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| Just wondering if people prefer one over the other? Insight is more expensive, just wondering what/if any of the added features or bonuses come with this. Basically, is it worth the extra money? |
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Posts: 144
Location: Loves Park, IL | I had an HDS 7 with Insight and it was OK but didn't have everything I wanted for lakes and details. When I upgraded I went with the basemap model and bought the Navionics Platinum and it has great detail. This way I decide which lakes I will be fishing and which lakes are shown on the chip.
Jeff |
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Posts: 2323
Location: Stevens Point, WI | I'd second what Jeff said, the map card will be better. |
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| So going with the basemap and then just purchasing the chip is the best option? |
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Posts: 1663
Location: Kodiak, AK | It depends on the water you fish. For LSC, Insight was beyond horrendous. I wouldn't trust it to navigate across a parking lot. Missing buoys, extra buoys, depth off by 10'...I looked at it once at Cabela's and it was embarrassingly inaccurate. It may have been upgraded since then, but it was still bad enough that I'd never touch it for the water I fish. But I know some guys that their water is charted accurately and they like it.
I also like to remind people that Insight looks cool with all the satellite overlay and that crap, but once you zoom down to actual fishing levels, it reverts back to a conventional chart display and the "cool" factor is null. Again, at least that's how it was on the unit I messed with last summer. It may have changed.
As for chips, I recommend Navionics Premium. I fished the Platinum for two years and all it did was slow down my HDS units and I didn't use half the features the chips had. (Yes, with current updates.) I sold them, spent less on new Premiums and my HDS are faster. Just my humble, stupid opinion. |
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Posts: 90
| For all units, the insight mapping gives you the shaded relief. For the HDS-7, 8 and 10 it also includes nautic path maps. So, if you are going to fish the great lakes or coastal waters you get solid mapping built in. If all you are going to fish is inland waters the maps built in are worthless up north. For the HDS 5, purchasing the insight mapping only gives you shadinig.
Everything Esoxfly says about how the shading works is correct. It is basically there for aesthetics and goes away as soon as you zoom in close enough to where you would actually use it. |
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Location: 31 | esoxfly - 3/15/2012 11:45 PM </p><p> As for chips, I recommend Navionics Premium. I fished the Platinum for two years and all it did was slow down my HDS units and I didn't use half the features the chips had. (Yes, with current updates.) I sold them, spent less on new Premiums and my HDS are faster. Just my humble, stupid opinion.
I'm totally uninformed regarding these HD units even though I'm currently having 2 used Gen1 HD 10s units installed in my boat. I kinda hate to admit that I don't know whether they have insight or base map, but I suspect they have the insight because I bought them from a friend who has a full Lowrance sponsorship.
Anyway, I've been using the Lowrance 113 and I just used the lake maps that came loaded on the hard drive, the maps were pretty accurate and I never needed to buy any chips for great lakes or inland like the other Lowrance units I had previous. I wasn't planning on buying any chips for these, but now you have me rethinking it with these Navionic premiums.
Come to think of it, I don't even know how to determine if these units have the insight or the base map once I get them up and running.
I just read the post by Veha45, and that was very informative, pretty much answered my question on buying the chip. thanks.
Edited by Jerry Newman 3/16/2012 9:09 AM
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Posts: 1663
Location: Kodiak, AK | Easiest wasy to tell if your units have insight is to look at the card slot door. If it has Insight, it'll say "Insight USA" on it. Beyond that, it'd be in the drop down menu for selecting map data. Don't assume they have Insight on them. I know three Lowrance pro's and not a single one of them uses Insight.
Anyone trying to decide if they want it or not needs to go look at it in person first. Go to a retailer that has it and then go to the map and look at the water you fish. That's how I did it. I went to Cabelas or Bass Pro or whatever and scrolled to LSC and knew immediately I couldn't use it. But like I say, I know guys who use it because the water they fish is accurately mapped. But don't assume the Insight mapping is the best option for you. For me, the choice is easy no matter where I go and that's Navioinics. Updatable, able to send corrections to Navionics, different options...it's just much more useable for me.
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| Jerry Newman - 3/16/2012 10:00 AM
Come to think of it, I don't even know how to determine if these units have the insight or the base map once I get them up and running.
I'm not 100% on this, but I'm fairly certain it will say "Insight USA" under the "HDSx" graphic if it has Insight. If it just has the basemap I don't think it says anything at all. |
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Location: 31 | I can't check anything until I get my boat back, hopefully next week... I'm getting pretty anxious to crawl in the boat and fool around with these things now that we have with this awesome weather.
At least I'll be able to determine if it has insight or not, thanks for your help. |
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