which sounder???

[ozz]

Hello, I am looking at buying a sounder but don't know which one. I haven't got a big budget so I have norrowed it down to four.
Navman 4350
Furuno LS-4100
Lowrance X-51
Hummingbird 535
Is there a major adventage with color screen?.
Any input on which one would be the better sounder would be a great help. thax Ozz

[aquarius]

Ozz buy the one with the highest pixel count.
You won't get a colour unit in the price range you are looking at.
I bought my first colour unit this year and its great.
It will cost you around $600 for a small colour sounder.
Mine is a Lowrance x67c
Cheers #Brent
ps ; my old sounder was a lowrance x51.
Great little sounder with a pixel count of 160 by 240.
This unit is good value for money.
Sorry can't comment on the other models you have listed.

[kevy]

hi ozz. re new sounder. do you have colour television ? there is no comparision between black & white & colour. save a few more dollars & have a good look round. i believe garmin have a colour model now, don,t know the price. all the best, kevy. :) :)

[whiteman]

I have been out in boats with VERY expensive colour sounders which work great. I also went out on a boat with Navman colour sounder at the cheaper end - very poor bottom and fish definition. I used to have a Navman 450 tri-colour. Low pixels and very poor to useless.

Now I have the grayscale Lowrance x135 with 480x480 and it is brilliant. Simply don't need colour as it shows everything in a lot of detail.

You cannot compare fish sounders to colour TVs. Of course colour is better than grayscale but only if you are getting the same resolution on the screen. The low res colour units on the market are gimmicks.

[jimbob]

Ozz i have recently bought Lowrance X125 for $500 & something cant quite remember i bought i lot of other stuff aswell bu this has 460x460 pixels is user friendly cant recommend it enough. If you are going to use it in quite deep water i would go for duel frequency. So i know some blokes dont like the Lowrance but i think they are pretty good value
Cheers Jamie

[lordy]

Hello, I am looking at buying a sounder but don't know which one. I haven't got a big budget so I have norrowed it down to four.
Navman 4350
Furuno LS-4100
Lowrance X-51
Hummingbird 535
Is there a major adventage with color screen?.
Any input on which one would be the better sounder would be a great help. thax Ozz



What sort of fishing?

Some of the humminbird matrixs are quite impressive. I like the dual beam matrix 17 in the fresh, with a narrow cone and a 60 degree cone for finding schools in open water. The matrix 35 is even better. Depends on the budget and the use.

[ozz]

thanks for your input aquarius, I did a bit more shopping around today and come up with the Furuno LS-4100. It's a bit more expensive than what i was going to spend, I picked it up for $475. The pixel count on the Furuno is 240 x 320 and can be interfaced with a GPS later on down the track. So I wont be out growing it any time soon. thanx Ozz

[ozz]

I was just looking at a cataloge and found that the Lowrance X125 is $549 is it worth the extra bit?. The X135 is a bit out of my price range at $649 but would be good to have 500 watts. I was thinking about the Navman 4350 colour screen becauce a dealer was getting rid of stock at $370 which would of been nice but missed out by a couple of days. I'm only fishing in bays at the moment due to lack of boat size but want to up size to go outside one day so I would like to get a sounder to handle the depth. thax Ozz

[whiteman]

The best thing about the x135 is the white screen rather than the orange screen of the x125. Sure it has more power but how many people fish in 50-100+ meters of water? However, because both have such a high pixel count, the detail is something to behold. And with the high horizontal count you can be travelling at 25 knots and you still see a heap of detail so you cover a lot of ground.

The Navman 4350 is a toy and of little use to a serious fisherman (I had its predecessor).

[matuka]

Ozz

You should be able to pick up an X125 for around $500 to $520. They are a brilliant product for the money. The 480 x 480 pixel count gives great detail and they are very easy to operate.

Matuka

[NeilD]

I picked up a X125 for under $500 a while back and am very impressed with it. We are running it on a 12' NIAD inflatable so the transducer works hard to hold bottom at any speed, The definition is very good and the unit is simple to use on manual. I felt the cheaper colour units were not giving the definition and accurate information I wanted. to me they are a bit like putting the fish id symbols on. We use a colour furuno 663 on our bigger boat and I reckon the X125 would give it a bit of a run in shallower water.
Whiteman, I must be colour blind because my screen is a grey colour, not orange. Are you talking about the backlight.

Neil

[whiteman]

Yeah, the backlight is orange on the X125 and white on the X135. I prefer white.

[NeilD]

Yep it is orange and not real bright. I imagine it is designed to protect your night vision. I think I would prefer bright white also.

Neil

[ozz]

Hi. I have been down to have a look at the x135 and this sounder is great like you said whiteman. The white light is much better than the orange and the high pixel count is noticable. So ive dropped the Furuno ls4100 and will be putting a little more money in to get the x135. The best price so far is $595 i don't think i will be able to get much better than that.
thanks for all the help

Ozz

[whiteman]

Ozz - great price. you won't be disappointed.