Garmin E Trex Legend

[skee0025]

Anyone have any experience with these GPS units. I asked the wife for a H2O for christmas and am getting one of these. She's terrible at hiding gifts.

[bigbad401]

I have had one for about 3 years and I like it. It is a solid GPS unit. But, I would not buy one now. The Legend does not have a memory card slot (8 meg internal memory) and does not have a USB interface. When you download or upload anything from or to the unit it is very slow.

[Rope]

I had one.Will not do half of what an H2O will do.

[cyberg]

I have had one for a long time. Yes not expandable memory... cannot use chips but the plus side to that if you get lakemaster you can print out paper maps for quick reference. I have about 20 lakes and my hunting area on topo and I still have about half the memory left to load more maps. Receiver is not the best when in heavy cover. Solid unit for the price albeit outdated.

[snoozebutton]

My first unit was the E-Trex. Worked good (still does after 5 years) but my Christmas wish list has the H2O on it. If you're going to use it for hunting, it'll work great.

[McGurk]

I have used one for about 4 years, and have about maxed out it's capabilities. It was a great starter GPS, but I have often thought of upgrading. Things I would like:

1)Non-LCD color screen- slows down in the cold, and not as easy to read as color.

2)expandable memory- only for the sake of loading Lakemaster lake topos, the 8 megs is fine for waypoints and tracks

3)larger screen- self explanitory

4)more refined interface- seems a little clunky to get around the menus

5)Routing capability- for traveling in the car in a fashion like the in-car GPSr's do, I know a few do (Lowrance XOG, others) but it shouldn't be so exclusive.

6)bang for the buck- I don't know why these have stayed pretty close to their original price point 3-5 years ago when they haven't done much to reinvent the wheel. Some of these are up to $600, while the in-car GPSr's (even the Garmin's) have dropped significantly in the last 2 years with more features and larger screens at a lower price.

Is the old black/white Legend a good GPSr? Yes, but I would see if she would mind if you traded up to the Lowrance H2O or possible the Garmin Legend HCx (both are Color screens w/ an expansion card). The Lowrance XOG seems good on the outside, but I have not read favorable reviews from fellow outdoorsmen. It would be a toss up between those if I were have to purchase one right now, but I'm gonna wait a couple years to upgrade when hopefully some of those mentioned items will be addressed at a lower price point. I do a lot with the computer and printing out maps and transferring waypoints back and forth, and I would continue to do that regardless.

Hey, at least she listened and got you something you asked for, though!

[PerchJerker]

If she did her homework and got you a Legend HCX then you have a memory slot that will take LakeMaster chips and a USB connection

[BobT]

I think that's correct. The "X" in the name I believe represents Xpandible memory.

Bob

[McGurk]

Depending on how "Snoopy" you were, you can easily tell the difference between the etrex Legend (Clear Blue casing) and the etrex Legend HCx (Silver casing).

[vikingmeatwad]

I have an H2O now but i dropped my Legend down a hole in 40 ft of water. I was able to hook it with a rattlin rap in about 5 min.

After drilling a hole in it and letting it dry out for a couple weeks it worked again :-)

Lesson Learned? The Legend won't float.

[robert1965]

in garmins defence. the new units blow everything else out of the water.

[McGurk]

Care to elaborate, robert1965? I have no experience with the newer Garmins, and not to many people talk about them. Any thought would be helpful.

[Gus]

I can comment a little bit. The newer Garmins with the high sensitivity antenna receivers can get signal darn near anywhere. Inside buildings, thick thick trees, of course open water, but I bet you could get signal inside a lead box! I've never had a GPS that would get signal like the newer Garmins. You can get all the lakemaster chips for them as well. I have run Lowrance, older Garmins, and now have the 60CSx and wouldn't trade it for anything else.

[BobT]

Position accuracy is also hard to beat. With WAAS enabled, I frequntly experience accuracy to less than 6'. Not bad for a handheld.

Garmin also has models that do float if that is a concern. They also have models that can withstand submersion to defined depths for a period of time.

Bob