Before buying this new Venture HC, I had spent many hours playing with several of the original eTrex models over the years. I think it's fair to say that while the concept of the original eTrex was great, the execution was frequently disappointing.

It disappoints no more. This new Venture HC is the eTrex perfected. It remedies every shortcoming that plagued the original models. The new high-sensitivity receiver is amazingly effective. I wish I had a dollar for every time I've stood in wide open spaces cursing my old eTrex because it wouldn't acquire even a single satellite after minutes of waiting. Last night I turned on the Venture HC on the bottom floor of my two story house, and it locked onto 7 or 8 satellites...through the roof and the upper floor. No more "need a clear view of the sky" messages. Amazing!

The screen has gone color, and the user interface is now substantially more intuitive. The old serial cable has become USB, another welcome improvement. The case is somewhat redesigned (it's wider), but it remains very much like the original. Still, if you owned an old eTrex you will find a lot of familiar design elements in the Venture HC. A basemap is included but it is just that...basic. If you want turn by turn street directions, an eTrex is not what you want. This is a GPS true to Garmin's outdoor heritage. Promised battery life (14 hours) is near the bottom of the range when compared to the existing eTrex models, but is still perfectly adequate.

One weakness that remains is Garmin's waypoint manager PC software. It has the feel of a product whose version 1.0 was released circa 1992 and has never been updated. Garmin could certainly include a better PC interface. For $59 you can buy ExpertGPS, which is excellent. Or Topografix is giving away EasyGPS for free on its website. Either is superior to the Garmin OEM software. If anyone at Garmin is listening, you guys really should consider licensing the rights to ExpertGPS and throwing your current PC software out.

Still, this criticism is a quibble, especially when third party workarounds are available. The Venture HC itself is great. It is a market changing product, in my opinion. Finally, an outdoor GPS receiver that I can wholeheartedly recommend.

I was very pleased with the purchase of my new eTrex Venture HC. I've used a Garmin Legeng Cx for geocaching for the last year and coords jump off too much under heavy canopy. This is not the case with the new eTrex Venture HC. I was also able to load Topo and City maps without any trouble using my old software. I also had no problems loading waypoints directly using GSAK software.

This is a typical Garmin Etrex product. I had an Etrex legend that pooped out, so I bought the Venture thinking it was a step up, but I was wrong. It does have a nice color screen, which is a plus, but I was very disappointed to find that Garmin's Topo 24K maps cannot be loaded as they can on the legend. Garmin doesn't hide this fact, by neither do they make it readily apparent. My legend is several years old and has a BW screen, so I assumed that a newer model with a color screen would not have less map loading capabilities, but it does, and Garmin makes no effort to make this fact apparent. However, if you don't plan to use the Topo 24K maps, the Venture HC is a nice unit.

The Venture HC is great. Its easy to use and it is pretty accurate. The H in the HC means high sensitivity chip. This wont make it any more accurate but it will help you still receive a signal under tree cover.

If this unit is in your price range but the Vista is not then get it. Otherwise upgrade to the vista as it has better battery life and you can get the removable memory.

For me it was at the right price and has enough features for me. This was my first GPS unit and I havent had any issues with it. It has worked very well for geocaching.

This is my second Garmin GPS. I was the first kid on my block to get their original eTrex and, at the time, it was a super help for someone who spends many days afield each year. Suddenly, wandering around became do-able for someone w/o orienteering training. I bought this unit because I was looking for quicker acquisition of satellites and better reception under the tree canopy. And it does those things well, and more! With 24mb of internal memory, and available topo maps to download, the Venture HC is a powerful tool for the newbie outdoorsperson and more advanced traveller alike. I'm very impressed with the power, size, and price. You can't go wrong with this little GPS!

I wanted a GPS primary for hunting and have used Garmins with good success in the past. This model provided all the features I was looking for and more. I never once lost reception while hunting even in the deepest woods. The unit worked equally well in a pocket or inside the truck which wasn't the case with the previous GPS units I've used. I've recently started using my GPS while running to track milage and speed. The Trip Computer will track distance, max speed, average speed, time spent moving and time spent stopped. While you have to reset the data each time it's still a very useful tool.

Great GPS for Biking even though it doesn't show all of the streets but it shows and directs to where you are, and Great Service from Amazon when they told me that i had a defected one before this one. Thanks amazon

I was totally chessed off at Magellan when my Explorist 100 died under warranty and they refused to support or repair it (this was a new unit!). So I only considered Garmin based on liking my car unit.

Mac Users:
It's a bit tricky, but I am able to use the USB cable and the 'send to Garmin' to automatically load waypoints from geocaching.com. One warning is that they have a Mac firmware web updater and it's very new and froze on my attempt to use it, which blanked my unit. [...]. I did the update for this unit on a friends PC and it went fine.

There are some Mac caching software, but none of them are working for me with this unit. So keep that in mind if you really want to go beyond the web waypoint downloads. That's a bummer, since Maccaching and GeoJournal look like they'd be great.

The included software does not work on a Mac, so ignore that CD. From the Garmin site, you can download the plugin for Mac to make Safari aware of the unit so you can do the "send to Garmin' trick. They also have the Mac version of their WebUpdater (the one that hosed my first unit) on their site. Finally, you don't need any USB drivers for Tiger or Leopard OSX, so don't worry about them only being for Windows on the Garmin site.

