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Posts: 59
| I recently walked into Cabelas thinking I might buy one of their humminbird Helix G3Ns that were on sale. I left feeling unsure which brand I wanted for sure. I currently run two HB 998 si units. What's important to me is side imaging and the mapping quality of the unit. Livescope/etc doesn't really interest me because of price and other reasons. Granted I realize my opinion could change in the future.
The Garmin units seemed to be the most user friendly and was told their side imaging is now almost as good as the Megas. The built in Navionics mapping seemed pretty impressive with one foot contour lines. I was told by the salesman that the mapping on these units automatically updates themselves as you use them? (he seemed unsure about this) I noticed the contour coloring was not very precise but wasn't sure if this was just an affect of the "demo" mode I was observing? There is a big price difference between the Ultra 106SV and the UHD 93sv with no clear explanation between the two units.
I was told no real difference between the Humminbird G3N and the G4N other than a faster processor. I know nothing about the Lowrance units.
I appreciate any info or opinions anybody might want to share on any of these units. Thanks |
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Posts: 1198
Location: Walker, MN | No need to buy a "highspeed transducer" or chip with the Garmin. As far as I know you just get one free upgrade of the mapping, and you can download Active Captain to your phone and bluetooth updates to you're Garmin Ultra...not sure about the base units.
Humminbirds have good maping and great SI like you mentioned, I have a G3N Helix 10, but without any fancies so I can't speak to all the features. |
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Posts: 479
Location: Northern Illinois | HB G4N have WiFi capability, G3N don't, for whatever that is worth. One feature I used on my new Helix last season a lot was Autochart live. |
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Posts: 59
| When using Autochart live will you only see the contours you have mapped or does it add to the base maps or lake master maps? |
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Posts: 32784
Location: Rhinelander, Wisconsin | Here you go:
AutoChart Live Video CLICK HERE
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 Untitled.png (467KB - 285 downloads)
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Posts: 59
| It’s sounds like a nice option, but it sounds like you cannot add your data to a map chip like “lake master”. That would take an incredible amount of time to map a complete lake yourself.
Unless you can put the data on an Autochart zero line card and then add that data to a Navionics or lake master card?
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Posts: 132
| There are 2 slots, I think when watching a Doug Wegner video he said if you have an zero lines AND Lakemaster it'll combine the 2. His video was very informative. |
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Posts: 59
| hunterjoe - 2/18/2021 10:37 AM
There are 2 slots, I think when watching a Doug Wegner video he said if you have an zero lines AND Lakemaster it'll combine the 2. His video was very informative.
Thanks, I will look at that |
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Posts: 165
| I have ran Hummingbird for about 4 years now. I don't think I will ever switch brands. I used to use Lowrance. Too me Hummingbirds are user friendly and easy to figure out. I have a G2N Helix 9 Mega Side and love this unit. It really is about getting that transducer set right to get the best images and then tinkering with a few things on the unit as far as sensitivity and contrast and others.
I got poor images at first with my mega. I played with my transducer on a couple occasions and its amazing how much of a difference a few minor adjustments made. I get pretty clean and clear images and have found a lot of interesting objects in lakes and can get great images of fish in the water column.
Like I said I will pry stay with Hummingbird for the rest of my fishing career but honestly if I ever did switch Garmin would be next in line. I have heard a lot of good things about the unit but I have never used or played with one before.
I really like my mapping on the Hummningbird and have only ran into one or two lakes where my Lakemaster was WAY off. The other complaint I would have about mapping on Hummingbird is I do Lakemaster and I fish a lot of different states and I always end up buying the mapping chips for the states or regions and this gets expensive. Not sure how that portion compares to other units mapping chips. I know when I ran a lowrance the mapping in my opinion wasnt as good but it picked up a lot of lakes outside of my homewaters of Minnesota |
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