garmin fishfinders

[morrow21]

How good are the garmin fishfinders? I'm upgrading electronics, I would imagine their GPS is good, but the resolution is much lower than equivalent lowrance or humminbird. Usually 240x360 vs 480x480 and higher. Am I going to notice a difference?

 

[dingbat]

Re: garmin fishfinders

The term ?display resolution? is usually used to mean pixel dimensions, the number of pixels in each dimension (e.g., 1920?1200), which does not tell anything about the resolution of the display on which the image is actually formed: resolution properly refers to the pixel density, the number of pixels per unit distance or area, not total number of pixels. In digital measurement, the display resolution would be given in pixels per inch.

A 3? x 3? display with a 480 x 480-pixel count will have the same ?resolution? as a 1.5? x 2? display with a 240 x 320-pixel count. If you?re looking at 4-5" display, 240 x 320 is more than enough for a fish finder

 

[morrow21]

Re: garmin fishfinders

I'm looking at a 5in model with a resolution of 240 x 320. A good deal for the size and options, other than the resolution compared to HB and Lowrance, but $415 refurb combo unit w/ transd. Should I pull the trigger?

 

[Captaingregw]

Re: garmin fishfinders

I have the Garmin 431 S Combo unit and to be honest I love it.... For the price you can't beat it and for day on the water its more than I need.

Would upgrade the charts though as the baseline maps are poor but better than the Huminbird UniMap!

 

[ChampionShip]

Re: garmin fishfinders

As you said, Garmin's GPS is tops- nobody comes close for the $. Fishfinders of today are being dominated by Humminbird and Lowrance, Raymarine is a distant 3rd.

If you only need fish finder capabilities- nobody competes with the accuracy of a Furuno with a good transducer.......I can promise you that.

The new HDS Lowrance units are good, but still too new for my taste and their customer service has a long list of horror stories along with it. A combo 5" unit will have a tiny gps screen when running a split-screen mode, keep that in mind.

Since fishermen like myself like to have a split screen 200/50khz sonar AND a detailed, very zoomed in GPS screen, a standalone GPS is ideal if you have the dash space.

 

[dingbat]

Re: garmin fishfinders

If you only need fish finder capabilities- nobody competes with the accuracy of a Furuno with a good transducer.......I can promise you that.

Don't understand your "fish finder capabilities" only comment. What is wrong with a Furuno MFD8 with a DFF1 or a DFF3 black box if you need both GPS and Sounder functions?

Fishfinders of today are being dominated by Humminbird and Lowrance, Raymarine is a distant 3rd.

For a distant 3rd rate machine, a RayMarine DMS300G connected to a C or E-Series MFD is a extremely effective sounder. I would take the Ray over a Humminduck in a heart beat.

 

[ChampionShip]

Re: garmin fishfinders

Don't understand your "fish finder capabilities" only comment. What is wrong with a Furuno MFD8 with a DFF1 or a DFF3 black box if you need both GPS and Sounder functions?

Would you want to run a split screen 200/50khz (best suited for fishing) AND GPS on a single 5" screen........No, because you wouldn't be able to read it worth of darn. I didn't say Furuno COULDN'T be used, I'm just saying you wouldn't really want it for the OP's application.

More guides run Furuno over Raymarine for Sonar, that's no big secret- especially in areas like the Kenai and Columbia Rivers where everyone is a guide. Plus Raymarine is getting closer and closer to bankruptcy if they don't find a buyer for their company- my money will be spent with Furuno. Plus I have plenty of friends in the Great Lakes area with absolute junk, overpriced Raymarine equipment.

***For a distant 3rd rate machine, a RayMarine DMS300G connected to a C or E-Series MFD is a extremely effective sounder. I would take the Ray over a Humminduck in a heart beat.***

Raymarine is in serious financial trouble (an insider friend that deals marine electronics informed me of it) if they don't find a buyer for their company- my money will be spent with Furuno. Plus I have plenty of friends in the Great Lakes area with absolute junk, overpriced Raymarine equipment......Never heard of any kind of issue with a Furuno unit whether it be radar, sonar or gps.......can't say the same for Raymarine or Lowrance. Humminbird is nice for sonar (their GPS isnt too bad either) from a 'bang for your buck' standpoint. Garmin's combo units are decent, just not the caliber of many other brands- also not a secret.

