Garmin Oregon 550T 3-Inch Handheld GPS Navigator with 3.2MP Digital Camera (U.S. Topographic Maps)

Product Details

• Product Dimensions: 2.3 x 1.5 x 4.5 inches ; 8 ounces
• Shipping Weight: 2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Shipping: Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S.
• ASIN: B0029LDDPM
• Item model number: 010-00697-11
  

By : Garmin
List Price : $599.99
Price : $437.00
You Save : $162.99 (27%)

Product Description

Edition: Preloaded Topographic Maps, Camera
Amazon.com Product Description
The navigator with the photographic memory--Oregon 550t combines rugged outdoor touchscreen navigation with a 3.2 megapixel digital camera. Add preloaded U.S. topo maps, along with high-sensitivity GPS, barometric altimeter, 3-axis electronic compass and microSD card slot. The result? A multipurpose device that will make your biggest adventures even more memorable.

Oregon 550t combines rugged outdoor touchscreen navigation with a 3.2 megapixel digital camera. Click to enlarge.

3.2 megapixel autofocus digital camera with 4x digital zoom. Click to enlarge.

Preloaded with U.S. topographic data for the continental U.S. and a worldwide basemap with shaded relief. Click to enlarge.

3-inch diagonal, sunlight-readable, color touchscreen display. Click to enlarge.
Take Pictures and Save Locations
Capture locations and memories with Oregon 550t's 3.2 megapixel autofocus digital camera with 4x digital zoom. Each photo is automatically geotagged with the location of where it was taken, allowing you to navigate back to that exact spot in the future. Snap and view pictures in landscape or portrait orientation. With 850 MB of internal memory, you'll never miss a photo opportunity. To store online, simply connect Oregon 550 via USB and log into my.Garmin.com to upload and store your photos at Picasa, a popular online photo sharing community for friends and families around the world. For more storage, insert a microSD card; you can even view pictures from other devices on microSD with Oregon's picture viewer.
Touch and GoOregon 550t makes rugged navigation effortless with a tough, 3-inch diagonal, sunlight-readable, color touchscreen display. The interface is easy to use, so youÕll spend more time enjoying the outdoors and less time searching for information. Both durable and waterproof, Oregon 550t is built to withstand the elements. Bumps, dust, dirt, humidity and water are no match for this rugged navigator.
Explore the TerrainOregon 550t comes with built-in U.S. topographic data for the continental U.S. and a worldwide basemap with shaded relief--all the tools for serious climbing or hiking. Map detail includes national, state and local parks and forests, along with terrain contours, elevation information, trails, rivers, lakes and points of interest.
Get Your BearingsOregon 550t has a built-in 3-axis tilt-compensated electronic compass, which shows your heading even when youÕre standing still, without holding it level. Its barometric altimeter tracks changes in pressure to pinpoint your precise altitude, and you can even use it to plot barometric pressure over time, which can help you keep an eye on changing weather conditions. And with its high-sensitivity, WAAS-enabled GPS receiver and HotFix satellite prediction, Oregon 550t locates your position quickly and precisely and maintains its GPS location even in heavy cover and deep canyons.
Find FunGo paperless with Oregon 550t by quickly downloading information from Geocaching.com for up to 5000 caches, such as location, terrain, difficulty, hints and description. No more manually entering coordinates and paper print outs. Slim and lightweight, Oregon is the perfect companion for all your outdoor pursuits.
Share WirelesslyWith Oregon 550t you can share your waypoints, tracks, routes and geocaches wirelessly other Oregon and Colorado users. Now you can send your favorite route to a friend to enjoy or the location of a cache to find. Sharing data is easy. Just touch "send" to transfer your information to similar devices.
What's in the BoxOregon 550t, AA battery charger, 2 AA NiMH batteries, carabiner clip, USB cable, owner's manual on disk, and quick start manual
The navigator with the photographic memory Oregon 550t combines rugged outdoor touchscreen navigation with a 3.2 megapixel digital camera. Add preloaded U.S. topo maps, along with high-sensitivity GPS, barometric altimeter, 3-axis electronic compass and microSD card slot. The result A multipurpose device that will make your biggest adventures even more memorable.

