Garmin GPSMAP 78sc 2.6-Inch Waterproof Marine GPS and Chartplotter

I've had some experience with the older GPS 76 and found it very hard to see in bright sunlight out on the water. So, I was a bit nervous in ordering the GPS 78sc without being able to kick the tires. It arrived yesterday and I've spent about 6 hours total getting used to it. There were several concerns that I, at first, felt like I had bought a pig in a poke -- BUT, after a couple of phone calls talking to the Garmin technical people, all my issues were resolved. This device is simply incredible with its accuracy and features for such a small package. I rely heavily on the MOB (man overboard) screen for use in setting upwind marks at specific bearings and distances from the committee boat in Race Committee work for Offshore classes. The color screen is very easily seen in the brightest conditions. The track log and reciprocal bearing back to the committee boat are highlighted in different colors and make for a superb display. One of the reasons the color screen is so good (and they don't mention it anywhere) is that the lense window is polarized. I stumbled onto that by accident today on a hike while wearing my polarized sunglasses. I noticed that when turning the device at a right angle the image suddenly disappeared. That only happens when you are viewing a polarized lense from another polarized lense. Now that I am familiar with the 78sc, my ONLY complaint is that the on-line Operation Manual is woefully inadequate for anything other than a basic introduction. However, all of your technical questions (and I am sure you will have some0 will be answered by their Customer Service department. Unlike many other companies, you won't have to wait more than a minute or so before getting through to a tech specialist. Pretty impressive. Let me give you an example of how the Operation Manual suffers. Nothing in the on-line literature advertising the 78sc explains the setup capabilities of the compass feature. It is factory set to show a compass rose instead of degrees. I have a real need for this to be in degrees, and yet after playing with the device for over an hour, I could not locate any menu item that would allow me to change the display. I was quite disappointed in my purchase at this stage -- however, my first call to their tech people got me oriented in how to use the menu drop-down sub categories to find where I could make the setup change. My next issue was that I consistently found the compass bearing was always 10 degrees off from measurements made with my hand-bearing compass. I must have performed the compass calibration in the 78sc a dozen times -- all to know avail. Unbeknownst to me, the factory default for the compass feature is for TRUE north instead of Magnetic north. In my region of the country, eastern Virginia, the angular difference between true north and magnetic north (known as the declination) is ---- Ding ding --- 10 degrees. I stumbled on this by again calling the tech support and was led to the menu item where I could switch from True North to Magnetic North. The devices is now dead on with my hand-bearing compass. I also will be using this for my hiking adventures and purchased the Topo 24 -- Mid-Atlantic sw to provide topographic detail. This along with the built-in altimeter make this a powerful tool to have in your backpack. Having owned this for only two days, I obviously cannot speak to the reliability of the device over long term exposure to saltwater, etc. I had read a few negative reviews from purchasers on this issue on several other websites. But, I intend to keep such exposure to a minimum (i.e., not leave the device on-board), so I do not think this will be a problem for me. UPDATE I spent most of the day yesterday out in the bay doing mark boat duties for our Race Committee. The 78sc performed flawlessly and the accuracy of the MOB feature (pinging on the committee boat) was amazing. As the committee boat stayed put the whole day, I only had to ping it once and from then on I had accurate bearings and distances for setting and moving the upwind marks and the pin end of the starting line. I set the device on the top of the dash in the center console and it never budged, even in choppy waters, thanks to the rubber backing on the GPS. The coastal chart info is also detailed and accurate. I honestly cannot think of anything I would do to improve this device. If you have a need for it -- don't hesitate, buy it.

Very nice, a lot of function for the money. I spent 6 weeks sailing the Bahamas (Spring and compared the chart quality of this unit to an large chartplotter mounted on my boat and an IPAD loading with the latest Garmin and Navionics charts. The charts on this little handheld were the most accurate! This unit showed individual coral heads correctly. Amazing. Depth contours were more accurate than the others and when we had to navigate through shoal passages, I relied on this Garmin handhold, it was spot on. I used it in my dinghy and it got wet occasionally. One time I noted the back cover wasn't sealed properly, check it carefully. I ended up with a little fogging in the LCD once in a while but it worked great. I wonder now about long term, as anything in salt water......