Usage:
Crazy fast turn on and acquiring satellites. We are thrilled that we can turn it on in the car and it will start to pick up satellites right away. Our Magellin (an cheap 100 unit) would take awhile even outside in cloudcover.

It also seems to save all the time, as the shutdown is very fast, with no 'saving' note like our Magellin made us wait for.

I guess our only complaint is that we like to use the backlight a lot and that sucks batteries. It's winter now, and so many days and locations are dim, and without the backlight, the unit can be pretty dim to read. It takes 2 AA's. It also has a system pref for the type of battery you use (Alkaline, NiMH or LiOn), why? Maybe to only USB charge when they are NiMH's?? But remember to set that to the correct type.

We really love auto loading the coordinates. And even with the free account on Geocaching.com, we get the cache name, GC# and coordinates. That saves tons of time and mistakes. We find ourselves loading up any cache that interests us, just in case.

Accuracy:
The unit seems right on. Our other unit would usually be more like 20-30 feet accurate in the woods, and this one led us right to the cache and showed 16' accuracy at that point under normal tree cover. It also refreshes more often than our old unit, so it feels more responsive. No more going 20 feet and then seeing that the arrow just didn't update to show we were going the wrong way, or overshot.

Build:
It seems solid and took our last rainy hike well. The back has a bit of a gap, but the seal must lock in fine. It uses the 'D' lock, so just half a twist to lock and unlock, which is fast and appreciated on a cold cache while changing batteries. We always had to dig to get the Magellin's ring out and turning to pop the back.

Thumb toggle:
If you've used the old Garmin's with button input, the toggle on the front is really welcomed. We zip through data entry and you push the toggle in to accept an entry. It's also a shortcut to Mark your current location (holding down the toggle button). Another tip is that holding down the lower left button brings up the 'Find' menu quickly.

Speed:
One thing I noted was that when I went just one setting more on 'detail' for the maps, it really cut the redraw speed (which is a tad slow to begin with), so that was disappointing.

Hope that helps someone and happy caching!
for Team Spiderweb4-2

I purchased this unit several weeks ago, have used it a lot so far, and I'm very pleased with its performance.
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br /I began geocaching several months ago and had been using my Nuvi 350 Garmin nüvi 350 3.5-Inch Portable GPS Navigator with Text-to-Speech for that. It worked well (and is fantastic for driving), but I was afraid I would damage it or that it would get wet from so much outdoor use. I wanted a unit that was more durable, with an excellent satellite receiver, but economical. Therefore, I ordered a Garmin eTrex Venture HC, just to use for caching. (It would probably also work well for hiking, etc.; I've only used it for geocaching.) This is the current basic eTrex model that has the new receiver (H), color screen (C), USB connection, but no card slot (x).
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br /This little GPSr has all the features I need for geocaching, and a good many that I've still not used.
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br /*Small size, shaped to be handheld, has a lanyard, is lightweight and easy to carry, very convenient to use
br /*Waterproof and durable for outdoor use
br /*Easy to read screen in sunlight
br /*Simple to use, with lots of features
br /*Locks on satellites quickly and holds signal very well, very accurate
br /*Has geocaching mode with ability to mark caches as found (not a necessity, but nice)
br /*Two screen choices to look for waypoint/cache--map screen and compass pointer screen
br /*Batteries last a long time--I've just now changed out the first set of regular alkaline batteries. I've found a couple dozen caches, placed a couple, and worked with the unit at home a lot to learn its features, usually with the backlight on, on one pair of regular AA's.
br /*Connects to computer with USB cable, can send brief cache info directly to unit by clicking on "Send to Garmin" on geocaching website. You can also enter the info manually, and there is space for some brief notes.
br /*Great price--around $115 here the last time I checked.
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br /I really can't think of any cons. I was afraid the screen might be too small on this smaller-size unit, but it's big enough and not a problem at all. I wish it had a setting to automatically turn the backlight on each time, but it's very easy to turn it on so that's no problem.
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br /The maps are very basic without much detail (as on most of the "outdoor" units), but I use the Nuvi if I need driving directions. After parking, I use the eTrex to find the cache and haven't needed maps for that. I haven't loaded any extra maps (I don't do wilderness caching) or used any of the 24 MB of internal memory. Forums have indicated that this is enough space for loading a good many topo maps, but not for many driving navigation maps. If you want to buy load City Navigator for driving, you'd need a model with a card slot. For me, the Nuvi 350 and Venture HC make a great combo to cover all bases better than a single unit would.
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br /One of the friends that I often cache with has the more expensive 60CSx, and our units usually give almost identical information. I know there are technical differences, but the eTrex performs very well in comparison.
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br /This is the Venture HC, not the older eTrex Venture model. The more expensive eTrex units (Vista HCx, etc.) have features like an additional electronic compass altimeter and a card slot, but I haven't needed those. I think those are the major differences in the newest eTrex models, they basically work the same and have the same receiver. Garmin's website lets you compare features on different models, and you can read the manuals there.
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br /If you need a great unit for caching, consider the Venture HC.
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Garmin makes a great number of high quality handheld GPS devices. I particularly chose this one for hiking and remote camping uses. Specifically, I purchased a 2 GB mini memory card (SanDisk) and then the Garmin US TOPO 24K (National Parks East, for starts). I was able to pick specific quadrants from the US TOPO CD software and download it to my Garmin handheld through my PC (MAC also works). It worked perfectly. I will admit that the learning curve is high on this and I tend to get excited about electronic devices in general. This took taking the instruction manual and going step-by-step to learn all the functions available.
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br /For starters, I simply went outside and turned it on. Within a minute I had several satellite acquisitions and was immediately shown where I was (in the world). The basic map included on the device is not that particularly detailed, so I purchased additional software data. You can read all about the functions that are installed on this unit here at Amazon. Some are marking a waypoint, finding a position, tracking, highway plans, a calendar, alarm clock, calculator, stopwatch, sun and moon schedules and various games. You also have access to its compass and a driving set-up that will tell you your speed, distance reaming (to your destination), estimated travel time, etc. If you were hiking and got lost, you would be able to backtrack your steps, as if you had left markers or `breadcrumbs'.
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br /The unit itself is extremely well made and could survive several `drops' and is waterproof. The display (approximately 2" X 1.5") is plenty for view-ability. The screen actually changes from a bright daytime screen to a nighttime mode. Every function is verified by a slight "beep". Unfortunately, you do need to buy Garmin maps to download to the unit, as the one included is not very detailed and for additional data input, you really do need a mini memory card. But for the price and the number of functions, this is really a good value. Nothing beats a map and compass, but this is a great addition to any hiking that you may do. Also, for driving directions, the only thing lacking is the voice response. I highly recommend you research other Garmin models and all the accessories you might want to purchase for your personal use.
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I've had this unit for about a month now, and it's been working fairly well. It seems to be able to get satellites readings pretty easily and accurately. It can even acquire a signal in an jet plane, and it's pretty fun being able to tell what towns you're flying over and how fast the plane is moving. The display is really nice. It can operate with a backlight of varying brightnesses or without, depending on the light level and your concern of battery life. The included software isn't bad. All and all product is basically as described, EXCEPT...
-the "detailed base map" that the Amazon product description talks about is bull. There's only a dozen or 2 roads listed in all of Manhattan. (Other US cities have similar detail.) If you want to do anything interesting, except know the exact coordinates of different points you load, you've got to upgrade the map.