 

Garmin Oregon 550T 3-Inch Handheld GPS Navigator with 3.2MP Digital Camera (U.S. Topographic Maps)

 

Technical Details

• Tough, 3-inch diagonal, sunlight-readable, color touchscreen display
• 3.2 megapixel autofocus digital camera with 4x digital zoom
• Barometric altimeter tracks changes in pressure to pinpoint your precise altitude, can plot barometric pressure over time
• Both durable and waterproof, Oregon 550t is built to withstand the elements
• Built-in 3-axis tilt-compensated electronic compass

Customer Reviews

As of May 6, 2010 I have had and used this product extensively for about six weeks. The software on the unit has been updated to the latest which is version 3.40. I do a lot of cross-country driving and I go off road several times a week especially in remote locations with no trails.
For those that do not wish to read the rest of this review let me just say that THE OREGON IS AWESOME and I recommend it to anyone for both On-Road and Off-Road.
Runs on AA batteries which is a godsend when traveling as you can purchase them anywhere around the world. You can also utilize rechargeable batteries. Keep in mind the unit will not recharge batteries but you can make your unit run off of external power conserving your batteries. You can utilize any charger with a USB connection to do this. You must however have the unit set up to Garmin Spanner in SetupSystemInterface setting configured, otherwise the unit will go into USB mass storage mode and you will not be able to use the GPS.
This unit will support navigating to geo-tag photographs. This technology is becoming more prevalent as more and more digital cameras are now geo-tagging their photographs. Not to mention Google has a ton of geo-tagged photographs that one can download. Now if you ever find a photograph you like that is geo-tagged all you have to do is click on the picture in your Oregon and it will take you directly to the spot where the picture was taken.
The size of the Oregon is amazing and it will fit into a pocket quite easily and comfortably which may not be an issue when you're outdoors and have a pack but when you are walking the city streets it is a huge advantage over the Garmin 60csx.
Let me just say I have owned the Garmin 60csx as well and I will make some important comparisons to that unit that are relevant for everyday use. Please note that the Garmin 60csx is also a phenomenal GPS and this review is not meant to discredit the unit in anyway.
Let's get to the point of accuracy. Plain and simple the Oregon is not as accurate as the 60csx. Having said that it is plenty accurate. In most situations I will get around 13 feet of accuracy on the road on the Oregon. The 60csx in a similar environment will get about 9 feet of accuracy. For driving it is not that big of a deal. For outdoor use in most situations it makes no difference. This unit will lock on to satellites indoors in most structures just like the 60csx.
As far as locking onto a signal I never have problems with the Oregon. The first time out of the box took maybe 2 minutes for it to lock on. Ever since then it takes less than 2 seconds even when I have a few days that goes by without using the unit which is not often since I love my Oregon.
Addressing the screen. As far as brightness goes, again the 60csx is definitely brighter in direct sunlight. In other environments you really cannot tell the difference. What most people don't realize is that the Oregon screen has a much higher resolution then the 60csx which is a lot more crucial for reading topographical maps and for general navigation. It is because of this higher resolution screen that you have less brightness associated with the Oregon.
The brightness in direct sunlight is not an issue for me with the Oregon as a matter of fact I turn the brightness down to zero and the display can be read perfectly well in direct sunlight (you will have to play with the angles in which you view the device more so than with the 60csx). The capability of having a touch screen is a huge advantage over the 60csx in my opinion. The one thing that the Oregon doesn't have is a dedicated Mark Waypoint button that I miss from my 60csx, this is a huge feature missing from the Oregon.
The actual software is pretty good on the Oregon however I wish it would have used some of the neat features they developed for the 60csx. Having said that the software and the trip computer are for the most part completely customizable. There are too many to get into in this short of a review but there is plenty of information comparing the two software versions on the Internet.
The Oregon does have profiles which can be set and this is very useful not only for setting up the GPS for different environments such as Off-Road and On-Road navigation but also for the preferences of different users.
To anyone interested in how this unit performs in the car the answer is simple, GREAT. I have no issues for using the Oregon to navigate the roadways anywhere I go. Although the Oregon does not speak the street names it will give an audio beep for upcoming important notifications. You can have custom POI. You can have proximity alerts.
There are routable maps available which means the unit will notify you when you need to make turns and on what side your destination is located on. You can send addresses from Google maps directly to the unit with the Garmin plug-in installed.
Off-Road this thing is AMAZING. In a lot of the aspects I liked it a lot more than the 60csx. I have had no issues with the unit off road. I will not comment more on Off-Road use as there are a lot of other positive reviews addressing the Off-Road capabilities of this unit.
The 3-axis Compass is AMAZING. It works phenomenally well and is extremely useful. One thing that I love is that you can actually insert it into the trip computer which for me works a lot better than the dedicated compass screen as you can see a lot more useful information along with the Compass.
This unit is marine capable but I have not tested the unit out on the open water.
For the most part the Altimeter on the Oregon is completely useless.

