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Gilles
Shannon, Québec
May 25, 2012
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OUTSTANDING !
Pros: ease of use with the shortcuts menus
Cons: a little difficult to manipulate.
Took it in the trail and fishing, and it worked flawlessly. You definitely need a carrying case with it, and GizzMoVest has a decent one for the Montana 650/650T series. Carry spare AA batteries, it is a little power consuming, but always depends of your backlight settings.
Recommend? YES
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Daniel
Grande-Anse, NB.
May 15, 2012
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BETTER THAN MY OLD COLORADO
Pros: screen quality. power packs. ease of use.
Cons: no wrist strap.
First, the screen is brighter and bigger. The battery life has been ameliorated. Ease of use and second power pack made me buy this GPS.
Recommend? YES
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RichG
Ottawa, ON
Apr 27, 2012
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GPS-AIDED MAPPING
Pros: large screen, loads custom maps, can be accurate
Cons: can be innaccurate, sometimes looses waypoints
We purchased the Garmin Montana because it had a relatively large screen and could load custom maps. We use it to help us with the field work for making orienteering maps. My wife and I are mapping a very flat area with few well defined features visible from the aerial photographs and no hills or other features to help one locate. The Montana allowed us to load a draft version of the map we were working on and allow us to place features (like boulders, cliffs or fences) with something resembling precision as we could see where we were on the very map we were in the process of drawing. This works relatively well. However, this GPS receiver, like our old eTrex Vista looses signal from time to time -- we mostly work in wooded areas. Unlike the Vista, it does not 'fess up. Occasionally one's gps location and actual location can differ significantly. Garmin's Base Camp software is, in some ways, better than the old MapSource, but in others it is not. We need a DXF file as output. The only way to get that is to save the Base Camp file, then load it into MapSource. It works, but sure is clugey. A couple of times waypoints we have entered have disappeared when we tried to download them.
Recommend? YES
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Jimbo
Eastern Canada
Apr 10, 2012
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MONTANA 650
Pros: rapid satellite acquisition and signal retention
Cons: cost.
Like the state...the Montana is big, but it is worth seeing! And 'seeing' is what you get the most of from this unit. I started the search to replace my Garmin GPSMap 376 early this year, with the Colorado. My friends and I all agreed there must be some mistake, none of us could see the screen in the daylight unless it was held in EXACTLY the right position. OK, sent that back and tried the 62S next. Better but the smaller screen was a problem, AND it still was hard to see your track line in the bright sunlight. I had to shade the screen to see it clearly. Especially to read the fine print! So I went for the latest and greatest, ( according to the Garmin tech CSR ), the Montana 650 with the camera, since he pointed out the unit with the camera has a slightly 'tweaked' screen to enable better image viewing. I am pleased to report this one is a keeper. The sat capture and functionality of the unit is excellent, battery life is very acceptable, and best of all, it has an excellent screen. Not as good as the 376 but still...very good.
Recommend? YES
10 viewers found this helpful.
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Brian
Sturgeon County, Alberta, Canada
Apr 5, 2012
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Pros: extremely versatile
Cons: lack of user guides.
Does everything I want it to. Carry extra batteries. Look on-line for user guidance, as what is provided in the box is very limited.
Recommend? YES
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Red
Pickering Ontarion
Mar 18, 2012
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MONTANA 650
Wish that we could have more control on the camera and we could have a speech recognition build Right in the unit
Recommend? YES
9 viewers found this helpful.
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Doug
Essex, Ontario
Mar 10, 2012
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GARMIN MONTANA 650
Pros: screen, functions, battery options, rugged
Cons: no thermometer, instructions for first timers
This is the first GPS I have ever owned so not much to compare it to. Took it snowshoeing in Algonquin Park for 4 days and it worked great. I downloaded the instruction PDF but it would be nice to have more detailed instructions that include scenarios not just what each function does. There are a lot of little things that are not covered. I had to call Garmin but customer support was awesome. It would be nice to have a thermometer built in.
Recommend? YES
10 viewers found this helpful.
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Les
Windsor, Ontario
Feb 21, 2012
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THE BEST HAND HELD GPS I HAVE OWNED SO FAR
Pros: does everything i want it to do
Cons: with the overall size was a bit smaller
With the extra storage I am able to keep more info than my previos unit. Tha built in camera lets me take pics of where I am and store then with the locaton.
Recommend? YES
10 viewers found this helpful.