PS - "Beast Hunt", one of the included games on the unit, is more fun than I'd like to admit.

I bought my Venture HC this fall and it's great. Picks up sat quickly and keeps working in the woods. This isn't a routing gps, If I wanted a routing gps I'd buy a nuvi. I also bought the TOPO 2008 which is great.

You wanna do geocaching? Get this. I bought this as my first unit, it was a toss between the eTrex H, the generic unit with no map and only an arrow, and then spending more money on this. I am glad I spent more money on the Venture HC, because I don't think the eTrex H would be useful at all on long hikes in the hills.
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br /The Venture has an easy to see and read color screen and comes pre-installed with a basemap that is basically entirely useless. If you want to do any serious hill and hiking geocaching you need to get the topographic maps that Garmin offers. These are expensive, but are pretty much necessary when navigating terrain and trails with changes in elevation. I can recall several instances when I needed to check elevation levels to make sure I was on the right trail to get to the cache I was chasing.
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br /The topographic maps that Garmin offers also have street data on them, but this device has no turn-by-turn and, but it's great to compare what is on my Garmin to what is in my car's GPS so that I can navigate easily to caches.
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br /I only use this unit for geocaching, however I see no reason it wouldn't work great for regular hiking and out door activities. This is a good unit at a great price. Everything about it is pretty much golden.
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br /Pros:
br /- Easy to use. I figured out how to use most functions without even reading the manual, but I am a bit of a geek.
br /- Easy to read the screen
br /- Battery life is great even on non-rechargables
br /- Very accurate! Usually if the geocache you're hunting has accurate coordinates, GZ on the unit will be exactly where the cache is. Make sure to turn on WAAS, as it seemed to be off by default.
br /- Unit is pretty much weather proof and has been banged around by me a fair bit and stays strong!
br /- Onboard memory is more than enough to have all the topographic maps for Southern California (LA County to SD county and everything in between) in it.
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br /Cons:
br /- Base map is entirely useless.
br /- Draw time is a little slow, but nothing that could possibly hold you up.
br /- Only holds data for 500 geocaches, but, really, who needs more than that really?

Got this unit to start geocaching with my kids.
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br /PROS are: It seems to be very accurate, screen is easily readable, color is good, seems well made and durable. The unit is also able to obtain a satellite when indoors near a window which was very surprising.
br /CONS are: no built in compass which makes it very difficult to get to the geocache when you get very close. If you stand still it will confuse you and point to a different direction. The unit only points toward the destination when you are moving. So when you get close to the cache you need to constantly walk back and forth to figure out where it is. If you stop walking the display will point toward screen-north and not the destination.
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br /Also, the Garmin operating system was a little less than intuitive causing me to read the manual more than I would usually need to for other small electronics. After much searching the manual still does not tell you how to manually enter a waypoint if you have the coordinates. It makes mention of the possibility then fails to explain how. (By the way, you use the "Mark" feature and then edit the info to do this).
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br /Despite the fairly major limitation of not having a compass we have still had success in finding our destinations. However if I had known about what trouble lack of a compass would bring I would not have bought it. My kids (9 and 6) are not able to find a geocache without the compass and get frustrated walking in circles when near the destination.
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br /I can see a unit with a compass in our future.

