Garmin Colorado 400t Handheld GPS Unit with U.S. Topographic Preloaded Maps by Garmin
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Digital camera reviews of Garmin Colorado 400t Handheld GPS Unit with U.S. Topographic Preloaded Maps
Digital camera Review: Colorado 400t
Summary: 4 Stars
It seems to have better sensitivity and accuracy than others I have used. Reasonably easy to operate. Downloads geocaches easily. Awkward to delete them.Digital camera Review: Colorado 400t
Summary: 4 Stars
I was concerned with the accuracy issue of this GPSr. I emailed Garmin customer service with my concerns and they assured me that it would not be a problem. I basically wanted some sort of correspondence for proof just in case their was an issue. Then the price became an issue. I tried to order the unit through an online camera shop for a price around 400.00 and found out that what they were selling me was a Japanese (no english installed) no warranty, no topo maps installed unit. How can it be a 400T without Topo maps? Anyway, I went to amazon for a higher price but a more comfortable transaction.
This product is pricey, but I believe that it is well priced for what you get. It hasn't disappointed me yet as far as the accuracy goes. Base maps are preloaded but streetmaps are not. These are separate and will run around 100.00. I went with the SD card street maps and glad I did. This leaves the memory free for geocaches. I was able to load 400 caches along a route and made an insignificant dent in the 256MB memory. Map cards are a no hassle PNP operation. I have been told by Garmin Cust. service, that if you want to have the same maps on your PC Mapsource software (which comes with the unit) as your gps, then you should buy the DVD mapset. With this configuration you can upload the wanted maps onto the unit itself or a seperate memory card. The WAAS works wonders in dense foliage. The external antenna is a must if you are using in the car. Screen protection is a must if you aren't storing it in a case. Screen brightness is not as bad as I was expecting. I usually don't have to turn on the backlight unless It is dark of course or if I am in the shade. Only problem with screen brightness is that you have to reset it after every reboot, as it won't store the setting in memory. Shaded relief maps are nice to have and the topo features are great to have as well. If it wasn't for battery consumption I would have gave it a higher rating.
This unit will go through batteries very fast. For lightweight backpacking you might want to buy lithium batteries, a whole lot of them. Do consider buying rechargeable batteries and the car charger with alkaline spares as I have already found myself hunting down batteries instead of caches. Easy .GPX file transfer with www.geocaching.com and a windows machine but not a linux machine that I know of.
Overall, this is a must for a geocacher
After nearly ten years of service my eTrex can finally take a rest.
One last thing. Phone calls to Garmin customer service are not fun. Expect a 30min wait time before you get to talk to anyone. I am rating their product not their customer service.
Digital camera Review: Colorado 400t GPS
Summary: 4 Stars
Love this unit. Very ergonomic and fast to aquire sat. reception. Great for geocaching also. The only gripe is the backlight needs to be brighter.Digital camera Review: Colorado 400t is just not as nice as what some of the reviews here say
Summary: 2 Stars
My wife got me this a couple weeks back (after I emailed her a tip that I wanted it) and I've been using it every chance I get.
Unfortunately, like quite a few others (read ALL of the reviews both here and in other forums about this model) I'm going to return it to the online store and here are my reasons...in the most important to me (and probably would be to any user) down to the least significant.
1. Accuracy of the maps showing on the screen....VERY inaccurate. Regardless of the profile I was in, the purple triangle on the screen showing my position was basically always inaccurate, anywhere from 60-80 feet. I did multiple tests after soft resets and master resets (everything that customer service asked me to try) and it really didn't improve for me at all...except to say that if I was outside for a long time with the unit it did get more accurate the long it was on. However, I would keep it in the car, take it with us to go find a geocache, turn it on, then wait a few minutes and it would do the craziest things. The easiest way to describe all of this is as such. I could stand in the middle of a straight road..and walk straight down the road...and the map on the display would be off to the side (of my location triangle) and usually askew (not straight up and down as it should have been). When I say it was pitiful trying to use it to find caches, I'm not kidding. The thing would jump all over and never seemed to show roads where they should have been on the display. Oddest part about this...when I'd upload the track data to Google Maps the locations where it showed me were dead on. So the unit itself was VERY accurate...but somehow, someway...the software displaying the map data and directional information is way off. Yes...I calibrated the compass..everything you can think of I tried..multiple times. Fact of the matter is, I just want to turn it on and use it and have it be accurate right away...like my Lexus navigation system....or my iPhone 3G Geocaching app.
