My main question is this: Say I’m in 20 feet of water and I have my range set to 80 feet either side. On the screen, the water column shows out to 20 feet, and then changes to show the bottom out to 80 feet either side. Am I really only seeing 60 feet of the bottom on each side? If there is a tree 10 feet to the right, how would that look? Maybe I am making this too complicated, but I am just trying to understand.

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this is the view, your transducer is at the top of the ^


If the tree is only 10 feet away in 20 feet of water depth then it will be in the water column BUT there will be a SHADOW behind it which will tell you how tall that tree is etc.

In 20' of water you would be better served to reduce your SI to 50' or less. The detail will be greatly enhanced and you will see more details of the cover and more fish.

Also, the slower you can go and have clear resolution on the screen the better off you are.

I like 3 times the depth on my side scan. 20ft depth = 60ft each side for a setting

The best thing to do other than take a make an appointment with Slade to have them set up and get taught on them, is to watch some youtube videos. There are several that do a good job of explaining what you are looking at and how to read the screen. A tree in the water column and to the right side would look similar to how it looks on down imaging with the shadow going to the right.

In reality you are seeing more or less 80' in a straight line from the transducer to the bottom of the lake, not 80' in a level line from you. The graph varies the angle of the transducer cone it displays. Wider angle = greater display area.

It's all about slant angles

https://www.technologicalangler.com/understand-side-imaging-range

That is a perfect explanation, thanks!

I went over and past some structure that I knew what it actually looked like and then saw the image on the screen. You will quickly understand what things look like if you start with something obvious, say a bridge piling or some rip rap. Or even a single lay down. Drive by those things and see what they look like on the screen and it will all start to make sense.

As much as we pay for our electronics, you’d figure the Mfg’s. could get the math/lateral distance to an object accurate on the display

They better T Bird, cause I sure can't figure it out! Duncanville edumacation!

Where the water column and bottom connect think of it as a 90 degree fold on the screen at that point. If you run split scree with down and side imaging you'll notice that from the top to bottom of water column on side imagining looks the same as down but turned perpendicular. That said you won't miss anything on side imaging you can see in down. If you idle directly over or slightly of center of a tree you will see parts of in in the left and right displays proportionally. I don't worry about side scanning over 3 times the depth I am in. My reason for this is that beyond that ratio there's nothing to see but darkness anyway and things become much smaller and harder to identify.