Best GPS

take a look at 

satmap

you'll have to buy mapping from them as you can't use any other. they have a wide range of maps. 

frankly, if you want to take pictures use a separate camera. on all gps units you can navigate back to a spot simply by marking it in the gps. extra gadgets and wizzywigs only serve to reduce battery life.

Thanks Bedouin, if you get a general opinion of it that would be great, things such as

(1) Signal loss, if it occurs and how often  (2) Real world battery life vs quoted life of 20  hours (3) Ease of viewing the screen in bright sunlight (4) Would he buy another one if the one he had was lost/broken/stolen (5) has he used it in the car? and if he did how good was it?

thanks

Thanks Parky Again, the only thing putting me off the Satmap is that I've read it is harder to see in bright sunlight compared to the Garmin.

I know from experience that being unable to see my phone screen is annoying,and I don't want the same issues with a GPS, especially as it will be more heavily used in bright environments.

I am hoping to go to India again at some point in the next 2 years and I know how bright it is there, even in the shade of trees and buildings I couldn't see my phone screen.

Parky Again wrote (see)

Real world battery life you determine by how you use it. Your use will be different to anyone else's. Batteries are cheap and plentiful.

In terms of batery life, what I mean is quoted versus actual, for example the Garmin 62 series quotes 20 hours with NiMH or lithium, but in real use this is probably less.

Parky Again wrote (see)

I haven't found a screen yet that is readable in strong sunlight. 

 But presumably some are more easily readable than others ?

I intend to be using the unit I buy for a good few years, so I want to get it right first time and not be looking to change it shortly after buying it.

No problems at all with paying for quality kit, it's been a policy of mine for years now to buy good / high quality and pay accordingly, good kit lasts and in real terms pays for itself in the long run, as my RAB jacket proves, over 10 years old and still going strong. It's going back soon for a refill of down and a few minor repairs. 

As the saying goes, "You get what you pays for"

you need to check what version MM maps you have. only the latest will work i think.

i don't think you can use MM on garmin things anyway. or can you?

Checked it out and it seems you can use MM but it's a slightly convoluted process.

Possibly be better to open MM up on computer and then use Garmins own software to create a map from scratch rather than trying to integrate them.

MM V5.4.2 or above works, apparently

Haven't tried it myself, found the answer using google.

http://www.memory-map.co.uk/supportforum/viewtopic.php?f=27&t=2626

"You can certainly transfer waypoints and routes from MM V5.4.2 to the 62s"

As Parky says; that's just track data (GPX files), NOT mapping data.

Being doing more research and found a few sites which offer free maps, so I think it may be better to go down this route, I also read about using google earth and dropping more detailed maps onto it and saw the vids on youtube telling how to do it, so this looks like an option as well. Obviously free maps may not be as accurate as official maps, but it may still be an option.

http://www.ukgeocachers.co.uk/home/free-garmin-uk-contour-maps.html which offers contour maps of the UK

http://mapomatic.co.uk/garmin-maps-download/ which ofers UK maps

http://www.instructables.com/id/How-to-get-FREE-maps-for-your-Garmin-GPS/ seems to cover UK and USA

http://libremap.org/ for USA

So plenty of options to try out and see if they suit.

Some of the places I walk are forestry owned parks and they provide maps based on the OS maps, and the maps are even to scale, I don't know if it's 1:25K or some arbitrary scale, but I think I could probably drop them into the UK basemap or Google earth, although I haven't tried yet.

I took a look at the Satmap units, and looked for videos of it in use on youtube, I saw a video on youtube which said the satmap units were UK only as they didn't have other maps, but I think the vid is old and out-of-date as looking on the website and clicking on mapping says

Over 350 topographical map titles for the USA, Scandinavia and Europe-So far !

Unfortunately no maps for India, so no good for me.