Reviewed by: Carl Dirk(Unregistered User)
,
Day Hiker
, from El Paso, TX
Price Paid:
$250.00
at GPS City Summary:
The eMAP is NOT a hikers tool, and I didn't purchase it primarily for that, though I use it when hiking. Garmin makes excellent mapping hiker GPSs (the eTREX Legend for instance), and hikers should look at that product since it includes mapping, barometric altimeter, and all other standard Garmin features. However, one can use an eMAP for hiking though a lot of care needs to be used. FOr instance, keep ziploc bag handy to protect against water.
The eMAP is a wonderful GPS, albeit mostly for the road and around town because of the lack of weather resistance, unless you take care as indicated above. My eMAP has a 32 MB cartridge, which mans I can load the entire MetroGuide (all streets, busnesses, hospitals, exist, whatever, along with addresses and phone numbers) map for Arizona, New Mexico, and West Texas. Basically, with the eMAP you never need a phone book or map to find exactly where the nearest bowling alley, Burger King, gas station, hotel, police station, or rest stop is. It tells you sun up or sun down for your location. When in motion, it tells you the nearest cross street or exit in the direction you are moving. You can program a route in and it tels you when to make the turn. For hikers, the value is not so much in the topgraphic maps which can be uploaded, since these are not high resolution, but only rough guides to the terrain, but in the ability to program waypoints into the eMAP from your computer using either Garmin or third pary map software. Once you have the wapoints plotted in, you just selct that waypoint, and hit GOTO that waypoint, and the eMAP gives you the direction, distance, and estimated time to that waypoint. So lets say you are going to hike the Tonto trail in the Grand Canyon. You would program the waypoints in along the way that you consider important turns or junctions, so if you wandered off the trail you could identify the direction go to the next waypoint. Or the EMAP (and most other Garmin GPSs) have a tracking feature which keeps track of your path as long as it is on. So lest say you get completely lost. The EMAP allows you to backtrack down you path to find you way back.
Outside, I have only rarely had problems with receiving satllelites, and even in large citys, surrounded by tall buildings, there isn't a mjor problem getting at least three to give your location.
The EMAP requires 2 AA batteries. I use rechargeables on short trips, but don;t do this when hiking. Make sure you use high quality alkalines, and you'll get about 15 hours continous use.
Overall the e-MAP is a great tool, but for hikers, go to the eTREX series.
One thing that I would have to say about GPS, in general, is that it does requre a bit a sophistication to master the full use of it. In particular in order to make maximum use of the mapping features, one does need to be reasonably proficient at the use of computers.
I would highly recommend Jack yeazel's and Joe Mehaffey's GPS review site before you buy: http://www.joe.mehaffey.com/
Customer Service:
Garmin customer service has been fantastic. A lot of their products are more or less under constant development even after they sell them to you. This means free updates on firmware sotware. Basically your product in you hands is always undergoing free improvement by Garmin. Keep in mind that this also means occaisonal major glitches which can be quite annoying, but this is in my mind an acceptable price to pay for something that gets better every month or two with their latest firmware update. Even when a firmware update wiped out my memory module (along with thousands of other customers), Garmin owned up to it instantly, and pulled out all stops to get a new one to me at no cost in a timely manner. Similar Products Used:
None
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