Navionics or Cmap for Depth Shading

[AaronWKU]

I have CMAP reveal but wondering about Navionics depth shading. I cant find anything online on what it looks like. What are you thoughts on both? Which is better in East region for map shading?

[AaronWKU]

Do you have to have platinum plus for shading on navionics?

[Geaux-Fish]

Do you have to have platinum plus for shading on navionics?

Yes, from my understanding.https://www.navionics.com/usa/charts...tinumPlus&fn1/

[78Staff]

Navionics has Relief Shading, which if available in your area, is pretty awesome...



Coverage areas...

https://www.navionics.com/usa/charts...ding#map-rs-us

[NoCAL]

There is a post about this just below. Custom Depth Shading is very different from Relief Shading. Both C-Map and Navionics have Shaded Relief. Only C-Map has custom depth shading. As mentioned above Navionics Relief Shading is pretty cool if available in your area.

NoCAL

[78Staff]

NoCal does make a good point, they are different... IMO, if you want a graphical representaion almost approaching a "3D-like look" then the Navionics Relief Shading is amazing. However, if you are looking to assign custom colors, or want to highlight specific depths/depth ranges, the C-Map is what you want.

Personally, I find C-MAP's custom depth shading a bit quirky, as I've seen it not shade contours consistently in some areas, so don't really use the "5/10/15/20/etc" transitional shading that most would utlize it for, prefering to uses C-MAP's default shading option which imo works just as well minus the customizing aspect. However I do use custom shading sometimes if I want to shade a specifc depth range only, or to highlight humps in otherwise featureless flats, etc. However (In Florida) I've found Navionics contour info to be more accurate than C-MAP, so it all depends on what water I'm on, and what I'm doing that day as to which map I use... but will say I use Navioncs far more than C-MAP. However, if I was in one of the states where C-MAP did the local mapping, ie TN, AL, GA etc I would likely use C-MAP much more.