On an ice fishing site I posted about how affordable the PS22 is becoming. While there were quite a few views. There was not one response. In the same forum someone posted about livescope being the ultimate panoptix. It had many responses.
I used the PS 21 then the PS 22 when it came out for ice fishing. Last year on about a 20 acre pond fished with my setup vs another guy who had the livescope lvs32. Here were my observations.
1. My setup with 9 inch screen way cheaper vs his 7 inch screen both echomaps mine a chirp his a plus.
2. Time to find fish about equal
3. My setup drew less power.
4. Livescope had way more definition as it should. Objects like fish are displayed smaller livescope vs the older panoptix.
5. Actually switched setups for 30 minutes . Both of us were glad when the 1/2 hour was up . ;-0
6. I caught more fish. But way more experience on my part. Like about 40 years.
What I was trying to convey to the ice anglers. If you can not afford the livescope route. Why not go with the older more affordable Panoptix ? I get that the new tech is always going to draw the most attention. But by buying a used PS 22 one would be saving @ 1K right there. Instead of buying a manufactured shuttle. I made one out of a five gallon bucket. Used some of the money I saved on that to spring for lithium batteries. For the PS 22 made a deploy item out of PVC. Cost under 10 as opposed to 99.00.