Lowrance Carbons vs older Lowrance HDS

I've heard people say that the brightness in the screen is better and better picture in direct sunlight. I've never seen Carbons in action. Is there a big difference in the DI and SI similar to when Hummingbird came out with Mega? I have older HDS units that came with my boat and would like to increase the size of a least one unit and with the Carbons on sale now, not sure if that would be the way to go or buy a used bigger HDS that I could get for less $ when they show up for sale on TFF? I'm not looking to get into the Livescope/ Active Target at all, don't have funds for that. I'm not a tournament fisherman and don't want that kind of investment into electronics just a bigger screen. Please no interest or comments from the other brands ( I know they're great) just want to know from Lowrance guys the difference in quality and + and -'s from Carbons vs older Lowrance HDS so I can make a good decision. Also, I have an older MG digital tour trolling motor with the transducer built into the cone, works great with the HDS unit, not sure if I put a carbon up front if there is better DI in order to get better results, would I need a different transducer or would I have to upgrade trolling motors?

Thanks in advance for any input you can give me.

I have had most of em. Here’s my opinion between carbons and older gens.


BUY A CARBON!!!

carbon is 10x better than a gen 3 and 1000x better than a gen 2

Only downfall will be if you network a Carbon to an older model. They say they don’t work well with each other, but I have no personal experience with it.

I have networked Gen 3 with Carbon with zero issues... I agree with Steez 1000%...Buy a Carbon!!!

I hear what your saying "buy a Carbon", but can you be more specific, how much better is the picture/imagery of SI and DI of the Carbon compared to a HDS gen 2 touch. BPS has 12" Carbons for $1499 on sale going fast, I could probably pick up a 12" HDS gen 2 for $800 to $900. The $ matters to me because I have a soon to be 20 year old Champion 196 and new carpet with pad would be nice and there is always something you have to do to an older boat. Love my Champ, but just replaced all pumps, hoses and upgraded to AGM batteries, new fuel pump, so had to fork out some bucks this year. Jersey Dan says its 1000x better than a gen 2, please give me some details on how it's that much better would be very helpful to me.

Resolution is higher and the 3in1 transducer will put the gen3 and Totalscan to shame

Carbon is compatible with active target, lightning fast compared to a gen 2 and the control buttons are a million times better. i remember the gen2 looking terrible in the sun too. ive had them all.

Just switched to a 16 and 12 carbon from 6 year old Gen3 HDS 12's. the speed on the carbon is faster than the Gen 3, I do remember my Gen 3's being fast but they now have a "million" hours on them with a lot of waypoints. so like any computer they have bogged down.
the SI/DI is way better with the 3-1 transducer. I was on the fence about switching over to HB but after seeing the quality of the carbons SI/DI I decided to stay with Lowrance.

The reason I upgraded, is I had a backlight go out on one of my gen3 units. pretty much impossible to fix and the units were outside of what lowrance considers "repairable" . apparently lowrance fixed that backlight issue when they made the carbons. plus they were cheaper than the LIVE units and I'm familiar with the lowrance system.

overall I'm happy with the carbons and look forward to tuning the SI/DI.

I just put a 12 HDS Live up front with Active Target and in the process of replacing the HDS 12 unit at the console with a carbon 12.

The clarity on the HDS live is unbelievable. The glass screen has a lot to do with that.