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My husband (a geologist for an oil and gas company) has been complaining about his old Garmin GPS for ages and sometimes it is off enough that he even ends of mapping areas incorrectly. I want to get him a nice new one for Christmas but I'd like to spend $400 or less. Any suggestions?

What kind of accuracy are you looking for? What GPS is he using at the moment?
Consumer GPS tends to have an accuracy of only around 10 meters.
Also accuracy depends on a good view of the sky; if you are in heavy tree cover it's harder.

I'm not exactly sure of the model, but his is a yellow Garmin, about 5 years old, and probably one of the cheapest models.
We live in Wyoming, so heavy tree cover is not really a problem. I think he just needs a better quality consumer model.

Not exactly sure what you mean by this.


The newer Garmins have high sensitivity receivers, touch screens and many more options that probably are not on his present GPSr. You can browse the handheld models at the Garmin site (link)

The reason you're not exactly sure what I mean by this is that I'm not exactly sure what HE means by this, thus the trouble of shopping for a gift you don't really understand and trying to keep it a surprise...
I just want a geologist to tell me what HE/SHE would use and then I will buy that one and keep the receipt.
I GREATLY appreciate this forum and everyone's advice!

My wife gave up years ago trying to buy tech gifts for me, so I can understand your frustration.
My brother-in-law is a geologist, so I'll try to ask him if he has any thoughts.

I am an engineer, not a geologist, but I do undertake field studies etc. I would strongly suggest that a model with a compass and altimeter might be worth paying for in this application. (High-sensitivity receiver, and colour screen for ease of reading topo maps in the field, are the other "must-haves".)

Geology would be one application where you really might want to be able to take a bearing while standing still - for example, to get the alignment of the "strike" of a fault-line. (Ask a geologist what that means, if you are not sure!) This can be quite tricky to do without an in-built compass, but is very easy using "Sight'n'Go" on a Garmin with electronic compass.

Similarly, having the barometric altimeter might be beneficial to pin-point the elevation of an interesting feature up a near-vertical cliff face. A unit without a barometric altimeter can get a pretty poor estimate of elevation in these circumstance (with half or more of the current satellite constellation blocked from view by the cliff face), whereas a unit with a barometric altimeter will give you the elevation within a couple of metres. (All Garmins with a compass also include the barometric altimeter.)

He will also want to be able to load topographic maps, so you need a mapping unit. (Don't forget you also need maps, which are typically not included in the price, except for some high-end models or package deals.)

Suggested Garmin models would include:

eTrex Summit HC (only has 24 MB map memory, which is fine for surveys of a few hundred square km, but might be limiting for very large area surveys. (Although you can load new map tiles to the unit in the field, as long as you have your laptop along with you.) Cheapest of the compass / altimeter Garmins, if you are on a very tight budget (like me!)

eTrex Vista HCx, Oregon 300 or 400, GPSMAP 60 CSx - all have expandable memory card capability, so can handle an effectively unlimited mapping area. These are all pretty much equivalent to each other in terms of features and functions, so the choice really comes down to user preference for form factor, button location, buttons vs. touch-screen, etc, and price. Since you are planning to buy as a surprise gift, you can't really assess his "user preference", so you might as well buy on price! The Vista HCx will be very similar in size and operation to his original yellow eTrex, so he will probably have the least trouble learning how to get used to it.

One caveat - I have heard that the hi-res Oregon screens are not as clear in outdoor daylight conditions as the eTrex and GPSMAP series. I have never handled an Oregon outdoors, so I can't comment first-hand, but I can confirm that the eTrex and GPSMAP colour screens are great outdoors, in even the brightest sunlight conditions. (And you don't even need to turn the back-light on in the conditions, which can save battery life significantly.) Having a colour screen that you can't really read clearly in direct sunlight would be a major issue for me, but my Summit HC is great!

Comparisons here: https://buy.garmin.com/shop/compare.do? ... roduct=310

Hope this helps!

If a compass is important then there are two versions, a 2 axis and a 3 axis compass, the 2 axis compass you have to hold level.
I have a Garmin GPSMap60CSX with a 2 axis compass and I find it very difficult to hold the unit level, the newer versions such as Oregon 550(T) and Dakota 20 and 30 have a 3 axis compass, you don't have to keep them completely level but exceed the $400 limit if you also want to buy a map. ( I refer to the prices on the Garmin site, maybe some outdoor stores sells them cheaper)


But I am wondering why the oil and gas company don't provide they're geologists with proper gps gear, here in the netherlands I also see messages of people buying expencive gear mainly for they're work.

Sorry...There is no Dakoto 30

[Offtopic]where is the edit button?[/Offtopic]?????????????

There is no edit button anymore with my messages, looks like the button disappears after some time, even when there are no reply's.

... or it could be part of the moderator tools. Sorry for the confusion.

I can see the edit button for some time, but after 20 minutes or so it is gone.

Two responses here, one is that I am also a professional geologist (or at least employed as one) in Wyoming. My GPS of choice is a Garmin eTrex Vista HCx. There is no doubt that it will not provide the sort of accuracy that a Trimble costing 5 to 10 times as much, but I really don't need sub-meter accuracy. At the scale which most mapping is done the width of a line on the paper is greater than the error in most recreational units. I have recently purchased a Dakota 20 to check out the raster mapping ability. The jury is still out, but having recent aerial photos on-board seems like it could be advantageous at times. Mostly I use the maps from MiscJunk or GPSFileDepot.

The other comment is that the default for the forum software is to only allow edits within 15 minutes of the original post. If there is enough interest in increasing this it is an easy setting to change.

You guys are awesome. I now feel sufficiently armed with information to go shopping!

eTrex Summit HC (only has 24 MB map memory, which is fine for surveys of a few hundred square km, but might be limiting for very large area surveys. (Although you can load new map tiles to the unit in the field, as long as you have your laptop along with you.) Cheapest of the compass / altimeter Garmins, if you are on a very tight budget (like me!)

eTrex Vista HCx, Oregon 300 or 400, GPSMAP 60 CSx - all have expandable memory card capability, so can handle an effectively unlimited mapping area. These are all pretty much equivalent to each other in terms of features and functions, so the choice really comes down to user preference for form factor, button location, buttons vs. touch-screen, etc, and price. Since you are planning to buy as a surprise gift, you can't really assess his "user preference", so you might as well buy on price! The Vista HCx will be very similar in size and operation to his original yellow eTrex, so he will probably have the least trouble learning how to get used to it.

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