White Dots, Poor Detail

[DogWalker]

I did some testing while out trolling today and have some additional information and insight on your "white dots". I have posted 4 images...

1) Normal SI view with a gradually sloping gravel bottom without the "white spots".

2) SI view with steep sloping rock bluff from the shoreline on far left to 120' on far right. You can clearly see the "white dots" on the right (deeper) side. It is also on the left (shallower) side as well but that is so bright that it is hard to see.

3) Mega 360 image which corresponds to #2... Taken at the same time. This also shows the "white dots" on the right side.

4) Bridge image with similar "white dot" phenomenon which magically disappeared about half way through the image without any imaging adjustments on the Solix. This was taken with Solix SW of a few versions ago.

Observations:

1) Since the SI view is coming from the Solix SI+ transducer and the Mega 360 image is coming from the Mega 360 transclducer, I can rule out the transducer as being the cause for the "white dots".

2) I tried all of the normal imaging adjustments (sensitivity, contrast, sharpness, and Dynamic Contrast but no combination of these adjustments removed the "white dots".

3) The "white dots" appear to occur on steep sloping hard surfaces.

Conclusion:

This appears to me to be some sort of Humminbird Solix Imaging anomaly/error. I don't see any real reason why these "white dots" should be in the images but they are.

Wow, great detail, thanks! The hard surface observation does make sense as I first noticed it at a dammed river with tons of rock. We also noticed it at a reservoir that is a mostly sand bottom, but also has rocky areas that probably are hard to differentiate as sediment flows in and covers the bottom. Either way, glad to hear that it's not an issue with my setup, I know those are notoriously hard to troubleshoot.

Thanks for the hard work!

[SLYDoggie]

I did some additional testing and found the problem causing the White Dots... Water Column Sensitivity! Since I troll for Stripers and am only interested in fish in the water column, I always have the Water Column Sensitivity set to +3 on all my imaging screens, DI, SI, and Mega 360. I had the thought that this might be contributing to the problem but, when I tested the theory, the reality is that it is 100% what is causing the problem.

I did a test yesterday while traversing along a couple of steep rocky drop-offs from the shoreline to 120' in depth over the width of my SI view. I have attached a screen capture with my test from each of the two shorelines and the results were pretty conclusive.

In the attached SI screen captures, I first had the Water Column Sensitivity set to +3 and had the "dots" on both sides (the bottom portion of the SI views). I then changed Water Column Sensitivity to zero and the image was totally normal (the middle part of the SI view. I then changed the Water Column Sensitivity to -3 and got an even more bizarre image issue with very jagged lines all along the bottom (the top part of the SI view). I'm guessing that you had your Water Column Sensitivity set to +1, +2, or +3 and that is what caused the issue.

I'm going to create a new thread with this issue because I have seen people post about the jagged bottom but I don't know that the issue was ever determined.

[DogWalker]

I did some additional testing and found the problem causing the White Dots... Water Column Sensitivity! Since I troll for Stripers and am only interested in fish in the water column, I always have the Water Column Sensitivity set to +3 on all my imaging screens, DI, SI, and Mega 360. I had the thought that this might be contributing to the problem but, when I tested the theory, the reality is that it is 100% what is causing the problem.

I did a test yesterday while traversing along a couple of steep rocky drop-offs from the shoreline to 120' in depth over the width of my SI view. I have attached a screen capture with my test from each of the two shorelines and the results were pretty conclusive.

In the attached SI screen captures, I first had the Water Column Sensitivity set to +3 and had the "dots" on both sides (the bottom portion of the SI views). I then changed Water Column Sensitivity to zero and the image was totally normal (the middle part of the SI view. I then changed the Water Column Sensitivity to -3 and got an even more bizarre image issue with very jagged lines all along the bottom (the top part of the SI view). I'm guessing that you had your Water Column Sensitivity set to +1, +2, or +3 and that is what caused the issue.

I'm going to create a new thread with this issue because I have seen people post about the jagged bottom but I don't know that the issue was ever determined.

Hmmm, interesting, that would definitely explain things. Water Column Sensitivity was set to +2 on my last trip, I don't know what it was when I first noticed the issue. I'm heading out this weekend, I'll play around with the setting to see what my results are.

[SLYDoggie]

Well, I'm sad to report that the new 4.020 Solix software update does not fix this issue. I installed the update on both my Solix 15 G2 and Solix 12 G2 and the Water Column Sensitivity setting still causes the same issue... Jagged bottom transition on negative settings and excessively bright bottom transition on plus settings.

Guess Humminbird hasn't come up with a fix for this yet.

[MonteSS]

Different bodies of water and temp/time of year give different clearness.

[SLYDoggie]

Different bodies of water and temp/time of year give different clearness.

This has nothing to do with water clarity or temp. There is a definite sonar interpretation issue with Water Column Sensitivity setting that Humminbird is aware of.