I played with mine for awhile and finally settled into running it with the screen color set to grey (can see it better than other colors), the sensativity at 10, chart speed at 4, and speed between 3-5 mph. I also keep my range at 70 feet to both sides so Im scanning around 140 feet total. I like to keep it around 70 because if you run it at a wider range its easy to miss things because they arent as large on the screen. Of interest, my unit wont allow me to set it much more than 130 feet to each side....the outside edges go black beyond this setting...not that I use it at that range anyway, im just saying that i dont get a good return beyond a 130 foot setting. Might be a result of the jon boat type hull i have it on.