asking for depth finder recommendations

so im looking for a depth finder with water temp and gps and my budget is $350 for a fish finder with water temp and gps features and I don't need side scan or chart plotting.

its going on top of a flat boat side console, so over all size should be not much bigger then 8" wide but i wouldn't want anything smaller then a 5" screen which limits my choices. I need a bigger screen to see stuff with my bad eyes and I prefer the black and grey screen instead of color for the same reason.

I want to try and get a depth finder with gps unit so I can mark and save locations to be able to return to those exact locations again on other trips.

so if anyone cares to make any suggestions for a unit under $350, I would be greatful

I was looking at the Humminbird Helix 5 Sonar GPS Fishfinder for $299, but im not sure if hummingbird is any good. does anyone have any experience with hummingbird units?


thanks for your help

 

I own 4 Humminbird sonars. A portable PirahnaMax 160, a 581hd ci, an ICE55 and now have been using a Helix 5 HD SI GPS for 2015. They are all great devices but the Helix is really an amazing machine. Mine works flawlessly. If you have bad eyes I do not for the life of me understand why you are saying you'd prefer a grey scale unit. I can only imagine this is a typo and you meant the reverse? The reason I have the helix is because the 581 was grey scale and the color units are so much more unbelievably easier to see. I had to buy a color device after using my 581 for a year. The difference is so much that I would tell people to use no sonar at all until you can save enough to buy a color unit. With the color units I can know what's going on in a single glance, with a grey scale unit it takes a few seconds of interpretation. Even the menus are easier to use. The color screens are also just simply better quality. Sharper edges on the lettering... I severely suggest the color screen.

If you are looking for a true 5" + widescreen model then there is really nothing else to look at. I can promise you that next year Lowrance will do something because Humminbird stole the entire sub $400 market with the Helix line, but for now you are limited to the 'Bird. And it's not a bad thing. If I had to say one bad thing about Humminbird, the company is not very helpful after your warranty period is up. Technically they don't have to, but with my Ice Flasher 55, I wanted them to look at because it was doing some strange things on startup. It was out of warranty so the deal is, you pay to ship it to Humminbird, enclose a check for $130, and they will pay the shipping back. They won't even consider looking at anything without the $130. I know, it's out of warranty and what can you expect, but a lot of companies are really flexible with that year thing.

 

thanks for the reply, many views but no one commented.

no it wasn't a mistake, I correctly stated that I wanted a gray scale finder because I dont just have bad vision, I have blurry vision too, and all the colors get blured together and hurt my eyes trying to distinguish the color separations. its an involuntary eye focus thing. at least that's how it is just looking at the two demo screens.

I decided to go ahead and buy the helix 5 DI GPS since like you said, they own that price point of the market and it seamed like a good unit. plus it has the option for color selection so im guessing I can turn the color off.

as to after warranty, they all suck, and I don't know of any that treat you right after the warranty is over

 

Mmm, I would assume you can turn the color off. Anyway, glad you ended up with the Helix, it should serve you well.

 

well I cant find where it said that now, so maybe I got mixed up with another unit but im sure I read where you could select to adjust colors so I "assumed" it meant I could go colorless, it does list a "Display Colors Grayscale:256 Colors" so im not fully sure what that all means but either way its the only choice I had for gps depth finder in that price range so its not like I had any choice.

it does look like a very nice unit so im sure i'll be happy with it

 

update: well I bought the helix DI GPS unit and its a 3"x5" screen so its half the size screen of the lowrance units.

the 5" wide screen is 1.5" of boxes for info displays so what you can see is only 3.5" wide x 3" high. the display boxes (while semi-transparent) cant really be seen through well enough unless your right on top of the unit.

the color display is easier to see then the gray scale but because this screen is much smaller then my old units 5"x5" screen, its extremely hard to see fish registering on it. it also fades out in direct sunlight like when you stand to the side of a computer monitor and it fades out, so I have to "shade" it with my hand to be able to see it better, plus the small 3" display (actual usable display) is so small you again need to be close to the unit to see much of anything other then very large objects.

overall its much worse to see stuff then what I was expecting but I suppose I could get used to it over time if I had to. that however wont be necessary because its already broken on the first trip.

after a few hours it starts turning itself off and once it starts it will only stay on for 5-30 seconds before it goes off again and at one point the screen display froze but the other things kept working like clock, speed, temp, and all that. its going back RMA tomorrow so im actually glad it broke because I was very unhappy with it mainly because I have bad eyes and would get headaches if I had to strain to look at the small screen all the time.

I ordered the lowrance 5x elite combo with gps for $399 with the larger 5"x5" screen as a replacement for the messed up helix.

overall I still think the helix is a nice unit and if I didn't have bad eyes it would be a good unit so I give it 3.5 out of 5 stars even though I had a bad one

 

What battery were you using? It will automatically power down if your deep cycle battery in the boat doesn't have adequate voltage. Is it the same battery that runs a trolling motor? No matter either way, you will be happy with the Lowrance. You got a great deal, when I was shopping, the 5X with GPS was $499. I would have probably gotten it if I didn't have to buy a different map card which adds another $150 to the cost. The 5X screen is much nicer but $650 overall was a bit much to swallow.

 

its hooked up to the helm so its starter battery and runs off the charging system under power

why did you have to buy a different map card? don't they come with maps already?

this is my first gps and I haven't even gotten into figuring out maps and marking spots yet

 

They will come with extremely basic factory installed base maps. Pretty much just an outline of the lake and no navigational hazards. I deep troll for coldwater fish- trout and salmon- and I find it really helpful to have bathymetric (depth) charts. When I have a half mile of leadcore line behind the boat and downrigger balls running deep, it's important to know if I'm going to lose 100 feet of water up ahead because it takes me a long time to turn or I will lose gear. It's also great to arrive at a lake and look at the chart to plan a trolling route. Not to mention the navigational markers on the map, especially if I'm on a new lake and want to fish late. You will not get depth charts with the base maps. But if you are simply using it for a breadcrumb trail and/or just marking your hot spots, the base map will work fine for that. And of course you have sonar so you can watch what happens on the screen to find outcroppings and drop offs, so if you may not need the charts as much.

Here is an example of the base maps:


And here is an example of something that shows bathymetric data (contours):

 

ok, thanks

now where would I go "shopping" for bathymetric data maps?

is that something you can get free on internet if you don't need the most accurate versions or are they all very pricey?

 

That is a good question, I know for my GPS on my snowmobile I use shareware topo and trail maps for free. But no idea about the depth charts. I bought a real one from Navionics for my Helix.