It seems badass, heard it's the best GPS under $200. You can do save waypoints and routes.

Is this a valuable survival tool? Or is compass best?

I could see it being useful. It does have a built-in base map, so you will always know where you are. Base maps will have major state highways and all interstates, and not much more. It might have a few larger lakes. I believe that the base map in the Legend is 8MB.

The down side of the Legend is that it only has 8MB for detailed maps. For everyday use, this would be a serious problem. But for a unit that you throw in a BOB, it would be quite useful for finding the direction to the closest city and stuff like that.

It will NOT help you find local roads so that you can avoid the traffic in the event of an evacuation -- unless you load a detailed map. But 8MB will only hold a less than half of the typical state. The mapping software that goes with the unit will likely cost close to $100.

So I guess the answer depends on what you expect from the GPS. For a primary "every day" unit, I would look for more memory. For a "backup" unit, it might be good enough if you do not need the detailed maps for a large region.

Buy It!! That model is discontinued, which explains the very good price. It is still a great GPS. You'll enjoy playing with it, and when you go into remote or unfamiliar areas it will be very useful. Make sure it has the Americas Highway base map.

GPS's aren't magic. They basically do one thing: they tell you where you are on the Earth. The Legend has mapping capability, which means it can show you where you are relative to nearby roads/cities. Other cool things they do include (1) save waypoints - places you've been or you want to go, (2) tell you the bearing needed to get from where you are to a waypoint, (3) tell you how fast you are going very accurately - tell that to the police, and (4) they provide the most accurate time available (from a atomic clock circling overhead).

Keep in mind that to get the most benefit you really should buy the MapSource Metroguide North America software that provides detailed maps.

Also, to get the most out of your GPS, take some time to learn about UTM coordinates and the associated grid tools. Here is a great source of info: http://www.maptools.com/ . I bought the little Grid Tool and like it. Make sure you get one that matches your map's scale. Also, some compasses come with a UTM corner tool - check for that first.

If using inside your car, consider getting a RAM suction cup mount made for it. They really really work great: http://www.rammount.com/ . I'm not related to the company, but have lived through the horror of seeing my GPS slam into my windshield during a panic stop.

You are referring to 8MB of internal memory I suppose. The better (should I say more expensive) units allow the use of SD memory cards. Lowrance will allow you to use five cards before they cut you off so to speak. They don't want you to loan the program to your buddys. With their MapCreate programs ($100 as you say) you can literally load all US topos on five 512MB SD cards. The cards allow you to upload to the GPS from the card and download anything you have created from the GPS to the card and ultimately back to your computer. Great stuff. You get what you pay for. Nothing wrong with the aforementioned Garmin. Just somewhat limited in what it will do. Sorta like comparing a Hyundai to a Lexus. I have an iFinder Hunt ($299 MSRP) and the MapCreate (another $100). You can actually record audio to further detail your saved waypoints! Could I live without this feature? Yes. Also has sunrise/moonrise times, barometer and things I don't even know about. WAAS feature but I could live without this too. I think. I do agree with you completely that any GPS user should learn UTM. No matter how technically challenged you are, you can learn UTM and locate yourself PRECISELY on a 1:24000 topo. Knowing exactly where you are is almost as important as knowing where you want to go. By the time you get all this plus a good R.A.M. vehicle mount, tax & shipping, you will be dropping around $450.00. <img src="/images/graemlins/mad.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/images/graemlins/ooo.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/images/graemlins/crazy.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/images/graemlins/laugh.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

I have the "big brother" to the Legend - the Vista. The main difference is it has more memory AFAIK.

The base map will give you a decent overview on the roads, but as indicated, not smaller roads or rural detail.

While 8MB isn't as much as you could hope for, road maps don't take much space and it will hold a decent bit of road maps. A couple of counties in most places. If you stick to one area pretty well, it might be enough.

The real power of this unit is to use the downloaded maps. Keep in mind that the price for these maps is fixed for the Garmin units. For example, if you buy the road software ... It is $100. Doesn't matter what model you have.

The thing to keep in mind is that you can also download topos. This is very useful when hiking. The 8MB will be enough for normal hiking areas. However, the topos take up much more memory than the road maps so you aren't going to save a large area. Again, the topo software is going to run you something like $100.

Also keep in mind the downloadable maps are in a propriatery format so you can only buy them from Garmin. You can get free software to manage waypoints and routes, and other mapping software will allow you to manage waypoints and routes over their maps, but only the routes and waypoints can be transfered, not the maps. This also means you aren't going to find a good deal on the Garmin software.

Also keep in mind that this unit will have trouble keeping locked to sattelites in heavy folliage like here in the pacific northwest. All GPSes will have this issue to a certain extent, but without an antenna that can be oriented, it typically is a bit worse. I noticed this when going from my GPS III+ to the Vista. The GPS III+ has an antenna that you can stick out of the holster and rotate towards the sky. The GPS III+ keeps singnal better under the trees, but the Vista has a much nicer screen and more memory. If I was going to have any Garmin I wanted, it would be a GPS 60CS or a GPS V specifically for the antenna. You can also get this issue in the city with tall buildings.

That said, typically you can get a signal by stopping, and holding the unit where it gets the best view of the sky and waiting. If you needed you could search for a more clear area or climb a tree.

So, I think it comes down to what you want to do with it. Having the base maps are much better than not having any maps at all, but I really feel the value is when you download the detailed maps. If you want something for use on hiking trips and you can download the maps ahead of time, it will work just fine. If you want something that you can populate detailed maps for an entire state -- no joy.

All in all, I think Garmin makes very nice mapping GPSes. I like my Vista and think the Legend would be good as long it has enough memory for your use.

-john

Unfortunately, Garmin has an inclination towards built in memory instead of removable memory cards.

Edit, which Lowrance do you have? I didn't see any of their handhelds with color or hi res screens. Did I miss something? I have to admit, the Lowrance 7500C would be pretty cool for the Jeep! :-)

-john

John, this is the one I have. No color screen but there are several options of "shading". Also shows all Wildlife Mgt. Areas in the country, a plus for hunters. Two big pluses I like are 1) It will acquire sats in the thickest woods and 2) It seems to run forever on two lithium batteries. Another version has an MP3 player of all things! What next?

http://www.lowrance.com/Outdoor/Products/ifinderhunt.asp

Boone

For $138 you can't go wrong with the Legend. A brand new basic (yellow) "eTrex" is $99, and that has no basemap and no WAAS (more accuracy).

It comes with a serial connector (fine if you have that port on your PC), but if not then you will need to buy the adapter (about $40) or just look for a newer model GPS with a USB connector.

Still, at the price of $138 the Legend is a great buy. You can spend the money you saved on a good quality compass! <img src="/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />

It is indeed a very good buy. The Geko is also on sale for under 100$. As a survival tool, I consider the GPS as I do a compass. You need a paper map 1st, compass second, GPS third.

In order: learn to read a map, learn to use coordinates, bearings, learn to use the compass, then learn to use the GPS uploading coordinates form the map, making routes. That way if the GPS craps out, you pull out your compass and keep walking!

You don't need all the bells and whistles in your first unit. Once you are thoroughly familiar with the use of your GPS, you can shop for your dream machine…