Garmin eTrex Venture HC GPS Receiver
by Garmin
|
List Price: Our Price: $115.99 You Save: $54.00 (32%) Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours Buy Used: from $106.62 (click here) Category: GPS or Navigation System See more product details |
|---|
Customers in the UK,
Buy this product at amazon.co.uk
for British Pounds
Digital Cameras Photo Reviews of Garmin eTrex Venture HC GPS Receiver
Customer Review: Great intro unit for geocaching for the price!
Summary: 5 Stars
You wanna do geocaching? Get this. I bought this as my first unit, it was a toss between the eTrex H, the generic unit with no map and only an arrow, and then spending more money on this. I am glad I spent more money on the Venture HC, because I don't think the eTrex H would be useful at all on long hikes in the hills.
The Venture has an easy to see and read color screen and comes pre-installed with a basemap that is basically entirely useless. If you want to do any serious hill and hiking geocaching you need to get the topographic maps that Garmin offers. These are expensive, but are pretty much necessary when navigating terrain and trails with changes in elevation. I can recall several instances when I needed to check elevation levels to make sure I was on the right trail to get to the cache I was chasing.
The topographic maps that Garmin offers also have street data on them, but this device has no turn-by-turn and, but it's great to compare what is on my Garmin to what is in my car's GPS so that I can navigate easily to caches.
I only use this unit for geocaching, however I see no reason it wouldn't work great for regular hiking and out door activities. This is a good unit at a great price. Everything about it is pretty much golden.
Pros:
- Easy to use. I figured out how to use most functions without even reading the manual, but I am a bit of a geek.
- Easy to read the screen
- Battery life is great even on non-rechargables
- Very accurate! Usually if the geocache you're hunting has accurate coordinates, GZ on the unit will be exactly where the cache is. Make sure to turn on WAAS, as it seemed to be off by default.
- Unit is pretty much weather proof and has been banged around by me a fair bit and stays strong!
- Onboard memory is more than enough to have all the topographic maps for Southern California (LA County to SD county and everything in between) in it.
Cons:
- Base map is entirely useless.
- Draw time is a little slow, but nothing that could possibly hold you up.
- Only holds data for 500 geocaches, but, really, who needs more than that really?
Customer Review: Very Good Basic Unit - high sensitivity receiver is great
Summary: 4 Stars
I used this to replace an older basic eTrex model before a camping trip. I work with GPS in airplanes (that cost more than my car) but was not famiar with outdoor models. It should be noted that the "H" part of the Garmin model names refers to a new-generation receiver that is much more sensitive and I found it to be fantastic- it will locate my position indoors and under a thick rainforest canopy it always found its location within 20 seconds. When in a new location I would say it always located itself within 3 minutes. The only trouble it had in locating itself was when it was under the canopy and against a steep mountainside (and also inside the airliner when I didn't keep it against the window).
This is an older model with an upgraded receiver so the battery life is not as good as other Garmins but at around 7 hours with the screen set to dim it never bothered me. It also has less internal memory than more expensive models so you might have to load base maps more frequently (you might have to pay dearly for some good maps). You can easily up/download tracks and waypoints, which I found to be pretty fun. This comes with WAAS capability turned off by default, probably to save power (it can be turned on easily from the settings page); I'm not sure why someone would want it when hiking. My unit got soaked in the rain several times and had no problems. More expesive Garmin handhelds can figure out driving directions but refurbished car models are going for $100.
General advice: I'm very happy with this model but make sure you get a Garmin model with the letter "H," or another brand with a Sirfstar III receiver for higher sensitivity. The free software from topografix doesn't work as well as the Garmin software that comes with this GPS but I suspect the non-free topografix software may be a bargain (don't waste money on the amazingly detail-free Garmin world map software). I found the array of 3rd party software options overwhelming. Google Earth does not require a $20 subscription to display tracks & waypoints from this GPS, just save your stuff in the open *.gpx format from the Garmin software and open it in the free Google Earth - it's fun.
Customer Review: I'm going to love this!
Summary: 4 Stars
I have owned the basic yellow Garmin Etrex since it first came out - my biggest gripe was losing the satellites in heavy forest cover (when I need them the most!). So I bought the upgraded Venture HC after reading of the improved antanna - and what an amazing difference! This thing locked onto the satellites in less than a minute (I was outdoors in an open area) - and once it acquired the satellites, if continued to do so while indoors as I learned how to operate it.
