Took this to Alaska for 2 weeks. Also purchased the topo maps and took my laptop so I could download maps as we went. Excellent when used in the car and while hiking, canoeing, fishing.

Not waterproof, but here is the trick. Purchase the rubber cover. put the emap in a zip lock and squeeze all the air out with the opening at the back of the unit. Place the unit into the rubber cover. You now have a waterproof unit that will not go down due to condensation.

I loved and still love this unit.

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None

GPS receivers are great, but as the other guy said, they're no substitute for carrying topo maps and knowing how to read them. The eMap is a car GPS. As a former user of one of these, I can tell you the plastic bag trick doesn't work in rainy weather. When the temp changes, as it does in rainy weather, humidity condenses inside the bag & the eMap goes dead. The eMap is the only Garmin handheld that is as sensitive to moisture as a Magellan. There are many waterproof handhelds on the market that allow uploading of waypoints. Save yo' money & get something waterproof.

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None

The eMAP is NOT a hikers tool, and I didn't purchase it primarily for that, though I use it when hiking. Garmin makes excellent mapping hiker GPSs (the eTREX Legend for instance), and hikers should look at that product since it includes mapping, barometric altimeter, and all other standard Garmin features. However, one can use an eMAP for hiking though a lot of care needs to be used. FOr instance, keep ziploc bag handy to protect against water.

The eMAP is a wonderful GPS, albeit mostly for the road and around town because of the lack of weather resistance, unless you take care as indicated above. My eMAP has a 32 MB cartridge, which mans I can load the entire MetroGuide (all streets, busnesses, hospitals, exist, whatever, along with addresses and phone numbers) map for Arizona, New Mexico, and West Texas. Basically, with the eMAP you never need a phone book or map to find exactly where the nearest bowling alley, Burger King, gas station, hotel, police station, or rest stop is. It tells you sun up or sun down for your location. When in motion, it tells you the nearest cross street or exit in the direction you are moving. You can program a route in and it tels you when to make the turn. For hikers, the value is not so much in the topgraphic maps which can be uploaded, since these are not high resolution, but only rough guides to the terrain, but in the ability to program waypoints into the eMAP from your computer using either Garmin or third pary map software. Once you have the wapoints plotted in, you just selct that waypoint, and hit GOTO that waypoint, and the eMAP gives you the direction, distance, and estimated time to that waypoint. So lets say you are going to hike the Tonto trail in the Grand Canyon. You would program the waypoints in along the way that you consider important turns or junctions, so if you wandered off the trail you could identify the direction go to the next waypoint. Or the EMAP (and most other Garmin GPSs) have a tracking feature which keeps track of your path as long as it is on. So lest say you get completely lost. The EMAP allows you to backtrack down you path to find you way back.

Outside, I have only rarely had problems with receiving satllelites, and even in large citys, surrounded by tall buildings, there isn't a mjor problem getting at least three to give your location.

The EMAP requires 2 AA batteries. I use rechargeables on short trips, but don;t do this when hiking. Make sure you use high quality alkalines, and you'll get about 15 hours continous use.

Overall the e-MAP is a great tool, but for hikers, go to the eTREX series.

One thing that I would have to say about GPS, in general, is that it does requre a bit a sophistication to master the full use of it. In particular in order to make maximum use of the mapping features, one does need to be reasonably proficient at the use of computers.

I would highly recommend Jack yeazel's and Joe Mehaffey's GPS review site before you buy: http://www.joe.mehaffey.com/

Customer Service

Garmin customer service has been fantastic. A lot of their products are more or less under constant development even after they sell them to you. This means free updates on firmware sotware. Basically your product in you hands is always undergoing free improvement by Garmin. Keep in mind that this also means occaisonal major glitches which can be quite annoying, but this is in my mind an acceptable price to pay for something that gets better every month or two with their latest firmware update. Even when a firmware update wiped out my memory module (along with thousands of other customers), Garmin owned up to it instantly, and pulled out all stops to get a new one to me at no cost in a timely manner.

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None

This is a good GPS for the car if you want something that can occasionally be taken out to take a reading on a nearby hilltop, etc. - as long as its DRY outside.

