Sunlight Viewable Screens

[cehart]

Looking at mounting a sounder in a tinnie ( have decided what to buy yet) and it will be in direct light.

Most of the brands state that their screen are viewable in direct light but how true is this.

Which would be easier to see colour or b&w

Can anyone care to comment and suggest what models are/or are not

Cheers

[Sevric]

The problem you have is common in a lot of open boats where the screen is in direct sunlight. The units all look good on the showroom floor and can not be faulted there but in direct sunlight there is a real problem. Colour is better in sunlight than grey scale but as to which brand i am uncertain which is best. I have a Garmin 750s which i find good but still find that in direct light it is difficult. The best solution i have found was to make a small cover from plastic to place on top of the unit to shade the screen somewhat. The screens are all getting better as the years go on but they have some way to go in my opinion before they can lay claim to being easily seen in direct sunlight.

[tunaticer]

I think the heat from the sun affects the image production. LCD's work best cold, pretty sure plasma does as well. The thing i find most annoying about sounder and chartplotter screens is they are polarised, so if you are twisting your head to sneak a peek your polarised sunnies will cut the image out.

To overcome the heat problem i throw a dripping wet towel over my garmin for a few minutes and the screen comes back to normal again. I wouldnt try it with a lowrance tho, they are yet to be truly watertight in my experience.

[Sevric]

To beat loosing the image while wearing polarised sunglasses i purchased polarised glasses with a non polarised reader lens at the bottom. Barz optics make them at a reasonable cost and the result is stunning. Does not solve the sunlight view ability though.

[netmaker]

my 3 y.o. humminbird 787 combo is great in direct light. much clearer than my new dsi lowrance and old mates new raymarine a50.

[Malcolm W]

Sitex SVS 650. I bought this one for that reason, pixels are the opposite way around to most other screens (450 X 750) and very clear with polarised sunglasses on.
The sounder compares well with the Furuno 620 (320 X 234), only a bit cheaper (buy in the US), bigger screen and more pixels.