I tried other brand name GPS systems but this one is the best hands down. I primarily use the Venture HC to geocache with my family. The supplied USB cable makes it a breeze to simply download waypoints to the unit or upload data to the included MapSource software. I am impressed with the accuracy and I normally arrive within meters of my intended target. The menu is intuitive and easy to navigate. The battery life so far has been outstanding but I always take a back-up pair just in case. I am right handed and my only complaint would be the location of the rocker button. When I use the Venture with my right hand I cover most of the screen with my thumb reaching across the unit. Overall, I love the Venture HC and I would recommend it to any beginner or intermediate geocacher.

When I saw the price of the Venture HC, I was in shock. $114.99 for one of the best gps units on the market today, is unheard of. This little yellow wonder can receive location signals even in dense forest, and in the deepest of canyons.
br /I bought one even though I own the Legend HC and Legend C. The reason....I'm in charge of a survey crew who's job is to recover survey markers, or as they are properly called, section and quarter section monuments. Some of the areas I and my crew look for these points are in the Wasatch mountain range just east of Salt Lake City, and the Oquirrh Mountains to the west. These mountains are very rugged and easy to lose your direction. We upload the latitude and longitudes into the Garmin Venture HC and Legend HC and search the mountain sides. So far we have recovered most of the survey points we are looking for, thanks to our Garmin units. Without our handheld units it would take us a lot longer.
br /I cant say enough about Garmins quality, and the support is unsurpassed.
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br /If your thinking about buying a gps unit heres a test you can do. Call Magellan's support line. What do you get?.......people who can hardy talk English. Now call Garmin. You are in Kansas, USA.
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Using the unit as delivered was fairly simple since I have use a variety of GPS systems in the past. The maps supplied with the GPS were barely useful. I did load some Garmin Topo maps in the system which added a new dimension to the unit. With the addition of those Topo Maps, I would give it a better grade. Additional storage space would have been a plus. It's just ok!

We had gone Geocaching last year and then wondered if we were going again. Rather than have the Garmin we had sit around while we made up our mind we sold it. Decided earlier this year that we really did like the idea of the electronic treasure hunt we decided to purchase another GPS. We bought a Magellan Explorist 500. After using it for a short time we were very unhappy with it. Sold it and bought the Garmin again. The Garmin is far more user friendly. You can download the coordinates directly from Geocache.com without having to use another program. Also find that the Garmin seems more accurate. Very happy that we went back and bought the Garmin.

I bought the eTrex Venture on sale over christmas as an upgrade for some Geo-caching
with my kids. The new unit is very sensitive -- showed 7 locked sattelites while indoors-- on the ground floor of a large 2-story house and locked in about 15 seconds.
I especially liked he averaging mode for fixed waypoints -- allowing a high precision fix (down to about 15M 3-d) at my location after 15 minutes. The screen was easy to see in daylight (why I bought this model). I like the pointed stick and
most of the menu org.
Quibbles: Default backlight lifetime is far too short for a novice user of the interface, figuring out how to fix it generated a lot of issues for a child (10 year old) user. (First time -- he thought he had broken it...) Does not come with socketed sd port -- I know this is the market point for the $100 higher version -- but as a designer of electrical equipment, also know the 'real' cost. Given the choice, should have a GB built in...

I got this unit for geocaching in urban and near urban areas. Garmin has some cheaper units, but they're either in BW (not a big deal) or has a serial interface. I highly recommend getting a unit with USB interface unless you're running Windows 95 on a really old machine. Not only is the transfer speed much faster, some new machines (and many laptops) no longer has a serial port.
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br /Performance of the unit is very good. It even managed to get a lock in my house, something my Nuvi could not do. Do bear in mind that the position is updated once every second, and the "compass" is only accurate if you're moving for a few seconds in a straight line. This is true for all GPSr that does not have an electronic compass.
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br /The unit is small and fits very well in my hands - much easier than holding a Nuvi which I was using before this arrived. With the black case, it looks vaguely enough like a cell phone that people will not give you a second look when you're out hunting for a cache.
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br /Waypoint names are 14 characters long, and it only holds 500 waypoints. Geocaching feature in this unit mainly consists of the ability to mark a waypoint as "found", after which you're asked if you want to go to the next closest waypoint. Searching for a cache would, by default, filter out found caches. And you can view the calendar to see when you found which cache - useful if you are logging your finds after a few days out hunting without Internet access.
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br /The main limitations of this unit is : very limited basemap, no sensor, no memory expansion capability. There are units that has those features, but none come close to the price of the Venture HC. If you want those features, go for a GPSMap 60CSx - at almost 3 times the price. Or spend even more and get a Colorado or Oregon for paperless caching.
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br /If you want some free street maps, search for ibycus USA. It's very straightforward - install the Garmin software that comes with this unit, then download and install ibycus USA. You need to select the map set on the upper left corner of Mapsource. There's no topo information unfortunately, and it is not routable. By the way, this unit will not do routing no matter what mapset you're using.
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br /The Venture HC (and probably all other Garmin GPSr that takes AA batteries) can be used with rechargable batteries, but the unit itself cannot recharge the battery (you'll need to remove the batteries for recharging). If plugged into a USB port, the Venture HC will draw power from USB, and not draw from the batteries. I use Sanyo Eneloop low self discharge batteries and I haven't had to recharge them after a week of use.
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br /My unit came with firmware 2.7 - updating to the latest (2.8 as I write this) is fairly painless. User interface takes a few minutes to get used to, not difficult at all. Garmin also has an application to make screen captures off the GPSr, and to customize the startup splash screen. A device SDK is also available for application developers.
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br /For a (relatively) low cost entry to geocaching, I highly recommend this unit, with a set of Eneloop NiMH and the protective case.
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br /Oh, and just a note, if you have a Nuvi, search for Nuvi Paperless Geocaching. You'll need the application GSAK and a premium account with geocaching.com, but that will give you the ability to view cache descriptions, hints and logs, together with proximity alerts and driving instructions to the cache, at your fingertip.

