Magellan eXplorist 200 Water Resistant Hiking GPS by Magellan
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Digital camera reviews of Magellan eXplorist 200 Water Resistant Hiking GPS
Digital camera Review: GPS 2
Summary: 5 Stars
This is my second GPS and it was very easy to get use to and now I have started comparing this Magellan to my Garmin, and in many ways the Magellan is better.Digital camera Review: Good GPS
Summary: 5 Stars
This was a very good and accurate GPS unit. Sturdy and well made. Batteries lasted a long time and it found the satellites pretty quickly. Some of the functions such as setting it to coordinates you wanted to find was a bit awkward it worked flawlessly. I ended up selling it on E-bay as I wanted a unit with a more detailed map. The new unit has a better map but is not as accurate as this Magellan was.Digital camera Review: Good for a beginner but might dump your memory
Summary: 2 Stars
A few months in use and my 200 started to dump memory at random intervals. This meant that each time I powered on, it was a gamble as to if my coordinates were still entered. This is very frustrating when I go on a trip, I always have to make sure I have a paper back up source of my information. If you get a 200 that works then I would recommend the unit for beginners but I don't know how common this problem is.Digital camera Review: Good for driving and backpacking.
Summary: 4 Stars
I love this little critter. I find the built in map for driving handles most major roads and all of the interstates. On my latest 14 hour trip to several relatives, I was on a marked road 98% of the time. Zooming out tells me when intersections will be coming and the GOTO ETA is pretty much right on (when will we be home, daddy? 1 hour 27 minutes plus or minus 5 minutes... Oh...) Thing is as bad as a cell phone for driving distraction.
Screen is very nice. Contrast is great. Looks good from full sun to dim light and the night light takes over from there. Words are very legible (it does take some skill to read Lake Mooselookmyguntic while driving tho)
Accuracy while hiking will get you within 30 feet regularly so works for trail finding and maps. The joystick does take some getting used to but works fine once you get the hang (push from the side not from the top). Lots of self help built in (reading material on my long walks out). Battery life is good and I use rechargeable double AAs NIMH and get a good 6-7 hours out of them. I carry a couple of extra with me. Swapping batteries is easy and can be done without tools but needs bare fingers to unscrew the D ring screw. Nothing is lost when swapping batteries. Takes about 1-2 minutes to sync up with the satellites when turned on. Picks up the satellites well in my pocket or nestled in the cars door handle. The night light feature is very nice and does not knock too much off of the battery. Lightweight, takes a drop onto concrete with just a nick here or there on the case. Buttons have a good feel and can be manipulated by feel while driving. Buttons need to be pushed with bare fingers or very thin gloves. One very neat feature is that the sun and moon are located on the compass when they are above the horizon. Donno how they do that. Compass works only when moving but it only takes a few steps to get it to work
For backpacking there is one major issue. The odometer does not track accurately in the woods. If the GPS loses track somewhere where the trees are thick, the odometer stops logging during that time. The funny thing is that the active track is spot on. Just use the active track to figure out how far you have walked. The breadcrumbs work great. I could care less about downloading content or maps or topo stuff. That is what printed maps are for and I would never trust an electronic device to get me out anyways.
Digital camera Review: Good for driving and hunting
Summary: 5 Stars
This GPS works very well. I bought it mainly for hunting, but wanted the background map so it could be useful while driving. I've only found one error on the map, a road is mislabeled, but it is not enough to throw you off track. Once it has a good satellite link it is almost impossible to lose that link. Even cloudy days or cover from trees (or the roof of the car when it sits in the cupholder) it hasn't lost track. Navigation works excellent and the "mark" button on the front makes it easy to create a point of interest, no digging through menus to find this operation. Just push the button and go. My only complaints are that the heading feature only gives degrees, not the cardinal points (North,South,East,West) and it doesn't record maximum or average speed, something nice to have on trips. But these are no reasons not to purchase this fine GPS from Magellan