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Woodlander
Senior Member
Username: Woodlander
Post Number: 2175
Registered: 02-2003
| | Posted on Tuesday, August 11, 2009 - 10:39 am: | 
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Part IV, Purchasing a Depth Finder
When looking for a depth finder remember how important pixels are. To me they are everything - more important than color. I would much rather have a 480/480 black and white unit than a 320/320 color one. Pixels are what give you separation between objects on the screen - the more pixels the better the separation and separation is everything - especially vertical separation.
Keep in mind you are going to need two units, one on your console to locate structure, cover, and fish while running and idling, and another on your trolling motor to fish with. If you can afford it I would certainly go with the high end color units with the most pixels in both places. I’m sure they’re neat but I also think you can be just about as effective fishing with far less expensive units.
Some things you might want to consider. I’m in that generation that grew up with black and white television. We had no problem seeing everything as our eyes were adjusted to the different shades of gray. The problem came in when color was introduced. Initially color just blasted our eyes and took a while to get use to. The hardest transition was trying to go back to black and white after you left your rich friend’s house! Your eyes just got lazy.
The point I’m trying to make is that if you can’t afford both color units you might just consider sticking with black and white in both places. If you already have one good black and white unit and wanted to keep it and get a color unit, I’d be sure to put the color unit on my trolling motor. When getting a unit for your trolling motor buy a “puck” style transducer. Most companies will give you a chose of a transom or puck transducer at the same price but lots of units come standard with the transom transducer. The puck transducer is more compact and just requires a large “hose clamp” type bracket to hold it to the trolling motor housing.
One thing I wouldn’t put much stock in when selecting a depth finder is the amount a watts one unit has as compared to another. The tip off is that the unit with 2400 watts advertises that you can see down to 900 feet while the 4000 watt unit says down to 1500 feet. That’s not a big deal unless you’re looking for ship wreaks in the ocean.
Both Humminbird and Lowrance/Eagle make excellent high pixel count depth finders. I had a Garmin 240 (240x240 pixels) at one time that I loved and it was a high end model at the time. From reading the catalogs over the last few years, I think Garmin has slipped some in the depth finder market. I think that perhaps they put most of their R&D into GPS.
I don’t have the highest end units of Humminbird or Lowrance anymore so I can’t make fair comparisons. I will say I think it just comes down to personal preferences. What I did find out with my Humminbird 797 and my Lowrance 520c was that Humminbird filtered their unit’s a little more - meaning I couldn’t see that bucket floating on the water. What this effect had was to give the Humminbird a less cluttered picture and perhaps more detail on the bottom. Lowrance however allowed me to see a wider area and at times pick up something important. I’ll talk more on this in the part on reading a depth finder. |
Woodlander
Senior Member
Username: Woodlander
Post Number: 2194
Registered: 02-2003
| | Posted on Friday, August 28, 2009 - 09:04 pm: |
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Slabchaser, I was going to respond to your post once I had time to read it thoroughly but I got tied up and forgot. Now it's gone. I hope you didn't delete it because I thought it was very interesting.
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