Garmin eTrex Vista HCx Color High-Sensitivity Mapping Handheld GPS
by Garmin
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Customers in the UK,
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for British Pounds
Digital Cameras Photo Reviews of Garmin eTrex Vista HCx Color High-Sensitivity Mapping Handheld GPS
Customer Review: Daily user of GPS's!
Summary: 5 Stars
I'm a daily user of GPS's. I'm a truck driver who uses it religiously for navigation. On my days off I geocache, hunt, fish, hike, backpack, etc.
I began many years ago with a Magellan that ate 6 AA batteries every 8 hours or less, and had the satelite reception of a rock... Those were scary days!!! I'd mark my position to start, turn it off to conserve batteries, and hope like mad I could get a signal when I got to where I needed to set a mark. I made sure to have a compass too!!!
Then I upgraded to a Garmin Legend. I was amazed at how advanced it was compared to where I'd been. Then I upgraded to the Venture HC when it came out and Holly Smoke!!! The venture ROCKS!!! I threw the legend in a geocache for someone else to use.
Well folks, I passed the Venture HC to my wife when I upgraded to the Vista HCx as she's a beginner GPSR and it will serve her very well!
I researched ALL the mapping hand-helds and most of the others, and hands down the Vista HCx is by far overall the best possible GPS buy available today. The screen is easy to see, crisp, and very clear. The Use of Garmin products are simple to learn. Battery life is outstanding with the Vista HCx! I could run 2 days with the Venture HC, now I get 3 days (I got the external power cord though, so batteries are just for outside of driving now). I see some say how well it picks up reception, well folks I drive through tunnels with entire mountains on top of me, and OH YA, Venture and Vista doesn't even blink at the challenge! cliff's? tree's? child's play!
Buying maps and microSD cards aren't going to cause anyone to have to re-mortgage the house. Buy one here, and one there (or get a better job), and soon you'll have all you need. Cut the chase and get the preprogrammed microSD cards and you don't have to bother with tansfering the CD versions. Don't overbuy for what you really need, I use mine for work and play. Most people use GPS's for one or two activities and really don't use them but they overbuy maps that never get used.
If your someone who is on limited income, use some enginuity and make yourself a mount for the car. I made one with two suction cups (origionally for hanging pictured), a little bailing wire, a strip on old belt leather, and some velcro I got at walmart in the material section. We've used it for years!!! Works perfectly, and has never dropped a GPS.
Take it from someone who knows and has been through the history of GPS navegation, and has done his research for ya, The Vista HCx is one heck of a buy!!!
Customer Review: City Navigator Download & Bicycle Mount
Summary: 4 Stars
I like my HCx and other reviewers have detailed the pros and cons. I don't understand why the HCx can't profile altitude as accurately as the Vista C. I give this a four star because Garmin does such a poor job of documentation.
First, the bike mount. DO NOT buy the Garmin handlebar mount ((Garmin 010-10267-00). It won't work with the HCx. Instead, buy the rail-mount kit (Garmin 010-10496-00 for small handlebar or 010-10496-01 for larger handlebar). If you do a Google search, use rail-mount and not handlebar mount.
I am a GPS novice and this is intended for folks like me. If you bought a preloaded SD card, you can ignore the rest of this. If you have a DVD with City Navigator (v8 in my case) and want to download it to an HCx, this may help. I already had a certified DVD with City Navigator (came with my GPS 18 USB program for laptops) and bought a Vista HCx along with a blank 2 GB micro SD (BTW, SD cards greater than 2 GB won't work with the HCx). Garmin allows you to install City Navigator on two units. I spent several hours on the Web trying to find out how to download City Navigator to the HCx. I finally called Garmin support and, after the obligatory twenty-minute wait, talked with a very helpful person named Chris. Here's what he told me:
First, you have to go through the process of unlocking the map for the GPS unit (I had already done that -go to the Garmin Website follow the instructions). This is the sequence to download City Navigator.
1. Turn on the HCx and connect it to your computer with the cable
included in the kit.
2. In MapSource, make sure that upper left box is set to City Navigator
(not Trip & Waypoint Manager).
3. In the top tool bar, click on Map Scale and zoom out to 1500 miles.
4. In the top tool bar, click on the Map Tool (funny looking icon that
resembles a square).
5. With the mouse, move the icon to the upper left corner of the map.
Hold the left mouse button and move it to the bottom right corner.
This will create a box with the entire map inside. Anywhere is fine as
long as the entire map is within the box.
6. In the top tool bar, click TRANSFER. In the dropdown menu, click
"Send to device". You may have to choose your GPS from a menu. If
you download the entire map, (about 1.5 GB), it will take an hour.
Customer Review: Great upgrade
Summary: 4 Stars
I bought it to replace my old Garmin Etrex Vista and I am very happy with it. When comparing it to my older model these are the main differences:
Pros:
* Really high sensitivity. Now it always works inside the car, and it always works when hiking in the forest. You can just drop it into your pocket or backpack.
* Routing capability. Very useful if you have a good map, even if it doesn't give voice commands.
* Color screen rather than B/W makes it much more readable even if screen area is slightly smaller
* When saving Waypoints, now the date and time info is automatically included.
