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- Feb 28, 2007
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Last week I received a Garmin Oregon 450T GPS with built in Canadian Topo maps at 1:100,000 scale. This is a rather expensive unit but it has features that I needed for work and seemed like a great equipment upgrade over my e-trex Legend which I've been using for about 10 years. I've also borrowed and used my buddies Garmin 60CSX and know a little about this version of mapping GPS units.
The Garmin Oregon Series is a touchscreen which is a bit of a new one for me. It has its drawbacks on some things and advantages on others. One drawback is that Garmin touchscreen does not work very well in very cold weather, or you have to keep it inside your jacket to get it to work. The other main draw back is that some of the features are slower to access using the touch screen compared to button systems. For example, using the page button on the other garmins let you rapidly cycle through compass/track/map pages ect. On the touch screens you have to hit the menu button first and then find the screen you want to access and bump it with your finger.
On the other hand, typing in long waypoint names is a breeze. Another super nice feature is your ability to scroll through the map on the map page by swiping your finger across the screen. This lets you take a look at whats ahead of you terrain wise and you can even change the scale while you are browsing the map away from your current position. This then interacts with a simply outstanding feature of the 450T. When you are navigating on the map you can tap the screen at an interesting point and it will place a pin where you tapped it. You can then reposition the map to fine tune where the pin is. Tap the pin again and it will ask you if you want to save the pin location as a waypoint. Given that the unit has a topo map, this makes 'on-the-fly' route planning really easy and fun!
Other things I like about this unit. There are five different profiles that can be fully customized. For each profile you can move around the position of items on the main menu so that the most important options are on the first page. You can also configure any set-up aspect with each profile. For example, I bought a Great Lakes bathymetry map set on micro-SD which I keep in the card holder of the unit. I configured my Marine profile to use the bathymetry layer as the primary map and to turn off the topo map feature. I also have that profile set so that the GPS units go to UTM which I use for work. I re-arrange my icons in this mode so that the 'man-overboard' feature is on the first page as well as the way point marker. On the 'Recreational Profile' I turn of the bathymetry map and turn on the topo. Here I keep the position units consistent with google earth to make referencing easier.
The GPS includes a full auto-navigation map set and automobile mode that works just like a vehicle GPS including a database for address, food, shopping ect and turn by turn directions. Okay, its not easy to use in a car. The visibility of its screen is just not up to par with a car GPS unit and I wouldn't recommend trying to read it while driving. But if you have a travel mate they can easily get the instructions needed. This wasn't a reason why I bought the unit, but I think it was nice that they bundled it in. Apparently this unit has become a pretty hot item for bikers because of its size and this feature.
Visibility - it is a full colour unit. Visibility is pretty good but not great in full sunlight. You do have to tilt it sometimes to get a good reading off the unit. This one is supposed to be an improvement over past models. I think the visibility is adequate, but not great under some conditions. It is stunning when overcast.
Compass - this one has a tri-axil tilt compass meaning that the compass does not have to be level to take a reading. I originally bought my e-trex legend 10 years ago because it was one of the few units around with a built in electronic compass. Most of the other units calculated direction by triangulating your movement from one point to the next. This is great while you are in a vehicle, but lead to hectic readings when you were on foot. The e-trex legend's electronic compass was a huge disappointment. It was very erratic and the point would spontaneously shift 30 degrees while you were standing still and holding the unit perfectly level. The 450T seems to have fixed this. The compass responds rather quickly (about 1-2 s delay similar to a real compass) and stabilizes immediately. Checking it against my suunto compass demonstrated excellent consistency. Finally, an electronic compass that I can trust.
Custom maps. Things I haven't tried yet. This is an interesting feature. Lets say you have a trail map of the park you are going to visit. You can scan the map with your scanner at home into an image file. You then use Google Earth to add the image to the google earth map and scale google earth to position and align the trail map with the actual satellite image from google earth. You then resize the map so it overlaps with the google earth image. This requires that your trail map is properly scaled. Once the position is fixed, you then export the map from google earth and can save it to your unit. The above process places the coordinates on the custom map. Then when you call up the custom map, your GPS places your actual position onto the map. Very slick. Another nice feature is that you can grab the google earth satelite image of your park and simply save that as a custom map. This will allow you toggle between the topo and the satellite image (easiest way to do this would be to set up a profile for the satellite image). In this mode, the GPS won't let you scale the satellite image like you can with Google Earth, although there is a subscription service that apparently allows you to this. Finally you access many free custom maps on the internet from garmin enthusiasts. You obviously have to trust somebody that they aligned the map correctly in creating it when you down load it. The internal memory is 850 mb, which I imagine will enable you to store many custom maps.
Battery life. It claims 16 h but I think that includes when the unit is in standby mode (screen back light off). I was just using it on a trip where I was a passenger. I had a set of new pre-charged NiMH and managed to get 8 h out of them. However I was working intensely with the unit because I was trying to learn many of its features and the backlight was constantly on. Also the batteries might not have been fully fresh. Still this unit seems to use batteries at about the same rate as my E-Trex Legend with the electronic compass on (for some reason the electronic compass was a battery hog). I decided to go with a set of 8 NiMH rechargeble batteries to keep this one juiced up.