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Islandboybc1
Vancouver Island
Feb 16, 2012
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MOVING UP IN THE GARMIN LINE UP
Pros: speaking for myself, its much easier to use.
I've stepped up from the Garmin 60Csx to the Montana. WOW, way better visual, large screen. Way easier to read and work with. You know if there's something that you can't figure out, the videos explain everything. Great job on the video's. Otherwise I wish I had make this jump earlier. You will be greatly impressed.
Recommend? YES
9 viewers found this helpful.
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Paul
Rouyn-Noranda, Qc.
Jan 18, 2012
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GREAT NEW GENERATION
very easy to use and the touch screen work very well. between a GPSMap 76csx and Montana 650 is a world of change! Very quick satellite reception 4 time faster then 76csx
Recommend? YES
10 viewers found this helpful.
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Larry
Prince Albert, SK
Jan 16, 2012
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EXCELLENT GPS
Pros: large screen, good satellite reception
The GPS works great. Excellent satellite reception, very quick. I like the software, easy to use and didn't take long to figure out the general operation. Its large for a GPS but for me a good trade-off to have the large screen.
Recommend? YES
9 viewers found this helpful.
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jimo
Drumheller
Jan 16, 2012
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MACHINE IS GREAT BUT......
Pros: great machine
Cons: poor software, poor support
Machine seems to work flawlessly. My criticism is with the topo software which would not load into my computer, asked for help and got the usual runaround: blame the machine, no blame the software, no blame the computer.
Recommend? YES
9 viewers found this helpful.
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caper
toronto
Dec 30, 2011
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Pros: screen, speed of location finder, compass
Cons: very limited explanations in manual
product is excellent although a more detailed explanation of functions would be of help to first time users. Perhaps a video of actual use as opposed to just 'set up' menus.
Recommend? YES
13 viewers found this helpful.
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Flumes
Ontario Canada
Dec 22, 2011
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VERY GOOD VALUE
The Garmin Montana 650 with Canada Topo is a very good unit. Still trying to figure out all the features. Very robust and is very fast at picking up satellites. 10/10
Recommend? YES
10 viewers found this helpful.
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Roger Latour
Westree ON.
Oct 12, 2011
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VERY GOOD GPS
Pros: all around good unit
Cons: none
This is by far the best gps I ever bought.It is quick to acquire the satellite and all around easy use of operation, the camera is pretty good. A little bulky but you get use to it pretty quick. I'm using version 1 of Ontario Backroad maps, a 5 times better map for detail and accuracy compared Topo Canada V4, a must have for the outdoor enthusiast.Surprisingly good on batteries if you keep the lighting at around 80%.
Recommend? YES
18 viewers found this helpful.
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landbaron52
val des monts, quebec, canada
Sep 21, 2011
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EXCELLENT GPS FOR HIKING
Pros: 3d view, many additional functions included.
Cons: pricey
Very impressed by this model. Only hiccup is sometimes it reboots by itself for no reason. Otherwise very useful in the woods to track your route, and to return home, and also to integrate with Google maps to get diagrams overlayed on Google maps of the hikes you took. And many other functions included like compass, camera, 3d view, track logs, etc.
Recommend? YES
15 viewers found this helpful.
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Melissa
Medicine Hat, AB
Aug 31, 2011
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BEST OUTDOOR GPS
Pros: durable, waterproof, good satellite reception!
We LOVE our new Garmin Montana 650! We bought it specifically so we'd have coverage for geocaching while on a trip to Alaska and it is wonderful! Picked up satellites wherever we were at, tracked the geocaches wonderfully and saved all the data we needed. It's definitely water proof as rainy Juneau, Alaska tested that! And, a 25 mile bumpy bicycle ride proved it's durability in the rain too! Definitely recommend!!
Recommend? YES
22 viewers found this helpful.
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cmkl
Ottawa, ON
Aug 30, 2011
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ALMOST THE GPS OF MY DREAMS
Pros: display, map rotation, routing, speed
Cons: size, lack of accessories
I'm coming from an eTrex Vista circa 2003, so maybe I'm naive, but this is great. Something handheld that points the way I'm pointing, has a big, colour touch screen, that doesn't take three minutes to acquire a location, that uses modern computer inputs. Heaven.
The only thing would be it's really big. Too big, honestly, to be considered 'hand held'. There's no belt clip for it and no one makes one, as of the date of this review (Aug. 2011). I mostly do canoe camping so I'm going to attach it to the canoe thwart but I still don't know how to deal with it on portages.
Recommend? YES
30 viewers found this helpful.
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