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Location: Oshkosh,WI | You have not seen anything like this for inland waters....The new platinum chips will be ready to go for the new 900 series from Humminbird later in February or March. The new charts are unbelievable to say the least. 3D views in any direction with aerial photographs similar to that of terraserver or google earth overlaid onto the screen, Along with that, actual panoramic photographs of certain areas of the body of water you are fishing on. How much detail do you want? I was playing around with the new Winnebago map and I cannot believe the data the new map has on it. the 1 ft. increments have completely changed what I thought I new of the lake and starts putting answers to why fish have been in the areas out in the mud that they have been. You will have to see for yourself what I am talking about. Along with the new chips and software, they are coming out with waterproof tear proof maps with the same data of all their high def. maps. I have one from Mille Lacs and Pentenwell and they are awesome to say the least....it makes the hotmaps look like old dnr maps. Check out the info on their site below. WOW!
http://www.navionics.com/PlatinumCharts.asp
Troy
Edited by Troy 1/25/2007 10:34 PM
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| Detail is fine, but keep this in mind. I have used high detail 1 ft increment digital maps in the past (navionics is not the first to do this) and have actually found them detrimental, esp while navigating. That many contour lines on the screen are confusing and overkill in many situation. I have found it much easier to navigate when fewer key contour lines are present and your brain fills in the gaps. |
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| Scooter I used to say that about my old Zenith Tube TV too! But actual Photographic images.........what more can a guy ask for except..... maybe a new ultrtaboggle, gigaloogle,live visual of a fish in 100' of water looking at my bait! Pick me one up Troy!
Good luck
Tyee |
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| I didn't say anything about photographic images I was talking about 1ft increment contour lines on a screen when you are trying to navigate or troll, very confusing and often overkill. Sometimes less is more ... sometimes  |
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Location: Appleton wi | Nice to see navionics catch up with lakemaster and have more accurate maps aviable .  |
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Location: Manitowoc, WI | I am inclined to agree with Scooter. The 1 ft. increment contour lines do have their place: spot on the spot action when live bait rigging, jigging, slip bobbering, etc. But when I'm in a trolling or navigating mode I prefer a less busy map with buoy markers, channel marks, and contour lines at every 5 ft. increment. This is just personal preference and, to me, it's alot more user friendly. |
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| Anyone who trolls the fingers on Chambers will tell you the 1 foot contours definately clutter up the screen, and are more hinderance than help. As stated, sometimes less is more. I would like to see a choice in the units to select the contour resolution. Select 1, 3, 5 10, etc.
Have seen the Platinum on a RayMarine unit. It is pretty intriguing. But I'll just wait for Lowrance to come out with compatible units. Not going to change out all my other maps in a switch to HB or RayMarine just for this. If this is truly the cat's meow, I'm sure Lowrance is working on developing it. I can wait.
As for Navionics catching up. They have been using selected hi res Lakemaster maps and data for a couple years. This is entirely different, as the Platinum actually give a 3d representation of the bottom, not just contour lines.
Edited by Shep 1/26/2007 10:39 AM
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Location: Appleton wi | Shep i was refering to the accuracy of contour line as you know navionics remapped recently wich was first time in many many years and contour lines change due to current . lakemaster remapped 3 years ago and were 101% more accurate than navionics due to more recent ultrasounding. as far as the navionics using lake master info I am not sure were you get that info because there is absolutly no comparison between last years lakemaster and last years navionics!
Edited by eye Lunker 1/26/2007 10:50 AM
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| When you look at the available lakes for Navionics, there are several that are actually the Lakemaster ProMaps. Look on the website for North Region. Anything in RED is the Lakemaster Pro Map. |
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| Come on Shep, that new boat and your not going with State of the art electronics? definately interesting. I recently visited a number of local sporting goods stores in the area and every sales person I talked to was pushing Lakemaster.
I have the Bird 937 that is 3d and is extremely nice especially out in the mud, gives a definative location to the fish either port or starboard side, Should be real nice to relate that to GPS.
I'm not able to use the 1' contour maps and unfortunately Lakemaster has become the map of choice in my neck of the woods because of the mapping of the Winnebago system. I don't experience the contour spacing issue you guys do. Sure would be nice if Navionics got up in the river and at least mapped it, and not necessarily the contours, with all the maps out there. You would think they would have it incorporated by now as they are loosing market share here.
