The 50 is a nice, inexpensive alternative to the 305. And it does something the 305 does not, it works everywhere. Yes you can add the foot pod to the 305 to achieve this - but not out of the box.

The 50 is a watch that can be worn everyday but because of that it lacks some of the nice features the 305 has - mainly it only has a two line display. This was the deal breaker for me.

I'd also look at the Polar rs200sd. It's a tad over $200 but gives you a three line display in a watch that can be worn everyday. Also comes in two colors (red and black.) The foot pod is larger than that of the Garmin 50 though.



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If you're going to get hrm and footpod, I'd get a Polar rather than Garmin. They have better software, but not sure if the low end models have the good software. Someone mentioned the Polar rs200sd, which I haven't seen, but I do have a footpod Polar that works reasonably well on normal terrain once calibrated. I use a Polar hrm and separate Garmin handheld GPS for the data I want.

quote:<HR>Originally posted by sclark2:
Thank you all for your replies. I guess a main concern for me is that I run in the woods a lot and it might not work too well with a satellite (GPS). Which is why I thought the Garmin 50 was a better option.<HR>

With the older model GPS units, sky visibility was a major issue, and why Polar went the footpod route for their pace info. With the newer Sirf chip in the Garmin 205/305, some of the newer Garmin handhelds, and in the new gps attachments for the Polar units (not sure what chips they're using), that isn't an issue, or certainly not as much as what it used to be. What does happen now though is that you sometimes get signal rebound off canyon (building?) walls and get spurious routes.

I do have a FR 305 that I got when I sent my Polar in for battery replacement and also to check for suitabilty for local trail projects. I generally didn't like the 305 for a number of reasons, like it's size and no real-time hill accumulation data like one gets with barometric altimeter units (I recognize that may not be an issue for you)., as well as lack of decent software for hrm training (or maybe it's so buried I can't find it). (It also seems to like to connect workouts if I didn't download in befween.) This is why I suggested that if your main concern was hr training, go the Polar route, esp. if you get a unit with the software. Lower end models use on-line software, I think, and not sure what that's like.