2. The display on the Colorado 400t...be forewarned...is NOTHING like the screenshots showing on Amazon's site or on Garmins's site. Those images are captured with screenshot programs and the ones on the product shots are taken in an unnatural way (i'm a semi-pro photog and have done product shots so I know what needs done for shots like that). The screen you will see when the unit comes on is...shall I just say....very dim. Yes, it's transflective...yes, that will come in very handy when it's in bright sunlight (and was indeed very easy to see in bright sunlight)..but still looked NOTHING like what some of these sites make it appear to be. Even with the brightness turned all the way up it's NOT what I expected. My iPhone 3G is much much brighter. So, yeah, I consider the images they show on their site to be....deceptive. It's not what you'll get...I take that as being deceptive. You be the judge for yourself if you want, but don't say I didn't warn you.
3. Battery cover/waterproofness. Well this was not fun to deal with, but I warn you now...this thing ain't waterproof (IPv7) or whatever that designation is. The battery cover (covered with a great rubber coating) didn't slide all the way up as it should. I say as it should because it's obvious how far up it should go and the PRODUCT SHOTS ONLINE SHOW IT THAT WAY. Tell that to the ignoramous customer service idiot who tried to tell me that's how it was supposed to fit. Anyway, after emailing them a few times (and including some sales department email I found...AND emailing photos/links from a website clearly showing the problem!!!)...they finally sent me a different battery cover that fits better..though you have to take off the SD slot o-ring to make the new cover slide up enough..which still is tough to do. Engineering failure with this design..and it shows. Many have reported water issues/etc...if you just look at how the battery cover fits on your unit you'll probably be able to see for yourself if you can expect problems.
4. Automotive mode. Hadn't tried that until today..but after all of the inaccuracies of the unit (or at least of the maps or software running on it!!) I thought I'd at least give it a go. Same thing happened as with the Geocaching mode. I was on 695 in Baltimore and the scale was on 80 feet or something...the line for the highway wasn't even on the display! I had to zoom out to like 200 ft scale for the highway line to show up. Also, the top of the screen flickered as it loaded new road data..that looked pretty bad to me.
5. Wherigo. I was so looking forward to being able to do these things (read on their website), but I don't see myself getting another Garmin that might have the same innards..and hence same problems.
SUMMARY: Yeah, some people love theirs and swear by them, others (like me) have had enough problems that it's obvious that you roll the dice when you decide to get a Garmin Colorado 400t. I really really wanted to keep it if ONLY it had been accurate...but alas, mine was not...no matter what I tried. All the reviews swear that the Garmin 60CSx is the best...but just not as feature packed like this one was. But right now...I wish I had ordered the 60CSx instead. It didn't help that Garmin customer service tried to convince me that I was wrong about something that clearly were aware of as a problem and had a new design to address it. That's just wrong.
Digital camera Review: Cool and fun to use, but inaccurate
Summary: 2 Stars
I bought this to use for hiking and geocaching so we wouldn't have to keep using our Garmin 760 - which is great, but not exactly designed for hiking!
The unit was very cool looking and fun to use, but we had real problems with inaccuracy. After looking unsuccessfully for a new cache, I thought it might be a good idea to test it with a few locations I knew. I went to a lamp post cache near home and watched as the Colorado showed me to be 20-30 feet from it and then after a few steps, 20 feet in a different direction. I tried walking away and starting over, but it did the same thing showing me 30 feet off in yet a new direction. I turned on the Nuvi, and it showed me I was right next to the cache (which I was). Frustrated, I went home and did some more testing around the yard. It was routinely off by 30-60 feet, even on waypoints I'd just created. That's probably not too bad for hiking, but for geocaching it's a deal breaker. The accuracy of the Nuvi is so much better, I'm just sticking with it for now after returning the Colorado. Shame, too - because I was looking forward to the color screen, paperless caching, etc.