Garmin Etrex which would you buy?

Walmart has the one I have for sale now at $79.54 the Etrex H. The other one I might like to buy is the Etrex Venture HC which is $97.54. It has a map and in color, but most say other map is needed to make this worthwhile. I am happy with my old etrex and would be just fine buying the same cheaper one. I like the idea of the map on other one, but dont want to buy additional maps for $100 or more. I appeciate any input and other suggestions

[yarcraft91]

One thing about color displays. Every one I've seen so far on a gps or sonar requires that the backlight be turned on or else the screen is illegible. Most black & white displays I've seen only need a backlight when used in the dark. The backlight doubles power consumption, so battery life drops. The consequences:
- when on battery power, the units are usually programmed to shut off the backlight after a few seconds. You hit a key to turn it back on.
- if you want a continuously readable gps display, it's best to run the gps off external power, like a cigarette lighter.
- some color displays are hard to read in direct sunlight because the backlight isn't bright enough.

So, consider where and how you will use the new gps and make sure you can read the screen in bright sunlight. They all look good inside a store- walk outside and see how it looks.

I would not like not being able to see as I was looking for gps waypoint to fish. I like the color one because of computer cable and mapping, but will not buy expensive maps. I really like my plain old Etrex, and the price at Walmart is great, so is price for other. They do have 30 no questions asked money back. I might try new one and return if not that good, I did that with a camera and glad I did.

[Metz]

I have the Venture HC, I bought it with the little bundle - the topo software included. I like the unit a lot. I have used it for some simple navigating in my car, lots of geocaching, and a little bit of fishing. I like the Mapsource program for the computer. I find waypoints and gps coords. for some fishing spots, put them into my computer and then just send them over to the unit. For the price, I have been really happy with the purchase. It's not the best for navigating precisely but it is accurate enough. When navigating on roads, I find that my pointer is slightly off. For example, I was driving down 480 but the gps showed me as driving in the dirt along the side of the road. The Topo disc that comes with the bundle is great. It gives road names down to the smalled lanes, creeks, parks, etc. I've used it on Erie many times and it follows your tracks pretty well. You do need to turn up the speed of the device though. It's helped me find some little humps and holes on the big lake with not much searching.

Overall it was a great little purchase for me.

I appreciate your reply, I will just use for fishing, does the map help for finding spots like you said? What do you mean by the little bundle, what came with it and price you paid. I want to make sure I dont need to buy bundle your talking about, thank you

[Metz]

Here's the bundle I got - though the price is much more now...

http://www.dickssportinggoods.com/pr...451887.2984006

The unit does not include any kind of preprogrammed fishing hot spots map. I do some research on WC and other sites to find where people are catching walleye. For example, if someone says that they are biting at the 33/13 lines, I plot that point on my laptop (using the Garmin Mapsource software) and then send it to the GPS unit. I mark it as a waypoint. Then when I get to the ramp I can tell my GPS to take me to that spot and it draws a line for me to follow. It's effective enough for me, but then I bought the unit for other things than just fishing. We use the unit to get us to the general area and then we troll or drift around. If we find some walleye we can follow our track on the unit to get back to the same spot.

[Metz]

Forgot to mention, there's also some extra maps you can download from Garmin. They have one called "US Inland Lakes" - it runs about $140

https://buy.garmin.com/shop/shop.do?...04#coverageTab


I've thought about getting it - it shows some depth changes and other underwater details for a lot of local lakes and erie too. There's also ones for smaller us regions too.

Walmart has them back in stock online, I ordered it, you have at leat 30 days to try and get full credit on charge card, so it was worth the effort. Walmart stores sell for $169 as well as Bass Pro. I bought a $200 camera and used for 21 days, didnt like it compard to old camera and took back for full credit.