New Fishfinder for Boat - Garmin, Humminbird, Raymarine...

[IIGnomeII]

Hi All,

I have just recently been upgraded from a Hobie Outback to a 2005 Quintrex 455 Coast Runner.
The boat came with a Lowrance X47 which is in need of an upgrade!
I had a Garmin striker 4 on the Outback which I liked, was easy to use and did the job.

So not knowing too much about the newer, feature rich units I need some help in deciding on the best option.

My use:
* Fish Sydney's north shore or down the south coast near Ulladulla
* Mostly inshore and estuary, I can't see myself heading out offshore... yet
* Fishing around docks, drops and rockwalls etc.
* Fishing anything from flatties to kingies up
* Don't have a trolling motor yet but it will be on the charts later on
* Budget around $1500, however less the better to free money up for other gadgets

Originally I was looking at the Garmin Striker plus 7sv and the 9sv but as there is no maps I started looking at the Echomap units (75sv and 95sv). I can also get a 20% discount on these units so that was the attractive piece.
However I went down the dark deep hole of the internet reviews and now I am looking at other brands like Raymarine and Humminbird.

I also have a copy of Navionics on my phone which I used on the kayak a bit to look for spots so I don't know if I should worry about GPS.

So anyone that has a similar setup or use case I would love to hear your opinions, not sure if I risk missing out on other useful features like Panoptix if I go with one brand now.

[chocolatemoose]

Lots of pros and cons for sure, for the best high frequency sonar imagry (side scanning and down scanning) for your budget, the raymarine element is a hands down winner "the 3d is fine, but the hypervision is where the party is at" 7"HV model with the works is at $1200, quad core processor, its by far the beast-iest of those smaller entry level systems. , Hummingbirds Mega imaging plus is a better system for sure but to obtain that you need to head up to the 8" unit. pushing your budget.
So thats just where the game is side imagign wise but of cause there are a lot of things at play

Mapping, Garmin has inland mapping pretty well covered with TOPO mapping if you head inland, though costal , all brands running nacionics will be pretty good. it will be tricky to find a SONAR only system now days other than in the upper end of the range wise.

By going to the echomap Plus range you do open yourself up to some cool features in the future such as Livescope from garmin, theiur LVS12 and more expensive but better LVS32. these do offer half decent everything, usability size etc for the money.

Feel free to shoot through any questions

Moose

[IIGnomeII]

Cheers Moose for the info, some new ones to look at!

So if you were looking at a 1-3 comparison at the moment between the 3 you would say
1) Humminbird Helix 8 with Mega SI+
2) Raymarine Element 7 HV
3) Garmin Echomap plus 75sv/95sv

I will have a look at the feature sets but seeing as though you seem to work as a vendor of all the brands how do you find the after sales support? I have heard good things about Garmin but unsure how Raymarine and Humminbird are with claims and if it is locally based or overseas. Interesting to note that Garmin only have a year, Humminbird 2 years and Raymarine have 3 years warranty on these models.

[chocolatemoose]

Hi mate,

So Raymarine is based in sydney "as is garmin" both have service teams here in australia as well as tech dealers, "we are tech dealers for raymarine, humminbird and garmin" which allow for just about all kinds of support locally.
So Raymarine has a 2 year warranty "extended to 3 years if registered... so a good idea to do so" Garmin is only a year for its Echomap and striker range, and 2 years for its GPSMAP range, Humminbird is 2 years


Hbird is a pretty bullet proof little unit with few bells and whistles but exceptional side/down imaging sonar and pretty good traditional sonar, with a "usable" gps, but a rather groovy Autochart live feature. though being hand made they are a bit more expensive than the asian made systems from Garmin and Raymarine.

But yeah in terms of side imaging sonar quality,
Humminbird
Raymarine hypervision element
Echomap plus