there are no reviews on the net about the lowrance 5m elite
chartplotter...so here's the 1st

i picked one up from 'antonline.com' WITH the navionics sd microcard
for $480. you wont find it at this price 'cuz they raised it by $50
the next day (you CAN find it online for $525 almost anywhere WITH the
card...but be careful because ALOT of people are selling it for this
price WITHOUT the card).

setting it up was a snap. put the card in, hooked up the power, turned
it on...acquired signal in about 15 seconds. set the card up for the
jersey shore...

the manual is USELESS. lowrance has a fetish for fishfinders and it
shows in the manual. they use the same manual for the chartplotter
and the chartplotter/fishfinder combo. the chartplotter is basically
ignored, while they go on for 30 pages about how wonderful the
fishfinder is.

i configured the chart page to display nav info: SOG, bearing to
destination, etc. you can place each of these items on the screen
where you want them, which is a nice feature because you dont want
these over top you boat! i set the screen to have 'course' up. took
the boat for a 4 mile ride down the VERY narrow ICW (20' in some
places) around beach haven NJ.

put a bunch of waypoints on the screen after consulting the
charts...the lowrance steers you to each by setting a line from your
current position to the next waypoint. and zooming in or out is an
easy feature to use.

unfortunately the chart on the screen isn't exactly like the NOAA
charts. the ICW on the NOAA charts is marked in white. on the
lowrance it's marked in purple lines which are hard to see against the
blue background of the screen.

but it kept me off the rocks, was easy to use and the 5" screen is
great for my aging eyes to see. it's a good investment...was even
better at $480 but not sure if it can be found at this price again.