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I am considering the following for the new boat. An Eagle Fishmark 480 or the Hummingbird 565
These finders are very similar in features and I am looking for one for the crestliner.
Looking to spend up to 300-400 give or take.
I don't really need the gps feature as I already have a handheld that gives me accurate speed readings. Not looking for maps either as 99.9 percent of the lakes I fish will never be mapped
Are color finders that much better than the traditional black and white? If they are I would also consider the Eagle Fisheasy320c as it seems to be reasonably priced.
How did you find the 565 for laker fishing???? Were you able to get an accurate idea of what was down deep? Can you jig at 100 feet and watch the lure that you are jigging?
All I can say is " GO COLOR" I bought the Lowrance X100c color finder a couple of months ago and WOW You can actually see schools of bait fish, weeds, perfect fish arches and you can see your canon balls tracking and the lures when jigging. Plus you get the flasher feature which is nice if you want to convert it to a portable and use it like a Vexilar when ice fishing. Good Luck!
I am glad that you like the color but I am able to do all the things that you mentioned(see baitfish,weeds,arches, cannanballs and jigs) with my current Eagle Fisheasy2.
you might want to verify this with someone else, but I was told by someone that used to work at leBarons to stay away from Hummingbirds simply because they take forever to get parts or service. I'm also looking for a fishfinder and am leaning heavily towads the Eagle 480 mainly because it has a larger screen with more pixels as compared with other units in the same price range.
I just find the color graph easier on the eyes plus, to me anyway, it seems to be easier to distinguish the signals better since they are different colors. Plus when using the flasher mode, the bars are different colors making it easier to distinguish the signals also. I guess it's just a matter of preference or how good your eyes are.
jale6666 wrote:
Any other advantages to going color?
thanks
Joe
Joe the only way to explain the advantage of colour is a picture .
Colour gives better separation in clutter. For walleye fishing and looking for fish on bottom or suspended fish in surface clutter colour is best. If you know how to setup and read a grey scale unit you will be fine, just remember to set sensitivity to 100% so you can see everything.
In my sonar images below I have circled the two areas you can see the difference colour makes in the bottom tracking colour mode...but is it worth the extra money? This is the key question every angler has to answer.
cheers'
-et
Sheldon Hatch
Just a guy that likes to fish walleye
Thanks ET..I knew I could count on you. It is great to see a comparison between B&W and Color. I just don't think that I can justify the extra money for the color unit.
I am probably gonna go with the Eagle 480. If for no other reason than their customer support is second to none. The 640 vertical pixels of the 565 is still very tempting though
I have had the good fortune of experimenting with most of the currently available units during actual on the water situations and feel that colour units are a significant advantage and worth the extra dollars. If one of the Eagle colour units is within in your budget I strongly suggets that you move in that direction. The colour LCD screens paint a more detailed pictute that is far easier to interpret particularly when we are only glancing at the screen. Many of us may wrongly consider the colour units for "pros" only yet the opposite is probably the correct assumption despite the upcharge. A colour screen yields data and details that are easily identifiable and require less of a trained eye to translate.
An analogy that I often use is the interpretation of construction blueprints versus an architectural rendering. Those that are familiar with construction drawings are able to glance at a set of blueprints and immediately able to imagine the house that is being constructed. Most however require a pretty picure with landscape, colours and perhaps even window dressings to fully understand what the end result will look like. As such a colour sonar is a far more useful tool to the average angler who is more interested in fishing less interested in deciphering images.
If you feel that black and white is the better choice for you, research has shown that b/w screen technology is approaching its limitations and less may in fact be more. Understandably most of us as consumers are forever looking for a measurable currency to assist us in our comparative shopping. All of us on these forums are well aware of the potential marketing benefits of high ball-bearing counts for fishing reels. We now realize that design, quality and tolerances are more important than having a 10 ball bearing $60.00 reel. That being said vertical pixel count has always been one of the "measurable currencies" that we as consumers have used to differentiate bewteen sonars. Understandably in theory the smaller the pixel size (higher pixel count) the smoother and more detailed the potential image. Real world situations though indicate that beyond 320-480 vertical pixels the image brightness is negatively impacted. When pixels become too small they are not bright enough in direct sunlight conditions. For example the current crop of L.E.D flashlights often require multiple "bulbs" to have the same amount of "light" in comparison to regular incandescant bulbs. Furthermore experiments have shown that ultra high pixel density reduces the sharpness of the image often resulting in a blurry picture.
An alternative to your original thought may be to purchase an Eagle FishMark 320 for the helm and use the savings toward a second unit for the bow with a bow-mounted transducer.
Paul,
Excellent information. I wish I was as smooth with my words about technology, but often find it difficult to explain complex details about sonar units. I am planning to do a walleye seminar this winter on electronics and I am sure this will be an excellent topic to cover with hands on examples of grey-scale and colour units.
Last year I ran 320 and 480 grey-scale eagle and Lowrance units and the separation of detail and targets was about the same. This spring I installed the Fish-Strike 2000C and noticed how fast your eyes could interpret colour data vs. grey-scale.
Welcome to Fish-Hawk....
cheers
-et
Sheldon Hatch
Just a guy that likes to fish walleye
I bought the Lowrance X100c color finder a couple of months ago and WOW 
You can actually see schools of bait fish, weeds, perfect fish arches and you can see your canon balls tracking and the lures when jigging. Plus you get the flasher feature which is nice if you want to convert it to a portable and use it like a Vexilar when ice fishing. Good Luck!
I can't help you with your purchase decision though. 
Have fun, and I'd gladly come down and help you test it out! 
