Re: Garmin Topo GB v2 - Report using Vista C

nottinghillx wrote:
Just come back from a week's walking in Peak District with Garmin
Vista C loaded with Garmin Topo GB v2, and compass with OS 1:25000
Maps.

What I found in practice...

BAD things:
1. Footpath and Right of Way detail is very poor...........
2. Hence its almost impossible to do route planning ............

There are much better tools for tracing in a route to the GPS.
Anquet/Tracklogs/Memorymap being the most commonly quoted. There are also
free tools to ease the pain of entering grid references.

3. The OS map contains the boundaries of fields, woods, buildings,
bridges etc all extremely useful for detailed navigation on the ground
when you cant really seen the footpath. Topo GB map doesnt have this
detail- .....
4. Where you can see the paths on Topo GB map and mark waypoints on
them - auto routing will not give you a route along a path - ......
5. You cant find a farm on Topo GB - .........>

Unfortunately par for the course for the Garmin Topo maps. The contouring
is more accurate than the (free!) SMC downloads, but you cannot turn off
different aspects of the topo map. The path mapping is attrocious.

Personally, I think the road maps for Europe plus the SMC free download is a
better bet !

GOOD things:
1. Back track feature saved my bacon.
Standard GPS feature

2. In bad visibility the map contour detail would stop you from
walking over a cliff.
Maybe, but any GPS would do that if you referenced a paper map. And your
comments above mean you still need paper.

3. When lost you can read off OS coordinates of where you are and look
at OS - but its not quite accuate enough.
Don't understand this comment. The Vista C gives 10-figure OS grid
coordinates. Few people can plot on a paper 1:25,000 to that accuracy in the
field.

4. The details of streams are well marked.

5. Navigating to a destination address e.g. B&B/GuestHouse by road is
very useful if you dont know the area and works surprisingly well
given that the Vista/Topo combination is for walkers.

Think that is a feature of the road mapping, which you could get for whole
of Europe.

6. Sunlight readable screen and it really is weather proof :-)

ADEQUATE things:
1. The Vista C hold 24Mb which can fit 4 map tiles i.e. not quite the
whole of the Peak District. Useful for a weeks walking. (Wish I had
bought the Vista C+ and extended the memory).

I'd always suggest people go for the bigger expandable model.


In summary its good as a backup (but then so would be a really basic
GPS) and for on road navigation near destination (but not worth the
extra for that).

Is this a common experience or have I missed any tricks?

Its fair for the kit you've got. I think the GPS is excellent (I have one),
but the Topo UK mapping isn't as good as it could have been (I declined to
purchase having tried the demo stuff from Garmin's site).

The other trick you may have missed is to use the barometer functions on the
Vista to give you a height reading. Then, if the GPS signal fails (tree
cover, deep valleys, etc), the height gives you a fix onto a contour line,
so you probably know your position quite well. I use this a lot, though
much more so on continental walking where there tends to be more climb in
trees than I find in the UK.


- Nigel

--
Nigel Cliffe,
Webmaster at http://www.2mm.org.uk/


.

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