Good luck
Tyee |
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| This last year in sept we were able to run the new lake master pro 1' contour map and the Navionics north premium in tandem on Green bay. The Navionics was hands down the easier map to read while navigating and traveling from spot to spot. the 1' contour totally kicked A$$ while trolling. FYI, We were able to accomplilsh this by running two x-19's on the console. |
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| I have the Lakemaster high def map for inland lakes that is 2 year old and it I enjoy the 1 foot marks on Bago. I called them last year to let them know that Little Black Bird Island is marked 1/4 mile off from where it really is. It still freaks me out when I come back to Menasha at night from the Garlic Island area and on my map, I drive right through the island in 19 feet of water.
I have also noticed that the map is off by quite a bit around Garlic and does not show 2 spots that are 2 feet of water or less.
I called them last year from the water and they pulled up there mapping database and it still showed Little Black Bird 1/4 mile off.
Don't get me wrong, I love the Lakemaster chip, but I have to remind myself, I still have to do my homework and use my depthfinder to mark spots with the GPS.
I also tried my chip in my handhelp just to make sure it was not the unit and it showed the same thing. |
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| Tyee, I have the Lakemaster Pro map, so I guess I am state of the art. That did not go with the boat last year. Plus, I have the Navionics maps this year. I'll have to compare them this year, and see if Jayman is correct. The HB widefinders or sidefinders, have been out for a while. Guess they haven't really performed well enough to take much market share from Lowrance.
I'm extremely happy with my Lowrance units. As for never coming out with new product? Lowrance is the leader in Sonar/GPS technology. Usually they are years ahead of the rest of the field. My guess is they are waiting on the Platinum compatible units til they have the bugs worked out, and can release the best product on the market. |
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Location: Appleton wi | I guess its my eyes or computor but when i look at navionics website and look at aviable maps the ones in red are not lakemasterplus maps but they are HD lake maps and reading there code key if its a lakemaster plus there should be a + by the name of the lake and looking at wisc choices there are none with the + next to them. Its friday and been along week here so help me out if i'm not reading it correctly. It will very interesting to pick up the new navionics and comapre it with lakemaster and compare the ultrasounding since they were both done recently. |
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Location: Menasha, WI | tyee - 1/26/2007 11:07 AM
Sure would be nice if Navionics got up in the river and at least mapped it, and not necessarily the contours, with all the maps out there. You would think they would have it incorporated by now as they are loosing market share here.
Good luck Tyee
The 2007 Premium comes with all 4 of the Bago chain lakes in Navionics High-Definition. |
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| Yes, you are correct. The Lakemaster Pro Maps would have a + by them. Sorry for the confusion. Seems to me, though, some of my maps on the Navionics had the Lakemaster Pro maps last year. Maybe not.
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| "I'm extremely happy with my Lowrance units. As for never coming out with new product? Lowrance is the leader in Sonar/GPS technology. Usually they are years ahead of the rest of the field."
Come on now!!!! The fundamental understanding of underwater acoustics and the initial development of transducers was carried out between 1820 and 1920. Carl Lowrance spent 1950 something to 1984 trying to perfect the "package" of the Greenbox, which made his company what it is today and since has developed some pretty neat "packages". He was the "first" to bring that to us although he did have to replace 700 of the first 2000 that didn't work!
Humminbird has taken sonar and used it with multiple cone angles and offered some very nice "packages" also are the first to incorporate these new maps into their "packages".
Being the "first" to introduce products is almost always a win win situation and can often be a costly adventure which leads to other great technology and competition.
Kind of like the inventor of the Digital DC Drive so many years ago huh? Does it really boil down to the better marketing strategy or the one with more inovative products?
Good Luck
Tyee
Edited by tyee 1/26/2007 4:46 PM
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Location: Manitowoc, WI | Lowrance owns about 70% of the sonar/GPs market. Other companies have only dreamed of getting it right for years. If Hummingbird has indeed done this, then it's a positive for the consumer, as there needs to be some competition for Lowrance which, up till now, has been non-existent. The only way sonar/GPS will become more affordable and the only way the technology will continue to advance to new and better products is through competition. |
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| Pro maps are nice and can have there detail set higher or lower in a matter of seconds on garmin.There are other companys that are making good products out there.The biggest problem is getting the chance to play with it.Hard to locate around fox valley. |
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| Shep,
I know you have been to the PWT tourneys as well as the FLW shows...Over the past two years Humminbird has added quite a few very big name anglers to their staff and again a few more this year. Now that the side imaging is being made in more affordable units for the average consumer, sales at the store level are increasing as well. The technology that Humminbird has in their units is amazing...They may not have the biggest screen but sometimes it isnt the size but how it works.
