From what i see on here Lowrance blows humminbird out of the water on Brushpile detail. What are your thought's? I have a Hbird 581i HD DI and im not impressed at all with the down imaging at all..

From what I have seen, they are equal. It's the operator that determines the image quality.

Actually your Humminbird does a little better since it has a higher resolution display.

This is another ford vs chevy type of deal. I have a buddy that has an 1198 and I have hds-8's. I choose lowrance for di, I can dang near count the crappie on a brushpile.

The Humminbird Side Imaging units don't have a dedicated Down Imaging crystal, BUT an experienced owner can get very good images.
You can see the individual weed stems in this thick weedbed of Egeria which is similar to Hydrilla.
This is from a Humminbird 798ci SI.

See Brushpiles on mine you cant hardly tell if its a huge baitball on the bottom or a Brushpile..?

I think if i had color it would help.

You would also think that these companies would give you accurate images and instruction on what you are actually seeing instead of us having to quess at it as far as proper settings etc..

I agree i have seen images like that but they are usually on side imaging where you can actually see the fish.

I have put the back of the boat over Standing timber in deep water and it just shows a bunch of Clutter.. Nothing like the image on the screen when you look at them online for sale.

Nothing like this..

can you post some images that you have ? and present settings?
Also keep in mind you have a 297.00 fishfinder.. dont expect 1800.00 images.

Sensitivity usually around 8 for the sonar. DI i have maxed out. Generally use auto on the depth but sometimes i will adjust it to about 5 feet deeper than the area that i am fishing. Scroll speed is always on Ultra.

What I see is inexperienced owners not understanding the imaging technology.
The sonar pulse is very thin front to back and is wide to the sides.
For the unit to "draw" the images on the display, it takes movement so the sonar pulse can scan and the image recorded.
It isn't a camera and video monitor and it is not traditional sonar with a cone shaped pulse.
It is similar to a CAT scan that hospitals use.
To put it simply, "if you ain't moving, you ain't scanning" so you will have no decernable image.

That posted 581i image shows the speed of the boat as 4.5 mph, not 0.

This is a screen capture from a Humminbird 597ci HD DI of a bridge support. Copied from another post:

wayne p knows what he is talking about he has helped me out and answered alot questions.Horton if you goto the equpiment thread and spend time reading the posts you learn how get the most outta your graph its all in the settings i have a 788 and 898 like them both...

Horton

Sent PM



keith

What Humminbird units have a dedicated Down Imaging crystal? (if any)

Maybe just the ones without side imaging?

None of the HB's have a dedicated crystal to create DI. They all (HB) uses the SI crystal to create the DI.

Lowrance has a crystal for both DI & SI.




keith

Cooter (Keith Simmons) and I have both owned Lowrance and HB. He switched from HB to L and I switched from L to HB! We fish a lot together in each others boats and believe we have reached the same conclusions.
After switching to an HB 1198 on the console and a 788 on the bow I had an accident in my boat so I went back to my old boat with the L HDS 8 on the console.
I have yet to be able to really dial in the HB to get the images I expect to see based on what my HDS provided. That is why Cooter switched from HB to L. He had a factory guy out on his boat and the factory guy would not produce the same image quality Cooters brother has on his L with boat side by side.
In my case, Matt Carrol and I are both running 1198's and we have a big pile of tires sunk in about 20' of water. I can find the tires with my 1198 but, recently when we were in my old boat we looked at them on the HDS and could not believe the difference. You can see what looks like tires on the HB but, with the Lowrance HDS 8 you can almost read the lettering on the tires! They actually look like tires and you can count every single one.
HB has a lot of neat features and a lot more coming out soon but, I'm not sure that I'd stick with HB if not for the investment already made. The main reason I made the switch is that I don't trust Lowrance from a service standpoint or any kind of help should my HDS fail (which it will at some point).
If I had it to do over I'd probably stick with L.
One other thing. I realize HB has a higher pixel count as someone above mentioned. I guarantee you that pixel count doesn't tell the whole story and I'll compare side by side images to prove it!

Obviously you know nothing about Humminbird products and little about Lowrance products.

Every Humminbird model that has DI in the model name uses a transducer that has a DI crystal and a 2D crystal. There are about a dozen of them.

The Humminibird units with SI in the model name use a transducer that has two Side Imaging crystals and a 2D crystal.
Those units generate a DI image via computer programming.

Lowrance units that have DSI in their model name use a transducer that ONLY has a Down Scan crystal--NO 2D crystal.

The new model Lowrance Elite-7x HDI unit uses a transducer that has a Down Scan crystal and a 2D crystal. That is the first model that company has produced that does Down Scan and 2D sonar.

The HDS units with Structure Scan use two transducers, one has the 2D crystal and the other has two Structure Scan crystals and a Down Scan crystal.

Wayne P. is the man.

Yep! still

I will say those are clearer.

Keith Speers is Da-Man ! ! ! !

I get the same images, just don't bother to do the snap-shot images. Went out today, and threw out 4 Boo Buckets, came back in 2 hours and the images was clear as a bell. Even all the air bubbles were gone. No Fish, but what can a guy do.



keith

I have done some checking into that 581 i Di and some of those sold online do not come with the down imaging transducer. It just comes with the standard transducer. I talked to one of them and told him that he was running a scam and he said yes we are. The ones sold at Bass Pro do come with the right one. I am probably going to get one there for my new back up boat. By the way, I did get the Ranger if you are here Leaning Post.

Interesting.. I will check that and report back later.

I run a 997 on the console and going to switch to Lowrance. I just think the images are better. Anyone looking for a used 997 PM me..

Bumping an old thread. I would guess that since the Lowrance/Navico downscan patent was invalidated that its fair game for all to put in a separate downscan element. I hear that Garmin is slowly updating their inventory. I don't know about Humminbird as they weren't part of the legal fight for some reason. Perhaps they had cross licensed with Lowrance.

You have bumped an old thread with old news. Humminbird and Lowrance�s settled things a few years back and between Lowrance and Garmin just recent.
For every unit Lowrance sells Humminbird gets $1 and for every unit, Humminbird sells Lowrance gets $1

Lowrance created Downscan and Humminbird created Side Imaging. Garmin is just getting started you might say.

Technology has also changed since this thread...

Well, I cannot recommend either. I still use a Lowrance LCX-18C on my Skeeter and a Hummingbird 597ci HD on the bow. Both work okay for me. I just use my knowledge and experience and I still catch fish. I still learn new things with this old equipment. Don�t get me wrong I wished I had new electronics, they would reduce time finding structure and cut out wasted time testing water for fish, but basics always works. That makes the difference in the units usage and knowlwdge.

Great point!!! I know guys that have all the latest and greatest and just DON'T take the time to learn it.