Rodmaker Posted February 18, 2015 Posted February 18, 2015 Time to purchase 2 new fish finders for my boat. Running a lowrance and a bird now. Both about 12 years old, so not really state of the art. Question is......lowrance, humminbird or garmin? I suppose thats like asking ford,chevy or dodge. I am looking for locators in the $500 range. Thanks.
Jim Elam Posted February 18, 2015 Posted February 18, 2015 If you get Lowrance, I would get the elite 5 or 7 hdi. Lots of bang for the buck. Both have 2d and downs can imaging with GPS. I have a few of these I use on kayaks and they are decent units. I have a 5x hdi on the bow of my boat and it is good but wish I had gps up there to mark structure. Jim "The obsessions of others are opaque to the unobsessed, and thus easy to mock...If we are lucky we all have at least one."
Longball22 Posted February 18, 2015 Posted February 18, 2015 I have an Elite-7 at the bow and an HDS-5 in the console. Both of them were in your price range when I bought them, and both have GPS, which helps a lot. The HDS-5 has a higher power traditional sonar, and gives a better picture, but a smaller screen. I actually picked it up at the BPS outlet for $320, which I thought was a steal, and it was as big as I could flush mount in my 2006 Nitro. The Elite-7 gives good sonar, and the DownScan is really nice for seeing trees, big rocks, etc. The 7" screen makes a lot of difference on the bow for seeing it. If I had to pick one, I'd take the Elite-7, but if I was looking to network units, I'd definitely steer towards the HDS units. My next move will be to put an HDS-8 or HDS-7 Touch on the bow.
dblades Posted February 18, 2015 Posted February 18, 2015 Pretty sure the HDS 8 has been discontinued with the release of the Gen 3s.
Seth Posted February 18, 2015 Posted February 18, 2015 The Humminbird Helix line up may be right up your alley as well. They are 5" units, but have a wide screen instead of the typical square. I can see how that would be very helpful with the side imaging model. http://www.cabelas.com/catalog/search.cmd?form_state=searchForm&N=0&fsch=true&Ntk=AllProducts&Ntt=humminird+helix&x=0&y=0&WTz_l=Header%3BSearch-All+Products CrappieMaster24 1
Members Crawbug Posted February 18, 2015 Members Posted February 18, 2015 Check out the YouTube vids on the Raymarine Dragonfly 7. Hard to find a negative review on it. We're installing one with a trollong motor mount as soon as it warms up. Can't wait to play around with it.
Terrierman Posted February 18, 2015 Posted February 18, 2015 I just bought a Lowrance Elite 7 chirp. Looking forward to learning it.
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now