Garmin handheld GPS Archives - Page 11 of 24

Garmin Montana 600 review

August 30, 2011 By Rich Owings 129 Comments

Hands on with the Garmin Montana 600

The Garmin Montana 600 is one of three models in Garmin’s newest handheld series. With it’s huge 4” touchscreen, I had initially thought the Montanas were targeted to the motorized crowd (ATV’s, etc.), but after spending over a month with it, I’m convinced that a lot of hikers and geocachers will be attracted to it as well. Before we get into the details, here’s some info on the rest of the series…

Filed Under: Featured, Garmin handheld GPS, GPS Reviews, Handheld/Sport Tagged With: Garmin Montana 600, Garmin Montana series

GizzMoVest protective GPS case review and giveaway

August 16, 2011 By Rich Owings 29 Comments

GizzMoVest protective GPS cases are manufactured by a small Goleta, California company. Made of a combination of materials (a soft-knit interior, a high density plastic, and a very grippy exterior) the case shown above gives plenty of protection for the device. I’m not sure it would prevent damage if it were ran over by a truck, but it seems likely to save it against many drops on rock, concrete, etc. Now you would still need a screen protector, and as you can see, the front of the Garmin GPSMAP 62 series case is open, allowing access to the buttons. So while it could always hit a rocky protuberance screen first, a case such as this should dramatically reduce the chances of significant damage from most spills. In fact, the case results in a recessed screen (whereas the 62 series screen on a bare unit is flush), further reducing the chance of screen damage.

Filed Under: Featured, Garmin handheld GPS, Handheld/Sport Tagged With: accessories, GizzMoVest

Garmin Montana – First looks

August 2, 2011 By Rich Owings 21 Comments

UPDATE: I’ve posted my full hands on review of the Garmin Montana 600. I’ve also got pages up for the Montana 650 and 650t.

I’ve had a Garmin Montana 600 in hand for a couple of weeks now and so far I’m pretty impressed with it. I initially thought it was targeted at the motorized crowd (ATVs, 4WDs, etc.) due to its size, but now I’m not so sure. While it does make the Oregon series look positively diminutive, in comparison to the 62 series, it’s shorter, is the same thickness, and weighs just an ounce more.

Filed Under: Featured, Garmin handheld GPS, Handheld/Sport Tagged With: Garmin Montana series

The king is dead; long live the king?

August 1, 2011 By Rich Owings 10 Comments

Garmin has finally pulled the plug on the venerable GPSMAP 60CSx, officially discontinuing it. Long considered the gold standard, the 60CSx had started looking a bit long in the tooth over the past year or two, missing now standard features such as paperless geocaching.

Filed Under: Featured, Garmin handheld GPS, Handheld/Sport Tagged With: Discontinued, Garmin GPSMAP 60CSx

Garmin BirdsEye Satellite Imagery

July 25, 2011 By Rich Owings 32 Comments

Garmin BirdsEye Satellite Imagery is a $29.99 annual subscription plan (though downloaded imagery does not expire) that allows you to transfer satellite imagery to compatible Garmin devices. At this point, the following series are compatible:

Filed Under: Featured, Garmin handheld GPS, Handheld/Sport Tagged With: BirdsEye

$50 rebate & killer deals on Garmin Oregon 450/550 series

July 1, 2011 By Rich Owings 6 Comments

UPDATE: ~~Wow, now there’s a heck of a sale on the new Montana series too.~~ Well the Montana deal didn’t last long, but at least the Oregons are still available…

UPDATE 2: GPS City’s prices have gone up, but fortunately the rebate is valid till the end of September, so hopefully we’ll see some better deals.

Garmin has just posted a $50 rebate for the Oregon x50 series~~, bringing the price down to $249.95 for the 450 and $349.95 for the 550 at GPS City, one of our favorite low-cost vendors~~. Hit the jump link for all the details on this killer deal.

Filed Under: Featured, Garmin handheld GPS, Handheld/Sport Tagged With: Garmin Oregon series, GPS Deals

Garmin TOPO US 24K review

June 27, 2011 By Rich Owings 50 Comments

Garmin recently finished rolling out their new TOPO US 24K map sets. They are available as downloads and on micro-SD cards, with larger regions available on DVD. All three formats can be purchased directly from Garmin as well as various retailers. The new product offers several advantages including routable trails and detailed highway coverage, and the DVD and micro-SD formats are not locked to a single device, so you can still use them if you buy a new unit.

Filed Under: Featured, Garmin handheld GPS, Handheld/Sport Tagged With: Garmin TOPO US 24K

Dual-use Garmin Montana now shipping

June 21, 2011 By Rich Owings 28 Comments

UPDATE: I’ve posted my full hands on review of the Garmin Montana 600. I’ve also got pages up for the Montana 650 and 650t.

The Garmin Montana series seems most suited to the motorized crowd, those of you with jeeps, ATVs, snowmobiles, etc. And if that fits you, or if you’re willing to tote a 4” screen along on your backcountry or geocaching forays, the wait is over. You can now have a dual-use unit that will switch from a nuvi-like interface to a full blown wilderness navigator at the drop of a hat. Here are some places you can get the Montana today (and remember that going through our partner sites helps keep GPS Tracklog here for you!):

Filed Under: Featured, Garmin handheld GPS, Handheld/Sport Tagged With: Garmin Montana 600, Garmin Montana 650, Garmin Montana 650t, Garmin Montana series

Garmin BirdsEye TOPO US screenshots

June 17, 2011 By Rich Owings 14 Comments

A couple of weeks ago I posted that a new product, Garmin BirdsEye Topo US and Canada, had shown up on the Garmin website. Unfortunately they weren’t quite ready to deliver the goods then, but as of this morning those of us who coughed up $29.99 are able to download imagery.

UPDATE: Here it is… Garmin BirdsEye Topo US and Canada
~~The product still isn’t back live on the site, this is about as close as I can get you (it should show up there when live),~~ but I can give you a peek at what it looks like on a 62s at various zoom levels. Hopefully, you’ll all have access within the next few days.

As you can see in the images below, the scale switches from 1:100K scale USGS maps to 1:24K at the 0.5 mile zoom level. The 24K imagery appears quite clear at the 0.2 mile, 800’, 500’ and 300’ zoom levels. It looks like Garmin has done a pretty good job on this raster imagery.

Filed Under: Featured, Garmin handheld GPS, Handheld/Sport Tagged With: Garmin BirdsEye Topo US and Canada

Garmin GPSMAP 62sc and 62stc to feature geotagging camera

June 3, 2011 By Rich Owings 2 Comments

UPDATED to add product links, availability dates and MSRP.

UPDATE 2: Garmin 62s(t)c series to include NiMH batteries, charger and adds (of course!) a picture viewer.

UPDATE 3: I’ve now put up resource/review pages for the Garmin GPSMAP 62sc and the 62stc.

Garmin has announced two new 62 series models this morning, featuring 5MP geotagging cameras. The Garmin GPSMAP 62sc and 62stc appear to closely mirror the 62s and 62st, adding only the camera and expanding internal memory to 3.5GB (the 62s offers 1.7GB, while the 62st has only 500MB). Of course all these models offer a micro-SD slot for expanded memory.

Filed Under: Featured, Garmin handheld GPS, Handheld/Sport Tagged With: Garmin GPSMAP 62sc, Garmin GPSMAP 62stc, geotagging