Garmin eTrex Vista C Waterproof Hiking GPS by Garmin
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Digital camera reviews of Garmin eTrex Vista C Waterproof Hiking GPS
Digital camera Review: Very Nice Unit
Summary: 4 Stars
I was very pleased with my purchase of this unit. The display is very bright and clear. With the additional purchase of the Auto Navigation Kit, it became a perfect road trip companion. The size and portability makes this perfect for personal training. I used it on my power walks and had it pace me at 4mi/hrs and track my distance. A very versatile and compact GPS all around. However, the new Garmin Quest GPS has much better memory at 115mb compared to 24mb for the Vista. This means I can load half of Michigan, Ohio and lower Ontario at the same time. So, I returned the Vista and swaped it for the Quest. If your not concerned about the memory, get the Vista and save yourself $50 (remember, you need the $120 City Selct CD which comes withe Quest).Digital camera Review: Very good...but beware of marketing hype!
Summary: 3 Stars
I have mixed feelings about the Garmin Vista C GPS I just bought from one of Amazon's sponsored-link vendors. And when I ask myself why, I see that it's because of the huge gap that exists between the product as it actually is and all the marketing hype that surrounds it. As a result of this gap, the Vista C has fallen below my expectations, so I'm disappointed. But if I try to disregard all the overblown marketing claims, I find that I am, in fact, happy with this device. Its features are well described by Amazon and the manufacturer, so I won't repeat them here. I'll just say that it is chock full of great stuff, ranging from a really helpful trip computer to an alarm clock. It even predicts high and low tides. In fact, this sturdy, little GPS is so handy that it has already become a major asset that is enriching my wilderness hikes. And if I lost it tomorrow, I would buy a replacement immediately. Having said this, however, there is unfortunately plenty of room left for criticism. Despite Garmin's claims, their user interface is not particularly intuitive, and some effort will be required to become familiar with the GPS's operations. Fortunately, it's not too difficult to learn...I just wish that Garmin would spend less time talking among themselves and spend more time talking to real customers. Then they'd see the need for further improvements. Another key point is that despite Garmin's super-hyped claims, the various buttons on this GPS can be awkward to use. My chief complaint is with Garmin's innovative "rocker", which is a small, joy stick-like device that functions more-or-less like a mouse. The basic idea is that you push this device up or down or to the side to move through menus, and then you push it straight down to enter your selection. Unfortunately, when I push down there's a tendency for the rocker to slide off to the side, with the result that instead of choosing the current menu selection, another item is selected instead. This can produce surprising results. Errors of this type are especially common when I try to use the GPS while I'm actually hiking. The bumping and jarring that comes with traveling over a path makes it really tough to produce the desired result. And who wants to interrupt their hike so they can stop and push a button that doesn't quite behave as it should? I should also add that I'm manually dexterous, so people with any type of physical limitation may have serious problems with this button. Another annoying problem is that Garmin's user documentation is unsatisfactory, and this problem is unlikely to be solved until Garmin realizes that they must involve users in their design process before they ship their products. In any case, I won't enumerate all of the almost uncountably large number of problems with the user's manual. Instead, I'll illustrate the entire set with one example. Although the Vista C's altimeter is one of the key features that differentiates it from much less expensive GPS's, the words 'altimeter' and 'altitude' do not appear in the index. And although the word 'elevation' does appear, it directs you to extraneous material that has nothing to do with using the altimeter! This oversight underscores just how careless Garmin has been. But the biggest problem of all concerns the massively over-hyped claims that you can download detailed maps into your Garmin and thus greatly enrich your hikes. To a first approximation, this is pure baloney. Although the Vista C comes with 24MB of memory for storing such maps, be sure you understand that the ONLY maps you can download are those produced by Garmin! That's right...no DeLorme or National Geographic maps can be downloaded into the Vista C!!! And that is an extremely serious problem, since the Garmin maps that hikers are most likely to use are truly and authentically horrid. Visit the Garmin site, where they'll let you view portions of their TOPO map online, and see for yourself. In my case, Garmin's map provided exactly 0.0000% improvement over the horrifyingly scanty detail that's already built into the GPS. And worse, my neighborhood is not shown on the map even though it's five years old and houses thousands of people. Check the Amazon reviews for Garmin's TOPO product, and then you may dismiss Garmin's claims that you can download super cool maps into your Vista C. Finally, although the Vista C includes a speedy USB port for transferring data to your PC, be aware that many third-party vendors can't or won't support it. DeLorme is a primary example. As a separate review of their TOPO 5.0 product states, DeLorme knows they can't read Garmin USB data, and despite frantic pleas for help from their customers, they have reacted with what can best be characterized as a huge yawn. Still, despite these very serious shortcomings, I do like my Vista C. Its best features are the "legacy features" that were present in previous incarnations of Garmin GPS's, but it's still a handy tool. One final comment. Amazon has great return policies, but some of their sponsored-link vendors have much more restrictive ones. So before you place your order, BE CERTAIN that you understand the return policy. Otherwise, you may be out some serious money!Digital camera Review: What kind of game is Amazon playing?
Summary: 1 Stars
I priced this item less than 24 hours ago on Amazon.com. At that time, the unit was $250 with free shipping and sold by Amazon. Today, the item is listed under a third party seller for $10 more, plus an extra $7 for shipping. What kind of junk is Amazon running?Digital camera Review: Wondeful GPS
Summary: 5 Stars
I have just upgraded from the Etrex Vista to the Etrex Vista c and I love it, not that there was anything wrong with the Vista. It does everything that I had wished the Vista did and more. I was concerned about the beining able to read the color display in the sunlight but that is not a problem and it works great. The feature I love the most is the auto routing feature and when combined with the Mapsource City Select it seems to work flawless. I know that some people bash Garmin becuase the will only allow Garmin maps to be downloaded to their units but from what I can tell all of the GPS manufactures do this so it is a mute point. As far as the maps go I also have the Topo maps and am happy with them. After all they could be worst and the could be better. All in all I think anyone who buys this unit will be more than happy with it.Digital camera Review: awesome unit if you're willing to accept it's short comming
Summary: 4 Stars
I've own the original Garmin Vista and currently own the high end Garmin 60CS.
I was expecting the Vista C to be just a colored version of the original vista but I was wrong it's actually the little brother of the 60CS. OS, feature and hardware wise it's like the 60CS in a smaller Vista package.
the Vista C is a HUGE improvement over the original vista. it's faster, better screen, better battery life, seems to track satellite better and faster. TONS of features. It works almost the same way and have same features as the more epxensive and bigger 60CS.
the "click stick" is not as easy to use as the dpad on the garmin 60CS. sometimes when I want to press in on the stick it would go left or right. and the button are not that "nice and easy" to press. tho there are "shortcuts" with the buttons like on the 60CS. it's not really that bad, just not as easy and initituive as the 60CS because it has less buttons. I'm use to and familiar with the way the 60CS work so it took me only about 30 minutes to figure how they assign the buttons. but for someone new it will probably take an hour or two to learn the buttons and shortcuts.
if you're use to the easier button interfac of the 60CS you won't like the buttons of the vista C as much.
Pro
- alot faster than the original vista & about same speed as the 60CS (perhap same cpu?)
- updated OS and interface as the 60cs.
- Color screen is easier to read even in daylight than the original Vista.
- USB port
- External antenna port.
- all the software features and hardware of the bigger 60CS in a smaller package.
Con
- screen is kinda small so incar navigation is not as easy to read like the 60cs (but to it's credit it's not meant for car navigation)
- only 24 megs of ram. and you can't expand it.
- garmin propietory interface only load garmin maps/programs