Geocache and Werringo. Apparently this unit with a premium subscription to requisite websites will download the information directly from Geocache, storing the waypoint, name and the hints/tips information that you can access by scrolling through it. Even though I'm in the geocache subforum, this is an activity I just don't do but its probably a really nice feature for those that enjoy this kind of thing.
Purchasing maps. I really wanted this unit because I wanted marine charts for the Great Lakes as well a bunch of in-land lakes in Canada. I'm happy with the quality of the charts I was able to get my hands on and like the fact that I can keep the chip in the unit and access the chip map or not depending on how I configure the profile. However, having multiple chips and only one SD slot requires you to manage the chips. One of the stupid things about the unit is that the chip slot is under the batteries. So you have to remove the back cover and the batteries to put your chip in. The micro-SD chip is also a tiny little thing and its hard to fiddle with. Not impossible, but you just sort of lay the chip under this metal bracket and the batteries then press it into place. You don't get a feedback of correct placement like you do with an SD card. I would much prefer this unit use a true SD card a put it somewhere that you didn't have to remove the batteries to access it. That is a PITA.
Garmin offers many maps on micro-SD. If you are much more savy you can get many topo-maps free on the internet and incorporate them via custom maps into your GPS. Also, its a bit of a shame that the topo that comes with the unit is at 1:100,000 scale and they of course offer a separate topos at the 1:25,000 scale on a region by region bases for a cost. In the U.S. the coverage of high resolution topo maps seems excellent, but in Canada it is really hard to tell what the higher cost map package comes with since the info claims some maps are at 1:50,000 and others at 1:100,000. So for Canada I'm happy with this level of detail. I might pick up the 1:100,000 U.S. topo chip set sometime just because I'm on a border town. While it would be really nice having 1:25,000 topo's for the GPS, I think the lower cost 1:100,000 are sufficient enough especially since I always bring a better map with me on site. Again, this gets to the point of whether you feel the GPS is your main navigation aid with map and compass only as a back-up or if you like to use map and GPS in combination with a compass back up. I'm still in the latter category but the new map features of these GPS are pretty impressive. (I know that electronics are not trustworthy as a sole navigation aid).
The last kind of cool feature is the 3-D view to go with the topo's maps. If you have trouble visualizing contour lines then you can use this view and it will give you a shaded contour profile of what lays ahead of you. I think its an interesting way of learning to visualize contours. If you are already good at this then the feature is just a cutesy kind of thing, but it is neat nevertheless. I wouldn't necessarily pay to have 3-D view, but I'm not complaining that they bundled it in.
Thats about it, as I get more familiar with this unit in different terrains, I'll try to revisit this review. So far I'm happy with it.
The Garmin Oregon Series is a touchscreen which is a bit of a new one for me. It has its drawbacks on some things and advantages on others. One drawback is that Garmin touchscreen does not work very well in very cold weather, or you have to keep it inside your jacket to get it to work. The other main draw back is that some of the features are slower to access using the touch screen compared to button systems. For example, using the page button on the other garmins let you rapidly cycle through compass/track/map pages ect. On the touch screens you have to hit the menu button first and then find the screen you want to access and bump it with your finger.
On the other hand, typing in long waypoint names is a breeze. Another super nice feature is your ability to scroll through the map on the map page by swiping your finger across the screen. This lets you take a look at whats ahead of you terrain wise and you can even change the scale while you are browsing the map away from your current position. This then interacts with a simply outstanding feature of the 450T. When you are navigating on the map you can tap the screen at an interesting point and it will place a pin where you tapped it. You can then reposition the map to fine tune where the pin is. Tap the pin again and it will ask you if you want to save the pin location as a waypoint. Given that the unit has a topo map, this makes 'on-the-fly' route planning really easy and fun!
Other things I like about this unit. There are five different profiles that can be fully customized. For each profile you can move around the position of items on the main menu so that the most important options are on the first page. You can also configure any set-up aspect with each profile. For example, I bought a Great Lakes bathymetry map set on micro-SD which I keep in the card holder of the unit. I configured my Marine profile to use the bathymetry layer as the primary map and to turn off the topo map feature. I also have that profile set so that the GPS units go to UTM which I use for work. I re-arrange my icons in this mode so that the 'man-overboard' feature is on the first page as well as the way point marker. On the 'Recreational Profile' I turn of the bathymetry map and turn on the topo. Here I keep the position units consistent with google earth to make referencing easier.
The GPS includes a full auto-navigation map set and automobile mode that works just like a vehicle GPS including a database for address, food, shopping ect and turn by turn directions. Okay, its not easy to use in a car. The visibility of its screen is just not up to par with a car GPS unit and I wouldn't recommend trying to read it while driving. But if you have a travel mate they can easily get the instructions needed. This wasn't a reason why I bought the unit, but I think it was nice that they bundled it in. Apparently this unit has become a pretty hot item for bikers because of its size and this feature.
