Garmin GPSMap really a good buy?

I reached out to some fellow anglers that rare supposedly "in the know" and they told me that Garmin in their opinion were "fluff and marketing". I am curious to get opinions from folks that have used other brands and Garmin and what they feel about the units? I currently have HBird Onix units, but I'm not completely happy with them and Garmin, from a distance seems like an amazing product. I'm interested in getting thoughts from current users and their experience.

Thanks ahead of time!

Sounds like your buddies are fan boys.

I don't know that when you are looking at the flagship product of any of the brands that really good buy applies. Really good buy generally applies to discounted and discontinued products. A fair analysis would take the best unit of each brand and identify what each product does best and then determine how important each performance characteristic is to your fishing. My priorities and yours may not be the same. I may not fish like you do at the same depths you do. My fishing is real simple. Number 1. Find the fish. Number 2. Catch them. For finding them I use Panoptix, 2d, SideVu, and ClearVu(DownVu). Panoptix is a Garmin only product. Garmin's 2d with chirp is the best on the market. There is a wide selection of chirp transducers with Garmin, while a very limited selection with the other brands.

I have no trouble at all discriminating between what is fish and not fish on the SideVu and ClearVu. It may not be as detailed for looking at structure as your Onix. For some people, looking at the details of structure is real important. For me, it counts for nothing. Looking at structure to determine where to fish is not something I do. I look for fish to determine where I fish. I read about people who troll and value Humminbirds implementation for iPilot-Link that really like it. I don't troll. If I did, I can see where Panoptix LiveVu Forward or a PS30 with the beam pointed forward would be central to my game.

I can't give much to Lowrance. The only Lowance feature I still use is their 83kHz as a single frequency on an HDS5. It gives a very wide look that is sometimes useful in knowing I'm in an area with lots of fish. I have to use something else to determine where they are specifically so I can catch them. It's only still on my boat to give a second fisherman something to look at. The Garmin PS30 is much more useful and when I am by myself, the HDS is off.

A good buy? I doubt that I answered your question. If you're looking to do all this cheap, it's probably not going to work.

I appreciate your input as well as everyone else who can provide additional insight. I am not partial to any brand, Garmin is a great brand to me, I just want to understand how they compare to the traditional brands.

Fluff and marketing

Totally wrong. I have used the low end, mid-range and high end units. I think their marketing is lacking. No unit can compensate for the quality of the transducer connected and Garmin makes the best. To even get in the same league using the other brands you have to go third party-Airmar. And Garmin providers drivers for those transducers as well. Nobody offers the transducer selection that Garmin does.

The only misleading information I've seen is the frequency and distance that lures can be seen on the Panoptix ForwardVu. I do see my lures at the distances people talk about but not dependably; meaning that I can not cast and count on seeing the lure most of the time the way I fish. The size of the lure and speed of retrieval really comes into play. I can make it happen but I don't usually fish that slow. I started with Humminbird, then switched to Lowrance and now primarily use Garmin. If I saw something that I though was better for my fishing, I would buy it. I use multiple units and a huge problem I had with Humminbird and Lowrance with multiple units was how to make them work together without interference. Historically the solution has been to avoid the problem by making networked units all look at the same transducer. That's not a solution for me. I want the separate transducers operating at different frequencies performing separate purposes. Garmin does that best and even they have room for improvement. On my 7610 I can run 2 transducers, one of them a combo 2d,side,down and 2 Panoptix transducers at the same time. Tough to match that.

If you are changing to Garmin from Humminbird or Lowrance & care about detailed images on SI/DI you will not be satisfied with Garmin. A few don't care about detail but others do. I do expect Garmin to get better in the future.

I have tried about every SI/DI transducer that Garmin makes and was totally disappointed.. I gave up.

I am really satisfied with the Garmin Panoptix PS-30. This is a great tool for the type fishing that I do which is crappie fishing.

I also am running the PS-21 which will add another dimension to my type of fishing if I can find a way to remove some of the screen noise.

