As discussed in another thread, I've put some screenshots online in my gallery here: njpinebarrens.com/forums/modules.php?set_albumName=album122
Note: the NJPB Gallery is long gone, so here are the screenshots.
They show the difference between the Garmin MapSource City Navigator and US Topo databases on the color screen of the 2620 GPS. They might look a little different on other Garmin units due to screen size, etc. Also note that you can customize the level of detail and which features you want to show using various menu options on the GPS.
I think the topo maps are a huge improvement over the city maps. My only complaint is that when you zoom farther out the screen becomes very cluttered because there is just too much data to display. But this can be managed by changing the detail level in the menu (these screenshots have detail set to "most"). Also note that if you don't load any of the mapsource products into your GPS and just use the builtin basemaps then all of these examples would show a blank screen!
The Garmin has a lot of other customizable features for displaying data on the screen (like heading, speed, elevation, street name, etc) but I have turned all these off in order to show the largest possible map in these examples.
I included a couple shots of the Magellan Meridian Gold with the MapSend Topo database also. Not a completely fair comparison since this model has a monochrome screen with only 4 levels of grayscale, however you can see that these maps really don't provide a lot of information beyond roads. They do indicate elevation in the status area at the bottom of the screen however.
Also note that the only software which can actually display maps on your GPS is that which is made by the manufacturer. In other words, you can't load the Garmin maps into a Magellan GPS or vice-versa.
Hope these are helpful if you're thinking about getting a GPS or upgrading your software. Let me know if you have any questions.
Note: the NJPB Gallery is long gone, so here are the screenshots.
They show the difference between the Garmin MapSource City Navigator and US Topo databases on the color screen of the 2620 GPS. They might look a little different on other Garmin units due to screen size, etc. Also note that you can customize the level of detail and which features you want to show using various menu options on the GPS.
I think the topo maps are a huge improvement over the city maps. My only complaint is that when you zoom farther out the screen becomes very cluttered because there is just too much data to display. But this can be managed by changing the detail level in the menu (these screenshots have detail set to "most"). Also note that if you don't load any of the mapsource products into your GPS and just use the builtin basemaps then all of these examples would show a blank screen!
The Garmin has a lot of other customizable features for displaying data on the screen (like heading, speed, elevation, street name, etc) but I have turned all these off in order to show the largest possible map in these examples.
I included a couple shots of the Magellan Meridian Gold with the MapSend Topo database also. Not a completely fair comparison since this model has a monochrome screen with only 4 levels of grayscale, however you can see that these maps really don't provide a lot of information beyond roads. They do indicate elevation in the status area at the bottom of the screen however.
Also note that the only software which can actually display maps on your GPS is that which is made by the manufacturer. In other words, you can't load the Garmin maps into a Magellan GPS or vice-versa.
Hope these are helpful if you're thinking about getting a GPS or upgrading your software. Let me know if you have any questions.
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