GPS - Fairly low budget, good features for birding (1 Viewer)

Anyone have suggestions for features I'd want on a GPS unit in the $100-250 US range and brands/models that offer those features?

Thanks in advance. I'm at the beginning of my search and am open to suggestions.

Take a look at the Garmin low end basic GPS for a very effective high sensitivity model (for use under forest canopy cover) e.g. Garmin eTrex H from $80 then the models up from that.

They'll slowly upsell you from that with more features: next model up has USB connectivity and simple monochrome map display then color displays then color plus can use SD cards. These of course can use maps from Garmin though with some effort you can use USGS GeoTIFF maps for free (24K scale).

It all depends on how you plan to use the GPS: marking interesting birds or nest position for yourself or others. Or if you want it for hiking. Or perhaps driving.

What Kevin said.

What are you going to be using it for?

The other day, I borrowed my cousin's Garmin Nuvi GPS. We birded an area and I found some Wood Storks that I wanted to mark the location of. No problem, I just established a favorite on the unit and had a friend write down the coordinates of the location.

However, when I got home and wanted to spread the word about the location, I couldn't retrieve the lat/long of that location. This is a problem, in my view, since it's one of the main reasons I'd want a GPS.

Most of the people who own GPSs use them with no need for specific lat/longs. I'd like to easily mark and retrieve information about specific locations where birds were seen, or to follow up where others have seen things.

I noticed that Tomtom has a traffic report feature. Living in Houston, where a two-hour delay could occur at any time due to an accident, I would like that feature as well. I've had to resort to phone calls to friends who were on the internet in order to check the status of the snarl I was sitting in.

I have no desire to purchase an internet-ready phone, but I am willing to seek out and pay for a GPS unit that allows me to mark waypoints, retrieve the information about them later, and which allows for up-to-date traffic reports.

Simply getting to the nearest Italian restaurant is not on my needs list.

Thanks for the suggestions so far. Please keep them coming.

The latest flagship P&S pocket cameras from Panasonic and Sony have built in GPS functions. The Panny seems the most functional and has a 300mm equivalent lens so you could get some nice bird pics too. Maybe a little above your budget but certainly a dual use item.

The Garmin Nuvi is very much an in car Sat Nav, and very good it is as well. I have a 770 which does everything you want except show the coordinates. It is not really meant for use out of the car and has a very short battery life.

I think you should look at the recreational series of hand held units, ranging from very cheap and basic to the 60/62 and Oregon series which can display detailed maps plus the cordinates. The Oregon 550 also has a camera!

Hope that helps.

You can look up the lat. long. co-ords with a Nuvi.. press and hold the signal strength icon at the top left of the menu screen. satellite info, and co-ord should show after about 5 secs!

But you are right, Nuvis are a super in car sat nav., and good for walking round town, but no good for the proper outdoors. Even something really basic like a garmin geko has more useful features for birding like:

Changeable batteries, shows sunrise/sunset times, grid co-ords in many grid types, waterproof.

Peter

Peter,

Blimey, never knew that. Deffo not in the manual. Not sure I would want to check my coordinates while driving!:-O

Garmin Dakota 20. Small, tough, fairly easy to use with its touchscreen, long battery life. Plus it can be used with the many free maps available on the internet such as the OSM maps.

Hermann

QUO is a good free mapping system and the 25 thou maps are very reasonable. Could plot sightings from GPS easily, just enter sighting as a waypoint

I have a Garmin eTrex Venture HC for sound recording.

I use it to "track" where I walk, so I can review my actual route later on. I input waypoints where I take recordings. I often announce the waypoint into the mic for easy matching up later, and put those GPS coords into the sound file inventory I keep.

For each day, I transfer the track and waypoints data back to my computer via USB, view them in the "MapSource" software bundled with the unit, and save the data to the same folder as the sound .wav files.

I can go back and view track/waypoints for any day, and know where I recorded each .wav, etc. It removes discrepencies when relying on memory alone to reconstruct where I walked, and where the bird territories actually were, etc.

The default map is bare -- only major roads, no terrain. Not a problem for me since that's not how I use the unit, but keep that in mind when viewing ads (the Venture HC ads show it with $100 maps, not the free default map). If I want a detailed physical terrain view (I always do), I use the MapSource software option to view the track data in Google Maps.

The features I use may be available on less expensive units, but I don't know for sure.

I use rechargeable double-A batteries; the battery life is plenty for the day. It's generally easy to use. The main thing I watch out for is when handling the unit (taking it in/out of a small pocket on a haversack), the rocker switch might move the cursor on your map -- so before you hold down the switch to mark a waypoint, you may have to 'cancel' the cursor to bring you back to your exact location for marking. It's not inconvenient, it's just another one of those little mental checks each piece of equipment has when using/handling.

I have a Garmin Etrex Legend HCx I use to record my tracks and mark points of interest, it is small, very sensitive, uses micro-sd memory carts and the batteries can last up to 18-20 hours. On my Nikon DSLR I have a Promote Systems units that records the coordinates on the EXIF field of the picture.

RJM said:

The latest flagship P&S pocket cameras from Panasonic and Sony have built in GPS functions. The Panny seems the most functional and has a 300mm equivalent lens so you could get some nice bird pics too. Maybe a little above your budget but certainly a dual use item.

Click to expand...

Samsung WB650 also has GPS and long lens.

I use a Garmin eTrex Vista HCx for my birdingwalks and like them very much.
If you don't care about your elevation, you could look voor the Garmin eTrex Legend HCx.
Sameone except a real compass and altitude meter.

I really don't like the touchscreen models since they work very poor with gloves on.

Whichever model you go for, get one with USB connectivity. Do not underestimate the usefulness of that feature. Some models have a proprietary connection and the cables are very expensive - probably in excess of the difference between the basic model and the next one up with USB. Your use of the GPS will either grow and you will want USB connectivity or the GPS will not be used at all and you will sell it on, in which case USB will make it much easier to sell.