I have owned the Oregon 550T for a year now and I think I have used every of its most important features, accessories and software. My overall rating is that there is room for improvement, its accessories are very expensive but it is one of the top hiking GPS products compared to others. There is so much stuff that can be reviewed so I'll try to cover purchasing decision factors and how-to tips that I think will be valuable for the ones looking for real and tested decision information.
- ACCURACY: I have used my Oregon mostly in the Shenandoah, VA area and have done hiking in South America as well. One point in behalf of the Oregon is its ability to quickly pick satellite reception and pinpoint your location. I have noticed though that when you drastically change your location, let's say North American vs. South America, the GPS will need more time to discover the satellites in that area, but after that, it reconnects quickly.
One not pleasant detail is that even when you walk back and forth over the same trail and spot, the GPS shows your tracks several feet apart. The accuracy of the GPS from my measurements is around 25 feet and often more. You may want to remember this when hiking and trying to find the trail the GPS tells you is there. You may find it 25 feet "around" you and not exactly in the direction the GPS is telling you it is. I think its accuracy requires improvement.
Initially I thought this is a problem in my GPS so I contacted Garmin's support and I was told basically what I suspected. The accuracy is not 2 or 3 feet but a whole lot more. I think is not too different to a car GPS in this regards. I also found that once you tap on the satellite signal in the GPS it will provide you the GPS accuracy which often displays a number between 30 and 49. To me this is something that requires urgent improvement. The mission of a GPS is ultimately let you know where your trails are, not providing accurate information is failing to its basic mission.
- MAPS AND PRELOADED MAP: The Oregon 550T comes preloaded with the US Topo 100K. This is a very low detail map. My experience tells me that many well-known park trails are missing, camp information is missing and basic routes are missing as well. It is just an awfully basic, high level map. I felt very disappointed to know that my over 500+ bucks didn't give me anything better so I contacted Garmin regarding this. I wanted something with more details so they kindly recommended me to get the Garmin Topo US 24K DVD for my area (Southeast DVD) which is $129.99 or an BirdsEye imagery subscription for one year (more about this last one later in my review) but they require of purchasing an additional microSD Card. Expenditures continue.
- ADDITIONAL CARD: Technical support told me that the maximum microSD card supported by the Oregon 550t is 4GB so I got one. Make sure to review the microSD card speed before you buy it. There are several speeds, make sure to get the fastest possible to make sure uploading and downloading data doesn't becomes mission impossible. Installation of the card is hassle free and it got it in quickly. There is very little you can do with the card and the GPS alone if you don't have the necessary software tools to move maps around with your GPS. I'll talk about that later in my review.
- OTHER MAPS, DVDS OR CARDS OR WHAT: If you have been browsing Garmin's website you may have noticed an interesting assortment of products. They have the same maps in several formats: DVD, microSD and download. I contacted support and ask them what format is more convenient and why. Michael S from their technical team gave me this great answer: "Thank you for contacting Garmin International. I would be happy to assist you with this. For most of our maps there are typically 3 options: Getting a disk, doing the download or getting the preprogrammed data card. When you get the disk you have these on both the computer and the unit. You can load these Topo maps onto as many Garmin mapping handhelds that you own since it is not a locked product. With the preprogrammed data card, the maps are just on the card. They cannot be viewed on the computer unless the Oregon is plugged in and Basecamp is running. They also cannot be backed up. It can be put into any Garmin unit that accepts microSD/SD cards as it is not locked to a particular unit, but it can only be in one unit at one time. With the downloadable content, it is downloaded directly to your microSD card. The map can be backed up on the computer, but it cannot be viewed on the computer unless the Oregon is plugged in and Basecamp is running. The map is also locked to the unit you downloaded it to, and cannot be viewed in any other Garmin unit. As for the DVD version of the 24k Mid-Atlantic, the DVD is still forthcoming and will include both the Mid-Atlantic and Southeast regions. The part number for the DVD is 010-11319-00 and will be $129.99. If you have any other questions, please let me know. "
