{"id":539,"date":"2007-08-09T13:40:19","date_gmt":"2007-08-09T04:40:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/2007-08-09\/539"},"modified":"2008-02-16T21:27:58","modified_gmt":"2008-02-16T12:27:58","slug":"garmin-etrex-legend-hcx","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/2007-08-09\/539","title":{"rendered":"New GPS Unit: Garmin eTrex Legend HCx"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n

I'm ostensibly spending the summer here in The States for Anthony's\nEnglish development, but the real reason is to load up on camera toys. I do get<\/span> things in Japan, but I prefer<\/span> to buy some things here because of price,\navailability, ease, or just mental comfort.<\/p>\n\n

It's been a while since I treated myself to some nice\ncamera toys<\/a>, so I've developed quite a list<\/span> of fun toys to procure on\nthis trip.<\/p>\n\n

Note: the receiver mentioned on this page\nhas been superseded in my camera bag by the one mentioned here<\/a>.<\/div>\n\n\n

This post is about the GPS<\/a> unit I got<\/span> a few<\/span> days ago,\na Garmin<\/span> eTrex Legend\nHCx<\/a>, as a replacement<\/span> for my Garmin GPSmap 60CS (which I wrote about<\/a> when I got<\/span> it\nlast year). I consider<\/span> it a camera<\/span> toy because I geoencode<\/span> most of my\nphotos (as\nmentioned here<\/a>).<\/p>\n\n

Here they are together, sitting on an old birdhouse in the back yard,\nthe small new one on the left....<\/p>\n\n

<\/a>\nNikon D200 + Nikkor 17-55 f\/2.8 @ 55mm — 1<\/sup>\/<\/big>320 sec, f\/5.6, ISO 100 —\nmap & image data<\/a> — nearby photos<\/a><\/span>\neTrex HCx and GPSmap 60CS<\/span>\n<\/div>\n\n

Garmin's eTrex line are conveniently smaller than what I had,<\/span> but that\nalso means a smaller<\/span> screen and smaller antenna. Because of the latter, I\nshouldn't<\/span> have been surprised to find the old one was more accurate.\nCompare the accuracy of ±1 meter for the old one, to ±3\nmeters for the eTrex....<\/p>\n\n

<\/a>\nNikon D200 + Nikkor 17-55 f\/2.8 @ 55mm — 1<\/sup>\/<\/big>320 sec, f\/5.6, ISO 100 —\nmap & image data<\/a> — nearby photos<\/a><\/span>\n<\/div>\n\n

These pictures were taken while the units had a clear<\/span> view of the sky;\nthe birdhouse that they're sitting on is on a pole<\/span> in the center of this\nshot:<\/a><\/p>\n\n

<\/a>\nNikon D200 + Nikkor 17-55 f\/2.8 @ 17mm — 1<\/sup>\/<\/big>160 sec, f\/8, ISO 100 —\nmap & image data<\/a> — nearby photos<\/a><\/span>\nWide Open Area<\/span>\n<\/div>\n\n

Garmin packs a lot of meaning into its names. In the name<\/span> “eTrex\nLegend HCx<\/b>”, the “H<\/b>” indicates that it has the latest generation\nhigh-sensitivity\nantenna<\/a>, the “C<\/b>” indicates a color<\/span> screen, and the “x<\/b>”\nindicates that it accepts removable media (in this case, a MicroSD<\/a>\ncard).<\/p>\n\n

The high-sensitivity antenna is a huge<\/span> win when you don't have a clear<\/span>\nview of a wide<\/span> area of sky (under trees, near buildings, inside houses),\nwhich is the primary reason I bought<\/span> the new one. Even though it's less\naccurate in the situation above, look how it compares under the trees near\nthe front door of the house:<\/p>\n\n

<\/a>\nNikon D200 + Nikkor 17-55 f\/2.8 @ 45mm — 1<\/sup>\/<\/big>90 sec, f\/2.8, ISO 400 —\nmap & image data<\/a> — nearby photos<\/a><\/span>\nOutside the Front Door, Under Trees<\/span>\n<\/div>\n\n

Even better, the new one gets a signal<\/span> inside the house, while the other\none has no chance....<\/p>\n\n

<\/a>\nNikon D200 + Nikkor 17-55 f\/2.8 @ 44mm — 1<\/sup>\/<\/big>40 sec, f\/2.8, ISO 400 —\nmap & image data<\/a> — nearby photos<\/a><\/span>\nInside the House<\/span>\n<\/div>\n\n

Garmin just released two new eTrex HCx units, the Legend<\/a> that I'm writing about today, and the Vista<\/a>, which adds an electronic compass and a barometric<\/span>\naltimeter. My old unit<\/span> also has these extra features, and while I really<\/span>\nliked the electronic compass, it wasn't worth the pain of having to put up\nwith the barometric altimeter, which is entirely worthless<\/a>,\nproducing results that differ only slightly from random. So, I avoided<\/span> it\nfor this purchase.<\/p>\n\n

Anyway, my old unit and my new one are my only experience with handheld\nGPS, so I don't<\/span> have much to compare them against except each other. In case others<\/span> are interested in the eTrex HCx series, I thought<\/span> I'd offer my\nfirst impressions....<\/p>\n\n

