"Daniel" wrote in message
...
I am sure that this has already been done but new models are constantly
being produced so... why not?
Your experience is very appreciated regarding:

My experience consists of inland waters fishing use only, so with that out
of the way:

1) screen dimension
2) Color or B/W

I'll answer both of these at the same time. I am currently using a 5" B/W
unit that I have had for several years, Lowrance 4800m, and find this to be
a very tractable unit that more than meets any of my needs. My best fishing
bud recieved a Lowrance 3300c, 5" screen, for Christmas. This is essentially
the color version of the 4800m, with the only real difference being screen
resolution. The 4800m has a 480Vx480H display for a total pixel count of
over 230,000, while his 3300c has a 320Vx240H display for a total of over
76,000 pixels.
When we put the units side by side, we both can see that my B/W unit has the
much sharper display, but his appears to be just as good because of the
inclusion of color. After all, we see in color, so we interpret images
better when seen in color, even when the resolution is a bit lower.
Answer - I now want a color unit, but the budget and the wife have nixed
that idea. So I will be keeping my ancient B/W for at least a couple of
years, and I know that it will continue to preform perfectly during that
time.

3) speed of screen refreshing

Owning or using, with friends, units by Lowrance, RayMarine, Garmin, Eagle
and Humminbird, they mostly seem to use an approx. 1 second screen refresh.
This has proven to be more than needed, even on a high speed run across any
lake that we have been on, including Lake Michigan.

4) different cartographic systems/media

Have only used Navionics HotMaps for inland waters, with MapCreate software
as a backup for lakes that are not in the HotMaps digital media memory
cards. There are others out there, but I have no experience with them. My
two tier system has worked out very well for my purposes.

5) reliability

Stay away from Eagle, period. Even though Eagle is a division of Lowrance,
they seem to have major problems with reliability in all areas from
waterproofness through screen problems, and even their electronics, that
Lowrance does not have. Everyone I know, no matter what brand they own,
except the Eagle owners, are happy with them, with the possible exception of
the Humminbird owners. They cannot tell me what real problems they have, but
none of them seem real happy with their units. The two RayMarine owners
(both have the RC435 with a 6" screen) that I know are extremely pleased
with their units, even happier than I am with my Lowrance.
Just taking into account how people talk about their units, I would rate
them as follows;
1 - RayMarine
2 - Lowrance
3 - Garmin
4 - Humminbird
5 - Eagle
(Note: I know of no one with a Furuno, but I would expect this brand to be
somewhere above the Garmin brand on this list)
There are other brands than these, but no matter what your usage I would
recommend a brand with as far reaching sales/service system, just in case
:-)

...
all points vs price, of course.

As a comparison, current street price for;
Lowrance 4800m = $400.00
Lowrance 3300c = $500.00
RayMarine RC435 = $900.00


Thanks
Daniel

Bob
A day without being on the water is just like being at work!