I have a helix 10 upfront and a 12 at the console. I also have the ulterra so I can deploy the tm while in the driver's seat and drive around while watching the 360 but even when I go up and am look 6-10 feet away it works great on the 10" screen. If you only want to see forward there is a setting that moves the circle down and only shows a little more than the upper half of the circle which helps a bit. I can't get mine dialed in as well as Wayne so I'm not looking specifically for fish, I am looking for submerged structure. If i see fish that's just a bonus.

I like the panoptics and it looks cool but it is going to point in a certain direction unless you do something different for mounting and then you have to manually sweep it to search. I like that the 360 is always sweeping so I just fish and glance down. If I want to key in on a brush pile, I can then set it to just sweep back and forth in that cone to get a quicker refresh rather than waiting for it to make the 360 turn but I rarely ever feel that is needed.