Comments on: New GPS Unit: Garmin eTrex Legend HCx

by: Thorf

Mon, 27 Oct 2008 06:19:50 +0000

Hi Jeffrey,

I’m thinking about picking up some sort of GPS device before my wife and I fly back to Scotland for Christmas. Any advice? It sounds like you bought yours in the US, but do you have any idea about buying them in Japan? I don’t really know anything much about GPS, but I’m fascinated by the whole idea and I’d love to try it out.

If you want to geoencode your photos the way I do (via syncing photos to a tracklog), then the important point is how big a tracklog the device can keep. Those that accept a memory card are best because they’re limited by the size of the card (which, effectively, means that they’re not limited).

You also want a unit with a modern “high sensitivity” antennas.

Other features don’t matter too much for geoencoding… things like a fancy color screen, driving directions, etc. You may find them fun on their own, but they don’t take part in the geoencoding experience.

I bought mine in The States because I wanted an English interface, and an American price. From the little I looked around in Japan, they’re much more expensive here. —Jeffrey

by: SJ

Fri, 07 Mar 2008 02:33:58 +0000

Thanks for your quick respond.
I am aware of the Serial (male) on the MC-35 and USB on the Garmin. I wonder if there is any wiring diagram for pins assignment to these connectors. Sure don’t mind making a connector myself, with the diagram I know we can make it work.
I have been reading about the di-GPS and the DP-GPS (and others) with the 10-pin connector, however, I was hoping to connect the camera to a GPS with a compass direction.
A colleague and I are planning to ‘home-made’ this connector. I will keep you up-to-date on the progress and findings.

It’s been done plenty of times before, so I’m sure you’ll be able to find the specs. Search on DPReview’s forums and you’ll find all kinds of stories about those who have been down this path (often with great success). —Jeffrey

by: SJ

Thu, 06 Mar 2008 21:39:15 +0000

Has anyone use the Garmin eTrex Vista HCx to link with any of the Nikon D200/300 or D3? I am wondering how to connect it to my cameras?

Nikon uses a serial interface with a proprietary conector, so even if it’s possible to hook up to a GPS unit’s USB connector, it would require a hodgepodge of cables (USB-to-serial, and serial-to-Nikon, the latter of which is extremely expensive). Given this situation and how clumsy I imagine it would be to actually shoot that way, I’m more than happy to continue geo-encoding from the tracklog after the fact. —Jeffrey

by: Paul

Mon, 14 Jan 2008 23:45:48 +0000

I too have the HCx and really like it. Question: I have a 64mb card installed. When I’m shooting all day, I save my track at the end then use Houdah Geo to geotag the photos. Recently I was shooting for 3 long days before downloading/geotagging, and noticed that my “saved tracks” for each day only had 500 points and some of the earlier photos were geotagged incorrectly, where the data got cut off (even though I could still see the whole track on my GPS, and am positive I was getting a good track all day). However, I found the complete tracks on the internal memory card, automatically saved there as I’d set “log tracks to data card” in the data card/track log setup when I got the GPS. Each day a new file is created, it seems. But the only way I could get at these tracks was to insert the card into an external reader, find the date/GPX file I wanted, and import that file into Houdah Geo. This worked fine, but was less efficient. I’m wondering if you use a similar procedure, or is there a way to get directly to the larger track data files on the internal card, without removing the card (that is one SMALL card!)
Thanks for the help! Paul

by: Jeff S.

Sat, 17 Nov 2007 16:57:16 +0000

I’m either confused (likely) or not reading your review correctly. It seems like the 60cs is better in most comparisons that you point out!

It’s better in the two “super clear view of the sky” views of the same location, likely because the WAAS wasn’t working on the smaller unit (they’ve since pushed a new firmware that fixes it). Prior to that afternoon, I’d never seen better than 3m accuracy, so I was thrilled to see “1m” pop up. However, the next two photos — under tree cover, and inside the house — the new unit was substantially better/

If the only reason to switch is the external card, I can understand. I have a 60c (which I love) but it does have a limit on track points. Typically, however, I’m not out long enough to use them all up, so it’s really a moot point for me.

The extra track points was the big draw for me. The smaller physical size of the unit, greater accuracy, lack of barometric altimeter, and faster restart time are all just nice bonuses. —Jeffrey

by: Rev Gerald Rodgers

Sat, 29 Sep 2007 12:31:52 +0000

Hi
Yesterday I updated my Legend HCx to the new software version 2.40.
I find that as a result of doing a direct update (not using updater) that
it has played havoc with my unit.
1. I can no longer acquire satellites even though I have tried using “New
Location” and setting it outside for 15 mins in direct view of satellites.
2. The date is shown as the 28th September 2007.
3. The time shown is 15.36 - time I did the update.
In short I am unable to use my unit as a result of doing this update.
Does anyone have any idea how to try to deal with this situation?
Also would a “hard start” help and if so how do I do a “hard start”?
Thanks for any help offered.
Regards,
Gerald

by: Ask Bjørn Hansen

Mon, 03 Sep 2007 22:20:33 +0000

I’m surprised that they can’t keep time. That’s pretty goofy. The explanation of having to auto-locate is just weird. If it’s 3 seconds off then the location should also be thousands of miles off.

I have a GPS Time Server in my office at home. To say it doesn’t have that problem would be an understatement. My wife tells me that it doesn’t help me be on time though.

- ask

by: KSS

Sat, 25 Aug 2007 16:17:39 +0000

I’ve been enjoying your blog and adventures in buying camera toys!

I am interested what your work-flow for geo-tagging photos is and if you have found or created tools for easily extracting the data from your GPS, matching the time up with when your pictures were taken and then automatically adding the geo-tags to your pictures.

by: TerryM

Thu, 23 Aug 2007 18:20:20 +0000

Thanks for doing the review! I was looking at getting either the Garmin GPSmap 60CSx or the Garmin Etrex Vista Hcx. There is a $50 US rebate for the 60CSX, so that is one of the main reasons the 60CSX is being considered. After reading through your review and a number of other reviews, I am convinced that the Vista HCx is the better of the two. Price-wise, the 60CSX would have been approximatly $60 more than the vista hcx (the price difference takes into account the $50 rebate).

Oh yeah, the WAAS feature is also disabled on the Vista HCX when it is powered on/off - hopefully, they’ll get this fixed soon. Also, I don’t like the fact that the unit doesn’t “remember” any of my settings. For example, if I power the unit off/on, it doesn’t remember how I had set the backlight.

by: Jeremy Zawodny

Thu, 09 Aug 2007 20:03:46 +0000

The WAAS issue is interesting. I’d expect that with working WAAS support, you’d see almost identical accuracy on both units.

Actually, WAAS was working when I took the top photos (as evidenced by the “D” on each satellite-strength bar; I take it that “D” stands for “differential,” but I’m not sure). The problem with WAAS on the new unit is that it auto-disables, but hopefully, the new firmware should fix that. Interestingly, though, the 1-meter accuracy on the old one was the best I’d ever seen, the previous best having been 3 meters. It’s more often about 5 meters out and about in Kyoto, so in a practical sense, the new one will likely be more accurate in places I most-often use it, so I’m not disappointed or anything. —Jeffrey

I’ve been pretty pleased with my ancient GPSMAP 76S with the updated firmware for WAAS.