Advise on Hummingbird Sounder please.

[pig75]

I certainly can't recommend a bird over a lowrance - specially in smaller screen sizes. having run both a 998SI & HDS 5 on my boat - the Bird has been a bit of a disappointment ..... the definition & interpretation is much better from the lowrance units .
The downside of the lowrance system is that the SI is an add on ($700) & you have 2 transducers ..... inconvenient but worth it.

From what i have read the reason the lowrance seems to show more detail is that it fills in gaps with what it thinks should be there

[NAGG]

From what i have read the reason the lowrance seems to show more detail is that it fills in gaps with what it thinks should be there

That's the word - now from what I have seen (in clear water) - this interpretation / fill in ... looked more like what I was seeing under the boat (trees & rock )........ where it did really stand out was helping determine the type of fish under the boat. A mate was looking at my HB & commented that the blobs were in fact barra (what he had seen on his) we were also running the HDS off the bow and it's interpretation was much more detailed (shapes Vs blobs) .......... it was quite convincing specially considering it was just about the top HB SI sounder in the range Vs the bottom of the Lowrance HDS range.

All is not rosy with Lowrance though ....... they can be problematic - this is why I took the risk and imported the Humminbird - Saved 40% over the local price (HB seem to be more reliable). Too often you need the service of Lowrance (often warranty)..... and that's too risky to import one (also now they are geofenced).
Anyhow ..... that's my 5 cents worth

Chris