asking for depth finder recommendations

[keakar]

I pinched my transducer cable and broke the wires so I cut out the bad section and reconnected the wires and the depth finder portion seams to be working just fine but it no longer asks to select language mode on start up and the water temperature gauge no longer works on it so I think it may have suffered a short or something when the wires were pinched. if it was just the transducer I don't think the select mode on start up would be function differently.

so im looking to replace it and my budget is $200 for a fish finder with water temp and gps features and I don't need side scan or chart plotting. also its going on a flat boat side console so i wouldn't want anything much bigger then 8" wide and i like black and gray screens better then color.

i had two humming birds before that were not very good in screen visuals or function but I have been very happy with lowrance over the years so I like them. granted i was only buying the budget versions in the $100 price ranges.

thanks for your help

[GasCan]

I have the lowrance mark 5 and the elite 5. I bought the mark 5 first and then my dog chewed the transducer wires. it still works fine so I put it on the trolling motor. I wanted a gps so I bought the elite 5 and never looked back. works great. I should have bought a bigger screen but i'll deal with it when I buy a new boat.

[keakar]

the elite 5 is nice but it doesn't have gps and if im not getting gps I truthfully would just get another mark 5 since it did everything I wanted at the time and is a great value at $129.

I wasn't prepaired for the sticker shock of getting a unit with gps, its like an istant bump of another $100 in prices so I guess I need to make my budget $350 to be realistic to get a gps fish finder

so if anyone cares to make any suggestions for a unit under $350 I would be greatful

I have been looking at the Humminbird Helix 5 Sonar GPS Fishfinder for $299, does anyone have any experience with hummingbird units?

[GasCan]

I have the mark 5x pro and the elite 5 hdi. the elite is a gps unit.

[keakar]

it does look really good, does it have a gps feature?

[keakar]

ok, never mind, I see now there are 3 versions of it, I was just looking at the base model elite 5

[keakar]

update: here is a little review of what happened and my views on it.

well I bought the helix DI GPS unit and its a 3"high x 5"wide screen so it looks like its half the size screen of the lowrance units.

the 5" wide screen is 1.5" of boxes for info displays so what you can see is only 3.5" wide x 3" high. the display boxes (while semi-transparent) cant really be seen through well enough unless your right on top of the unit.

the color display is easier to see then the gray scale but because this screen is much smaller then my old units 5"x5" screen, its extremely hard to see fish registering on it. it also fades out in direct sunlight like when you stand to the side of a computer monitor and it fades out, so I have to "shade" it with my hand to be able to see it better, plus the small 3" display (actual usable display) is so small you again need to be close to the unit to see much of anything other then very large objects.

overall its much worse to see stuff then what I was expecting but I suppose I could get used to it over time if I had to. that however wont be necessary because its already broken on the first trip.

after a few hours it starts turning itself off and once it starts it will only stay on for 5-30 seconds before it goes off again and at one point the screen display froze but the other things kept working like clock, speed, temp, and all that. its going back RMA tomorrow so im actually glad it broke because I was very unhappy with it mainly because I have bad eyes and would get headaches if I had to strain to look at the small screen all the time.

I ordered the lowrance 5x elite combo with gps for $399 with the larger 5"x5" screen as a replacement for the messed up helix.

overall I still think the helix is a nice unit and if I didn't have bad eyes it would be a good unit so I give it 3.5 out of 5 stars even though I had a bad one

[biggun]

HDI 5 is the way to go.. It has downscan built in with the fishfinder.

[keakar]

Originally Posted by biggun

HDI 5 is the way to go.. It has downscan built in with the fishfinder.

with my eyes the bigger screen is the most important feature but I cant afford $1000 unit on a flatboat so im limited to the 5x5 screen size for now.

hopefully in a few years they will start making the 7" or 8" screens in under $500 price ranges

[biggun]

Elite HDI 5 with downscan is $400...Google them...The Digital Oasis....

[keakar]

Originally Posted by biggun

Elite HDI 5 with downscan is $400...Google them...The Digital Oasis....

yes, that's the one I bought but I got it from cabelas as a refurbished unit for $250 http://www.cabelas.com/product/Lowra...5+HDI+83%2F200+


the defective helix unit I got was from TDO, they have the best prices on a lot of stuff and good friendly customer service too

Originally Posted by keakar

I ordered the lowrance 5x elite combo with gps for $399 with the larger 5"x5" screen as a replacement for the messed up helix.

if TDO has the Elite HDI 5 with down scan I didn't see it on their website.

[keakar]

so now that I have a gps, I need to figure out this new fangled technology so which map card should I get? are they all the same format or does it need to match the unit?

its going to be lake ponchartrain, golden meadow, leeville, grand isle inshore areas I fish most, I mention this because I don't know how much area these cards cover or if they cover the whole state