Garmin eTrex Venture HC GPS Receiver by Garmin
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Digital camera reviews of Garmin eTrex Venture HC GPS Receiver
Digital camera Review: Es mas de lo que esperaba
Summary: 4 Stars
El GPS eTrex Venture HC ha superado mis expectativas en comparación al Legend y al Venture anterior, debido a que tiene muy buena resolución de pantalla, el consumo de energía ha mejorado, es mas compacto, la interfaz gráfica es fácil de comprender y navegar, pero sobre todo porque es mucho mas sensible para captar las señales satelitales, lo que ahorra tiempo en la adquisición de los satélites y no se pierde facilmente la señal. Su puerto de comunicación USB acelera la carga y descarga de datos a la PC. En lo referente a durabilidad, deberé usarlo mas para finalmente dar una opinión al respecto. para el caso del Legend, este modelo se queda corto en cuanto a durabilidad ya que generalmente presenta fallas en la pantalla, en el jostick o en la recepción de satelites, despues de un año de uso, deseché varias unidades por este tipo problemas.Digital camera Review: Etrex Venture hc
Summary: 4 Stars
Nice unit, fast lock in of sats. once you initialize it. This Etrex locked them in, inside my house, so I don't imagine having a problem out in the deep woods. My only complaint is that if you have a topographic overlay loaded into the mapping, the screen updates a little slow between zooming in or out. I bought it to map the boundaries, trails trough, my property (12 acres), and not get lost doing it. Now that I have it I recently discovered geocaching, and am eager to try using this device for that use.
My purchase of this unit was fast and painless at Amazon. It arrived in a few days and the price of $99.00, I thought was good.
Digital camera Review: Excellent GPS
Summary: 5 Stars
I wanted a GPS primary for hunting and have used Garmins with good success in the past. This model provided all the features I was looking for and more. I never once lost reception while hunting even in the deepest woods. The unit worked equally well in a pocket or inside the truck which wasn't the case with the previous GPS units I've used. I've recently started using my GPS while running to track milage and speed. The Trip Computer will track distance, max speed, average speed, time spent moving and time spent stopped. While you have to reset the data each time it's still a very useful tool.Digital camera Review: Excellent Geocaching Tool
Summary: 5 Stars
I purchased this item with geocaching in mind, and it has gone above and beyond my expectations. First, it has a special folder just for geocaches, which (because this product is a Garmin) can be downloaded directly from the geocaching.com website to the device, or you can enter them manually using the geocache symbol and it automatically sorts them. Secondly, it is accurate. It keeps a signal even in the woods, and is correct about coordinates to within 10 feet, usually even closer. It beeps when you are in range of a cache, which is especially useful when driving, because it tells you approximately which exit to use on the highway. Lastly, when you find one, it saves the information to its calendar so that you can log it later, and brings up the next closest automatically. This can be a drawback if you have a lot of undiscovered caches stored, because the next one on the list might actually be behind you on your route, but it's useful if you're looking for many in the same place.
This is a fairly good GPS for general use, also. It stores information about highway exits so that you can track them similarly to tracking geocaches. You can enter waypoints of all sorts and design paths among them. It has a very accurate speedometer and odometer feature, which calculates your maximum speed, moving and stopped time, and average speed across trips. As mentioned in other reviews, the default map is not great, but it does have the major highways on it, and it stores your path so you can check where you've been. It won't give you turn by turn directions, but if you want a relatively inexpensive GPS for geocaching or other waypoint finding tasks, this should be it.
Digital camera Review: Excellent entry-level GPS for geocaching
Summary: 5 Stars
I have wanted a handheld GPS for some time to do geocaching and for having with me when hiking. The Venture HC is an excellent entry-level handheld GPS. It has a nice bright adjustable screen and lots of easy to use features. Features include a Geocache mode where you can easily upload to your Venture geocaches from geocaching dot com. It has a trip computer, remembers routes, and you can easily set waypoints and delete them.
It also has some other useful features, a basic calculator, calender, stopwatch, fishing feature (given your location and date it lists the best times for fishing) and a celestial calender with sunrise, sunset, moonrise, and moonset.
It also, for a lefty has a neat feature. The joystick that you use quite a lot for selections and manuerving happens to be set-up for the left thumb. Living my entire life in a right-handed built world, I quite enjoyed this. Not to say for the 90% of people out there not left-handed that it will be hard to use, just pointed it out since it is so unusual (and nice for a lefty).
What it doesn't have is an SD card feature. I thought this was no big deal and for basic geocaching it isn't. However I downloaded some free Texas topo maps (quite cool just do a web search) and I could only download the topos for Central Texas in the 22 mb (avaiable storage). I knew that limitation coming in, but if you think you are going to want to have a lot of map layers you probably do not want this. It also doesn't have a compass feature for when you are standing still but this is not really a problem and should not be a deciding factor for you since as soon as you start moving you get your orientation.
For me the one thing to consider is do you hike/camp a lot OR do you think you would want to try geocaching. The cool thing about geocaching is that it is not just for state and national parks. There are a lot of caches right in urban areas. And it is something the whole family can do. So far I have mostly gone to ones around my house and I already have discovered a few parks I did not know existed. It is a great way not to get lost hiking but also to discover a lot of cool areas where you live. Just remember to use geocaching dot com since it is set up to easily upload geocaches right to your Garmin. Note 5 stars if no need for an SD card. Also I recommend the Garmin cover noted in the product listing. The Venture is sturdy but the cover is a nice snug fit and gives some added protection and a belt clip.