Garmin eTrex Vista HCx Handheld GPS

I purchased the Garmin eTrex (my first GPS unit) to take on holiday with me to Tiree in order to geotag my photos taken with my brand new Sony a350L DSLR (a brilliant camera!). It was bought it on the strength of the Garmin name and other reviews here on Amazon UK.

Battery and Micro SD Card installation was easy as it gets, but the landyard was a different story. It was very fiddly to install for someone with fingers my size. I had to use a piece of wire to thread it through the very narrow loop. However, once it was in place it gave a sense of security around my neck. Please don't be put off by this...

On switching on for the first time. it only took a few minutes to acquire enough satellites to fix my position (our back garden in Dundee). This is important if you are a photographer and are moving around quickly. Learning all the buttons was very quick and I was storing waypoints in minutes! I also found out fairly quickly how to work with waypoints and tracklogs -- my main reason for purchase. The altimeter and compass were also very easy to use.

The unit has a host of features which will be useful to seasoned walkers etc, but I haven't explored all of these these yet. The supplied MapSource software was excellent, but I would advise any would be purchasers to download the latest version. The program makes this easy to do.

The software installation also includes the necessary GPS unit and USB cable "drivers" so I was able to download and display my first track (from Dundee to Oban) within one minute of first connecting the unit. Excellent!!

As its a Garmin, it will also work with a lot of commercial, shareware and freeware programs such as RoboGeo and Microsoft Pro Photo Tools. An added bonus is that Google Earth talks directly to it and will display your tracks and waypoints on a very detailed map. Neat!

Build quality is excellent and there are cases available for protection. The quality of the inbuilt maps is not great, but more than adequate for geotagging. Fortunately detailed maps are available on Micro SD Cards for serious GPSers. As mentioned elsewhere the unit eats batteries, but this is a small price to pay for the convenience.

All in all, a brilliant bit of kit. Highly recommended.

Excellent GPS with greatly improved sensitivity in sheltered e.g.woodland, areas.

The included map is really only major highways and of very little use for walkers.

Walking routes can be prepared on a computer, based on what ever map is available, but if the map is not a Garmin product only the route, and not the map details, can be transferred to the the GPS.

The facility to add maps is welcome but I find the Garmin policy of producing a GPS that only works with Garmin products (as expensive as the others)to be restrictive.

Having had an eTrex Summit for some time I decided it was time to upgrade. I was attracted by the claimed greater sensitivity of the HCx and having used it on a daily basis in Brazil for the last three weeks I have been extremely impressed. Once locked on to satellites, (which it does very quickly), it tracks perfectly in dense forest, or inside a vehicle, or even inside a vehicle in a forest!
I have not specifically checked the claimed battery life, but with fresh batteries I could leave it on all day-say 12 to 15 hours-and still have plenty of life left the following day.
On the negative side I felt the instructions could have been more detailed and had I not been familiar with the basic concept of operation from the previous model I might have struggled a bit. However when one does get to grips with it, the range of data available is extensive and the HCx offers a great deal of flexibility to tailor the information presented to meet ones own requirements. I found the mini-joystick control very easy and convenient to use and the colour display is bright and clear. Overall a pleasure to own and use.