lowrance lms527or humminbird787

[xristos]

hi guys have just bought my first boat, i would like to purchase a sounder combo. I will manily be in the bay and esturay alot of people are telling me its an over kill but iam after a colour screen and gps. The question i need answered is wich one if anyone has used or has either please help me out and if you have had any problems.

regards
chris

[Local_Guy]

i own the 527.. but i'm not going to be bias in this post.

the best thing i can suggest to you is to go into a shop where they sell both units and will let you have a play. find out which one you perfer the look of and ease of using.

they are both good units and around the same price, both will do the same thing. i guess the only different thing is their menu system is different.

my 2c

[fRuItCaKe]

ditto, 527 for me too, also biased.

[hodges4]

A friend owns a lms537 which I have used quite often as he is having problems with figuring out how to use it. I have owned a 787. I changed it to a 797 when they became available. IMO, and my friends as well, the humminbird far out performs the lowrance but it is also more expensive.

Customer support for the humminbird through BLA is superb whereas non existant for lowrance, they don't even bother to reply to emails.

Humminbird US even have some excellent user forums where you can ask for help if reqd and gain knowledge from other users.

The following are for the side imaging units but are an example of the support given

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/sideimaging/
http://www.xumba.scholleco.com/

Humminbird's menus are easier to navigate, swapping displays is far easier and some of humminbirds special features, like the ability to simply move the cursor over the sounder displaying fish to create a waypoint on the GPS, don't even exist on the lowrance.
The disadvantage with Humminbird is it's price. Imported units are cheaper but lack some features.

By the way, I'm very biassed having used both.

Hope this helps

John

[Local_Guy]

Humminbird's menus are easier to navigate, swapping displays is far easier and some of humminbirds special features, like the ability to simply move the cursor over the sounder displaying fish to create a waypoint on the GPS, don't even exist on the lowrance.
The disadvantage with Humminbird is it's price. Imported units are cheaper but lack some features.
John

The menu's are slightly different in the humminbird to lowrance, but this is a user preference. i've used both and i perfer the lowrance as you don't have to scroll below the screen to search for options.

as for moving the cursor around to mark a waypoint.... you can do this on the lowrance and 787.