depth finder help

[wrs75]

what are your opinions on the best deph finder under $500 i would like something with speed and temp on it. is the dual beam a big advantage?
i don't really care if it is color screen or not, but would apreciate all opinions.
thanks

[tripp@BOEmarine]

75,

The Lowrance Elite-5x meets your needs, and it is a really nice package. As for your "dual-beam" question, most transducers are manufactured as a dual frequency unit. Most often, the display unit will automatically adjust the frequency for the depth you are fishing...or you can override that and change the frequency manually. I am sure somebody will correct me, but Humminbird's Dual Beam display splits the screen side-by-side. On a 4" display, that's a lot of info to cram in. As a bonus for the Lowrance, you can review multiple pages of fishfinder history, through their TrackBack function.