As far as confusing contour lines...I have no problems on my 987. I change the settings to show what contours I want to see. Does the Lowrance do this? I dont know and am only asking....I can shade different contour lines as well.
As far as GPS goes, I would still have to say the Ray Marine or Garmin has impressed me the most with the GPS only units. I havent seen anything that is easier to use and made with all considerations in mind than the Garmin units. I think they are the only units that have a numbered keypad on the side for quick entering of numbers. Garmin has always had nice GPS units. Off the marine subject their street pilots and nuvis are also some of the best out there. (my opinions)
From what I was told at the show Lowrance is about a year behind developing a processor for the new platinum charts. The platinum chips are a 2gb card and need a fast processor to read them according to the guys I talked to at the show. RayMarine and a few other off shore gps screens have been running them offshore for a while. If Lowrance was the leader in gps, why havent they picked up on this sooner and let other companies beet them to the pucnh? I will agree they are the leader in sales for fish locators but I cannot agree with GPS.
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Location: Waukesha Wisconsin | Seems like we have two different conversations going on here. I'd like to weigh in on both.
Lowrance and Hummingbird both make exceptional products. Each of you should check out both before making a purchase. There are some major differences between the products and only you can decide what options are most important to you.
As of today, they are BOTH leaders in specific technologies that they have pursued. I will not go into the details because it would take two pages of documentation.
Bottom line is that since Minn Kota bought out Hummingbird, they have made some very significant advances in GPS AND marine technology. Lowrance makes an outstanding product and sells more units in the inland lake fresh water market than any other company. They too have made some nice improvements in what they offer to the fisherman.
There are other companies out there that control the coastal market. Their names have been mentioned by Troy. Their products are outstanding and it has always bewildered me as to why more people do not use their merchandise in the Midwest.
Mapping software
The same scenario applies to Navionics and LakeMaster. Both are great products. I too have run them side by side. They both perform excellently. I prefer the Navionics maps because they give me more information and I get a bigger bang for my buck.
As far as using the 1' or 3' contours ......... Everyone is right. It depends on your application. If you do a lot of fishing while staying on the spot on the spot,You will need to zoom in much further than the guy who fishes open water. This is when closer contour lines help. Troy, I had no idea that HummingBird allows you to remove some of those contour lines. I do not know if the new Lowrance units have this feature. It's something that I will check into. As far as accuracy, I believe that both maps are equal. It depends on what lakes you fish and when the latest surveys were done. It also depends on how many lakes you fish. If you only fish one lake your choices are simple. If you travel around you need to do more research. When I checked out available lakes that interested me, Navionics stood out. I also like having marina information, and some road information on my maps. It's also nice to have reefs names and towns and city listed on the maps for reference. I believe that Navionics surpasses all others in these categories. |
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| Good replys Troy and Dennis. I didn't know you can select contours on the HB. I've suggested that to Lowrance when the Lakemaster maps first came out with the 1 ' contours. You can see how much influence I have with them. hehehe
And Tyee, HB was not the first to use the Platinum maps. Ray Marine was. So there! But, first out does not necessarily mean best out. |
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| scooter - 1/25/2007 11:43 PM
Detail is fine, but keep this in mind. I have used high detail 1 ft increment digital maps in the past (navionics is not the first to do this) and have actually found them detrimental, esp while navigating. That many contour lines on the screen are confusing and overkill in many situation. I have found it much easier to navigate when fewer key contour lines are present and your brain fills in the gaps.
Actually, we WERE the first to do 1' electronically.
And, no disrespect intended, I always have a hard time swallowing the "too much information is bad" argument. Just my .02.
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| And one other point on my WE1st "drive-by". Winnebago IS 1' HD for the '07 products. This was mapped in '06, so I can safely say that the Navionics data, on the '07 product, is the most current for this system.
Jeff@Navionics |
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| I have the 06 Premium Northern chip and the only thing I don't like about it is that you can't zoom in a close as the Lakemaster chip allows. On a smaller (7") screen it makes it little harder to follow the contour lines as tight as I would like while trolling. Other than that it does have good detail and pretty accurate for the lakes I use it for. |
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