 

[dingbat]

Re: garmin fishfinders

Would you want to run a split screen 200/50khz (best suited for fishing) AND GPS on a single 5" screen........No, because you wouldn't be able to read it worth of darn. I didn't say Furuno COULDN'T be used, I'm just saying you wouldn't really want it for the OP's application.

More guides run Furuno over Raymarine for Sonar, that's no big secret- especially in areas like the Kenai and Columbia Rivers where everyone is a guide. Plus Raymarine is getting closer and closer to bankruptcy if they don't find a buyer for their company- my money will be spent with Furuno. Plus I have plenty of friends in the Great Lakes area with absolute junk, overpriced Raymarine equipment.

***For a distant 3rd rate machine, a RayMarine DMS300G connected to a C or E-Series MFD is a extremely effective sounder. I would take the Ray over a Humminduck in a heart beat.***

Raymarine is in serious financial trouble (an insider friend that deals marine electronics informed me of it) if they don't find a buyer for their company- my money will be spent with Furuno. Plus I have plenty of friends in the Great Lakes area with absolute junk, overpriced Raymarine equipment......Never heard of any kind of issue with a Furuno unit whether it be radar, sonar or gps.......can't say the same for Raymarine or Lowrance. Humminbird is nice for sonar (their GPS isnt too bad either) from a 'bang for your buck' standpoint. Garmin's combo units are decent, just not the caliber of many other brands- also not a secret.

Your insider friend must not have been as "inside" as you thought. Otherwise he would have known that Raymarine was purchased by FLIR 6 months ago

Never heard of a problem with Furuno? Obviously didn't purchase a NavNet 3D system when they first came out.

All the local guides are buying HDS 10 systems with down scan modules. Why would they do such a foolish thing?

Which Furuno sounder do you recommend I buy?

 

[morrow21]

Re: garmin fishfinders

Well, finally got a to a store today that has a few units to play with(no BassPro for 100 miles). Lowrance definitely not as simple to use as humminbird or Garmin, but the display was much nicer and the base maps included with the elite 5 cover the lakes I'll be on in SC with pretty good detail. Leaning that way now. Saw the upcoming Elite DSI. Looks cool, but I'd be afraid to go with the first of a generation, plus while I'm sold on it showing structure, I'm not on the fishfinding part. (yes, I realize finding the structure also means fish, but call me old school)

 

[ChampionShip]

Re: garmin fishfinders

Glad they got bought out- maybe now everyone won't have to send back their junk Sport Pilots and not get service, and their 2 year old sonar units can actually use their mapping chips and not mark their downrigger balls as the bottom regardless of setting, sounds like top quality crap to me- but I'm sure some of their stuff works just fine......their Hydraulic autopilots seem to be ok, little else though.

Lowrance lost their only useful Customer Service Rep so their service has gone back to being NFG. New HDS units are nice, but have seen first hand that they like to freeze up while using structure scan. GPS likes to lose its fix as well- older sonar models, however, seem to work just fine in alot of cases.

I like FURUNO for sonar for 1 very simple reason: when set up properly they work day in and day out with no issues, this is a huge asset when time on the water is limited and you need to maximize time spent- especially when we're fishing Lake Michigan in 200-700 feet of water which is where we spent most of the past 2 summers. Downscan and sidescan is useless for that. For an entry level graph- the 6 series color units are pretty nice.

Let me put it this way: In our town we have several fleets of very effective charter fishermen and they all have one thing in common- their ability to find fish when nobody else is............and they all have Furuno sonar. I had an older (early 90's) sonar that I can't recall the model # that allowed me to target fish that boats near me (friendly boats that I fish in teams with) weren't seeing on their Lowrance units.

Coulda sworn I read somewhere that you actually own Furuno stuff- if you don't like it, then sell it.

 

[ChampionShip]

Re: garmin fishfinders

Well, finally got a to a store today that has a few units to play with(no BassPro for 100 miles). Lowrance definitely not as simple to use as humminbird or Garmin, but the display was much nicer and the base maps included with the elite 5 cover the lakes I'll be on in SC with pretty good detail. Leaning that way now. Saw the upcoming Elite DSI. Looks cool, but I'd be afraid to go with the first of a generation, plus while I'm sold on it showing structure, I'm not on the fishfinding part. (yes, I realize finding the structure also means fish, but call me old school)

What if there's no structure like our situation at many WI ports? I'd rather see the fish.