This is a very nice little handheld GPS at a good price. However, if you are going to use it for Geocaching or anything else where you would need to stand still and still need to tell where to go, do yourself a favor and step up a notch. This unit does not have a magnetic compass. That means that as soon as you stop moving enough for the GPS to tell which direction you are going in the compass goes haywire and will be pointing in all the wrong directions. If you are going Geocaching standing still right near the cache is very common and you will greatly appreciate having a compass that works while doing so.

I use the Venture HC only for geocaching and did not purchase the detailed maps for street navigation or hiking. Buttons are not intuitive as they are unmarked. Their functions need to be learned then remembered. It works great, accurate to 9 feet in many places, and is steady where others have complained of reduced signal strength. Downloading waypoints from my PC is seamless.

I love this GPS handheld! Take note though, in the picture provided from Garmin, you see a topo map, this is an add on to the product (about $80) called "Garmin Map Source-United States Topo" for the US, other countries are available also.

That being said, this is an excellent product! I use it primarily for geocaching. It is an upgrade from my Garmin Gecko. It seems much more accurate as to the location of the cache. I usually end up right on top of it, as a matter of fact. You turn it on and it almost instantly locates satellites and gives you your location, even indoors. I've yet to lose reception in a canyon or deep forest, and I've used it a lot!

My Only regret is that i didn't get the next model up, with the removable SD card, that would have been handy!

This is a good deal for good product!

Worked with the eTrex a couple of days, very pleased, we had the Garmin Geco 201 earlier, this had a bad reception in the woods.
The Etrex is next generation, good/excellent reception with the maps in the background so far excellent ratio performance/cost.

Herman

We bought this for our family's new hobby: geocaching. Works great! Easy one-hand operation makes it very convenient, and the readout is very clear and intuitive, so that even my children can use it. Looking around the menus on this thing, we are probably only using 10% of what it can do. We are not doing any intense hikes, so I'm not sure how the more advanced features might compare with other GPS's out there, but we're very pleased.

Very easy to use, very accurate. I got it with the bike mount for my mountain bike and I use it to track all my rides. Great for geocaching too. No expandable memory, but not an issue for my uses.

I ordered this unit to go Geocaching with. I am totally satisfied with the ease of use, accuracy and the items I got with it. The USB connection works great for keeping the batteries charged, and downloading the Geocache info into it was a snap. It sits well in the cupholder on my motorcycle, so I can even use it on the road.

I am very satisfied with my purchase of the Garmin eTrex Venture HC Handheld GPS. It is as accurate as I had hoped it would be. My only complaint would be that the internal map is of very poor quality, though it is still not a deal breaker for me. One example I have is: The area I hunt is next to a lake, the GPS shows water everywhere I am hunting, even though I am actually more than two hundred yards away and over 15 feet in elevation above the actual lake at normal water level. It would be less disorienting to have a more acurate though not detailed map. Since the detailed topo map is suppossed to be much more accurate, Garmin could have simply removed all detail from the topo map and loaded it onto the unit. It would only cause me to be less skeptical of buying the additional topo map.

I have used my etrex HC for Geo caching only. It is accurate,I like the built in features for geo caching; such as ...the built in menu for it...it keeps track of my finds...next nearsest cache...a map of the caches from my location.... the ability to downlad waypoints for caches from my computer!!( no errors for me) It beeps when I am close to a cache... It is good under tree cover , with little bounce. The battery life is good. I was able to get this from Amazon for a little over 100 dollars new! I also have a Garmin Tom Tom for vehicle navigation which also is programable to my computer for locating POI (my caches) and use it to get me to the site.

We bought this unit after using a friends Magellan over a weekend for some geocaching. I really liked her unit, but it was pricier than I was able to do. The other thing was that the [...] website supported the garmin units, for ease of downloading caches. I was able to get a really great deal on this one, and paid less than $[...] for it. It works wonderfully in the field. It has gotten us within 5 feet of our cache. We've had no trouble at all with the signal, even in pretty good tree cover. The compass page is great, showing you your direction, as well as counting down how far you are in miles, then feet. If you've got several caches from one area downloaded, once you find one and hit the found on the screen, it automatically pulls up the next closest cache to send you on your way again. It is great! The only downfall is that it does not take the notes that are on the geocaching site. (the only reason it got 4 stars instead of 5) So basically you need to print out the page if you want the info (sometimes it is VERY helpful to have that info) but with that being the only downfall, plus the price I paid for it, it is an awesome unit. It is very rugged, my kids have all taken turns with it. Worth the money!

