Garmin GPS - WARNING - Garmin Topo Great Britain

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WARNING - Garmin Topo Great Britain

David Lee

2006-01-19, 5:48 pm

Garmin is in the process of launching Topo Great Britain v2 - available in
US at $300 and about to hit UK (3-weeks) at £176.

Anyone considering buying this product should first be sure to check it out
fully using the Garmin Map Previewer at
http://www.garmin.com/cartography/mapSource/topogb.jsp. It appears (to me)
to be a very poor product with only a small subset of footpaths transferred
from the original OS mapping. The majority of roads would appear to be very
difficult and in places totally impossible to distinguish through the
clutter of the contour maps and all the background shading WILL make the
maps virtually unusable on a monochrome display (such as Vista) in many
areas (most notably National Park areas where they will be most likely to be
used). You should also check out the behaviour of details as you zoom in
and out and compare "more" & "less" detail and make sure you are happy with
the behaviour.

People used to MetroGuide Europe should also be aware that Topo GB uses
unlock codes.

If you still like it then good luck to you - otherwise check out the free
transparent contour maps at www.smc.org.uk/books/books_contour_maps.htm.
Whilst these don't have any footpath information at all this really isn't
any worse than a random subset since you're going to need your paper maps
anyway. (The Garmin offering does have lakes and rivers which I think are
reasonably accurate which may be an advantage).

There is an ongoing established thread on alt.satellite.gps so it's probably
better to post any follow-ups over there.

David (not Garmin-bashing - just want to make sure no-one gets an unpleasant
suprise)

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