Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

Ok, that headline is kind of a "grabber" line, only because you have to be the one to decide if it's really worth it or not, but let's talk about it a bit. Especially on an item this expensive, I wouldn't dare, not do my homework, reading as many reviews and articles as possible. Heck, I do that on a hundred dollar item. If your really versed on GPS units, it shouldn't take you as long as I did, to make a decision on what you might need or be willing to pay for. If your a greenhorn, I'd certainly read some articles comparing all the different features on a number of different GPS units, especially when it comes to price. Of course your gonna get more features with more money paid, in most cases, but especially with GPS, I'd ask the questions: What do I really need and what am I willing to pay for. Ok.... As for myself, I'm never gonna go on a hike where I know I could get really lost, without taking a compas and a paper map. I know from experience, that things can go wrong--you're battery can go bad, the unit can break, or get lost, or much more probably the case: you get in a deep vally with a bunch of over growth and your signal runs out, for the time being. On the other hand, this GPS is the cat's meow in my opinion. I'm not sure I wouldn't use this more than my map and compass, partly because of all the things it does and partly because it's just that much fun. I'm not gonna go over all the features, because you can read that on the spec sheet from Garmin, but some of the standout stuff for me, I'd like to talk about. I know it's more bulkey than the other units, but that's not a deal breaker for me, because I love the beautiful, real glass, (I believe) touch screen. It seems very bright. I downloaded the 7.5 minute maps of the west coast, (California, etc.), and to me, they're plenty clear enough. They have 40 foot countour lines, which is the same as the topo maps I download on the USGS website, I believe. When using the compass feature, you can set a projected point, even adding a distance on it, and if you get off course, it'll show you by a break in the arrow line, which way your off. Just move over and get back on the line and your good. You can also set a projected waypoint, which no matter where you go you can set a course back to it. I'm talking about maybe having to cross a river and having to go out of your way to a bridge and then find your way back to the waypoint you set across the river before you detoured to the bridge. I love the free software called base camp. You can go on it, set your map type preference, (even the 7.5 minute) Then you set your route up, all your waypoints, etc. After that it's a sinch to send it right into your Montana 700i. or whatever unit you have. You can also send a route you set up or did on your Montana, into the base camp where you can review it. You can search for names, or addresses or points of interest, or other things right on the unit. One other nice feature, is when you mark a waypoint, if you need to use a custom waypoint, for whatever reason, you can just type your longitude and latitude right over the waypoint one, and save it to whatever name you want. This would be great for search and rescue, if you had that info. I almost forgot about possibly one of the most important features, which carried a lot of weight for me, deciding which unit to buy. SOS. It's for real. You can lock into these special satalites, worldwide, and they will come and rescue you. In order to use this feature, you need to subscribe to the serivce, but I got the safety one, set up at the cheapest price. It' somewhere around $15. a month or so. You can of course get the more robust subscription, but it's gonna cost more. With this service, you can also send messages to anyone's email. This could also get you help, possibly without having to use the full blown SOS feature. They can also respond back to you. The nice thing about this in Reach, feature, is that it all goes on a satalite, so you don't need Wi Fi to use it. It'll work anywhere your GPS will work. I will say, that some of the user guide got a little wonkey, now and then, but for the most part it was very concise and readable. I know I probably didn't need the compass and altimiter features, and could have saved money buying a cheaper unit, but in order to get the SOS feature, you need to cough up the cash. It's only available on a few of the higher end units. So far, I very happy with the GPS. I hope I did mention that it is the Montana 700i that I purchaced. I just didn't want to spill out the extra "beans" for the 750 model which has the camera too. I hope this helps you in making your decision. Marc Trainor. ''