Garmin Oregon 500 series with built-in camera leaks out
By Nilay Patel 
posted Mar 15th 2009 11:29PM
posted Mar 15th 2009 11:29PM
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An example of a bad post: neither in the title, nor in the body does it mention what the hell garmin oregon 500 series is? clearly it's some sort of a device with a camera. So? is it really difficult to type 2 words: mapping handheld?
I think a "nav unit" is kinda like a "mapping handheld".
@ Leo.
I'm sure the editors here expect that the readers have a clue about even the most common consumer electronics.
If you have no idea what a "nav unit" is.... well, I think you will find the Hello Kitty Island Adventure forums to be better suited for you.
http://www.hellokittyonline.com/us/ - Since you seem to have issue with even the simplest of things, I provided a link for you.
are u freaking kidding me.,?! a $600 nav unit in 2009.,get out of town!!!!!!!!!major fail!!!!!!!!!!!1
the only major fail i see here is your use of punctuation.
The Oregon is worth absolutely every penny.
Do not feed the troll.
This is the be all / end all of consumer / recreation grade GPS units. There's a reason so many US soldiers carry a Garmin for backup! It's loaded to the hilt with every feature found in it's class. It's the only fully featured GPS that competes with Garmin's GPSMAP 60CSx. (Just remember to pack a small duffel bag of batteries for those extended trips!)
Adding a camera is a convenient addition that won't suck up extra juice while it's not in use. I just hope they don't pack some crappy cellphone-quality, two megapixel piece of plastic in there. This guy's going to be awesome!
Sheesh! Who can afford it? Way over priced.
The countless people who were buying $500 nav systems a few years ago?
Is it called the Oregon because it drives unreasonably slowly, cuts you off without signaling, and can't pump its own gas?
*eyeroll* So clever.
For $600 it better play Oregon Trail
Last time I checked, GPS units had built-in cameras for Geo-Tagging in 2007. Why is this news?
Here, simple googling gives this: http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1895,1945433,00.asp from this time in 2006.
Adding a camera into a nav device is fine, but what Garmin should've done, is focused on something truly important like adding some proper features that were missing from the 400 series:
1) Well developed automotive navigation with spoken street names and directions (which of course, would require an integrated speaker of some sort)
2) A truly sunlight readable screen (which is simply does not have, no matter how much they insist it does).
3) A way to delete geocache files that are loaded on the device, directly from the device without having to connect to a computer
4) A way to batch transfer multiple geocache data files from one Oregon to another (instead of only one by one).
I would think that most people would rather have those things I listed above instead of a camera (which really is not a priority for a nav device).
The 400 Series CAN do automotive navigation, but it requires you to buy a $100 map sold separately (which is ridiculous considering how expensive the Oregon is to begin with) and then load it, and it still leaves a lot to be desired - it doesn't match up to Garmin's dedicated automotive nav units (no spoken directions, no spoken street names). I wanted to see the 400 Series with everything it has, plus excellent automotive nav, too, to serve as a powerful all-in-one/do-it-all nav unit. I had suggested they do that and rename it the Oregon 500, but they decided a camera was more important.
Garmin, many of us (knowing full well I'm not the only one) would like to see the next version of this particular device handle street-based nav in the way your 700 series nav units do. The Oregons are packed with great features, and you're so close to offering the best do-it-all nav device out there, but please consider adding the features I listed above.
now we have a true dashboard cam for the car
A combined geotagging camera is a boon for those of us in the conservation movement. The handheld GPSs really aren't intended as NAV devices for cars, but rather are for remote use when trekking. Having to sync up a GPS unit and digital camera was a major annoyance and fairly costly for those of use mapping roadless/wilderness/oil and gas, etc. There aren't too many cameras out there that even allow for adding GPS tags on the market anymore.