Thread: Need advise, should I get a unit with side & down imaging??

Looking to upgrade my old 150 dollar fish finder. I have a 16' G3 Jon that I fish mostly trolling motor only water so looking to mount unit up front on trolling motor. Should I go all in with a unit that does both?? Will side imaging work up front on trolling motor?? What speed do I need to be going for side to work?? Was going to go with a down image unit but was thinking do I bite the bullet money wise and get the best of both? Thanks for any thoughts.

Speed has a lot to do with the quality of your SI picture. Probably faster than you would normally run your trolling motor. Think if it was me I would get a unit with 2d and straight DI to mount on troller. Think the quality of picture would be better overall. Either the 600 series Humminbird or the Elite5 series from lowrance would be good reasonable priced units if you didn't want GPS.

I have side and down imaging on the bow of my boat and seldom use the side imaging. The side imaging needs to be going straight to get good images, when the tm turns it kinda smears the returns. On the speed 3-4 mph works best but I get decent down images below 1 mph.

What units are you looking at?

Kinda thought side image would not work to good on trolling motor plus extra money for a unit with both side & down image. Looking at Lowrance Elite 7 HDI sonar/GPS combo for 550.00, and have 180.00 in rewards points I can use. I am guessing all 2014 models will start going on sale now before 2015 models come out???

That Elite7 should be a nice unit if it's in your budget. Friend of mine has one mounted on bow of his boat and loves it. If your going to pick it up at the store get them to install the latest update for you.

Down images in the down image only graph, are more detailed than looking at the down image view in side imaging. Side image gets its "down image" picture by combining the 2 inside over lapping weaker sonar returns. Which is ok, but not as good as down image only graph. On the trolling motor, i would go with down image only and 2d graph, and leave side imaging alone unless gonna put another one on the transom

Originally Posted by LowePro

Down images in the down image only graph, are more detailed than looking at the down image view in side imaging. Side image gets its "down image" picture by combining the 2 inside over lapping weaker sonar returns. Which is ok, but not as good as down image only graph. On the trolling motor, i would go with down image only and 2d graph, and leave side imaging alone unless gonna put another one on the transom

I agree with LowePro, on DI images from a Lowrance DI being better than HB's SI images turned into DI images. A dedicated crystal for DI images will show better detail than a "interpreted" image from a SI crystal.
My Elite 5DSI unit will show images like this :



and it's not the latest/greatest of DI units ... in fact, it's discontinued from the Lowrance line, likely in favor of the new Elite series units that have DI & 2d.

Personally, I'd never go back to 2d & it's "finger painting" images. Not when I can get images like the one above.

SI shines when you're motoring around & looking over an area for cover, and baitballs & fish that are out to either side of the boat and at a distance.

DI shines when you're covering a specific area, or looking for cover/baitballs/fish that are within the range of your downscan sonar ping.

The method(s) that you normally use the most ... should be the deciding factor in what capabilities a unit must have.

... cp

Cray, how would I go about getting the latest update installed?? Can they do it at store?? Would they have to send it in to Lowrance?

Originally Posted by Swampseed

Cray, how would I go about getting the latest update installed?? Can they do it at store?? Would they have to send it in to Lowrance?

Depending on the store. Most Bass Pro, cabelas, gander usually have someone there versed in down loading from web site and uploading to unit. Would be helpful for you to learn how to do it. Like Justin said, you can just get a SD card and down load from web site and install yourself. That is something you will need to learn eventually because Lowrance and Humminbird are constantly coming out with new updates for units.

Originally Posted by Swampseed

Cray, how would I go about getting the latest update installed?? Can they do it at store?? Would they have to send it in to Lowrance?

Just down load from Lowrances web site, move it to a memory card and load it into the df.