Trying to decide which unit to get

[12poundbass]

I've lurked the site for quite a while and just decided to join and this is my first post.

In the spring I'm upgrading boats and I'll be purchasing my first pair of finders. I've been looking into the Helix 7, Striker 7 SV, and most recently the 73 sv echomap. I'm leaning towards Garmin but I'm concerned about the imaging. I haven't seen enough to decide but the few I've seen aren't great. Don't get me wrong I'm not looking to get MEGA imaging quality images, but I want to make sure I can see structure half way decent. I'm not expecting to see fish inside strucure. Does anyone have some images of some structure you could post?

My other worry I have is I hear a fair amount on here not too happy with Garmin at all. I've read the story behind the DV and being lied to. It seems like there are quite a few who are disappointed with what they have and are stuck with their units. I like the echomap units and I'm cautiously leaning that way because you get mapping for the same price you would a Helix 7 without. Like I said though I'm cautiously leaning towards the 73 SV echomap.

Sell me on this unit. Thank you for your time and the responses.

[LWINCHESTER2]

There is certainly lots of stuff on the market to be choosing from. But you have some time and you should leverage that to your advantage. That means not deciding right now. IMO the late fall, Christmas market will be vastly different than it is right now. Everybody, meaning manufacturers too, know Garmin won the lawsuit and the door is wide open for whatever they want to produce. The only question is when it will hit the market. I'm not marketing expert but you don't have to be one to know the last fall, Christmas market is pretty big. If I were you I would plan to be making the decision in that time frame.

Then you'll face the intense pressure of heavily discounted, discontinued models compared to the new stuff priced at what they market will stand. If I didn't have any electronics and was buying one unit today and price was a significant consideration, that unit would be the echoMAP CHIRP 93sv with a GT52 transducer. That's because I would also want Panoptix and you just need a 9 inch screen to show all this stuff. My 7610 is the best unit I've used but it sounds like that's not in your price range.

There are quite a few images here:
http://www.bbcboards.net/showthread.php?t=630798

[12poundbass]

Thanks for the reply. I'm not looking to buy right now, just looking and learning at this time. I'd say my budget is probably going to be $1200-1300 which is why I'm leaning towards Garmin. Can the Striker 7 and 73SV share waypoints?

[LWINCHESTER2]

The striker units can share waypoints but do not have maps. They share waypoints through Garmin High Speed protocol by connecting brown to blue, blue to brown in the power cable cluster.

[Schins]

My Striker shows nice images and was CHEAP. $400 for a sidescan is pretty good.

If yoi dont need a lot of features RIGHT NOW then id say buy cheap and then learn what you really need or want.

[12poundbass]

I don't need a lot of features. That's why I was wondering if the 73SV would share waypoints with the Striker. I could put the 73sv at the consol and use the mapping to find areas of interest mark them and have them up front on the Striker. That's the thing or just break down and get 2 73sv.

[Larry3215]

There is certainly lots of stuff on the market to be choosing from. But you have some time and you should leverage that to your advantage. That means not deciding right now. IMO the late fall, Christmas market will be vastly different than it is right now. Everybody, meaning manufacturers too, know Garmin won the lawsuit and the door is wide open for whatever they want to produce. The only question is when it will hit the market. I'm not marketing expert but you don't have to be one to know the last fall, Christmas market is pretty big. If I were you I would plan to be making the decision in that time frame.

Then you'll face the intense pressure of heavily discounted, discontinued models compared to the new stuff priced at what they market will stand. If I didn't have any electronics and was buying one unit today and price was a significant consideration, that unit would be the echoMAP CHIRP 93sv with a GT52 transducer. That's because I would also want Panoptix and you just need a 9 inch screen to show all this stuff. My 7610 is the best unit I've used but it sounds like that's not in your price range.

There are quite a few images here:
http://www.bbcboards.net/showthread.php?t=630798

I agree with this. If you dont need it now, wait till xmass or even Jan Feb to make a final decision. You may be able to get a much larger, more powerful unit for the same price by that time because everyone will be coming out with new models and selling off the older ones at big discounts.

In the mean time, look at screen shots from all brands and hang out on here and in the Humminbird and Lowrance forums and listen to feed back on the ones that interest you the most.