Well, as you can see from this answer you better get the DVD. If you have not purchased the GPS, you may want to plan on adding 130 bucks to your budget if you are planning to hike places you are not familiar with because the preloaded US Topo 100K is too high level.
- THE CAMERA AND DIGITAL ZOOM: When I read that the Oregon can geotag pictures with the location of the shot I got excited. For a minute I was thinking the camera can imprint this information in the picture itself like many digital cameras can do with the date/time stamp. I was wrong, there isn't such thing as that. When you take pictures, information is recoded and kept in the GPS. You can download the pictures using BaseCamp and then upload the pictures to an album in Picassa, and then when you click the picture, geolocation information will be displayed in a text field but not in the picture. I think there is misleading information here, this is what Garmin claims in their website: "Each photo is geotagged automatically with the location of where it was taken". Instead it should say: "Geolocation information is saved in the GPS every time you take a picture. No photo geolocation stamp is available".
Well, aside this fiasco, I find the GPS camera not to be that incredible, just a little phone-like camera without real zoom or wide angle. It will take pictures but any other digital camera will be able to do a better job.
- SUN LIGHT READABILITY: I have been hiking at sunlight and under the forest. I prefer to create a little shade to better read the Oregon. I believe that still you can read it under sunlight. Yes it is not going to be incredible clear but what can be brighter that direct sunlight? The screen can be read better under shady conditions but can handle sunlight well enough to keep you moving and oriented.
- TOUCH SCREEN: The touch screen is really nice. It feels a little like an iPhone. You can tap on the icons and move the screens from side to side, reorganize the icons and move around. You also have buttons to do exactly the same so you can choose.
- DURABLE AND WATERPROOF: The unit is impressively light and it seems rugged but I don't have any plans of testing its durability any further. I just feel that messing with a very expensive toy like this doesn't meet the requirements of my curiosity. The unit also claims to be waterproof and I have seen some demos in YouTube where the unit is operated under the water. Well, the unit connects to a PC using a USB cable and the connector is at the bottom of the device. A little cap is all what will prevent your unit from getting wet. I'm positive the unit will endure some exposure to rain and hopefully will survive a fall to a river. Make sure to keep the USB connector cap well adjusted.
- DOWNLOADING DATA - MAPSOURCE: So you went for your first hike and you recorded your tracks in your GPS. But how do you download this data to your computer? The answer is MapSource. In order to get MapSource installed you need to have a Garmin product previously installed. So install Training Center and then install MapSource. Just Google these names and the word `download' to find them. They are available at Garmin's website and thanks goodness they are free. With this software you can download data from your GPS and review the details of your tracks, modify titles, waypoints and so on. Then you can export your file as .GPX for future use or upload it to some websites. MapSource can compute the profile of your hike and other interesting data.
If you want to see your track in Google Maps or Earth, try using GPS Visualizer [...]. These cool guys created this program that allows importing GPX files into Google and presenting it all together. I also like [...], you can download your GPX data, it will process it and get your the ascent profile, speed, etc. Your GPX data will become available to anyone and you can download files for your GPS as well. Try this example: [...]
While trying to find a way to create my own maps I found TOPO! a National Geographic Product. You can create the topo maps of your hikes and print them out or get the PDF version of them and send them to your friends or just save them for future reference. TOPO! costs 50 bucks. The quality of the Topo maps is so bad but I couldn't find anything better. I hope one day you can merge your GPX files with Google Earth in terrain mode in one tool. Google Earth is still the best Topo maps I have found.
The last tool I want to mention is EasyGPS, a nice small program that will allow you to download and upload GPX files to your GPS and browse the tracks on the screen. It allows some basic editing. I find MapSource a lot better.
- BIRDSEYE IMAGERY AND BASECAMP: For those places where real maps are not available, Garmin offers you the BirdsEye Imagery subscription. It is 30 bucks a year and... Read more›