory? If so, do you have any idea how much memory I would need for UK - although we are quite small I am not sure if our road density is greater. Buying off eBay I can get a good deal on a US sourced unit that is shipped with european mapping. Is there any sort of map product I should avoid? Thanks Quote Link to comment
+tirediron Posted November 30, 2004 Share Posted November 30, 2004 Yes, the Mapsource maps are loaded into the memory of your unit. I really can't speculate as to how much on an area could fit into how much memory. As you say, you are a smaller country, but your road and urban densities are much greater... You can scroll through the available products here. There is also a viewer which will give you a good idea of how detailed a given map is for a given area (but not how memory it needs). You might wanna post in the UK forum for some more definitive answers to your regional questions. Quote Link to comment
gm100guy Posted November 30, 2004 Share Posted November 30, 2004 And have you thought what to buy for Mrs Santa yet? Quote Link to comment
+c2rm Posted December 1, 2004 Author Share Posted December 1, 2004 If I need to buy some mapping proiducts I suppose I can always get her those - I am sure she would understand and then we could spend more time together sharing our presents. Who said romance was dead Quote Link to comment
Doug in Alaska Posted December 1, 2004 Share Posted December 1, 2004 If I need to buy some mapping proiducts I suppose I can always get her those - I am sure she would understand and then we could spend more time together sharing our presents. Who said romance was dead c2rm, Wow, I like your reasoning!! I think Mrs. Santa needs a new air compressor this year. We would then be able to spend more time together, in my shop!! Great idea! Quote Link to comment
+VisionQuest220 Posted December 1, 2004 Share Posted December 1, 2004 What Should Santa Bring? His own dadgum cookies!!! Bwahahahahahahaha!!! Quote Link to comment
+JMBella Posted December 1, 2004 Share Posted December 1, 2004 (edited) wrong thread Edited December 1, 2004 by JMBella Quote Link to comment
+Chamma Posted December 2, 2004 Share Posted December 2, 2004 (edited) I have a US version of the Magellan Platnum. I also live in Europe, so I use MAPSENd Streets Europe. The problem I have is that I can only load certain regions onto the 64mb memorycard. I have traveled up to the UK and had to have three diffrent regions on the card. They were about the size of Scotland, then the rest of England where on the other two. Plus I like the functions that are on the US builtin database that the Mapsend doesn't have ie.. in the states I can say goto whatever city, where I can't do that on the GPSr. Edited December 2, 2004 by Cabear Quote Link to comment
+Mr Lost Posted December 2, 2004 Share Posted December 2, 2004 (edited) 1: Otterbox for my palm Zire 21. 2: Lots of High end Swag for trading up. 3: A really nice Leatherman tool. 4: Lots more cachers in my area leaving traditional (ammo box) caches! Edited December 2, 2004 by Martindav Quote Link to comment
Bobthearch Posted December 2, 2004 Share Posted December 2, 2004 3: A really nice Leatherman tool. If Santa loves you, he (she?) will bring you a SOG multi-tool, the really nice one with the gear-driven pliars. -Bob Quote Link to comment
+Night Stalker Posted December 5, 2004 Share Posted December 5, 2004 I have a 60CS and love. The color screen is definately worth the extra money. Not because it is color, but because it is a new transflective screen (hope I spelled it right). The brighter the sunlight the better you can see the screen. On all other GPS's the brighter the sunlight the harder it is to see your screen. As far as maps go it is hard to tell how must memory you will need because it depends on how much info it takes for your area. For instance I live in Idaho and can download Idaho and Montana and have plenty of memory left, but when I downloaded the LA basin I was only able to add Idaho before I was out of memory. It also depends on the type of map. It appears the Topo map takes a lot less memory then City Select. This stands to reason since City Select supports Auto Routing and needs to have a lot more information. By the way I have found that if Iget Mrs. Santa things she wants she responds a lot better then if I get her something I want. Example last year I got her a laptop. This year she bought me a new PC. It works everytime. Quote Link to comment
The Dune Doggies Posted December 7, 2004 Share Posted December 7, 2004 I'd suggest also checking out www.geocachestore.com they sell a pack that has all of your geocaching needs. It makes a great gift for any new cacher. Quote Link to comment
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