Magellan Triton 2000 GPS Receiver

Comments about Magellan Triton 2000 GPS Receiver:

Third swing for REI with the Magellan Triton 2000 hits a home run! What a great GPS for those who use the National Geographic Society Topo! maps.REI loudly trumpeted Magellan Triton series GPS with the word “Behold!” in its catalog when this GPS series first came out in the fall of 2007. I drooled over the Triton 2000 unit due to Magellan’s hype surrounding it, but decided to wait for some reviews to be posted. The reviews were not good. Several weeks later REI pulled all the Magellan Tritons off its shelves and from its web site after disastrous customer reviews and returns due to serious problems with the units. Most of the complaints were about software/firmware issues – couldn’t load the NGS Topo! maps, system crashes, etc. A few months later, REI gave the Magellan Tritons another go, but again pulled them after a few weeks. I resolved not to buy a Triton 2000 until REI was willing to sell it because I only wanted to buy an expensive, but potentially buggy product, from a reputable retailer with a customer friendly return policy in case I needed to return it.A few weeks ago (late November 2008) REI gave the Magellan Tritons a third chance. Figuring REI must have become convinced Magellan had solved the biggest problems, I ordered one of the Triton 2000s instantly from REI’s web site. I had held off buying the Garmin Colorado and Oregon GPS units because they use proprietary Garmin topo maps and only the Magellan Tritons are compatible with the NGS Topo! offering of the 1:24,000 USGS topo maps – the gold standard for any backpacker.While waiting for the Triton 2000 to arrive at my local REI store, I read the literature at the NGS web site dedicated to supporting the Magellan Triton series. You should go there too if you are going to buy this product and read the Q and A’s and the five articles. [...]Anyway, after picking the Triton 2000 up at my local REI store, I went home, scanned through the Quick Start guide and then put the batteries in and walked into my back yard and powered the Triton 2000 on. I had boot up, satellite acquisition and a position fix in 90 seconds or so. Ok, so much for the easy stuff that any GPS unit should be able to do. Let’s see how the Triton 2000s does on loading an NGS Topo! map. Years ago, I had “mapped” all the trails in the Superstition Wilderness Area east of metro-Phoenix in my NGS Topo! Arizona. By “mapping” I mean tracing the trails with colored lines and inserting trail head names, points of interest (water sites, mostly) and mileage between trail junctions. I took a 2 GB SD card out of my digital camera and put it in the Triton 2000 SD card slot. Then, following the instructions on the NGS web site, I transferred a map of the entire Superstition Wilderness Area to my Triton 2000. (It took me about 30 minutes the first time I did this and was a bit of a learning process. Later on, I transferred other maps within minutes.) Behold! I now had 1:24,000 and 1:100,000 USGS maps for the entire Superstition Wilderness Area on an 8 ounce handheld device! And one with a brilliant color screen and touch screen capability! Too cool to believe!I have focused this review on the compatibility of the Triton 2000 with the NGS Topo! software because that was one of the features most important to me that distinguish the Magellan Triton series from other GPS. Some of the other features I particularly like about the Triton 2000 are: (1) touch screen capability (it seems to work quite well); (2) an integrated 2 MP camera that allows a photo to be linked to the geographic location of the photo site by tagging the photo with a waypoint (the photos are good, up to 1600 x 1200 resolution and come with a choice of three quality levels, and the waypoint assignment process is simple); (3) an integrated camcorder that also allows waypoint tagging of a video (works OK, but not impressive); (4) a integrated voice recorder that allows waypoint tagging of a sound recording (ditto); (5) an MP3 player (haven’t tried it yet); and (6) an integrated LED flashlight (OK for around camp, but not night hiking).I have used the Triton 2000 for maybe 10 hours now. I have had no system crashes or freezes. I have not yet field tested it. It appears quite rugged. The capabilities of the Triton 2000 to hold maps (and photos, MP3 files, videos and sound recordings) is impressive. With a 4MB SD card you could carry 2GB of tunes, store 1MB of photos and store more map than you could hike in a summer. There must be a limit to how big a map can be transferred. The map of the Superstitions was 22 MB and transferred from the Topo! software to the Triton 2000 with ease. I tried to transfer my Topo! map of the Absaroka and Washakie Wilderness Areas in Wyoming. My Topo! software froze. I had to split the map into Absaroka (about 70MB) and Washakie (about 95MB) to do the transfer. Those two wilderness areas cover an area larger than Yellowstone, so having to split the transfer up was no big deal.The Triton 2000 is not simple to operate. Read the manual. Some features are easy and intuitive to use, but not all. It will take me a while to get proficient with it. There some bugs. From the Triton 2000 menu system, I could delete photos but not videos or sound recordings from the SD card. Strange. There are also some features that could be improved – you can transfer the 1:100,000 and 1:24,000 maps from NGS Topo!, but not the larger scales maps from levels 1, 2 and 3. There is more to discuss, both features well implemented and those in need of improvement, than can be discussed here.

