Garmin GPS III Waterproof Hiking GPS

by Garmin

Product Details

Product Manual [1.27mb PDF]

• Product Dimensions: 5 x 1.6 x 2.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2 pounds
• Shipping: Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S.
• ASIN: B00000J40U
• Item model number: 100018500
• Batteries: 4 AA batteries required.
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (53 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #61,218 in Electronics (See Top 100 in Electronics)
• Discontinued by manufacturer: Yes
• Date first available at Amazon.com: September 4, 1973

Product Description

Amazon.com Product Description

Garmin's new GPS III Plus offers cartographic capabilities formerly found only in high-end automotive navigation and marine chart plotting units. The basemap in the GPS III Plus will get you where you're going with more than 10,000 new towns added to the permanent basemap. It also includes airport locations, secondary roads in metro areas and even detailed exit information for the federal interstate highway system, including information about available lodging, food, and service stations.

Its powerful 12 parallel channel receiver tracks and uses up to 12 satellites for fast, accurate positioning. Its versatile screen switches between horizontal to vertical orientation with the press of a button, and it has a detachable antenna. The GPS III Plus also features an adaptable navigation page with either compass or highway steering guidance, and user-selectable data fields. In addition, you get the Garmin-patented TrackBack feature, which lets you quickly navigate your track log back home without manually storing waypoints.

The Garmin GPS III Plus comes with a PC interface cable, Velcro mount, user's manual, and quick reference guide. It has a tough case that is waterproof to IPX7 standards.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

740 of 746 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Indispensable for answering, "are we there yet.", November 21, 1999

By 

Mark Ressa ([e-mail]) (Newport Beach, California) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Garmin GPS III Waterproof Hiking GPS (Electronics)

A recent TV commercial shows a guy walking around the house with his new GPS from Amazon.com mumbling things like, "at this rate it will take me XX days to get to XYZ" after which his wife comments, "I should have bought him the tie." It's cute, my wife loves it and emphasizes, tongue in cheek, how much guys love gadgets, but these things really are useful!

I own the Garmin GPSIII and the new eMap. I have found these GPS units to be extremely useful, competent and entertaining. I've used them for sailing, vacations, business trips, commuting and motorcycling. For motorcycling, I find using a GPS unit to be indispensable, especially when traveling in unfamiliar areas. Pulling over to the side of the road to look at a map requires taking off my gloves and helmet, which is time consuming and frustrating. With a GPS unit, I can preprogram a 1,000+ mile trip and never have to pull over to look at a map, never miss a turn, always know how far and how long it will be to my next rest / fuel stop, etc. It's also nice at the end of the day to precisely know how long you've been traveling (with the eMap, your moving, stopped and total time), your average and top speed, and miles covered. Should you have a problem requiring service, you can communicate your exact location. If you have children, you can answer that perennial question, "are we there yet" to the minute and tenth of a mile.

I was going to upgrade to the GPSIII Plus for its ability to import maps from my computer but learned Garmin had produced a new model, the eMap. Having had a GPSIII (i.e., GPSIII Plus without the maps) for years, I knew how well made, reliable and valuable the unit is but was intrigued by the eMap. The eMap is slightly lighter, definitely thinner and has a screen that is 20% larger than the GPSIII Plus. It is also less expensive. I also liked the fact that the eMap has memory cartridges in 8 or 16 meg sizes whereas I've read that the GPSIII Plus has only 1.5 megs of internal map storage (not upgradeable), considerably smaller. On the plus side for the GPSIII Plus it is significantly more water-resistant (an absolute necessity for water activities), your information can be displayed on a number of different "pages" or screens and it is much more user configurable.

Although I love my new eMap, I'm not getting rid of my GPSIII. As between the GPSIII Plus and the eMap, I would say this. For the vast majority of people using a GPS, especially those new to GPS, the eMap is THE handheld GPS to have. If things like VMG ("velocity made good") are important to you, if you want a unit that can be configured for a number of specialized applications, if you aren't bothered by the memory limitation of the GPSIII Plus, then I'd highly recommend that unit. You could hardly go wrong with either.

444 of 450 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Garmin GPS III+, November 29, 1999

By 

Mitch Carlson (Shawnee, Kansas) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Garmin GPS III Waterproof Hiking GPS (Electronics)

First, let me correct an earlier entry. The III+ does come with an external antenna. One can remove and replace this with an active antenna if they'd like. A good active antenna that is optimized for gain and low power consumption (remember - without a 12v cigarette lighter adapter, you're at the mercy of 4 AA alkalines!)will cost around $55.00 - not $100! This is my second Garmin, my first was a III model. I upgraded to the III+ as the base map is more detailed. For example, on major highways, it'll tell you what services are available, if any, at the exits. These "services" can be further defined: another screen will tell you the names of the places! And this is standard equipment! Various CD's are available that allow one to upload more detailed street-level maps of most of the cities and/or towns in the US. CD World Atlas and Topographical maps are available as well. I've used the unit in the car and on aircraft and have always found it to be incredibly accurate. Battery life is good, even with the active antenna attached. The only improvement I'd desire would be a rechargeable NiCad battery pack!

232 of 234 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars TV ad Missleading, December 4, 1999

By 

Ed Messenger (Connecticut) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Garmin GPS III Waterproof Hiking GPS (Electronics)

This is just a quick note to remind people of the realistic capabilities of the gps 3 series and all other units. In the amazon/usps TV ad, the guy is running around his house playing with a new gps3 or 3+. These units function great, and will tell you how far it is to cleveland etc, but they DO NOT function inside buildings. GPS satelite signals are very weak, and even when you are outside, if you are near a large building or under lots of trees, your reception can be poor. The is not the unit's fault, it is the radio frequencies assigned by the gvt. If you use it in areas that recpetion is poor, the gps3 series is a good choice because it has an easily removeable antenna which can be placed on an extension cable for a small improvement, or replaced with an amplified antenna for a big improvement.