opinions on hummingbird 500 and 700 series

I am looking at hummingbird for the first time . I can honestly say i have never been sea sick but sorting through whats on the market now is making me feel a little green. I really need some input on sidescan on the small screen. At this moment im leaning to the 778 i have a older garmin 180gps and if anyone can give advice on why i need gps in my finder i am all ears.In fact i am open to and will listen to any thoughts on any of the 500 and 700 series options and there actual values on the lake. so if anyone wanders in off the lake ... please share some thought

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by smokey

I am looking at hummingbird for the first time . I can honestly say i have never been sea sick but sorting through whats on the market now is making me feel a little green. I really need some input on sidescan on the small screen. At this moment im leaning to the 778 i have a older garmin 180gps and if anyone can give advice on why i need gps in my finder i am all ears.In fact i am open to and will listen to any thoughts on any of the 500 and 700 series options and there actual values on the lake. so if anyone wanders in off the lake ... please share some thought

---

What do you want out of the unit...such as GPS or just a fishfinder? The 700 series are a great little unit, little pricier than the 500 series, but its still bang for the buck. I would recommend a 788 or 798, get something that has the down or side scan, its not a bad thing to have even on Lake Erie or other bodies of water. Hope that this helps, and check out lowrance.com or humminbird.com, both have similar units size wise and both have side/down imaging...it just comes down to price and what features you want.

You don't have to have GPS on your fish finder, but for the little extra cost of having a dual unit. You end up having a back up unit if one of the others fail. No matter how good you are at navigating out on erie, if something happens to you while your out. And you have your GPS set up properly so anyone will be able to read it, you/they have a chance of getting back to port. As far as side scan, for me I dont' find where I even want it. I've seen it used and do not find it an added feature for me. It's like everything else, a personal preference.

thanks for your thoughts, its down to the 788, 898, or the hds7 gen2.

For what it's worth I just put the 788 ci hd down imaging at the bow of mine. I have alway's had humming bird's until I bought my new boat that was equipped with Lowrance. Lowrance will not work on any unit that is 5 years or older. I just went through it with them. The gps unit is compatible with the I-pilot trolling motor if you get the 788. The 500 series is not. also the 700 series will connect to a bigger unit when I put one at the helm, and waypoints can be shared between the two units. That comes in handy more on inland lakes,I use the gps on my fishfinders for navigation and use a handheld as a backup. For me hands down hummingbird. I have had high quality units from both companies and lowrance is no match, especially with them refusing to work on there own units over five years old.

Im looking as well however Im afraid that me needing an external GPS mount sort of limits my choices. I understand that having a unit with an " internal GPS" doesnt work so hot with a hard top boat :(

I ran into the same problem years ago on a previouse boat. I was worried I couldnt get a signal. I had no problem with my 586ci under my 24' thompson hardtop. It was a nice little unit, but left it with boat. Now learning Lowarane 10

Rsfrail that's exactly what I have. Mabey I will roll the dice and give one a try. I see you are out of Newark?

Yes, Neark- Ohio. I fish most weekends out of east harbor, give me a shout sometime. Ill pm my number