I've owned my garmin etrex Venture HC for about a month. I read all the critiques about the low detail map but tried it anyway. I wasn't looking for an automotive GPS, I wanted a hiking-flying-fishing-traveling GPS. Without the detailed topo maps this thing was very good for my needs. It would show me what was the next exit on the freeway and what services were there. It gave me speed, altitude, and positional awareness when flying in general aviation aircraft. It showed the Canadian border when on Lake Erie. Then I added the MapSource topo maps and it tripled in utility when hiking and driving and flying. I learned that I couldn't load the whole world into the thing because of memory limitations, so I just loaded the areas around Bozeman, and Rocky Mountain National park, and SW Florida, and most of Ohio. It's great! It seems to run a long time on a set of batteries (how long specifically, I don't know...ten to fourteen hours I suppose...I really don't care, I'm not a statistician) and after a few hours of use it's intuitive. And this puppy will lock on to satellites VERY fast and will keep on them even on the first floor of my two story home. This is my third GPS, my first Garmin, and I'm hooked on it. It was $113 from Amazon, shipped! That's about a tank and a half of gas for my Tahoe. I love it when I make a good purchase.

Picked this up because we were interested in geocaching. The geocaching mode makes it easy to go from one find to another, and Garmin's website makes it a snap to load new caches to your unit. The color screen looks great and it appears to be very accurate since we've been able to locate most of the caches we've searched for. This unit does not do turn by turn road directions and doesn't have removable memory so if those are features you want, choose another unit. The internal memory lets you load a fair amount of map data although I have been able to fill it up. The base map that comes loaded in the unit is just that...basic. If you want streets other than major higways, topographical or waterway maps you'll have to buy those separate. For the cost of the additional maps they should give the units away...lol. Battery life is decent, maybe 12-14 hours on a pair of AA's and thats with using the backlight at 100% most of the time.

I held off on a GPS purchase for a while because I heard a lot of "grumblings" of how bad reception was, etc...so I'm very pleased with this unit's ability to give basic, important information while I'm hiking. I live in the foothills of CO., so I've used it outside under much tree/hill cover with no issues whatsoever (it struggles to get signals inside, sometimes) - generally about 8 satellites. I would guess that many of the higher end models have the same antenna/signal capabilities, so check carefully for what you need. This model's screen's easy to read, the interface is fine (I happen to be left handed, so my thumb doesn't have to cross over the screen to hit the toggle button). There's more I have to learn about this GPS, and I haven't used the software at all. The base map doesn't do anything for you off major highways, but for me, a guy with 7.5 minute paper topo maps, it's great for plotting points, getting a bearing. The price makes it hard to balk at if you want a new toy...make sure you have rechargable batteries.

I haven't used this unit in the field yet, but I did try it in my driveway and it locked onto satellites and was ready to navigate WAY faster than my old e trex venture. This was the main reason I bought it-for faster lockin speed and better functioning in areas with lots of trees overhead. The lockin was fast--I'll have to wait to see how well it functions in the trees.If it works in the trees, I'd give it 5 stars

Nice GPS for the field. Creating/deleting Waypoints not user-friendly. Locks on up to 10 satellites in just a few minutes after turning it on. Nice color display.

i just got it today and tried it out in the middle of my brick home, still got signal on 10 satellites! i do wish the base map was detailed with more rivers and secondary roads. but for the price and major functions i would recommend it.

This is the ideal model. It is cheap enough but it has the better chip and the reception is great. Any cheaper would be a mistake because the color is an excellent feature. The next higher model is overkill because you do not want to spend $ 200 plus when you can get a car model GPS for $ 150. You cannot go wrong with this model.

I got this unit after much research into different brands and, after settling on Garmin, different models. It's a great all-around GPS at a great price. It's my first, so I can't comment on the increased sensitivity of the HC chip, but I get plenty of coverage inside my house, and when I step outside the accuracy goes to about 9'. I would have liked the compass and altimeter of the Vista, but really don't have much need for them since I'm not an avid hiker, and didn't need to spend the extra money.

The Venture HC is great for geocaching. I took my family out on our first hunt last weekend, and although we only had about an hour to spare, we had a great time finding caches stashed around a park nearby. I can see this as a fun family activity on road trips as well. The Venture has built-in geocaching features that let you download waypoints directly from geocacher.com (using the free Garmin browser plugin), and even mark caches as found right on the GPS. The color screen is very readable in sunlight. Although the Venture HC doesn't have a proper compass, the "compass" page is very useful for closing in on the target.

The Venture HC is also great for amateur astronomers. My computerized telescope needs to know lat/long/time to accurately slew to and track objects in the sky. I can get coordinates on standard addresses on geocoder.us, but if I just want to set up at a dark site somewhere, a GPS is a must. Rather than pay $200 to get the GPS option on my scope, I can use this general purpose GPS and just plug the numbers into the telescope's controller, or even connect through my laptop. Although any GPS will give you the time and location, not all have as nice a backlit screen as this one, a good thing when you're out in the dark. The customizable color schemes (with automatic night mode) and the variable backlight intensity are also great for astronomy to keep stray light to a minimum.

If I'm disappointed with anything it is with the built-in base map. Again, because this is my first GPS I was somehow expecting more detail, not necessarily in terms of street names, but certainly with respect to canals, mountains, even major cross streets etc. The only features I've been able to distinguish are freeways, lakes and cities. There are many mountains where I live and none of them are shown on the map. More detailed topo maps are available, but cost anywhere from $80-$120. I'm not subtracting any stars for this, because I'm sure all basemaps are pretty much the same. And with 24MB of memory, there's room for decent quality maps.

Garmin updated the firmware for the Venture in February 2008, so one of the first things I did was download their free WebUpdater utility to automatically install updates. I had one scary moment when my GPS lost the USB connection in the middle of the process, and I was worried my unit would be disabled. But after turning it off and back on it came right back up and, after a second try, the new firmware was installed in about 5 minutes.