Herein lies the eMap's biggest disadvantage. Garmin doesn't even market the eMap as an 'outdoor' GPS receiver. Unlike the eTrex, eTrex Vista or Garmin 12 line of receivers, it has no water resistance whatsoever - it's strictly intended to be used in a vehicle or other protected environment. As part of a backpacker's gear it's going to give up the ghost pretty quick.

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Lowrance GlobalNav 212
Garmin 12CX

I have used a friend's eMap using Topo and was not impressed. It's not that easy to get to the map, and detail still isn't up to backpacking standards. Some have marketed this receiver as a way to leave your paper topo map at home - this is a REALLY stupid idea given the vagaries of GPS and battery operation. Like the III+, this receiver is better suited to vehicle use with a constant power feed as opposed to battery operation while on foot or bicycle. As far as battery use, his unit's 2 AAs will run out of juice in only about 9.5 hours (compared to 22+ hours for the eTrex).

Customer Service

Helpful & friendly

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Garmin eTrex Summit
Garmin III+
Magellan 315

What a GREAT piece of work. I recently obtained my e-map and loaded in the roads/rec cd for all the counties between El Paso and Ft. Worth, Texas. It worked flawlessly and had me right on the money. When I got home, I looked at the garmin site and noted that my software version was not the latest. I downloaded the file, and installed it on my new emap without a hitch. The versatility of the unit is great. I can download those areas that I'll be traveling in, or those that I MAY travel in, and keep an extra 8meg chip with me. It is great and well worth the bucks.

Customer Service

Haven't had to call....hope I won't have too.

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Garmin 45 which I've had for years. It also worked great while I was in the Middle East. I had a lot of dive spots, buoys, markers, channels, in my 45 for boating and diving. It too was right on the money.

I had a lot of trouble with the software on my unit. Garmin doesn't have the easiest CS to deal with. After two tries it is working better now. It does run thru batteries pretty fast, though.

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None

I have used the eMap on Rainer and Robson, extensively in the White Mountains and am very happy with it. I use lithium AA's, have no problem with "outdated electronics" (don't where that reviewer got his data). The topos are easy to download off my computer (never got an error message), are very useful bushwacking and on glacier.

Has saved my tail several times and replaced my paper map and compass.

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Most of the other GPS, 20 years of map and compass

An energy hog. Garmin 12 & eMap receivers focus their benefits, wrongly I think towards mapping displays. These are of little use to a backpacker hiking in remote or desolate areas, either cross-country or on game trails. It is remarkably difficult to orient oneself using oneself with the level of detail available so far with these topo displays. As a result you'll be bringing a topo map anyway-so what's the point? You're paying for a map feature you don't need, the receiver uses outdated and hungry energy hardware and needs 4 'AA' batts, is heavy, expensive and I've found these to be less than completely dust and moisture resistant. A backpacker would be much better off with a lightweight Garmin eTrex, or, if more performance is desired, a Brunton MNS. Both use only 2 'AA' batts & last much longer than the Garmin 12 & eMap units. The MNS has a GPS with one-button straightest path return, separate electronic compass with lockable bearings if you lose GPS signal, separate altimeter accurate to 3 feet, clock & thermometer.

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All Garmin 12 products
Brunton MNS
Garmin eTrex

I've been a proponent of GPS's since they first became available in hand held models. Though one would be foolish to wonder into the wilderness with no other means of navigation other than a GPS, they do offer many exciting alternatives to a map and compass alone.

This hunting season I tried the E-Map for the first time. It took much consideration before I was able to make my mind up on exactly which GPS to buy...Garmin just couldn't seem to get it all together in one model. Each one seemed to be lacking something that another possessed

However, despite it's shortcomings (not being water proof, costing too much, and being battery hungry), the Garmin E-Map is definitely a great product. With it's large map screen, expandable memory, and ability to load many different maps into it's memory, the E-Map took me to a whole new level this year.

It was hunting season and I was exploring the rim along the Kahiltna Basin on my Polaris six wheeler. My Garmin E-Map was in it's water proof bag, attached to my handlebars. From where we sat, the nearest trail 15 miles away, and the nearest road at least 50 miles away. Before us was a never ending vista of wilderness, with the mighty Susitna River, and it's largest tributary, the Yetna, off to our right, and Mt. McKinley just to my left, looming so large that if we weren't high up on a plateau, we would have been in it's shadow.

