





Magellan Triton 2000
Cheap Camera, Cheap Flashlight, Good Recorder & Compass
This should be one of the best handheld GPS devices you can get. The memory
card option lets you simply plug in the maps you need and the detailed display
shows more than just a sketchy pathway chalked on a nebulous electronic
background. An optional cable (purchased extra) connects the Triton to your
PC for quick exchanges of maps or waypoint trails. For those special occasions
when you need to know which way is north but the sky is not in view, an
onboard electronic compass functions independently of the satellite net.
The Magellon Triton 2000 also includes a built in digital camera, an LED
flashlight, and a digital sound recorder. but for the cost of this unit you can get
a different GPS that does everything you need one to do, and a camera much
better than the one jammed into the Magellan 2000. Throw in a cheap five
dollar LED flashlight and a thirty dollar digital voice recorder, and there's money
left over for a dependable pocket compass that never needs batteries and
always works. I honestly do not see the need for a digital voice recorder when
you're backpacking, and a two megapixel camera equal to the one in the
Magellan 2000 is just almost as good as the average digital camera of about
eight years ago. Unless you have a ton of money to burn on toys, you need to
shop around a little more, otherwise you will have paid two hundred dollars of
the list price of this unit for a twenty dollar camera.
Users note a number of other issues, good and bad, with the Triton 2000. On
the good side of the scale, the topographic maps available as an accessory are
high resolution 1:24000 maps that hikers find most useful; but highway maps for
the Triton lack enough detail to show city streets. There have been firmware
bugs, one of which stops the unit from showing cache points closer than two
miles away, making the Triton useless for geocaching. Even for experts the link
between PC and handheld unit is a puzzle that owners sometimes don't solve,
and tech support hasn't been efficient.
I had some concerns about battery drain, since the multi functions of this unit
all require their own chunk of juice, and when heavily used that has been a
problem. The ten hour run time of the 2000 sometimes drops below three hours
per battery set.
With updates and fixes, those problems may be overcome. Meanwhile the price
and popularity of the 2000 continue to drop.
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