I'm pretty much a complete dolt when it comes to electronic gadgets - yet the Garmin Etrex handhelds seem fairly intuitive to use. Granted, I've used a Garmin before; so the Venture HC seemed like an old friend - only I like the front-mounted toggle switch MUCH better. Naming waypoints with the toggle is faster, IMO. I will be using the Venture mostly for off-road activities; either hiking, Geocaching, or as an "odometer" for kayak journeys. In hindsight - I really didn't need the color screen for what I'll be using it for - and with double hindsight, I would have been just as happy with the Etrex H: the same version as my old GPS with the better antenna for $40 less. But the Venture is nice, and has really cute icons for waypoints - I guess it's more "fun"? Anyway - I'm more than happy with it.
So why didn't I give it 5 stars? When people complained about the preloaded (useless) base maps - they weren't kidding. It appears that only state and national highways show up; and even though I'm next to a HUGE lake, all I see on the display is the pointer. So to use this for ANY kind of road travel or offroad travels, I'd have to buy the (expensive) Garmin map software. Fortunately, for a little more than the price of the mapping software, my dear Hubby bought me a Garmin Nuvi - which works wonderfully for car navigation. Surely Garmin could have given this a little better base map!
I have already loaded some river points-of-access into my Venture, by using Google Earth, and entering the latitude and longitude coordinates in as named waypoints - when all else fails, I can use my Nuvi to get me close to the boat ramp, then use the Venture to zero in.
Customer Review: Garmin Venture HC
Summary: 4 Stars
The HC model's high-sensitivity antenna really works!! I have an old model without the H-antenna, that really had trouble receiving a 3D signal under cover. The HC was able to maintain a satellite link even under forest canopy (but with pockets of holes in the canopy), and under sheltered walkways (open sides). However, if indoors or under extremely dense canopy the receiver loses all signal; but this is expected. The lock-on after turning-on the system is quick. I was not able to test the WAAS function as my location is not covered. However, without the WAAS, I have verified that the GPS tracking was accurate to within 5-10m, and that was good enough for me.
The colour display is very readable, even under bright sunlight. The controls are intuitive. I can use all the basic functions without reading the manual.
The unit is small, compact, and rugged. Battery life is OK, although the Legend HCx lasts almost twice as long. However, I can't justify the big jump in price to the Legend HCx. It would be good if Garmin decides to increase the batt life of the venture hc.
There is considerable lag when scrolling the map. It takes a while for the unit to redraw the map. This is not a problem with the GPS, but rather, the processor chip that is being used. They should come up with a faster processing chip. If you are in a hurry, the slow redrawing of the map, when you want to quickly scroll-search a new location, can get on your nerves.
Overall, at US$137 from Amazon, this is a good buy. I use it for mountaineering and adventure travels. I bring extra lithium batteries for cold conditions. Not for car use. This model doesn't come with the barometer, altimeter, compass that the Summit has. And this is a GOOD THING. Use your GPS purely for that function: GPS. Carry a separate magnetic compass and topo map. And bring along a dedicated altimeter/barometer/digital compass. This is the only safe way of navigating remote mountains and extreme environments.
Amazon packed my GPS unit very nicely in their cardboard box lined with air bags to protect the unit. I appreciated that. The product arrived flawless.
Customer Review: Loved it enough to replace it...
Summary: 5 Stars
I first bought this model almost three years ago - and I've just ordered another as my old one finally bit the dust. It was the first GPS device I've owned so I can't say how long you should expect one to last - but as a photographer who does a lot of hiking and travelling down old roads, I fell in love with this gizmo right off the bat and have come to really depend on it. I'll note that my old one got lots of use, but it was not dropped or abused in any way ... just "died on the trail" recently and won't fully boot-up any more. I couldn't find any info or way to "reset" anything - but again I don't know how long I should expect a unit like this to last. It could probably be repaired by Garmin but the expense and shipping may come to close to the price of a new one, and it's interesting to note that this item has only gone-up by about $2 since I bought the first. Considering how much I've come to depend on the thing, it's worth the price to me to just get a new one.
Tests I've done with it are just dead-on accurate - and this thing has followed me though a deep, narrow, heavily-wooded canyon where I've met other hikers who's GPS had lost the signal. (More expensive ones, too! And they've been amazed that mine was still tracking-along with about 15-foot accuracy!)
It's true that the built-in basemap isn't much - and in truth I've never been too impressed with the commercial add-on maps that sometimes cost $$$. But if you look online, you may find a FREE topo-map that will work with MapSource that's even better. I found one from [...] that covers the whole state of Arkansas (my turf) at 24K and is MUCH better than any of the high-dollar ones! EVERY feature is labeled/named better, the contours are more detailed, and it's POIs are more of historic/recreational interest. So Seek and Ye Shall Find!
But again - I loved this thing so much that I had to replace it when my "Faithful eTrex : The Electronic Bloodhound" (as I called it) finally died.