Hi Everyone,
I have never used a finder with mapping and I've been looking into the least expensive ones with that capability. I started looking at the 7 inch screens and I noticed that Garmin isn't capable of recording bottom hardness/vegetation. How important is recording bottom hardness/vegetation? The Humminbird unit has these capabilities but its much more expensive, especially when you factor in the necessity to buy a Humminbird SD card if you want to record more than 8 hours ($100) vs the Garmin unit that has much more internal storage. I haven't looked into Lowrance in depth yet.
I'm also wondering why we have to give so much of our own money for the screens, storage and processing power when we could just use our phones/tablets. I would still gladly pay for the software from whichever manufacturer but it seems like it would save hundreds of dollars.
Does anyone have any insights regarding the best 'budget' unit mapping? Has anyone heard of anything in the pipeline such as using our phones instead of the manufacturer's unit?
Thanks,
DHawk
Fish Finders - Mapping
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derekalipsa
- Participant
- Posts: 4
- Joined: Wed Mar 10, 2021 6:58 pm
Re: Fish Finders - Mapping
Hey Dhawk
I've used the hummibird piranahMAX portable kit for a while and I liked it a lot, nice color palette and easy to use. Then last year I bought a low end Lowrance for my boat and it's ok but nothing great, I only wanted it for GPS. I haven't owned a Garmin but I've used them a fair bit and I liked their system a lot, it's very easy to get along with, although the striker series do lack a few if the features that the humminbird helixes have. I was actually going to buy a striker 9 for my boat but then I saw that the Helix 7 G3N MSI was 350$ off at Cabela's so I bought that instead, as it's got a few more features, I would not have paid full price for that helix (reg 1130$ and I paid 770$) but given the discount I figured i'd get the bonus features. I think it really boils down to what your main wants and needs from the unit are, as well as your budget. If you want great balance of mapping and fish finding features (down imaging, side imaging, dual beam CHIRP) for less than 1000$ I'd go humminbird helix, as you can buy a Navionics chip for it, or buy a humminbird lakemaster chip, or buy a basic SD card and make your own maps. Although if you plan on getting a unit that can handle more advanced accessories like live imaging then i'd say go garmin, although a gramin livescope transducer and black box is like 2000$ so...
At then end of the day I'd go to sail and mess around with their demo units and see which system and software layout works best for you. All the units nowadays are good and have their strong points, I'd go with whatever unit you get along with best and whichever one doesn't make your wallet tremble
P.S if you want a professionals review lookup jay siemens on YouTube. he's got some videos posted that cover the different brands and their units.
Best of luck
Derek
I've used the hummibird piranahMAX portable kit for a while and I liked it a lot, nice color palette and easy to use. Then last year I bought a low end Lowrance for my boat and it's ok but nothing great, I only wanted it for GPS. I haven't owned a Garmin but I've used them a fair bit and I liked their system a lot, it's very easy to get along with, although the striker series do lack a few if the features that the humminbird helixes have. I was actually going to buy a striker 9 for my boat but then I saw that the Helix 7 G3N MSI was 350$ off at Cabela's so I bought that instead, as it's got a few more features, I would not have paid full price for that helix (reg 1130$ and I paid 770$) but given the discount I figured i'd get the bonus features. I think it really boils down to what your main wants and needs from the unit are, as well as your budget. If you want great balance of mapping and fish finding features (down imaging, side imaging, dual beam CHIRP) for less than 1000$ I'd go humminbird helix, as you can buy a Navionics chip for it, or buy a humminbird lakemaster chip, or buy a basic SD card and make your own maps. Although if you plan on getting a unit that can handle more advanced accessories like live imaging then i'd say go garmin, although a gramin livescope transducer and black box is like 2000$ so...
At then end of the day I'd go to sail and mess around with their demo units and see which system and software layout works best for you. All the units nowadays are good and have their strong points, I'd go with whatever unit you get along with best and whichever one doesn't make your wallet tremble
P.S if you want a professionals review lookup jay siemens on YouTube. he's got some videos posted that cover the different brands and their units.
Best of luck
Derek
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derekalipsa
- Participant
- Posts: 4
- Joined: Wed Mar 10, 2021 6:58 pm
Re: Fish Finders - Mapping
End of the day best budget unit, if you want to have professional mapping, go humminbird, you can get a helix 5 with an SD slot and then you can either get a lakemaster chip or a Navionics chip. To get a garmin with navionics mapping your looking at least 900$+. The lowrance I had did have GPS but there was not basemap so it was just a blank white screen that I had to place waypoints on.