[smalljawer]

I'm just your average Joe fisherman with two Striker 7sv. One has cv52 the other has gt 52. I can't see a nickels worth of difference in them. Can I find a rock pile, yes. Can I count the number of rocks in the pile, no. I can tell if there are fish it or not, that's all I need to know. When I bought the units I was not expecting the quality pictures you would get from a diver with a go pro. So don't get discouraged with what you read about cv52 vs gt 52. In MY opinion that's just a few guys saying I can make this more complicated than you.

[MonteSS]

I knowe that this is the Garmin section but you mentioned the Helix. Much better imaging and the HELIX 7 CHIRP SI GPS G2 is less than the 73sv.Having tried most of the brands, that would be my choice these days.

[ncbass]

If I could go back and do it over again there would be three 'Birds on my boat....

[Schins]

I knowe that this is the Garmin section but you mentioned the Helix. Much better imaging and the HELIX 7 CHIRP SI GPS G2 is less than the 73sv.Having tried most of the brands, that would be my choice these days.

ya but the hbird is 455-only on side imaging, and should really have the hd transducer standard not an option

[ifishinxs]

I'm just your average Joe fisherman with two Striker 7sv. One has cv52 the other has gt 52. I can't see a nickels worth of difference in them. Can I find a rock pile, yes. Can I count the number of rocks in the pile, no. I can tell if there are fish it or not, that's all I need to know. When I bought the units I was not expecting the quality pictures you would get from a diver with a go pro. So don't get discouraged with what you read about cv52 vs gt 52. In MY opinion that's just a few guys saying I can make this more complicated than you.

AMEN! Spoken by someone who actually owns and uses the product.

[Schins]

The practical application matters a lot, but its still informative and, uh....fun, so to speak, to nitpick over the finer details

[12poundbass]

You're not comparing apples to apples

[Ted-LA]

If I could go back and do it over again there would be three 'Birds on my boat....

I'd have two and no Garmin.

[ifishinxs]

I'd have two and no Garmin.

I'm just the opposite. Just dumped my birds and bought Garmin.

[LWINCHESTER2]

Dumped my birds years ago over their 2d. Went to Lowrance. 2d was better. Had it since HDSG1. Two years ago went with Garmin 7610. Again over the 2d. I now believe I have the best 2d on the market. The rest is gravy. And what a bowl of gravy it is with Panoptix.

[mosin]

Let me jump in and ask a few questions since I am considering a unit too (dual purpose use - fishing and mapping/survey).

1) if you save a track in garmin echomap, does it contain lat,long and depth?
I know it was possible with HB (i used a 737, although the first time around the depth value is 0 since there was a bug. A few hours wasted to and fro on the river)

2) is it possible to capture the NMEA out sentence from the unit that contained depth values? Didn't see any mention in the echomap manual, although I've seen the instruction for 530c unit a decade ago(IIRC).

[Larry3215]

Let me jump in and ask a few questions since I am considering a unit too (dual purpose use - fishing and mapping/survey).

1) if you save a track in garmin echomap, does it contain lat,long and depth?
I know it was possible with HB (i used a 737, although the first time around the depth value is 0 since there was a bug. A few hours wasted to and fro on the river)

2) is it possible to capture the NMEA out sentence from the unit that contained depth values? Didn't see any mention in the echomap manual, although I've seen the instruction for 530c unit a decade ago(IIRC).

Short answer - not that I know of for depth info or NMEA. The depth info is recorded when you record sonar, but its a proprietary format and I dont know how you can access the information. You might be able to use a program like SonarTrx to get the info from your sonar recordings, but thats a 3rd party paid program.

You can use Quickdraw to make your own charts, but again its a proprietary format and I dont know of any way to work with it except viewing it on the MFD. There are no PC programs or conversion programs.

You can get the lat/lon using HomePort to view saved tracks.

[Todd Driscoll]

Let me jump in and ask a few questions since I am considering a unit too (dual purpose use - fishing and mapping/survey).

1) if you save a track in garmin echomap, does it contain lat,long and depth?
I know it was possible with HB (i used a 737, although the first time around the depth value is 0 since there was a bug. A few hours wasted to and fro on the river)

2) is it possible to capture the NMEA out sentence from the unit that contained depth values? Didn't see any mention in the echomap manual, although I've seen the instruction for 530c unit a decade ago(IIRC).

Note that saved tracks save position information, depth and water temperature. In addition to this data, you also get time information with active tracks.

NMEA 0183 will output position, depth, water temperature information, but only echoMAPs and GPSMAP products support NMEA 0183 output.