This is a wonderful little device and I have used it extensively, including over a 47 day kayak trip from Anacortes WA to Petersburg AK. When functioning properly it is an awesome tool. However there are some design defects which I would like to see resolved. 1. The rubber covers for USB and power ports are poorly designed and WILL leak salt water leading to corrosion. My other IPX 7 devices (camera, VHF radio, etc.) have more positive enclosures that never leak. 2. When loaded with lots of waypoints and routes the device consumes more power. I was able to see this over many days use and found through experimentation as I deleted waypoints and routes as I journeyed forward. Prolly got a software loop that's evaluating everything always rather than what's presently relevant which as data grows never gets to sleep. 3. Unit OFTEN locked up while navigating a route. This would require popping the protective cover off, removing batteries and restarting. Not something you want to do while in windy wavy conditions! Eventually I stopped using this feature but that's just a shame. Let me reiterate that when it works I love it. I have taken to coating protective covers with Aquaseal before paddling on salt water. However I then have to remove it before I can connect USB to computer which is obviously a hassle. As I said I WANT to love it and seems they are VERY close to a great design. Wouldn't be nice if they listened to their customers a little better? January 7, 2020: I would like to add to my review. Last summer circumnavigated Vancouver Island by kayak over 34 days. I again loaded my GPSMAP with lots of data including waypoints and tracks. Battery performance was very much improved and while following tracks it never locked up. My impression is that software changes have fixed my complaints. Sadly port covers are still poorly designed and will leak.

I've owned several handheld GPS over the years. This thing finds satellite's and locks in about 10 seconds......in my house. My other handheld which was also a garmin would only find satellites outside only on a clear day when no trees were within sight. OK I'm exagerating. There could be one or two trees near but not too near. This 78sc sreen is awesome also. You can see it from any angle, in the sun, with sunglasses on. I LOVE THIS THING. It's simple to use. I'd buy it again. If anyone gives negative feedback on this thing they are in need of help. Serious help. :)

Excellent piece of equipment. I use it for kayaking, and as a backup unit for offshore fishing. Also small enough to hide in your bag or pocket when you are on someone else's boat fishing their 'secret spots' (shhhhh!). I have 'Insight Planner' which is software for managing my boat's Simrad Chartplotter, and this device easily shares data via the standard format...I can create waypoints and routes on the laptop and load them onto this Garmin handheld. I can also save the tracks and waypoint data from the Garmin to the laptop software.....very easy way to manage data. The Geocaching feature is a great activity for my kids. I am amazed how many caches there are~

I've used a number of Garmin handhelds over the years: aviation, marine, auto. I bought this unit to replace a GPSMAP 76, whose backlight has failed (Garmin refuses to repair). I expected the 78sc to be a decent replacement for the 76. Unfortunately, this is not the case. While the hardware seems very good (bright display, quick satellite acquisition, etc.), the software is just terrible, especially when compared to the old GPSMAP 76. I tried to use the unit on my sailboat for a little "race around the cans" after downloading all my old waypoints and routes (using Basecamp). 1) After loading up a route consisting of A -> B -> C -> A and starting the the navigation the unit did not flip to the next waypoint, once a waypoint is reached. I could not find any way to manually get it to flip. It's hard to explain clearly, but you will find this very annoying. The GPSMAP 76 was far superior in this regard. 2) Actually, you can't even tell on the navigation page ("compass") what your next point IS. It is not displayed (unlike the 76). 3) The "active route" page gives no information (bearings, distances, etc) about the waypoints of the route, just the names. Again, unlike the 76. 4) When going to a waypoint using "find", the points are listed in order of distance, not alphabetical. If you have a lot of waypoints, this makes it hard to find what you are looking for. 5) The speed and velocity made good jump around quite a bit when you are on a sailboat in moderate seas. The 76 allowed you to smooth out these readings by taking averages over a longer period of time. That option is apparently not available on the 78sc. 6) Unit is hard to read when the backlight is off. With the backlight on, the battery life is poor. Why did Garmin dumb down the decent user interface of the GPSMAP 76 when it designed the 78sc? A real disappointment. I would say the 78sc is almost unusable for my purposes.