All in all, I'm very happy with the quality of this unit. It feels sturdy yet light weight, with a nice rubberized feel to it. It's also waterproof, so no trouble using it in the rain. The interface took a little getting used to, but after a while it becomes second nature. The Venture lets you customize almost every screen to your taste; for example, I wanted to have time, elevation and location on the same page for astronomy purposes, so I set one of the screens up to show all these fields. At $130, the price point was perfect: significantly lower than the next model up (sacrificing only the compass/altimeter and microSD slot), and not much higher than plain-vanilla black & white units without geocaching features.

I highly recommend it.

This is my first handheld GPS and I purchased to get started in Geocaching. This unit is very easy to use, works with the geocache website to download geocaches to unit, very sturdy and reliable unit, highly recommend!

This is a good product, but for a little more money you can get a better model.

It is a great product - use them for work and enjoy using them - I think the video that was included saved me a couple of hours a week of papersork. The GPS did a lot of the stuff that I was doing by hand and notes.
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br /Warantee was fantastic - my broken one was replaced and all the waypoints were transferred to the new GPS
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br /I am very satisfied - five stars aren't enouth
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br /Steve S Kanab, Utah

After a lot of research I bought this GPS unit for my son who wanted to start Geocaching with his 9 year old daughter . It is excellent . The color screen and easy to use features along with the HC technology make it the best buy for a beginner at a very reasonable price !

My boyfriend and I took on the hobby of geocaching. We bought this Garmin because of the geocaching site suggested it. (We bought a cheaper one from a department store and returned it the next day.) It's easy to use and we've had a lot of fun with it!

It's a very good product, I would buy it again.
br /The only thing that I don't like is that it takes a lot of time to acquire the satellites. But it's ok anyways.

I upgraded to this from my old Etrex for better satellite lock, and I got it. I can sit in my cabin and pull 8 sats through the roof! No more looking for breaks in the trees so I can get my bearings. It's got a lot more goodies than my last Etrex, but I haven't even gotten around to using them yet. All I wanted is something that would acquire quickly and keep giving me data, no matter what was overhead. The Venture HC delivered it.

Great item but the back light has to be manually turned on every time you start it and there is no button to turn it on. It has to be set each time. This pulls down on battery time.

Product was purchase to update from older one very nice quick sattelite reconition would not do anything different

Everything works as stated. If you want one to navigate roads for you, spend more money. My only problem is it will shut its self off from time to time. I keep turning it back on untill it stops acting up.

This unit works great for my needs, which is to keep track of location and waypoints when I backpack in the Rocky Mountains. It's got an easy, one-click method of creating waypoints. It always acquires the signal quickly. It keeps track of a bunch of useful data - such as distance covered (an odometer reading that is also useful when exercising), moving time, resting time, local sunset and sunrise. It provides an elevation reading, which is useful in comparision with a topo map.
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br /It's lightweight and small - which means it's easy to carry - and it appears to be durable (although I haven't dropped it yet to test this feature!)
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br /I purchased separately the 2008 Topo US from Garmin. I loaded maps for my local area onto the unit and they work great. Easy to transfer between the PC and the unit.
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br /I highly recommend the unit. The only issue I've noticed is with the batteries. It seems to go through them quickly. After loading fresh batteries, be sure to go into the configure settings and select the correct battery type - it makes a big difference, however even with the correct setting it seems the batteries don't last long. I haven't done much testing, but it seems a fresh set last maybe 3 hours. Be sure to carry extra ones with you.
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br /Although it would be nice if the batteries lasted longer, I can live with it. The other features make it worthwhile.
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This product is exactly what I wanted and what I was looking for. It does exactly what I wanted and hoped that it would do.

br /Eugene C. Oakfield WI
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br /I give the Etrex HC Venture 5 stars for its performance.I wanted to get it for geocaching it has gone way past my expectations.I use it for hikeing in heavy dense woods also and tried the back track on it which also worked great.So for the price i would recommend this product to anyone.
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I had two Garmin Legends before; they just plain wore out over a five year period. So, I decided to buy a new one after contacting Garmin and finding out they could repair them for $89. I selected the HC Venture because of the price. It's a great unit for the price. I'm not sure if the color screen is what I really needed. I do a lot of hiking on trips, so I may miss the altimiter, but I don't think it's worth double the price to upgrade to the next model.

I haven't added the topographical maps yet, but thus far we've been very happy with this handheld GPS for geocaching.

Just got the Venture HC (Canada 210). Nice unit, acquires satellites quickly, as indicated by the H (high sensitivity). Great screen, as indicated by the C. BUT: according to numerous vendors' websites and the Garmin manual itself, this model is supposed to have a proximity alarm feature. Now what it _does_ have is more properly called a "destination alarm": it will alert you when you have reached a specified waypoint, POI, or exit. But a true "proximity alarm" should go off whenever you approach any of a number of points. In the proximity waypoints screen I can add only 10 alarms and even a single alarm set for a specific waypoint doesn't seem to go off UNLESS you click on Go To first. So in conclusion:
br /1. Nice little machine, great screen, inexpensive;
br /2. No proximity alarm feature, as far as I can tell;
br /3. Don't base your purchasing decisions on the Garmin manuals -- check around first (although I did this and _still_ ended up w/o the feature that I bought the thing for).
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This has served me very well. Im glad I got this model instead of the one below it the extra features are worth the price difference. Finds me in no time usually before the unit finishes loading.

