SIde imaging to be or not ??

I like a lot of fishermen are looking at the SIs, those of you that have them , do you recommend them.. from what I have been reading here it doesnt look too good. Which one would you recommend, the 797 at $1000 , the 997 at $2000 or the 1197 at $3000. Really I think I am between the 797 and the 997. Or should I wait until the new models come out and and see if maybe the competitors offer up some new choices? Thanks for any help.
The lakes I fish are not deeper than 30 feet if that makes a differnce, also is the NVB worth the extra few hundred dollars.
Thanks

I can't believe Lowrance has not hit the market with one yet. Because of the Humminbird GPS problems I am waiting, at least until next year, before taking the plunge.

Tom

Jaxxman, check out Marine Electronics & Fishing Equipment, Buy Humminbird, Raymarine & Garmin Fishfinders, Handheld GPS, Chartplotters, Radios, Radars & Autopilots Online. They have the 997si for $1586. Got one from the a few months ago and had great service. Ordered it on Monday and it was at my door on Thursday. Hope this saves you $$.

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Originally Posted by T_om

I can't believe Lowrance has not hit the market with one yet. Because of the Humminbird GPS problems I am waiting, at least until next year, before taking the plunge.

Tom

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That is easy... Lot of years left on on the patents. I think I heard something like 12 to 15 years on them left.

If I were buying one to replace the 987c-SI I have, It would be the 997. As its about all we need. The 1197 for me is just $$ wasted cash. And the 797 on all that I have read and heard about it. Is just not even half of what the 997 is.
And when my Old 987c-SI does die. You can bet I will have a 997 to replace with. Also like the other post. Look online. You can get the 997 way under the $2000. Mark
Pete

I love my 997. If you only fish one or two lakes in your area, then the NVB is of little value to you. If you fish "cross country", it's a super value


http://i242.photobucket.com/albums/f...Pines008-1.jpg..

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Originally Posted by ShilohRed

That is easy... Lot of years left on on the patents. I think I heard something like 12 to 15 years on them left.

If I were buying one to replace the 987c-SI I have, It would be the 997. As its about all we need. The 1197 for me is just $$ wasted cash. And the 797 on all that I have read and heard about it. Is just not even half of what the 997 is.
And when my Old 987c-SI does die. You can bet I will have a 997 to replace with. Also like the other post. Look online. You can get the 997 way under the $2000. Mark
Pete

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Pete,

I talked to the Lowrance product engineer. He said that Lowrance investigated SI some years back, but that the performance of transducer arrays could not meet their high standards of excellence.:)

Wow. My tailpipe still seeping a little smoke (and this conversation was over a month ago........).:p

Well a few months ago I was not looking , now that I have some extra money I am looking seriuosly.. thanks for the replies, so far it looks like a 997 without all the NVB..

Sideimaging is great....but im sure you can do a search and you will see the downside of it with the sluggish GPS. Its been beat to a pulp here and its also a popular topic over on the yahoo site lately. I would recommend the 997 but wouldnt spend a penny on one until they fix the GPS issue. When they do that....get ya one!

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Originally Posted by ShilohRed

That is easy... Lot of years left on on the patents. I think I heard something like 12 to 15 years on them left.

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Sorry, I might be wrong but without some citations I just don't believe that.

Side imaging has been around in the salt water community for many years. And not by Humminbird. They certainly do not hold the patent on either the device itself or the idea since both have been around longer than Humminbird has existed. I do believe they probably hold some patents on their particular implementation of SI, but not on the entire concept.

Cudos to Humminbird for getting this to market, but I want to see some competition.

TOm

where do you find the info on yahoo?

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Originally Posted by jaxxman

where do you find the info on yahoo?

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United States Patent Application: 0060023570

Whatever Lowrance's excuses maybe, we are paying big bucks for the SI and H-bird is loving every minute of it. The bad thing is that it really works and I am glad I bought one. I would buy one from Lowrance if they came out with one.

Careful if you order from that J&H Link. Not that it's a bad company, but the stated $1586 is for the display only. Don't mess up and order that by mistake. With the NVB, the price is $1,898.88. Still a good price though.

If you decide to get one, I'd go with the 997 non-NVB, then buy the Navionics card for the latest in mapping updates.

Wannabe...

I totally agree with you wannabe. Purchase without NVB. The maps I received with my unit were out of date by 2 years and that was 6 months ago. You do get the whole country that was plotted at the time. In regards to JandH, ordered a terrova and the HB at the same time and got another $75 off price and $10 flat rate shipping for a package deal. I don't know their history, but they took good care of me back in February and I would definately recommend them to anyone. They are just a distributor. Everything was drop shipped from the manufacturer.

I agree on the NVB - If you're like me and on the fringes of the known
world :D I'm much better off with an '08 premium South card -
several lakes I want aren't on the NVB, and some lakes that aren't
on Navionics yet are actually BETTER on the base unimap which
apparently you don't get with a NVB unit - Bay Springs for example.
Unimap at least shows a decent outline of the lake, whereas NVB
doesn't show several of the major bays at all. But it's in 1' lines
on the '08 card :) Even if I had to buy two premium cards, I would
rather have that than NVB.