Garmin eTrex Legend HCx<\/b><\/p>\n\n

Here are some first impressions of the eTrex Legend HCx...<\/p>\n\n

    \n

  1. \n\nIt comes with a small lanyard, but no belt clip. I can use<\/span> the big bulky\nbelt clip that came with my 60CS, but that almost doubles the thickness of\nthe thing. Is there<\/span> no thin, non-bulky belt clip for Garmin units?\n\n<\/p><\/li>

  2. \n\nIt accepts a MicroSD card, but does not come with one. I bought<\/span> a Transcend 1<\/span> GB\nMicroSD card<\/a> from Adorama for twelve bucks. The unit can<\/span> save track\nlogs to the card, which I can<\/span> then use for geoencoding my photos.\n\n<\/p>

    \n\nIn my prior unit, I was limited<\/span> to the 10,000 point internal memory. That's\nless than three hours when saving a track<\/span> point every second, or about 14\nhours when saving every five seconds, so I had<\/span> to be careful not to fill it\nup on extended trips. With the 1 GB card, I figure<\/span> that I can<\/span> have it save\na point<\/span> every second for more than a year,<\/span> so I no<\/span> longer need to worry\nabout track-log space at all.\n\n<\/p><\/li>

  3. \n\nThe eTrex has only six buttons, compared to the nine of the 60CS, and the\nlayout is completely different, so I had<\/span> to relearn the buttons from\nscratch. Some functionality that I was<\/span> used to on the 60CS seems to be\ncompletely lost on the eTrex, such as the ability to flip among the screen\npages in reverse. The “enter” button, which is a dedicated<\/span>\nbutton on the 60CS, is now part of a four<\/span>-point rocker button, and I find<\/span>\nthat I often<\/span> press it as a rocker<\/span> when I intend<\/span> to press straight in for\n“enter.” Maybe I'll get used to it...\n\n<\/p><\/li>

  4. \n\nThe eTrex is clearly designed to be used while being held in the left hand. The 60CS seems<\/span> fairly ambidextrous to me.\n\n<\/p><\/li>

  5. \n\nThe screen on the eTrex is smaller. I miss having<\/span> the battery-strength indication always\nthere at the top (on the eTrex, you have to hit a button<\/span> to see it), but otherwise the smaller screen\nhas not been an issue for me.\n\n<\/p><\/li>

  6. \n\nAs mentioned earlier, the antenna is more sensitive. It can get<\/span> a signal<\/span> in\nmany places that the 60CS can't, and do so faster. In my tests<\/span>, the 60CS\ngets its first fix in about 45 seconds after being turned on, while the\neTrex HCx takes about 31 seconds. However, if the eTrex is “hot” (which\nmeans that it's had a signal<\/span> at any time within about the last 15 minutes),\nit re-fixes immediately, which is nice. (I've got a note<\/span> into Garmin asking\nexactly what “hot” means for this unit.)\n\n<\/p><\/li>

  7. \n\nOnce the eTrex gets a fix, it automatically switches to the map view. This really bothered me\nbecause I generally<\/span> prefer to see the satellite view (which is what the 60CS does), but I\nfigured<\/span> out that if you adjust the settings such that the satellite page is at the top of\nthe list of pages to be shown, it won't automatically switch.\n\n<\/p><\/li>

  8. \n\nThe 60CS has writing on the buttons that's been rubbing off. The eTrex<\/span> won't have this problem because it has no writing on its buttons.\n\n<\/p><\/li>

  9. \n\nBoth units support WAAS<\/a> for added accuracy, but it keeps getting disabled in\nthe new eTrex unit. I asked<\/span> Garmin about it, and they said that a firmware<\/span>\nupdate was being worked on.\n\n<\/p><\/li>

  10. \n\nMy unit arrived with a bad pixel on the screen, but it's really noticeable\nonly during the power-on screens.\n\n<\/p><\/li>

  11. \n\nSpeaking of the power-on screens, Garmin allows you to create a message<\/span>\nthat's displayed when the unit is turned on, and I've put my name and phone\nnumbers on mine. With the 60CS, the message is displayed for eight seconds,\nwhich is long enough at least for someone to recognize that it's the\nowner's contact info.\n\n<\/p>

    \n\nThe eTrex unit, on the other hand, shows it for only two seconds, which is\nnot really long enough to even notice. The eTrex<\/span> unit does show a couple<\/span> of\n“Garmin” and copyright screens during startup, so if they combined them\nlike they do with the 60CS, they could show all of it longer without\nlengthening the overall startup time. As it is<\/span>, the personalized startup\nscreen is essentially meaningless on the eTrex.\n\n<\/p><\/li>

  12. \n\nI was surprised to find that the date\/time shown by the units sometimes\ndiffered between them by as much as 1.5 seconds. The time is<\/span> supposed to be\nkept exceedingly accurate, updated continuously from the satellites, but\naccording to Garmin, this can sometimes get “stuck.” They told\nme that auto-locating the unit can reset this. (“Auto-location”\nis done when the unit is first turned on after purchase, and when it's\nturned on more than 600 miles from where it was last used.)\n\n<\/p><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n

    Overall I'm happy with the eTrex Legend HCx, and if I can<\/span> find a\nreasonable<\/span> belt clip or other way to attach it to my camera bag, I'd be even<\/span> more happy.<\/p>\n\n