I went from the old BW Garmin GPSII Plus to this little masterpiece and I have to say...WOW!!! Now there may be others on the market, but you cannot beat this quality at this price! The satellite reception was fast and accurate. It configured itself, right out of the box. The screen is colorful and bright with tons of unique little options that were all new to me. It is my opinion that Garmin is still at the top of the class when it comes to GPS devices. This sleek little device fits firmly in your hand and truly put my old GPS to shame. Quality and design are perfect for hikers, paddlers, trackers, hunters and mountaineers. This product is HIGHLY Recommended!!!

The GPS has worked well most of the time. It doesn't lose the signal like my last one, the Garmin V. Finally had to replace the batteries after 6 hikes or rides. Great. A belt clip case freed my hands and kept the GPS from swinging around on my neck. The only problem, once, is it didn't give accurate elevation: should have been over 8000 but it said below 3000. It may have been a user error for not waiting long enough to find the satelites before marking a waypoint at our starting point. I'm very happy with the product and the price; about half what our local stores were charging.

I use this GPS for boating. We recently took a trip from Sandusky Ohio to Leamington Canada and used the eTrex throughout the trip. The unit can be operated with one hand. We have a sailboat and I was at the helm the entire trip. I was able to work thru the menu picks while at the helm. I purchased the MapSource Lake Erie charts (a bit pricey). This is a must if you use this for boating. The unit picks up satellites very quickly. The screen is very clear. Great unit.

GET 1 !!! If you have been looking, this is the 1... I/we have been using for a while now this unit is does WAY MORE then we will probably ever need...Easy enough for my 6 yr old son to "Drive it" right to any "Caches" that we have looked for...I take it with even on the shortest trips as it tells MPH better than our speed-o in our JEEP GRAND CHEROKEE with the 33" MT/R tires, I know exact speed at all times...It even tells us 2 paths (With in a foot or so) when we come out a trail that we went in as it sits to 1 side in the truck...GREAT UNIT, GREAT PRICE... Battery life is all day +++ on 2 re-chargeable AAs, (I leave it on ALL the time) locates 12 or more Sat's in seconds even when I turn it on in the Motor Home as we go out the door... No issues with map's or screen size or ANY THING ELSE... Haven't loaded any extras as yet but if it is as easy as loading "Caches" than it should not be a prob... Even tells "Altitude" with ease, the "Compass" works/points with an arms length move...VERY HAPPY with this "Garmin" WELL WORTH the $111.00 we spent on it...(P.S. Free shipping was a fast bonus)

This GPS is very nice if your not using it for travel. I have been using it for geocaching and it has been working great.

an awesome GPS. accurate to the foot. using for geocaching. 13 outta 15 so far. the missing 2 were either muggled or wrong coordinates. worth every penny.

I use this Garmin hand held GPS for Geocaching. Quite accurate and easy to use. Would reccomend it highly.

This is my first GPS. I use it for Geocaching. I found this model to be easy to learn to use. I do use third party software on my computer to download waypoints onto my GPS unit. I have found the batteries last longer than I espected, but I would have preferred a battery that I could recharge with out taking them out of the GPS. Yes I did purchase rechargeable batteries for the GPS, but you have to remove them for charging. I am happy with my eTrex Venture HC GPS unit.

We took this on our first geocaching trip to Maine. Worked great. Had a great time!

My son-in-law introduced me to Geocaching and loaned me his older model Garmin Legend. I struggled looking for caches when around trees, metal structures and power lines they all seemed to effect the satellite signals. When I received my Garmin eTrex Venture HC, my wife and I went out to search for some caches. She used the old model while I tried to familiarize myself with the newer one. The Venture HC out performed the older Legend by far. The newer Garmin responds to satellite signals and my movements much quicker. Trees, metal structures and powerlines have little effect on the Venture. Now my wife wants one of her own and I don't blame her.

My first GPS. It has most everything I need/want. The 'maps' that come installed on it are - not detailed to be of much worth. It just makes you tempted to buy the $100+ set of maps offered by Garmin. However, it does everything else that I want it to do. I'm still learning about it - but am very satisfied. And . . . I was completely satisfied purchasing from Adorama - I have kept their catalogue and will hope to do further business with them.

The eTrex Venture as with the rest of the Garmin line works great. I use this unit while trail riding and am yet to loose signal in the thickest woods. The only thing that would make it better is if it came with mapping software.

Picked up this GPS to start Geocaching with the family. Great little device which is easy to use and rugged enough to stand up to two 3.5 year olds and a 6 year old.

We use it for Geocaching. It is perfect. We are having lots of fun! Glad we bought it!

When you get it make sure the Datum is set correctly otherwise you will get very frustrated. Once the Datum is set its perfect.

Wanted more detail in the mapps and it was veryhard to see what is on the screen in day light.

Really liked the performance of this unit, but it quick working completely in less than a month. Very disappointed in the quality considering the reputation of Garmin!

Don't bother reading the product description - it's more than a tad misleading. In order to make it function as described you need to purchase a more advanced design and m ore than $100 in additional software. If you really want a GPS that can give you more than a "home's that way", step up a notch or three and plan on another $100 in software. This product will serve the most basic of functions, but little more.

The description of this was very different than what received. I think this might work for hiking GPS but I wanted one for cities and everywhere...so I returned it.