* Battery lasts at least twice
* Rapid transfer of maps and tracks through USB rather than serial!
* Compatible with the maps and logs that I already have. I transferred all the waypoints and tracks saved in my old Vista to this new model, through Mapsource without problem.
* Compatible with my car, motorbike and bicycle mounts that I already have from my Etrex Vista.
* I can still use the free maps that I used with my old Vista, from: http://mapcenter.cgpsmapper.com/catalogue.php and from
http://www.malsingmaps.com/
* Automatic date setup (from the satellites?)
* When transferring to the PC, the Active Log is now transferred as a few tracks (I guess one for every time that you have powered up the device) rather than as a long list of tracks
* When saving a track, now you can decide exactly up to which point to save back.
Cons:
* Not compatible with two of my Etrex Vista accessories: Car power adaptor (now the power comes through the USB connector) and Garmin case (now the unit is a little bit wider and shorter)
* No Favorite Waypoints menu. Has been replaced by a Recent Finds Menu?
* User Interface is sometimes confusing and not easy to find the function that you are looking for.
* WAAS setting and backlight level get to off whenever you power off the unit rather than remembering the setting (firmware bug?)
* Product Manual is very bad. It tells you how to turn things on and off, not why and when you should turn something on and off.
* No Micro SD memory included so you cannot upload any map unless you buy one.
* For the next product update, could I ask Garmin to add a Voice Recorder function to be able record a voice note associated to each Waypoint?
Customer Review: Finest Upgrade Available from Garmin
Summary: 5 Stars
I won't waste your time if you are a previous Garmin user. I upgraded from an EMap, bought in 2001, that has served quite well. However, after all that time there are features one desires that scream for an upgrade. Yes, the color screen, the USB capability, far larger (and commercially available) Micro SD Memory, improved maps all contribute to the many reasons to buy. This is the tops, absolutely.
However, I saw this was coming out about 6 months ago and I waited. Why? The "H" in "HCx" stands for high-sensitivity. From my EMap experiences, I knew that GPS units were very sensitive to signal. My old EMap literally had to sit on the dashboard of the car on road trips, sitting in the sun, and sometimes still losing satellites. Well, friend, that's all over.
My HCx arrived today, and I opened the box, securing two AA batteries, and turned the unit on after about 45 seconds of perusing the Quick Start Guide. Sitting in a concrete building (dormitory, with a steel door, the HCx immediately began acquiring satellites and within mere seconds had found three...inside my little "bunker". Impressed? You couldn't wipe the grin off my face. I set a waypoint for Home - in the room - and then trudged over to work. Entering another concrete building, the signal strength was still fine and I set a waypoint at my desk. I marveled over the `track" I had wandered on the way to work, zooming in to 20 ft. resolution.
Friends, this is fantastic technology. The unit is small, comfortable to operate, feels solid, well-actuated controls and is far faster to acquire satellites than my expectations.. Needless to say, it's worth every penny. It fits in my shirt pocket, not a great deal larger than a pack of cigarettes, and it is the best thing I've spent money on since the thrill of buying a VIC-20 PC at K-Mart in 1985. And a lot of technology has been issued (and passed through my hands) since then. I admit it - I'm geek - I carry daily 3 phones, a digital camera and a Space Pen.
Buy this unit. Amazon's price is current market price, so don't feel compelled to shop - I did and it was a huge headache to attempt to save $20. Your time is worth far more - don't delay another day. Hands-down, it is the one to buy, and you will be on cutting edge for several more years.
You will not be disappointed.
Customer Review: Improved reception over Vista CX
Summary: 4 Stars
This unit is quite nice. Much improved GPS engine over the Etrex CX series. Naturally the software is quite mature at this point allowing a lot of customization, and they apperently got the odometer issue fixed as well.
The GPS seems to get a lock very fast even the cold start when shipped from Amazon brand new got a lock in under 3 minutes inside the house. I am in So Cal far from the Garmin factory so this was really a cold start. Holds sats well gets a fix faster than my Sirf equiped Garmins (76CX and Nuvi 370).
Screen is just a bit darker than the Etrex CX it is replacing, but not a big deal.
Pro's
Fast response on GPS
Slightly faster screen redraw than the Etrex CX (tested with same maps same area)
Very nice software, unit is flexable in functions, topo, marine, street routing, compass, altimeter, barometer
Pocket sized
Water resistant
Uses Standard Memory Cards that are affordable!
Okay base map (for US)
Con's
Should have the international basemap, really how much would it cost to add this data to the US basemap?
All the detail maps are options (so you do need to buy some optional maps to do a lot with the unit).
Screen could be larger (but device would be larger too)
Lacks speech capability
They took out tide station data (can be added back if use topo or added to other map sets if you know where to look).
would be nice to load map sets into folders and select them rather than changing cards.
All in all this is a really well evolved product, and a pleasure to use.
They need to make a routing street map with a elevation layer. So you can have a map with elevation data like a topo and also routable streets. Ideally you could turn on or off the elevation layer.
People have complained that the GPS is inaccurate with TOPO 2008. It is not the GPS the Map data in the topo maps is not accurate the streets are drawn out of proper location, its not the GPS.
Still after all this this likely the best all round GPS available today!