Garmin eTrex Venture HC GPS Receiver
by Garmin
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Digital Cameras Photo Reviews of Garmin eTrex Venture HC GPS Receiver
Customer Review: Dissapointing
Summary: 2 Stars
I bought this unit for an upcoming trip to replace my ancient [but still working] Garmin Geko 101. The Geko did everything I wanted a GPS to do at the time, and although it was lacking in any frills whatsoever, it served me well for years. I upgraded the Venture HC because I wanted to be able to use topographical maps, which is something the Venture HC is advertised to be able to do (reference the picture).
They can't.
Well they can, but they can't. Let me explain...
The unit is advertised as having 25 MB of internal memory, however only about 23MB is useable at any time. That's about enough for 1 topographical map section at a time, in my case Central Florida, with the exception of the East coast took about 18.2MB, and with a trail overlay that took about 900KB, there was no more room. Granted, if you're using this for hiking and backpacking like me you're not likely to walk from the center of the map off of it, BUT you don't get to pick the center of the map, and if the trail you're planning to use crosses 2 map sections, you're screwed.
So, you should really look at the Garmin HCx, which has a micro SD card slot allowing you to expand the memory. Problem solved.
Not! There's another problem here: this unit can draw the (useless) basemap pretty quickly, but add a topo map with any level of detail and it takes it ages to draw the map. Not a problem you're thinking? Think about it like this: say you're on the trail and would like to find a stream near you to filter some water from. You can either zoom way out or move the map pointer to your north, south, east and west. In either case, every zoom step or every map pan will result in a 10-20 second redraw of the map. So if you zoom out 2 levels, then pan in all the cardinal directions, you could spend a minute or more just waiting on the map to draw.
And finally, a note about the maps. You CAN use non-Garmin maps with this product. There are some freely available around the net that are even better than the $130 Garmin 24K Topo maps. Without some sort of add on map, this thing is no more useful than my 10 year old Geko 101, which you can buy for nothing these days.
As for my unit, I returned it the day after I received it and ordered the GPSMap 60CSx. Faster map drawing times, INCLUDED 64MB SD card (mine came with a 1GB, but the product listing said 64MB...) and a much better interface. All for not much more than the HCx.
Customer Review: Handy - meets my needs
Summary: 4 Stars
I bought the eTrex Venture HC to carry on my personal watercraft. The lake that I boat on most often is 38,000 square acres with almost 700 miles of shoreline, and each and every mile looks pretty much the same. I also purchased the Inland Lakes maps CD as the basic map data is very insufficient as far as the lake goes (i.e. islands are sometimes missing, the shoreline representation isn't very accurate - the unit showed me being inland when I was a quarter mile out in the lake - etc.) So having this unit in the glove box of my WaveRunner allows me to find marinas if needed, and most importantly allows me to navigate back to the boat ramp when I've been wandering around to different parts of the lake with friends or just on a 'walk about' (I guess that would be 'ride about') on my own. And with the WAAS feature enabled, this unit often obtains accuracy of +/- 7 ft when I'm on the lake, and even with WAAS disabled averages about 20 ft accuracy - all from beneath the plastic glovebox cover on the boat.
As some reviewers said, it's little slow to redraw when moving the map around with the joystick, but I improved that by loading the map at a 'medium' level of detail. And speaking of the joystick, it's a little tough to use sometimes as the push-in-for-enter doesn't always 'take' (for example I may try to push in on the joystick but it registers a move down or to the right). It's not really a big deal, and may just be my clumsy thumb, but a nice directional arrow pad with a center 'enter button' (think iPod) would probably make things a bit easier.
Overall I think the Venture HC is an easy to use, handy device that does exactly what I bought it for. One word of advice though - while 24mb internal memory may seem like a lot, be aware that the 'map sections' of the accessory maps data are rather large. The lake near me is actually split down the middle by two different map sections, and that, along with about 50 waypoints that I configured, are all that will fit on the Venture. If I had been unlucky enough for the lake to be split across more map segments this device would not have worked for me. If I had known that up front I would have sprung the extra 80 bucks or so and gone with the Legend HCx, which has an SD card slot for allowing more (much more) map data to be stored. Just a warning.
Customer Review: Decent backup or for casual use
Summary: 3 Stars
This unit should work perfectly fine for the casual GPS user. However, it has rather severe limitations and quirks that more serious users would find annoying.
First, the supplied base map is a joke. It has highways and major roads, but not much more detail. If you want to go off road, hiking or away from major cities, you will need to load additional maps. This is where the 24MB internal memory limit will likely be hit. This is barely enough to squeeze one, maybe two grids of a 1:24K topo map into. You might be out of luck if your trail or hunt unit straddles two or more grids as the MapSource software will not let you select smaller areas. When a highly detailed map is loaded, you will need to turn off some of the detail otherwise it is painfully slow on redrawing the map at any zoom level. Since this unit does NOT accept additional memory, such as an SD card, 24MB is a hard limit.
