Ideal for serious hikers and climbers, the rugged eTrex Vista H features a high-sensitivity receiver, detailed base map, barometric altimeter, electronic compass and 24 megabytes (MB) of internal memory for extra data storage.t in the palm of your hand.Besides its small size, mariners and outdoorsmen will likely notice the sleek design of the eTrex. All buttons are located on either side of the unit, allowing for simple, one-handed operation that won’t obstruct your view of the display.
In fact, the eTrex features only five operator buttons for the ultimate in user-friendly design. Thanks to its bright yellow case, the eTrex will be hard to misplace and easy to find in any boat or backpack. The eTrex is completely waterproof so
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Being new to GPS, I was excited to see what all I could do with this thing and how to make it do it. Unfortunately, the instruction manual is very vague. Many of the menu features are not even listed and the functions are not explained. It’s basically, “to get to here, press this button”. How about some examples? If you already are familiar with GPS, I suppose this would be fine, but it has been countless hours of experimentation to figure out some of the funtions.
Also, the basemap that comes with this is very basic – just major roads. There are also limited maps that you can purchase for this, and in fact I don’t think the Garmin site accurately lists all that are available (I would think that the Vista H would support all the maps the Vista supports, but the site says no). Expect to pay $120 for a map disk. I’m thinking the 100K topo map would be the best since it shows detailed streets and items of interest in parks. It’s pretty lame as a topo map though from the demo on the Garmin site.
Rating: 4 / 5
I bought this GPS unit to prepare for a Garmin GPS class I was asked to teach. I own several GPS units and I am a GPS/GIS professional focussing on training and consulting. I usually restrict my GPS usage to professional grade mapping equipment (Trimble, specifically) but I recently branched off into the world of recreational GPS to expand my training offerings. I’ve used the eTrex series GPS before and this Vista H unit is another nice addition to the line-up. Let me say that if I were buying an eTrex to use as my sole GPS unit, then I definitely would have opted for the color screen (Vista HC or HCx). The color screen adds a lot more bang for the buck.
Garmin has done a good job with these little units. The Vista is small, light-weight, and quick to respond. The new high-senstivity (that’s what the ‘H’ stands for) receiver locks onto satellites very quickly. The internal compass and altimeter work very well and are easy to calibrate and turn on/off. On the negative side, something I find to be true for all of the eTrex models is that the operating system a bit clumsy to learn and I usually need to spend a good 5 minutes re-orienting myself to it when I use the eTrex in the field. I find that the buttons on the unit are not intuitivey laid out so it is hard to remember which one does what. Once I’m in the flow of using the eTrex, however, I can navigate through the pages/settings fairly easily — it just requires those first few minutes of reaquainting myself each time. I would definitely recommend a bit of training before you use the unit — especially if you plan to collect tracks. A common problem that Garmin users have is that their track log shows a long, continuous line on the map that connects — with a straight line — your new location to your last one. This can leave a long straight line on your map if, for example, you used the unit in Phoenix on your last hike and are now starting it up in Los Angeles. It’s all about managing the track log.
The unit costs under $200 which is a great price. I like that I can collect points and lines (waypoints and tracks) that I can then add to Google Earth (directly) or to ArcGIS. The workflow for adding to ArcGIS is a bit convoluted as the GPS file format has to be converted first and that requires third-party tools. There are many of them out there, it’s just a matter of trying them out and finding what works for you.
As a GIS professional, I find the Garmin model of buying base map data unuseful. The eTrex comes with a very basic base map. If you want more detail (topo maps, for example) then you must purchase these from Garmin. The base map you buy is only good for 1 GPS unit. So if you own multiple eTrex, for example, you must purchase the same data multiple times. In the world of GIS, once you acquire data — such as topo base maps — then it is yours to use as you want. With Garmin, you are not free to load your own data onto the GPS unit.
For the sake of comparison, I usually use my Trimble Juno SB unit for GPS hiking. This unit costs more (starting at $750) but it offers a professional workflow. This is not something that is important to most hikers, but it can make a world of difference to those using GPS for search and rescue, fire management, etc. The Juno is designed to collect GIS-ready GPS data which means you can collect points, lines, and polygons as well as attributes then export the data directly to shapefiles. Best of all, you can load your own data onto it — imagery, existing shapefiles, CAD, and other file formats. The unit might cost more initially, but you are free to load whatever data you can acquire onto it and it allows you to quickly bring your GPS data into a GIS without having to manually enter attributes. You get to collect all of your user-defined attributes in the field while logging your GPS positions.
I would definitely recommend this unit as a basic mapping GPS unit though I would suggest spending a bit more to get the color screen. Also, if this is your first foray into GPS, invest in some basic training — it will save you a lot of frustration and help you get the most out of your GPS unit. You can usually find a half-day Garmin training class by searching around the state parks and community college non-credit programs — there are also online training courses you can find by doing a Google search.
Happy trails!
http://www.GeoMattix.com
Rating: 3 / 5
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