Garmin GPS 76CSX Handheld GPS with Barometric Altimeter and Electronic Compass by Garmin
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Digital camera reviews of Garmin GPS 76CSX Handheld GPS with Barometric Altimeter and Electronic Compass
Digital camera Review: A beauty!
Summary: 5 Stars
This little baby works a treat! Great technology at a great price! Please note that, contrary to its name, you do not have to be a US Marine to own and operate one of these. I was worried for a while that my order would be rejected on the grounds I never did military service, but I guess anyone can buy one. Great news!Digital camera Review: A great handheld GPS
Summary: 5 Stars
I've owned this GPS for almost 3 years now and it works great - whether hiking, in the car, in the boat, or geocaching. Auto turn-by-turn routing is great (with compatible maps). The unit itself is fast and accurate, and a huge improvement over my previous GPS (a GPSMap 76).Digital camera Review: A great thing to have
Summary: 5 Stars
The Garmin 76 CSx GPS this as good as it gets for now. It has every thing an outdoors person needs they even put a jump master on this thing. I love itDigital camera Review: Am Impressed
Summary: 5 Stars
I was sailing on the Canadian Westcoast (Vancouver - Gulf Islands, Sunshine coast) and bought a Garmin GPSMAP 76CSx plus the Bluechart for the area.
I was slightly aprehensive before the purchase about the screen size and level of detail on the maps, but after a little getting used to, I was really VERY impressed.
Having been used to large paper charts (expensive) this is a great deal.
You can plan before a rough course, and have a good "large scale view) and easily zoom down to great detail, and be certain as to where you are, down to a few meters. The rocks and shallow areas are clearly marked, dropping anchor is make easy in places one have never been to before.
It's really cost effective as the paper charts to cover the area would have been easily the double the cost, and finally the ease of use makes the old charts nearly obsolete.
I still would keep some trace on paper in theory, but by the end of the 2-3 weeks sailing, I was quite happy with just the hand held GPS as sole mapping and positioning. So maybe a 2nd GPS as a back up would be wise !!
I also have the city navigator USA, and it works well in a car, complete with warnings as to the next turning etc.
The only bit I am unhappy with Garmin, is that you cant transfer the software from one GPS to another, so if you loose the GPS, tough, you loose all the software as well. Unfair in my view.
Digital camera Review: An easy to use GPS that's great for field work
Summary: 5 Stars
I purchased this GPS at the end of April 2010. After using it for over 3 months of field work, i feel I've gotten enough experience with the unit to write this review.
First thing I recommend doing before using the gps is to get the topo maps for your area. The basemaps on the gps are horrible, there's no detail and they are inaccurate. It's also a good idea to get a case for it and a screen protector to prevent scratching the screen and scuffing the exterior. I got this case for my gps, NEW CASE for GARMIN GPSMap 72/76 GPS in 'Hunters & Hikers Brown' w/ Webbing Loop, Lanyard, Clip & "Peel & Stick" Screen Protector. - For Garmin GPSMap 72/ 76/ 76S/ 76CS/ 76CSx/ 76 Cx/ West Marine 76cs plus. Molded 'E-Z-Grip' Protection. Made in USA by F... , it fits perfectly and came with 2 screen protectors. The case does not affect the signal from my experience. I also bought a 2gb micro sd card with the GPS, but it came with a 1 gb micro sd card in the unit. I loaded all the topo maps for the province of Ontario and that took up about 700mb.
Performance wise, the gps works great it picks up signals quickly and I've never had any issues of losing a signal when I put the gps into my cruising vest pocket. The screen is easy to read even in bright sunlight. I've used it in different kinds of weather and I haven't had any problems so far. The tracks recording is not as detailed as the Colorado 400t, but it still works without any problems.
If you've never used ArcMap or have any idea what it is, the next paragraph will not make sense. For work, my company uses ArcMap, and with the garmin dnr extension, loading blocks (polygons) and waypoints into the gps is relatively simple (you will need some knowledge of how to setup the garmin dnr options so that the polygons appear in the right projection). You can also use it to download waypoints and tracks from the gps into ArcMap. Using another program called mapedit and send2gps gives you the ability to create your own garmin compatible image files that you can load onto the gps. For those of you familiar with garmin dnr, when you load up multiple polygons, the gps will treat it as a track and snap lines between all the polygons you upload, unless you upload and save them separately. This can be really annoying when you have to load up dozens of tiny blocks. Also, the topo maps only have the main bush roads, they don't show a lot of the secondary and tertiary roads. Using mapedit, I am able to take shape files from ArcMap and convert them into image files that can be loaded onto the gps. Using send2gps, I am then able to send these image files over to the gps creating a single image file that looks like a map made using ArcMap when using the gps. The only limitation to this is you can only use the golf course green or lake blue colour for your blocks, but in the map setup options you can turn on/off individual image files that you loaded.
So far, I've been very impressed with the 76csx. It is easy to use, gives you more control in managing tracks, and the ability to use other programs to upload/create maps for the gps is a major plus for me.
Also, using NiMh 2500mah rechargeable batteries and the battery saver mode gives me 20-23 hours of use, compared to the Colorado 400t which gets me about 13-15 hours.
I've never tried to use the navigation option while driving, so I cannot comment on how well it works.
The screen is not as good as the screens for the newer gps's that've been released, but if you're looking for a rugged gps for work purposes, I highly recommend the 76csx with the topo maps for your area or if you have the ability to upload shape files.