Comments about Magellan Triton 2000 GPS Receiver:

I read about geocaching online and felt it would be a great activity to get me out of the house with my yellow lab. I researched many other unit before purchasing this one and despite initially bad reviews I took a chance with this one. I must say that I could not be happier with this unit. I use it weekly for geocaching and have taken it along on several canoe/camping trips and it has performed above my expectations. It takes good web quality video/pictures [...]It is nice to not have to lug around a camera, gps, voice recorder, and mp3 player. It also geotags photos as well as voice notes that you record which is a plus. I only gave it a 4 because of the software bundled with it to transfer info to your PC(Vantage Point)can be buggy, not bad but enough to note. Plan on getting the National Geographic TOPO series software for it soon and I think it will be the ultimate combo. It also integrates well with google earth.

Comments about Magellan Triton 2000 GPS Receiver:

I use this unit for driving, backpacking, hiking, and geocaching. The optional National Geographic TOPO! maps are the best. The units started out bad a year or so ago but have been updated and are functioning great! I love the large touch screen the most. The detail in the screen is also GREAT! [...].

Comments about Magellan Triton 2000 GPS Receiver:

I wrote an earlier review of the Triton 2000 before using it in the field. I have now used it three times in the field on winter backcountry trips - two in northern Arizona and one in southwestern Colorado. What I really liked about the combination of the Triton 2000 and the NGS Topo maps was the superb knowledge it gave me of my location. If you load a map you create on the the NGS Topo software on to the Triton, then, when you are within the geographic boundaries covered by that map, you can see on the large color Triton screen exactly where you are on the map - and you can see your location in relation to all of the other wonderful detail that shows on the 1:24,000 USGS topo maps. For example, though covered with several feet of snow, I knew where 4x4 roads and trails were, even though, at least as to the trails, I could not see them. Also, the Triton 2000 has a camera. As a result, it has a JPEG viewer. This means one can save a JPEG image of an area of interest from Google Earth and then transfer the image to the SD card used in the Triton 2000 and then, in the field, view satellite imagery of an area in addition a 1:24,000 topo map of the area. The Triton 2000 is a fabulous tool. It takes considerable practice to learn how to use it. I am far from proficient.

Comments about Magellan Triton 2000 GPS Receiver:

Big Time Bummer. I use NG Topo maps and software so I was really excited when this 3rd iteration of the Triton 2000 was finally put back into the REI stores. It comes with a Magellin software called "Vantage Point" which is needed to transfer maps from your computer or to down load maps from NG or Magellin. Unfortunately, the latest version of the software is not compatible with the MS operating system XP if you have downloaded and installed Service Pack 3 (the Vantage Point software can be installed, but it can not be opened). The techs at both Magellin and NG Topo acknowledge there is a problem, but can not say when a program patch will be released. Even Microsoft's web site now acknowledges Service Pack 3 is not compatible with certain 3rd party applications - and Microsft simply states the program vendor should be contacted for an update or a fix. Without the ability to download selected maps into the Triton it is a complete waste. The background map that comes pre-loaded with the Triton is ok for major highways but that is about all its good for. Too bad, Magellin just can't seem to make what should be a good product work without problems.

Comments about Magellan Triton 2000 GPS Receiver:

There's a known error with this unit and the Nat Geo software that everyone buys to use with it. All over the web, just check. So you have to use old versions and work-arounds to get the maps to the unit. Pretty ridiculous for a $500 GPS... It's going back.