Visibility - it is a full colour unit. Visibility is pretty good but not great in full sunlight. You do have to tilt it sometimes to get a good reading off the unit. This one is supposed to be an improvement over past models. I think the visibility is adequate, but not great under some conditions. It is stunning when overcast.
Compass - this one has a tri-axil tilt compass meaning that the compass does not have to be level to take a reading. I originally bought my e-trex legend 10 years ago because it was one of the few units around with a built in electronic compass. Most of the other units calculated direction by triangulating your movement from one point to the next. This is great while you are in a vehicle, but lead to hectic readings when you were on foot. The e-trex legend's electronic compass was a huge disappointment. It was very erratic and the point would spontaneously shift 30 degrees while you were standing still and holding the unit perfectly level. The 450T seems to have fixed this. The compass responds rather quickly (about 1-2 s delay similar to a real compass) and stabilizes immediately. Checking it against my suunto compass demonstrated excellent consistency. Finally, an electronic compass that I can trust.
Custom maps. Things I haven't tried yet. This is an interesting feature. Lets say you have a trail map of the park you are going to visit. You can scan the map with your scanner at home into an image file. You then use Google Earth to add the image to the google earth map and scale google earth to position and align the trail map with the actual satellite image from google earth. You then resize the map so it overlaps with the google earth image. This requires that your trail map is properly scaled. Once the position is fixed, you then export the map from google earth and can save it to your unit. The above process places the coordinates on the custom map. Then when you call up the custom map, your GPS places your actual position onto the map. Very slick. Another nice feature is that you can grab the google earth satelite image of your park and simply save that as a custom map. This will allow you toggle between the topo and the satellite image (easiest way to do this would be to set up a profile for the satellite image). In this mode, the GPS won't let you scale the satellite image like you can with Google Earth, although there is a subscription service that apparently allows you to this. Finally you access many free custom maps on the internet from garmin enthusiasts. You obviously have to trust somebody that they aligned the map correctly in creating it when you down load it. The internal memory is 850 mb, which I imagine will enable you to store many custom maps.
Battery life. It claims 16 h but I think that includes when the unit is in standby mode (screen back light off). I was just using it on a trip where I was a passenger. I had a set of new pre-charged NiMH and managed to get 8 h out of them. However I was working intensely with the unit because I was trying to learn many of its features and the backlight was constantly on. Also the batteries might not have been fully fresh. Still this unit seems to use batteries at about the same rate as my E-Trex Legend with the electronic compass on (for some reason the electronic compass was a battery hog). I decided to go with a set of 8 NiMH rechargeble batteries to keep this one juiced up.
Geocache and Werringo. Apparently this unit with a premium subscription to requisite websites will download the information directly from Geocache, storing the waypoint, name and the hints/tips information that you can access by scrolling through it. Even though I'm in the geocache subforum, this is an activity I just don't do but its probably a really nice feature for those that enjoy this kind of thing.
Purchasing maps. I really wanted this unit because I wanted marine charts for the Great Lakes as well a bunch of in-land lakes in Canada. I'm happy with the quality of the charts I was able to get my hands on and like the fact that I can keep the chip in the unit and access the chip map or not depending on how I configure the profile. However, having multiple chips and only one SD slot requires you to manage the chips. One of the stupid things about the unit is that the chip slot is under the batteries. So you have to remove the back cover and the batteries to put your chip in. The micro-SD chip is also a tiny little thing and its hard to fiddle with. Not impossible, but you just sort of lay the chip under this metal bracket and the batteries then press it into place. You don't get a feedback of correct placement like you do with an SD card. I would much prefer this unit use a true SD card a put it somewhere that you didn't have to remove the batteries to access it. That is a PITA.
Garmin offers many maps on micro-SD. If you are much more savy you can get many topo-maps free on the internet and incorporate them via custom maps into your GPS. Also, its a bit of a shame that the topo that comes with the unit is at 1:100,000 scale and they of course offer a separate topos at the 1:25,000 scale on a region by region bases for a cost. In the U.S. the coverage of high resolution topo maps seems excellent, but in Canada it is really hard to tell what the higher cost map package comes with since the info claims some maps are at 1:50,000 and others at 1:100,000. So for Canada I'm happy with this level of detail. I might pick up the 1:100,000 U.S. topo chip set sometime just because I'm on a border town. While it would be really nice having 1:25,000 topo's for the GPS, I think the lower cost 1:100,000 are sufficient enough especially since I always bring a better map with me on site. Again, this gets to the point of whether you feel the GPS is your main navigation aid with map and compass only as a back-up or if you like to use map and GPS in combination with a compass back up. I'm still in the latter category but the new map features of these GPS are pretty impressive. (I know that electronics are not trustworthy as a sole navigation aid).
The last kind of cool feature is the 3-D view to go with the topo's maps. If you have trouble visualizing contour lines then you can use this view and it will give you a shaded contour profile of what lays ahead of you. I think its an interesting way of learning to visualize contours. If you are already good at this then the feature is just a cutesy kind of thing, but it is neat nevertheless. I wouldn't necessarily pay to have 3-D view, but I'm not complaining that they bundled it in.
Thats about it, as I get more familiar with this unit in different terrains, I'll try to revisit this review. So far I'm happy with it.