Thread: Humminbird New Features for 2011

Originally Posted by Joby @ Humminbird

It is what it is. If we say the pool is at 75ft it is 75ft away from the boat. You have to remember that the side imaging beams over lap under the boat. The gps Coordinates will be right on. You will be able to set Contour Mode to the on position and be able to mark a gps coordinates and be right on the spot.

So if you run your cursor over the pool it will take you right to it.

I agree with you completely CP. Not having any view of the water column might be useful for when you are just looking for submerged "stuff", but if you are really fishing and looking for baitfish etc, this would never be used. The unit that could probably benefit the most from this would be the 700's. To bad for 797 and 981 owners. You have just become obsolete. But I'm pretty sure they'll continue to service them if they break down.

Even with the explanation of the contour lines, I don't find it to be that useful of a feature, as you basically have to hold your arm at a 45 degree angle and say it's 38ft down that way. It still seems to me that if you took the measurement from the contour mode, you'd get a much better measurement and then you could actually say, that hump or stump or whatever is x ft away from the boat on the bottom, and I'm in x feet of water, so if I cast x amount of feet and let it drop, my bait will go over the stump. As it is now, it still leaves a lot to the imagination, and being able to apply it into fishing would seem a little difficult to me.

The new features may be handy for some, but I still like the old school scanning. But guys would give up all the new features for a donut fix.

Originally Posted by Joby @ Humminbird

It is what it is. If we say the pool is at 75ft it is 75ft away from the boat. You have to remember that the side imaging beams over lap under the boat. The gps Coordinates will be right on. You will be able to set Contour Mode to the on position and be able to mark a gps coordinates and be right on the spot.

What this mean?

Originally Posted by wilbur

You got ignored again CP. You should be use to it by now.

Doubt we get an honest answer.

Originally Posted by Cane Pole

Doubt we get an honest answer.

No doubt they are doing some distance correction. Maybe like ground radar.

The more I look at the pictures he posted, the less logical it seems. You want to know how far away from the boat the structure on the bottom of the lake is, and I don't believe that's what you're getting. But I've been wrong several times.

It is what it is as an answer usually means shut up and stop asking questions, or I really don't have a real answer.

I'm sure glad that Lowrance and HB both have free upgrades and updates though.

Originally Posted by mduncan62

I'm sure glad that Lowrance and HB both have free upgrades and updates though.

I agree to a point. I'll make my point in a second.

First, though, it wasn't but just the other day that I was looking at the DI screen and saw something of interest, smashed the zoom button and ..... nothin. Hit it again....nothin. Oh yea, it don't zoom on DI. Well, now I can Zoom on the DI screen. I'll take it.
Doubt that I'll use the contour off function.

But, and I don't know how they do it, but I have marked stuff from the SI screen that was 70-80 feet to the side, put part of the screen on map and navigated to my new waypoint and when it said I was there, the structure showed up under my DI. I've marked suspended baitballs and fish and ran right on top of them this way.
So, when the guy says it is what it is. Maybe that ain't him sayin shut up but that it is what it is.

Now to my point. I don't consider these to be "free" upgrades. I bought these units knowing full aware that as they improved the units, those improvements would be backward compatiable. One of the selling points was the ability to do firmware updates. My AVR and DVD player offer the same thing. If they didn't have the capability, I'd have been reluctant to buy the units that I have. They are too expensive to be obsolete in a year or two.

Now with that said, the ethernet connection is the cat's meow this year. The other things are nice, but if ethernet does what is capable, I'll remain a happy customer.

Originally Posted by Stymie

I agree to a point. I'll make my point in a second.

First, though, it wasn't but just the other day that I was looking at the DI screen and saw something of interest, smashed the zoom button and ..... nothin. Hit it again....nothin. Oh yea, it don't zoom on DI. Well, now I can Zoom on the DI screen. I'll take it.
Doubt that I'll use the contour off function.

But, and I don't know how they do it, but I have marked stuff from the SI screen that was 70-80 feet to the side, put part of the screen on map and navigated to my new waypoint and when it said I was there, the structure showed up under my DI. I've marked suspended baitballs and fish and ran right on top of them this way.
So, when the guy says it is what it is. Maybe that ain't him sayin shut up but that it is what it is.

Now to my point. I don't consider these to be "free" upgrades. I bought these units knowing full aware that as they improved the units, those improvements would be backward compatiable. One of the selling points was the ability to do firmware updates. My AVR and DVD player offer the same thing. If they didn't have the capability, I'd have been reluctant to buy the units that I have. They are too expensive to be obsolete in a year or two.

Now with that said, the ethernet connection is the cat's meow this year. The other things are nice, but if ethernet does what is capable, I'll remain a happy customer.

I could take or leave the zoom. If I can see it, I can probably see what's around it and use my bait to zoom in. Marking a waypoint and viewing is completely different then looking at the contour lines. Both HB and Low can mark waypoints while doing a side or down scan and both are accurate. I've owned both, so I can say that.

As far as being backwards compatible, It's safe to assume that you don't own a 981, or 797 because they are now no longer backwards compatible. Bought one a year or 2 ago also. (I don't remember seeing a disclaimer or any warning that these units would not handle the future Free upgrades/updates. They are now obsolete, as new features apparently require more CPU or RAM then those units contain. I had a 797, and sold it with my boat so It's no longer an issue, but I'm always on the prowl to buy something new.

I agree, it's great that HB finally got with the times and added Ethernet. It's not exactly a new idea.

I have to ask, does anyone think that Low charges for updates or software upgrades? The answer is both companies offer these free. It's really a null point.

I have only dealt with 1 piece of equipment that has been truly backwards compatible, ever. Equallogic Sans, ISCSI storage devices, started production in 2001, and if you bought one in 01, and need another in 11, they can work together, and all software is written to be backwards compatible. When you are talking about Computer equipment, this is amazing. Think about the computer you had in 2001, compared to what is out today.