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I was wondering what your opinions are about the color GPSr.

I would like to buy my first GPSr and don't want to be in the position of wanting to upgrade in the near future. I want to use it for finding caches, and I want to use it for navigating streets and back roads.

 

I know most of the other features I want, but curious if this feature is something I need, or just looks cool on the surface. I don't want to buy a color one only to miss out on a better GPSr just because it wasn't a color screen.

 

I would really like to hear from those of you that have used the grey scale and then switched to the color. Was it a dramatic difference? Or is it merely a nicety that you can live without?

 

I have read most of the posts that involve the inevitable debate between Mag. and Garmin and don't want this to be the same theme. I would like to keep this topic about color vs. non color.

 

Thanks so much!

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In my opinion, color is a perk. Albeit a nice perk, and if you have disposable income to accomodate the extra $'s for a color GPSr then by all means get one.

 

Instead of color, I feel one of the most important attributes of a GPSr purchase is, "how old is it?" It's becoming more & more evident lately that "newer models" have more effective satellite aquisition performance than older models. Newer = better. And if you really desire a color model, make sure it is a "newer" color model & you won't be dissapointed :)

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I started out with a greyscale and was perfecty happy with it since I didn't know any better. Then I upgraded and also went with a color screen. Last week I bought the same unit except greyscale as a less expensive backup. After using the color I find reading the greyscale a real chore and it takes longer for my eyes to focus in on what I'm looking for. I'll never buy non color again.

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I use both. We have a Meridian color, SporTrak and SporTrak Pro. The latter two are grey scale. I have seen a thread in the forums a long time ago that someone could not tell if what was represented on the map was a road or river with the grey scale, I have never ran across this problem. The one downside to using the color unit is that I nightcache many times and the screen is too bright even at half illumination. In other words, it effects my night vision. The grey scales did not seem as bright.

The bottom line is, for me, it's nice but I don't need color.

I got my wife the color unit so I could get the Pro.

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Instead of color, I feel one of the most important attributes of a GPSr purchase is, "how old is it?" It's becoming more & more evident lately that "newer models" have more effective satellite aquisition performance than older models. Newer = better. And if you really desire a color model, make sure it is a "newer" color model & you won't be dissapointed :)

This is good advice, but one thing I have heard is this... Some of the older GPSr's could hold 1,000 waypoints instead of the current standard of 500. Go figure.

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The Garmin 60C I like best and here are some screen shots of what Ive taken in the past. These shots show daytime mode, and night time mode. The night mode can even be dimmed way down. The Garmin 60C has many backlight intensity levels going from very bright to very dim.

0aa58ebd-02f8-4490-bb43-8a14c279896a.jpg

e0b7afd9-1467-42bd-b8dc-35c3868a475c.jpg

Edited by GOT GPS?
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I switched to a color unit and won't go back. I know with the greyscale screen on my Vista, I had a hard time differentiating between contour lines, streams and roads. No such problem with the 60CS. Streams are blue, roads are black and contour lines are thin and grey.

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One thing I find interesting, is that the GPSmap60C was the very first handheld GPS that was safe to use for Night driving on very Dark nights, especially when you can't see the road up ahead of you very well. I remember the GPS V was a poor GPS for driving on these bad nights even with the backlight set on low. Me and my Brother-IN-Law both have trouble driving on Dark wet nights, but the 60C was excellent for us.

 

He did buy a Meridian Color, but it has not been a good night time driving GPS, with it's too bright a screen, so I think that his wife has to do the navigating with the GPS at night. He bought a Meridian Color mainly because of the extensive road traveling across the whole USA, that they do, so a 60C/CS or 76C/CS would not work.

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The Garmin 60C I like best and here are some screen shots of what Ive taken in the past. These shots show daytime mode, and night time mode.  The night mode can even be dimmed way down. The Garmin 60C has many backlight intensity levels going from very bright to very dim.

0aa58ebd-02f8-4490-bb43-8a14c279896a.jpg

e0b7afd9-1467-42bd-b8dc-35c3868a475c.jpg

I've been debating whether I want a 60c... after seeing your screens, now I gotta have one!! ;)

 

Circuit City has a Meridian Color on clearance (last one) for $261.00. I think I'm gonna have to go for the 60C..

Edited by Team Shing
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Here are some screenshots taken from my 96C, the really zoomed out pic shows how much 118mb in city select 6 takes up. The one city select pictures shows the detail that is pretty decent, that is a cemetary around the block and it even has the dirt roads of that cemetary. The rest shows the HSI page where you can also note the pink heading bug, this can be configured to be pretty useful, for example, say we are flying into an airport with a published instrument approach, and you tell it to vector you, it will automatically dial the final approach course in the HSI(based on what published approach you choose, pretty much has all that are in the published approach plates) and the heading bug will ALWAYS show bearing to the FAF (final approach fix) (not in this picture though since right now it is just showing a direct GOTO with no vectored approach. Where the heading bug becomes useful on a normal route when not doing an approach is if you get vectored around by ATC the heading bug is always glued on bearing to next waypoint and the HSI stays glued on the course from your last entered GOTO so you know exactly which way to steer and then setup another course line if your previous GOTO is no longer efficient. Tested it a few times and it works pretty slick. You can also see the obstacles, the database changes the color of the towers between grey/yellow and red based on their proximity to your altitude and what warnings you have setup in the unit. If anyone wants any screenshots of their area let me know\ and I will post here, let me know if the pic does not show.screenshot.JPG

Edited by wickedsprint
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Like Briansnat I switched from the Vista to a 60cs and love it. Being over 50 I always seemed to need to put my reading glasses on to read the Vista which was a pain while hiking. I find the color to be significantly easier to read and need to use the glasses much less than before. If you can spend some extra bucks on color I don't think you will regret it.

 

If you amortize the cost out over the years you'll have and use the gps is really isn't expensive in the long run.

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GOT GPS, those are some nice screenshots you posted, likely more useful than mine for people wanting to see the 60/76 series. These little screens are amazing arent they ;)

THANKS.

 

The 60C is cool, but there are times when I wished I had a bigger MAP screen for driving.

 

I too have run into the blurry Etrex Vista Problems about a year ago now, where my eyes have suddenly started getting bad, so the 60C is easier to see, and I have to take off my glasses to see the Vista.

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To the original poster... If those screen shots that GOT GPS posted are the color you see when using the 60C, then don't even think about a SporTrak Color if color is your first priority. The STC does not compare to that.

 

How long do the batteries last with that type of backlight/screen?

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The ones I posted are from a Garmin 96C (same firmware as the 60C and same case/screen as the 76C, it looks like that with the backlight on, or if it is in direct sunlight. They claim 40hours with the backlight turned off, figure about using 40 percent more juice for backlight based on what people have recored for times with both settings. I know the 296 is like 14hrs with backlight off and 10hrs with it on..so that kinda jives.

Edited by wickedsprint
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