MapSource or BlueChart

[werthert]

Can someone tell me the difference between these products? Both are for Garmin.

Also, can I assume that a region specific mapsource would have more info than the "U.S. inland lakes" version? Otherwise why buy the region specific?


Thanks.

 

[JB]

Re: MapSource or BlueChart

I believe that Bluecharts are for salt water only.

There are at least 4 different "Recreational Lakes" mapsets. They give the most detail available on the covered lakes. My "Central Region" version covers about 50 Lakes in very fine detail, but not every lake in the zone.

Maybe when/if there is a unit that has several terabytes of memory you could get them all.

Beware of GPS that advertise that they have the whole world maps. They don't have the detail I want and that you might want.

People with the most popular auto GPS units that claim to have the whole USA regularly get lost trying to find The Hideout because none of the local roads are on their maps.

 

[rgbrooks]

Re: MapSource or BlueChart

Mapsource is a program for loading in maps that can add waypoints paths and routes that can then be uploaded to a garmin GPS. The inland lakes and Bluechart disks or CD cards contain maps that can be edited. Bluechart is Garmin's version of marine electronic charts. There are three different generations of Bluechart. The base one which were pre-loaded on chartplotters until about 2006, the Bluechart G2 which are preloaded on the current chartplotters. These can be augmented by SD cards called G2 Vision. These add satellite image overlays, digital photos of marinas and different views or perspectives on the chart plotters.

Note: mapsource can edit road maps and marine charts.