Our goal was to get to the bottom of the Kahiltna Basin, but the question was how. Time was limited, fuel was limited, and trails were non existent. The solution was simple. I consulted my E-Map. The screen showed exactly where we were sitting, and the USGS Topos for the whole area were loaded on it. I simply scrolled the cursor arrow from point to point studying the map for gentler slopes, drainage, and other land features that looked doable.

We finally settled on a fairly gentle looking slope off of the Hungry Man Creek drainage, and took off. Despite the struggle with inpeneterable brush, mud, wholes in the earth, insects, and the ususal jungle like debri found on most of Alaska's wild slopes, we made it to the bottom. Because of our Garmin, we knew the exact direction and distance that we needed to go. Later from camp, with the aid of this one small device. we were able to explore the whole region in minute detail.

Granted this can all be done with a series of paper maps, and a good compass, but it is much more time consuming, and can be a real pain, having to stop and dig all the maps and the compass out each time you want to know what lies up ahead of you.

Another incident where the E-Map proved invaluable was when we found ourselves on foot and in thick cover. We couldn't see past more than half a dozen trees at a time, and we were not sure where on the side of the slope we were in relationship to our goal. Pulling the E-Map out, we were able to find exactly where we were, and exactly which direction we needed to go.

This might be a good time to mention an important little item when it comes to hand held GPSes.
They work best from a moving vehicle of one kind or another. Whether it's an ATV, snow machine, boat, aircraft, or PWC, GPSes work best while moving at a pace that exceeds walking.

That's why it's critical that you carry a compass with you at all times. The GPS will easily and accurately tell you how far, and which way to go, but it can not tell you which way you ARE going, unless your moving. This is also complicated by the fact that you have to be moving at a fairly steady and rapid pace (by walking standards) which is very difficult to accomplish in rough terrain.

The solution: read the direction that you must travel off of your GPS, and then find that direction with your compass, and head out! If you continue on foot, take another GPS reading every so often, and repeat the procedure. Even if you use the even newer Garmin E-Trex Summit, with it's built in electronic compass, it's still a good idea to carry the o'l manual compass as a standby incase of failure or malfunction.

The E-Map offers many new features not found on it's predecessors. For example, the "Go To" features a steady line, drawn between you and your goal. That line sticks with you no matter where you wonder, always pointing you in the correct direction. It also allows you to look up addresses in any city in the U. S. (assuming you have the appropriate Metro Guide loaded). This is a great feature if your in a strange city, trying to find your way around. It will also automatically tell you the name of the next street that you are approaching, find the nearest exit, allow you to select an exit, identify points of interest, services, and emergency facilities.

Another great feature is the ability to keep track of all your excursions on your computer. When I come in from a wilderness outing, I will dump my tracks and way points onto my computer, and then study the maps with those items drawn on them, to see exactly where I went. This is great when your in raw wilderness, and are not sure how close your were to, say, a refuge boundary, or how close your trail came to a road, etc. The computer map offers better detail, color, and higher resolution than the one loaded on the GPS.

Hey, and try this on for size. I was flying from Dallas to Alaska via Minneapolis, with my E-Map. After receiving permission from the pilot to turn it on, I was able to track our path by holding the GPSes antenna to the window! According to the E-Map, we were traveling at 32,000 feet, and going 532 miles per hour. I watched the altitude and speed change from time to time as the jet maneuvered to dodge rough weather. It was also great to be able to see exactly what state we were flying over, and to be able to see enough detail on the map to know exactly what major cities and land features were coming up. I had a great time telling all that would listen exactly what it was that they were seeing out their windows!

Yah, I know the E-Map has it's shortcomings, but it is the funest and most useful GPS product that I have yet to see, so for those that are spending a lot of time exploring those truly remote areas of the world, or cruising through new towns and cities, the E-Map is worth every penny.

Customer Service

With a quick phone call, I was able to determine that my unit needed updated software. The customer service rep explained exactly how to do this, and it was FREE!

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Magellin GPSes (a variety)
Garmin GPS III Plus
Garmin GPS II Plus
Garmin E-Trex
Garmin E-Trex Summit
Brunton GPS