I use a suction cup RAM mount on my standup paddleboard so that I can easily monitor my average speed and distance and my heart rate while I workout on my board. I can read the screen easily, even on sunny days. I wear the garmin premium heart rate strap and has been reliable and so far works every time with my gpsmap 78sc. I use this almost everyday and so far I love it. It is everything I had hoped for...lightweight, waterproof, floats, and has great battery life. I am using standard batteries, not rechargeables. (Kirkland AA Alcalines). The screen may be a bit small if you are planning on using this for marine navigation, but for my needs it is fine.

In need of a quick chart-plotter alternative for a recently purchased boat, I opted for this GPS solution. As a waterproof handheld unit, I'm able to use it as a back up on my sailboat, as well as take with me in the dingy or when i'm out hiking. That said, it's extremely versatile. The display is pretty small, and not great resolution. Navigation and inputing your destination is not great. From a UI perspective t's not the easiest to use. Also, it lacks many water based routing features. (It set a straight course from location to destination over land.) Still makes a reasonable reference, and it dose have the ability to have depths shaded and alarmed. In most cases, you're probably better off using your cell phone, but it did keep us out of trouble and help us get to our destination on our first six hour Chesapeake sail relocating the boat back in December. While the GPSMAP did record our route allowing us to review it later, it seems to not offer any sort of real analytics, even to the point of just being able to see distance/speed between two points. For as much as Garmin has improved their chart-plotters and even GPS watches over the years, they seem to be ignoring the handheld GPS line. It's also extremely disappointing that while the unit came with builtin maps, Garmin stated these (unlike those that come with their chartplotters, which are actually the exact same maps) can not be used by ActiveCaptain.. you will need to purchase new maps for that software, which cost as much as this unit did.

At first thought, it's tough going to a small handheld GPS after the marvels of google maps, on multiple google devices, all happily embedded in the google ecosystem ... until you're out of network range, need detailed marine maps, and need them on a device that will take some abuse, including routine submersions. Then all of a sudden this clunky thing seems a whole lot more attractive. The screen is small ... very small ... but you know that if you're buying this device, and like me, you probably want this for some quite specialized applications (kayaking, paddleboarding, or other minimalist open water adventures that won't involve a relatively dry deck and a proper chartplotter). Computer-wise I do a lot of my work in a Linux environment, so I won't be doing much with Garmin's online services from my desktops, but the device is recognized when you plug it in, so if you don't mind a bit of fiddling it's not too hard to load your own gpx file for waypoints. I haven't yet messed around with the full Garmin ecosystem from my Mac laptop, but it looks pretty straightforward. All in all, a great device for what it is, but know what you want it for, because any gps device this size has clear limits as a marine chart plotter. Update, Jan 2016: still happy with this handheld, but I just recently put in a SD card, and I notice that the clamp securing the card is pretty flimsy, and requires the batteries in place to keep things secure. Not a problem for functionality, but something to be aware of (if this isn't just my unit): if you remove the batteries and close the lid up (for storage or transport) without first removing the SD card, it will flop around unsecured, and could be damaged. Also, the BlueChart g2 that comes loaded with the 78sc doesn't extend to Canadian waters in the Great Lakes. For that (and probably for reliable coverage of a lot of other Canadian coastal and inland waters), you'd need BlueChart g2 Canada Salt/Freshwater. Update, October 2018: the SD card latch problem was just my unit, I think - a bit of fiddling and it now secures properly. The small screen really is ... small! But the unit is solid: no problems so far after a lot of abuse. Battery life is a bit of an issue, I find, even when I reduce consumption as much as possible. Still, no regrets: a good marine handheld.

Gosto muito dos aperelhos que essa empresa fabrica, sempre compro os seus produtos, muito prático e durável

Fast service and good quality all the way around.

You can't enter way points using the (panning) pointer, which makes adding way-points far more difficult than in the older model (Garmin, that is really not very smart!!). The last time I changed the batteries the thing reinitialised and I had to go through all the startup screens, select language, etc, during a race - very frustrating!! It seems much flimsier than the older 76CSX, particularly the battery compartment door, which far too easily springs off and clatters into the bilges. It is much faster and the interface is generally better than the 76CSX, except for the frustration over new waypoints - which realistically can only be easily entered when the unit is attached to a computer and is running Garmin Home Port - which is not even mentioned in the user manual. Generally a very poor job Garmin!! At the moment I have not found

Very practical for Sailing, Initial learning curve with the menu options, once beyond it very functional. you get a day of continious use on 2 AA cells.