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The display is dim & hard to see/read. Back light is not very bright. Tried replacing batteries (twice) still no improvement in the display. Returned the unit one day after receiving.

This is my second Garmin product in 8 years. It will be the third deployment with a Garmin since September 11th. It has been used to report our position to higher to launch airstikes and receive supporting fire with 81mm mortars. Another plus is the digital compass which gives direction without the interference from metal. Garmin GPS products rock and are very user friendly. My only change would be to make the display for the MGRS a little bigger. I will always have a Garmin by my side and look forward to using it again this March.

Garmin eTrex Vista Handheld GPS
Bought it for a road bicycle, and I love it! Bought it with the bicycle mount. Received it and started using it the same day. It has a million features, so it takes a bit of reading to setup all the options. Oh...you have to buy MapSource to fully utilize the unit. I tried the cheaper method of uploading and downloading to the unit. Could not get to work with Google Earth Plus, I did get to work with other 3rd party software. But I finally coughed up the $100 bucks (almost as much as the unit) and bought MapSource North America.

Now I was cooking was gas! Uploading, downloading, mapping, graphing, analyzing my ride. It is incredible all the information that can be gleamed from the interface with MapSource.

Now that I have used it for a bit, I love it even more. You can plan routes, or not. Use the tracks you created, later. The graphing on the altimeter is wild! The maps are incredibly detailed. I could go on and on about all the features, for the price this unit is the BOMB.

I had a sneaky suspicion that I might need to buy the software. So I chose the Vista. However, I am so pleased with the unit that I wish I had bought the colored more sensitive(GPS wise) higher end model.

It is a good receiver, but its operational system is too simple and slow to use. But for the price, it worths.

Well priced & worked very well the first two times we used it. Easy to figure out, even my kids used it.

Garmin's first-generation eTrex Vista was my third handheld GPS, after a Magellan Explorist 200 and a Garmin Geko, and was by far my favorite of the three. Ability to upload topographic maps and waypoints by the hundreds, and a magnetic compass which can show direction even when you're not moving, make this a great geocaching tool. While I never purchased the available detailed road maps, the included base map shows towns and major highways, and was more than enough on cross-country drives to estimate times of arrival -- "Can we make it to Austin by evening, or should we look for a place to stay now?" Made my trip much happier.

I'd give the Vista five stars, but honestly it is a somewhat dated product. You'll need an adapter to connect it to a USB port, and it doesn't have the higher sensitivity of newer GPS units. But for the right price, this is a great option for a hiker, geocacher, or interstate driver.

I was very dissapointed when I recieved my Garmin GPS. I ordered a Garmin ETrek Vista which Amazon advertised for $89 which was an excellent bargin but when I recieved my gps, it was a generic which I could have bought for $69 at Home of Econcomy. Got the sorry sir from the company that shipped it but no bargining on the one I wanted or the one they sent me. They were good about sending me some prepaid UPS labels to sent it back to get my refund, which I had to travel 44 miles to the nearest UPS center but got things resloved. Not happy!!!