Garmin Etrex Legend GPS Receiver
by Garmin
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List Price: Our Price: $149.99 You Save: $50.00 (25%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Buy Used: from $72.99 (click here) Category: GPS or Navigation System See more product details |
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Digital Cameras Photo Reviews of Garmin Etrex Legend GPS Receiver
Customer Review: I agree, good for what it is . . .
Summary: 4 Stars
This is a feature rich personal navigator. I've read some complaints regarding quality control in the manufacturing process, especially relating to the glue used to attach the rubber boot over the click stick. I haven't owned this unit long enough to encounter any such problems. Hopefully I'll be one of the lucky ones. I primarily use this unit for geocaching, and locating fishing spots. I'm extremely impressed by the unit's accuracy and ease of use. I consistently receive accuracy readings within thirteen feet, and this is definatley a user friendly device. Regarding the complaints related to aquisition from a cold start, I've had no such problems when in the open. Aquisition appears acceptable.
I would have given this unit 5 stars if not for the fact that I do feel that reception is a little on the weak side. I've lost sattelite reception walking down a tree lined street. While I understand the need for a clear view of the sky, this unit appears to need a rediculously clear view of said sky. When in a vehicle, I just about have to hang the thing out a window to get that "clear view" view of the sky. I don't remember having such problems with my old Garmin GPS II. Maybe the antenna on this thing isn't where I think it is.
My advice to those who plan on downloading a lot of map data to this device is: buy the Vista instead. 8MB is not a lot when it comes to some large metro areas, for a few dollars more get 16MB. Although the display size is reasonable for hand held use, you might want to consider a GPS with a larger display if you plan on using your GPS mounted in a boat or vehicle.
Customer Review: Nearly worthless
Summary: 2 Stars
For nearly 4 years and over 50 countries I had a Magellan Explorist 210. Except for maps, it was very good. I literally always knew my direction, speed and location. I lost it the mountains of Argentina. The Garmin ETrex Legend looks a little fancier, and it has a better (not great) map, but literally everything else is harder to use or inferior.
The obvious first fault is that it doesn't find salelites quickly. When it does find them, it seems to need 5 or (usually) more to find your location. Then nearby buildings, trees, mountains, tent ceilings, and more just shut it down, with a large prompt saying that it was out of satelite range. This prompt blocks much of the screen, making your map nearly worthless. Trying to regain satelites can often take forever. Even on a regular bike trail with few trees, I can not get a good use of the odometer, as the breadcrumbs would look like dashes. Additionally, when I have not moved the GPS for minutes, I keep getting changes in location and especially altitude.
Other concerns are labeling the POIs. Very often when one pushes the save, it does not accept it...a real pain at an intersection while driving. It also only allows about 9 letters/numbers for a description of your POI...not enough. Then it gives such a variety of markers (i.e. park, church, etc, etc), that one can spend minutes finding the most suitable one. The screen is also smaller and harder to read than the Explorist. There are many other complaints. Keeping it short, I strongly recommend that you not buy a Garmin Legend!
Customer Review: Great little unit, but hard to use inside the car
Summary: 4 Stars
First off, this is the BEST GPS unit I have ever used. This little unit will do it all: Navigate, base map, map expansion, trip odometer, waypoints etc. This is the perfect mesh for the hiker, biker and geocacher. Unfortunately, it falls short while in the automobile in these areas:1. Display size is too small. I have this unit mounted less than 3 feet from me while driving and it is still very hard to read the screen. The customizable options for the map/navigate screen is nice, but what good is it if you cant read it? Some fault probably goes to the car interior layout, however, text enlargement would have been a nice feature. Rather than glancing at the unit for a quick update, I found myself staring at it far too long for safety purposes just to figure out where I was.
2. Tempermental to heat inside the car. We were in Breckenridge, CO and the outside temperature was around 65-70 degrees and I will put the inside temp of the vehicle at around 80-85 prior to the AC kicking in. The unit is mounted on top of the dash to get a clear view of the sky and it was having an issue that I can only speculate was caused by the heat in the vehicle. Every 2 minutes or so, the unit would display a message saying that "external power had been lost and to push a button to use battery power". Well, NO external power was ever used and only batteries were installed. No the batteries weren't low in power so I had to continually click the stick to "revert" to battery power. Not good for safe driving.
Overall, for hiking and biking, this is the best one so far.
Customer Review: great value for money
Summary: 4 Stars
There are other GPS on the market that do what this little baby does, better, faster and probably with more accuracy. But if you are not willing to spend 700$ on buying them then you may want to consider this one.It is probably the most inexpensive GPS with charting features available.
Easy to use (however you need to read at least the quick start to explore the full potential of the device), PC connectivity, light and robust (electronics are water resistant IP x5 -30 mins underwater-) and has a lot of features you may find usefull (compass, trip computer, auto track saving, navigation, area calculation).
Base map is never enough in terms of detail and it depends on point of purchase (the earth is divided to three large geographical regions). In this case if need to use it outside the US you will need to download the respective map from mapsourse which is extra if you need even basic details (areas outside basemap have minimal detal). Connectivity however is a problem if you only have USB slots since you will need a USB to serial adapter.
The only problem is probably its autonomy which is roughly one day depending on usage. You do need some high capacity rechargable batteries (2 AA) or you will be spending a lot on alcaline. The car kit is a good idea for car usage. Map Redrawing is rather slow but not a problem when you navigate (a little irritating when you pan the map manually).
To sum this up. Great value for money for those that don't have exceptional or proffessional demands from a GPS.
Customer Review: A basic handheld GPS
Summary: 3 Stars
I wanted a GPS to note down the lats and longs to the places I visit (places of birding importance). I am in India and the default US maps are of no use to me. I am not bothered about it. The Garmin serves its purpose in recording lats, longs and elevation. It has additional features such as speedometer, odometer, etc, which is not my need. It shows your position with the best accuracy of 11 metres radius (as far as I have tried so far).
I knew that this particular Garmin model does not accept Google Earth Pro. However, I thought there should be other means of uploading maps to it. This is something I am yet to explore. But, the major draw back is the computer connectivity. It comes with a serial port, which my laptop does not accept. I have to now find out some adapter for this.
Other interesting features of the GPS are marking waypoints, tracking your route, and panning the map after you record your track/waypoints. The instrument has a joystick which you can use to pan, or jump menus in the "Main Menu" window. It's been just three weeks I got this GPS, and the joystick has stopped working in one direction. I can not pan the map down. I haven't used it roughly, the poor mechanical thing appears to be too sensitive.
Overall, it serves my purpose of getting the co-ordinates and elevation. If you want something more, like compatibility with Google Earth Pro, good computer connectivity, etc, then this is not the model. You may be interested in Garmin eTrex Legend CX or Vista.