Thread: Discussion on Lowrance Elite 5 DSI/Chartplotter ....

Originally Posted by wackyman

Attachment 129484 I finally got my new elite 5 dsi on the water today and this is what I think is a bridge piling. What do you guys think is in front of the pilings ? To me it looks like bait fish but I don't know.

Kinda hard to tell, it's so dark ... but, yeah, that's what it looks like to me, too.

Here's a couple of shots I took the other night, while running through a patch of water that was under a floodlight hanging off a dock :





Mostly showing baitfish, with some predators working the area, also. Unfortunately, the "Super Moon" seems to have pushed the normal numbers of predator fish, that are usually there, off to deeper haunts.

... cp

I still have some learning to do on setting this up, I need to lighten the screen up some but I think I'm getting there. Here is another picture of a rock wall. What do I need to do to lighten the screen up a little?

Originally Posted by Barnacle Bill

You don't need to "open" it. Save it to your computer then unzip it to the SD card. Put the SD card in the unit while turned off, then turn it on and let the Lowrance do its thing.

OK thanks. That did the trick. I've always used HBs so I got a learning curve to navigate.

I think I can answer my own question on brightening up my screen. When I took these screen shots I had the surface clarity set to high because most of the water I fish on this lake is around 15 ft or less. I think I still can leave that setting on high most of the time but I had the contrast set to 62% I think If I bump that up to around 80 % That will brighten up the images. I'm having a hard time seeing the screen in the bright sunlight and sepia color seems the brightest to me other than a white background but even with the sepia it's still not easy to see. What are you guys doing to help with that?

I use white background exclusively for the same reasons.........can't see in sunlight due to glare, brightness, etc. I did add a protective screen cover (from Walmart for any tablet) that is a static-cling and non-adhesive type cover which helped with glare and protects my screen from waterspots, fingerprints, etc. That was the best addition I could have added besides the white plastic protective "LOWRANCE" cover I purchased.

Here is a great buy on this unit. Just FYI for any lurkers or folks that have not purchased the unit as of yet. You can buy it at West Marine.com

Originally Posted by wackyman

I think I can answer my own question on brightening up my screen. When I took these screen shots I had the surface clarity set to high because most of the water I fish on this lake is around 15 ft or less. I think I still can leave that setting on high most of the time but I had the contrast set to 62% I think If I bump that up to around 80 % That will brighten up the images. I'm having a hard time seeing the screen in the bright sunlight and sepia color seems the brightest to me other than a white background but even with the sepia it's still not easy to see. What are you guys doing to help with that?

This is how I had mine set ... but, I think I'll put Surface Clarity on Low or Med, and see if it affects the image quality. I do change the depth range to match the general depth of the waters I'm fishing ... and to make the on screen image larger & easier to read.
I really haven't had much problem seeing the screen in sunlight, with the exception of some glare off the screen when in certain positions (relative to the Sun). I sometimes do have a problem reading the screen, when wearing polarized sunglasses, though.



This is my current Contrast setting ... but I think I'll bump it up a bit, next time, and see if the results are +/- clearer than what I'm currently getting.

I tried the white background setting, but didn't really care for it. I've been using the blue gradient for the last few trips, and it seems to be the easiest to read & distinguish for me. I do know one thing, though ... I have no need for LED interior boat lights, to light up the inside of my boat at night. My unit does a more than adequate job of that ... so much so that, at times, I have to put my hat or a towel over it, to keep from being blinded by the light I may have to experiment with the color palette choices, next time I'm night fishing, and see if any of the other gradients are better in the dark.

... cp

I thought you could adjust the brightness level by pushing the power button briefly. Try that....