Both transducers are connected to a GPSMAP 7610 at the bow where I do most all of my fishing.

Just remember, you need to choose units that will match up with your type of fishing...

I must agree with all that has already been said. The Panoptix option , to me, outweighs any other maker's fishfinder option. To me this dwarfs everything else. Structure is only important to me if it is holding fish. The PS30 and PS 21 gives me the ability to immediately determine if an area is worth wetting a line or not.

While side imaging and down imaging can be impressive and interesting to look at. It means naught if it doesn't convince user one way or the other that an area is indeed worth fishing.

I have discussed this with other owners of different makes. Most that deride Garmin have never used them. Which to me is kind of like your child saying " I don't like this food " before they even taste it. I believe this stems from the old " If I got it. It must be the best" syndrome.

Bottom line fishing is more enjoyable when you are catching fish. If your present equipment does the job for you why change ? If not why keep investing in technology that doesn't work for you. A few years back I invested in a Echomap 70S that outshined my Humminbird equipment. Actual performance is what convinced me to switch to Garmin. I presently have more invested in Garmin than Humminbird. I don't think that is going to change any time soon.

I have never regretted any purchase of Garmin equipment. The 360 View I purchased from Humminbird I regret greatly. It is largely just a " hood ornament " now. The panoptix just blows it away. I have other Humminbird owners tell me I am crazy. That I just don't know how to use it. Etc etc etc. But the facts are I do know how to adjust and use it. With the 360 an educated guess is the best possible scenario. With the panoptix I KNOW what I am looking at. All it lacks is a specie identification alert. The more I use it even that might be somewhat possible.

Keep what you have as I dont see any Garmin giving you any upgrades.

But add a 7" Garmin and Panoptix as it is is pretty amazing and no other brand has anything even close.

When Lowrance brought out chirp with their units, HB crowd claimed it to be useless, called the introduction marketing fluff. Less then two years later HB introduced chirp on their units. Lowrance has always had outstanding 2D. Lowrance and HB are concerned about Garmin and the introduction into the inland markets. For the reasons already mentioned, Garmin is very diversified and well funded.

Panoptix may seem like a lot of fluff to some but in my opinion a feature that put Garmin in a different league. Will always chose Lowrance for 2D sonar with airmar transducers. Using all three HB, Lowrance and Garmin see features and qualities appealing in each.. But if a full functioned sonar system is desired and starting from scratch would chose Garmin, chirp networkable units, panoptix capable.

The posts you have here are as good of straight up advice as you will find. Go back and read them all repeatedly. The only correction I would offer is about upgrades. Here is a partial list of software upgrades for my 7610 for what will soon be 2 years. The first number is the general software version and the second part specific to the sonar. There are some gaps because I didn't record all of the updates and the dates are my dates, not theirs. I've used Humminbird and Lowrance extensively and never expected this much after the sale software support. And I hear there is still going to be another big release. IMO that is as good as it gets.

2015-05-04_GPSMAPSeries 5.2/2.2
2015-11-02_GPSMAPSeries 5.3.2.4
2016-01-08_GPSMAPSeries 5.4/2.5
2016-02-23_GPSMAPSeries 7.1/3.0
2016-03-22_GPSMAPSeries 7.1/3/1
2016-04-26_GPSMAPSeries 7.2/3.1
2016-05-06_GPSMAPSeries 7.3/3.1
2016-06-06_GPSMAPSeries 8.0/3.2
2016-07-28_GPSMAPSeries 8.2/3.3
2016-10-20_GPSMAPSeries 9.0.3.3

I don't take issue with Gary (Treeguyus) about 2d on Lowrance. Performance is very good. The Garmin edge is in the software controls available to adjust every aspect of the return and the exceptional diversity of transducer choices.

You have a high end Huminbird. Put a high end Garmin with it with Panoptix then report back to us what you see and what you think. The 1042xsv is just coming out. The 7600/7400 series are proven. Go for it.