Handheld GPS

I have a Garmin Maps 78. It doubles as a Sat Nav but has all you need in a hand-held.

Garmin 62s. Great unit that I use more in the car than anywhere else. Standard maps are pretty good, but I hear oztopo also works very well with these.

Magellan Explorist 510 is my choice. Most of the Garmin's or Magellan's will do all you need and more.

They are brilliant for Geocaching as well.

You need to decide whether you want decent map storage and what kinds of maps you will use.

For Garmin you need vector maps. You can d/l Shonky for nix. These are scanned in 1:250k Australian topo maps. OK for general use but not for bushwalking nav. Garmin's topo map is not much better.

Hello

If you are on a budget then I would suggest a Garmin GPSMAP 64. For additional cost the next model ( 64S) up has electronic 3-axis Compass + Barometric Altimeter. The 62 series is much the same but would suggest the 62S as a minimum (i.e. not the 62).

Touch screen garmins (e.g. Oregon 600) are also OK but some prefer "real" buttons as on the 62/64/78 series. They all basically have the same menu and functions so more of a hardware choice than software/capability (apart from a few extras on more expensive models).

If you would like greater versatility regarding raster map choice plus nice sized screen then TwoNav Aventura may suit your needs. Also comes with vector road map of all of Australia so can also be used for street nav. I have used one in the field for several years now and it is the best GPS I have ever had for my purposes (after numerous Magellan and Garmin units) but may not suit everyone, plus a bit expensive at ~$800. It can use any calibrated ecw maps (e.g. topo, geology, vegetation, satellite, air photo) so is hard to beat in this regard, though requires creation of custom maps (i.e. you have convert/calibrate yourself one way or another) in a lot of cases which is not everyone's cup of tea.

Cheers
Greg

Hi Bowdo.
I would not buy a stand alone hand held gps now, i have two and never use them anymore. Just get a good android phone we are using the kogan latest with inbuilt gps and loaded with oziexplorer, add an sd card and maps of your choice. The only time my magellon explorist is used now is in the boat.
Cheers Graeme.

Thank you to all the replied. Will look into all your suggestions. Really appreciated

I have found the Holux 132 running oziexplorer CE I have a 16gb card in mine and I can run a fist full of maps in it. The earlier Holux 130 run Memory Maps but the do no support the device any more. The GPS reception is first class and offer a sunlight readable colour touch screen.Holux 132 link