Well, I broke down and bought my first GPS this weekend. I very rarely buy something like that without researching it, reading all the reviews, etc. but it was on clearance for the price of a non-mapping GPS while it has a color screen and a base map and it came with National Geographic topo software.

I haven't installed the topo map software yet, but I did update the GSP to the latest firmware. I highly reccomend doing that - I can already see an improvement. They warn that it can take up to 30 minutes and can't be interruped and they aren't kidding.

I did have and issue getting it to connect to Magellan's Vantagepoint software. They warn not to connect the GPS to the computer before installing the sofware, so I didn't. I still had to tell the windows add new hardware wizard to look for the drivers in the c:\magellan folder on my hard drive to get it working.

Never having used a GPS before, I can't tell if it is a good one or not... Any opinions of this model?

Tom,

I've had a 400 for about 18 months and it has worked well for me. Battery life seems good (I do use lithium batteries). The software is a little funky but I've been able to upload topo maps without much trouble. You do have to tell it which maps to use. At least I haven't figured out a way to make it recognize which map to use based on its current location.

The only thing I haven't figured out is how to erase old waypoint data but then I haven't read the manual 3 time either yet.

If you buy any 3rd party software be sure it is compatible with the Magellan product line, not everything is. Have any specific questions PM me, I'll be glad to try to help.

This is what I use as well. Picked up on a sale. Excellent little GPS for what I use it for. Battery life is good like Andy mentioned, and its waterproof. The screen scratches very easily tho. I would recommend a screen protector.

Well, tried out the National Geographic TOPO! software with the GPS last night. First I got greedy and uploaded a huge map with all of northern NJ and a bit of PA. However, when viewed on the GPS, I found the included 100k topos to not be too helpful.

Then I tried a "Superquad" 24k map. They allow you to download 25 of these for free, additional ones cost $25 for 25 maps. These are much better.

When zoomed out, the GPS displays the base map. As you zoom in to a certain level, it displays the 100k map. The next few zooms are increasingly fuzzy versions of the 100k bitmap with no additional detail. Next it switches to the 24k map and you can actually see something. The next few zooms are magnified versions of the 24k map. Finally the last few zooms are only the base map.

Can't wait to get out in the woods with this new toy.