The other annoying limit is 250 waypoints. It is unclear to me why such a limit exists if more memory is available. While 250 sounds like a lot, it becomes problematic if you are marking a lot of features while scouting for hunting or exploring trails or forest roads on an ATV.
One thing I have learned (the hard way) is that this GPS seems to take several minutes to completely acquire its position. When I arrive at the place I want to hike, I will turn on the GPS and let it sit for a few minutes. Otherwise, it will report your location with a rather severe error (as much as 1/4 mile sometimes). Once it is locked on, it is very solid. Just be warned - don't turn it on and immediately head into the woods. Most GPS's take a few moments to solidly acquire their position, but this is definitely the slowest one I have ever seen. Be sure to check the satellite status page to ensure you are really where it says you are.
The 32 hour battery claim seems lofty. About half that is more realistic.
In spite of these complaints, I have to reiterate that this GPS is not a bad unit for the money. If you are looking for a low cost GPS for occasional use on the trail, for geocaching, or whatever, this unit is hard to beat. In addition to the GPS, it has additional screens for a basic calculator, stopwatch/timer functions, a few games, and a calendar with sunrise, sunset, and moon phase.
Customer Review: An outdoor GPS receiver as revolutionary as the original eTrex
Summary: 5 Stars
Before buying this new Venture HC, I had spent many hours trekking with several of the original eTrex models over the years. I think it's fair to say that while the concept of the original eTrex was great, the execution was frequently disappointing.
It disappoints no more. The Venture HC is the eTrex perfected. It remedies almost every shortcoming that plagued the original models. The new high-sensitivity receiver is amazingly effective. Countless times I've stood in wide open spaces cursing my old eTrex because it wouldn't acquire a single satellite. Last night I turned on the Venture HC on the bottom floor of my two story house, and it locked onto 8 satellites...through the roof and the upper floor! No more "need a clear view of the sky" messages. Amazing.
The old monochrome display has become color, and the user interface is now substantially more intuitive, while adding even more functionality. The cable, which was serial on previous models, has been upgraded to USB, another welcome improvement. The case is somewhat wider than before, but the design bears a strong resemblance to the original eTrex.
A basemap is included but it's just that - basic. It shows the largest highways, bodies of water, and has some limited capability to display highway exit services. If you need turn-by-turn street directions, an eTrex is not for you. This is a GPS receiver true to Garmin's outdoor GPS heritage.
Promised battery life (14 hours) is near the bottom of the range when compared to the existing eTrex models, but is still perfectly adequate and has posed no problems.
One weakness that remains is Garmin's waypoint manager PC software. It has the feel and functionality of a software product released circa 1994. Garmin could certainly develop a better PC interface. For $49 you can buy ExpertGPS from Topografix, or download the free version (EasyGPS)from their website. Either is far more functional than the Garmin OEM software.
Still, the software criticism is a quibble. The Venture HC itself is great. It is a market changing product that renders all previous eTrex models (and many competitors) obsolete. Finally, an affordable outdoor GPS receiver that I can wholeheartedly recommend.
Customer Review: Great Product But High Learning Curve
Summary: 4 Stars
Garmin makes a great number of high quality handheld GPS devices. I particularly chose this one for hiking and remote camping uses. Specifically, I purchased a 2 GB mini memory card (SanDisk) and then the Garmin US TOPO 24K (National Parks East, for starts). I was able to pick specific quadrants from the US TOPO CD software and download it to my Garmin handheld through my PC (MAC also works). It worked perfectly. I will admit that the learning curve is high on this and I tend to get excited about electronic devices in general. This took taking the instruction manual and going step-by-step to learn all the functions available.
For starters, I simply went outside and turned it on. Within a minute I had several satellite acquisitions and was immediately shown where I was (in the world). The basic map included on the device is not that particularly detailed, so I purchased additional software data. You can read all about the functions that are installed on this unit here at Amazon. Some are marking a waypoint, finding a position, tracking, highway plans, a calendar, alarm clock, calculator, stopwatch, sun and moon schedules and various games. You also have access to its compass and a driving set-up that will tell you your speed, distance reaming (to your destination), estimated travel time, etc. If you were hiking and got lost, you would be able to backtrack your steps, as if you had left markers or `breadcrumbs'.
The unit itself is extremely well made and could survive several `drops' and is waterproof. The display (approximately 2" X 1.5") is plenty for view-ability. The screen actually changes from a bright daytime screen to a nighttime mode. Every function is verified by a slight "beep". Unfortunately, you do need to buy Garmin maps to download to the unit, as the one included is not very detailed and for additional data input, you really do need a mini memory card. But for the price and the number of functions, this is really a good value. Nothing beats a map and compass, but this is a great addition to any hiking that you may do. Also, for driving directions, the only thing lacking is the voice response. I highly recommend you research other Garmin models and all the accessories you might want to purchase for your personal use.