About to take the plunge and want opinions about which Side Imager is the best.

No options,except size of screen. Only made by Humminbird,patent.

i like my 797c2i, its the smaller one.

997 size with the GPS for the back. You won't be let down.

The biggest screen your budget will allow. W' GPS of course.

The 997 is a great unit and the screen is big enough to destinquish what your looking at. The big one would be nice but there is a big diff in cost

I've seen a couple of places on the net that say that Lowrance is going to unvail their version @ ICAST in a couple of weeks. I sure hope it's true.

They don't mention when it will be available to the public.

I would wait and see what Lowrance has coming out...

The bigger the better...

I went with the 997 and I have never looked back... contact addictive fishing tackle on here or look up their website www.addictivetackle.com they are great on the prices...

I believe in new technology, but I don't have to be the first on the block. These units will get better and come down in price once competition sets in. I lived through the Green Box, paper graphs and the works. I'm not going to jump in right now. Besides, I just got two new units from Lowrance.

797 was the way for me.ive got a 175 tracker and for me to get the big screen monitor would look kind of dumb.besides i could'nt find room to mount it..no complaints on the 797..i just wish i could figure out all of its capabilities definitly buy the dvd to go along with the si

if you can ride with people that have different ones,and different sizes to see which on you like the best,they all look good in a showroom.........size matters

size does matter. i used someone elses boat over the weekend and it had a 787 (same size as 797)... it was very hard to use 2 features at once on that little screen! if you went with the small side imaging, make sure you have another unit beside it to run your gps or 2d sonar with while the side imaging is going...

you may want to wait. i keep hearing rumors of Lowrance having side imaging technology. remember only the transducer was patented by humminbird. we may be suprised in Spetember with whats unveiled. it may be december before we can buy them if the rumors are true. its pretty quiet when you ask any lowrance guys about them.

We've all heard the rumors for the last 2 years. Our patents are using SI attached to a boat. Will be interesting to see if they are just going to ignore our patents and take us on.If they do we will be in court protecting our investments.
So, you may have a unit that cannot be supported while we are in litigation.
As far as "waiting" for Lowrance......why? We've had it for 3 years and have a very stable product. I for one would not want to have the first one off Lowrance's assembly line in Mexico. The real gripe I hear at every tournament and seminar is the "quality" issues and getting a unit repaired without having to wait 5-6 weeks. And then having it repaired again and again.
They say they will anounce it next week at ICAST.

Does Motorguide trolling motors have a built in transducer that works with the Humingbird SI?

Huckleberry,
there is no internal Side Imaging transducer for Minn Kota or Motor Guide. We have a compact side imaging transducer that is made to use on your trolling motor regardless of the brand.
The part is XTM 9 SI 180 T. This transducer also has your traditional 2D downlooking sonar.

WOW.....thanks Eddie!!!!!!!!!

i just got the 1197c and love it

In the SI World Size really does matter.

Not so much in the 2D world.

On the 1197 I would bet I would run it most the time at about 150ft Range Left and Right.

On my 997 SI I run about 110ft left and right.

And on the 797 I would think I would run it about 70ft left and right.

Proabbly understanding you're seeing things (Fish Cover, etc..) better on the 1997 not to mention much more coverage - viewable/useable range.

Bigger is much better in the SI world.

For anyone looking for any of these products, I currently have all three models in-stock. Below are my current prices:

1197C SI Combo - $2549.95
997C SI Combo - $1799.95
797C 2SI Combo - $979.95

Each of these units are also available with the Navionics Gold and Hotmaps Premium Charts preloaded. I offer flat rate shipping to anywhere in the US at the following rates:

Ground - $8.99
2nd Day - $12.99
Overnight - $21.99

Visit my online store at www.outdoorelites.com

Please give me an opportunity to earn your business.

I doubt you have actual patents at this point, takes as much as 5 years to get them. And since Side Imaging is nothing new, it's been around since the 60's your not likely going to have too much ground to stand on with the patents when they are issued.

I'd be interested in seeing what happens too, Lowrance's support may not be that great, but I am sitting here with one of your SI units that is less than 1 year old that is full of moisture. Just as soon as I get back from this trip we will see what type of support Humminbird has.

Maybe to clarify but I emailed Lowrance with a query on their plans to make an SI unit. Their response was...

"Thank you for your inquiry. We do apologize for the delay in
responding. We are currently at the peak of our busy season and responding to
all inquiries as quickly as possible. You are very important to us and we
will be happy to assist you. There are no plans for any side scan
sonar units at this time. We produced side scan packages several years
ago and our customers just weren't interested so no more were produced
after a brief run. We do not anticipate that old technology will be
revisited by our engineering staff.

Please feel free to contact us if we may assist further.

Thank you for choosing Lowrance Electronics"

It sounds like they have no plans at this time to make an "old" side scan technology.

I doubt that the person that replied to you really knows what side scan sonar is. Lowrance did offer 3D some time back which turned out to be of not much value. This goes for Humminbirds 3D as well. In fact Lowrance holds the patents for the control of the 3D transducer used by HB.

http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO2&Sect2=HITOFF&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsearch-adv.htm&r=7&f=G&l=50&d=PTXT&p=1&p=1&S1=Humminbird&OS=Humminbird&RS=Humminbird

We will just have to see what happens with Lowrance's side scan. The patent for the HB SI transducer is pending and may never be issued.

http://appft1.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO2&Sect2=HITOFF&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsearch-bool.html&r=2&f=G&l=50&co1=AND&d=PG01&s1=%22side+imaging%22&s2=sonar&OS=