Amazon’s price for the 60CSx is about $235, and the Vista HCx $210.
I bought my 60CSX in june on Amazon for $291.34 and it is still the same price today. I love it.
In addition to the GPS, you will also need Garmin’s Topo 2008 mapware – runs about $75. There’s better mapware out there, notably from National Geographic, but the Garmin software is the only one which can upload to your Garmin GPS and replace the stock basemaps. You can move information (tracks/routes/waypoints) between Topo 2008 and the various NG series (as well as other map software) but to move it to your GPS it must use the Garmin software.
You don't need the mapping software. I use a better (and free) version that I got off the internet. It has the topo lines marked (in feet) in even multiples like 10,20,30, etc insteasd of the GARMIN gibberish of converting meters-to-feet on metric multiples. Also some mapping extraneous labelling is removed, to save space, and some other more pertinent stuff added; it is maintained by a local SAR group.
For mapping in the other direction, I use TopoFusion (also free, or nearly so). It uses the MSN terraserver, and there are a few bugs in its data base, near Split Mtn, but I can live with that.
Get a bigger memory chip as well – a 2GB microSD for about $10 is fine – will allow enough room to load in maps for most of the mountainous areas on both coasts.
that's what I did also, although my mapset takes just over 1Gig, it covers all of CA and areas in Nevada near the CA/NV border.
I use AA NiMH rechargeable batteries (the 60CSx uses two) and I carry 4 spares (my camera also uses AA) and find they almost always last 8-10 hours. In cold weather I carry 4 lithium in addition to the NiMH as lithiums are not affected much by cold (below freezing). I’ve only needed the lithiums once for a period of about 3 hours, but was glad I had them.
good idea. I didn't know the lithium trick. I may need it this weekend!