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These are separate and will run around 100.00. Expect a 30min wait time before you get to talk to anyone. Base maps are preloaded but streetmaps are not. I went with the SD card street maps and glad I did.
How can it be a 400T without Topo maps. Screen brightness is not as bad as I was expecting. Only problem with screen brightness is that you have to reset it after every reboot, as it won't store the setting in memory. For lightweight backpacking you might want to buy lithium batteries, a whole lot of them. I basically wanted some sort of correspondence for proof just in case their was an issue.
It hasn't disappointed me yet as far as the accuracy goes. The WAAS works wonders in dense foliage. Anyway, I went to amazon for a higher price but a more comfortable transaction. I was concerned with the accuracy issue of this GPSr.
service, that if you want to have the same maps on your PC Mapsource software (which comes with the unit) as your gps, then you should buy the DVD mapset. The external antenna is a must if you are using in the car. If it wasn't for battery consumption I would have gave it a higher rating.This unit will go through batteries very fast. With this configuration you can upload the wanted maps onto the unit itself or a seperate memory card. I am rating their product not their customer service.
I emailed Garmin customer service with my concerns and they assured me that it would not be a problem. Then the price became an issue. Shaded relief maps are nice to have and the topo features are great to have as well. Overall, this is a must for a geocacher After nearly ten years of service my eTrex can finally take a rest.One last thing. Screen protection is a must if you aren't storing it in a case.
Map cards are a no hassle PNP operation. Phone calls to Garmin customer service are not fun. Easy.GPX file transfer with www.geocaching.com and a windows machine but not a linux machine that I know of. I was able to load 400 caches along a route and made an insignificant dent in the 256MB memory.
Do consider buying rechargeable batteries and the car charger with alkaline spares as I have already found myself hunting down batteries instead of caches. I tried to order the unit through an online camera shop for a price around 400.00 and found out that what they were selling me was a Japanese (no english installed) no warranty, no topo maps installed unit. I usually don't have to turn on the backlight unless It is dark of course or if I am in the shade. I have been told by Garmin Cust.
This product is pricey, but I believe that it is well priced for what you get. This leaves the memory free for geocaches.
It's ridiculous.I mean if I want to see the location of a waypoint on the topo map, I just cannot do that, cause it takes you back to your original location by default. This is a major, major flaw. It's just not worth it given the available featureset until they come up with next gen beyond this simplistic, yet dummyproof design. I find their software to be at best retarded and without extensive capabilities. For that flaw alone, I would shave off 2 points. The screen is unacceptable.Poorly lit, you cannot even see it in the dark well. Perhaps many of those people that find this great in the beginning will have later on decided to probably return theirs. I can go on and on about this unit.
You cannot find roads, addresses or heck, even navigate manually to a waypoint. It's ergonomical, simple to use (thus the dummies part), inaccurate due to a more inferior chipset designed by Garmin (rather than the SirfIII), does not play well with Google Earth, although it is possible with some additional software and alot of technical know-how to export track data to Google Earth. than this device. To be honest for $600 + you would expect much much more. They will show up on the map, yes, but scattered on the map without a management list.
It's slow to acquire signal, slow to start up and try loading geocaches in it and at times they become scattered POI's that are unmanageable. I returned mine to the store and got a refund - restocking fee. BAD GARMIN. I find that unacceptable this day and age. I also want to be able to get distances between points. You get a simple device that has predefined functionality and no custom features. I'm not sure how you are supposed to use it hiking on a highly sunlit trail.
I find Google Earth better at keeping your POI's and tracks, etc. I mean yeah, this simple minded individuals out there that want to follow the cursor around a JPEG bitmap image of a topo map think this is great, but for the rest of us, we want a little more bang for the buck.Weird enough, the competitor Magelan, uses National Geographic topo maps which offer way more resolution than the basemaps in Colorado or even the latest Garmin touchscreen model Oregon. I hate the simple childproof interface.It's not sophisticated enough for serious GPS users, especially on topo. No you cannot do that either.What the heck can you do with it.
There is a nice mount for my motorcycle and car for this unit and I look forward to many off road jeep trips, national park trips and camping trips. It works great for driving directions. It also suggests local attractions with the add on software which is really nice if you don't know the area. I have not used this much, but so far it is quite good. I got the extra street map and after a little config.
Fortunately, I was able to try the 400 and the 60CSx side-by-side. I like the jog wheel and find it easy and intuitive.
So certainly take extra batteries into the field if the ones in the unit aren't fresh or you plan on being gone for more than a few hours. Entering text is a bit on the slow side, but having never entered text on any other GPSr, I really don't mind.Using 2500 mHh NiMH batteries, I typically get 5-6 hours of life, more if I remember to turn down the backlight when not in use.
I decided to get into geocaching this summer. I also found both units to be harder to read when standing in the shade, lots of reflection off the glass.I've now been hiking and biking with the 400 for just under a month and absolutely love it.
Overall, a great, easy to use GPSr. After reading a number of reviews expressing concern about the screen's readability, both here and on other sites, I was leaning away from the 400.
In direct sunlight, I found the screen on the 400 to be just a little dimmer than the 60 but still perfectly readable.
The sensitivity of the receiver is a great improvement over earlier models. This unit represents a huge advance in GPS navigation technology. It has a remarkably large and inclusive data base.
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