colour vs. black/grey/white fishfinders?

[cram]

Looking at fishfinders....you can get a heck of a system in terms of power, resolution, and screen size in black and white for less price than a very mediocre colour. How much better is colour? is it just easier to see in the sunlight, or do the different colours help differentiate fish/structure/etc?

 

If you can get an 8/10 black and white or a 5/10 colour......do you still go with the colour?

Edited July 30, 2009 by cram

[smally21]

cram i dont have color so i cant really answer your question. but i wanted to chime in anyway. i have a humminbird 500 series with gps and i found it very important to learn its features. it has a 100 different settings and shades and its hard to figure out what it all means. however, there is a pile of info on bottom structure and vegetation coming from that unit if i can just decipher it. im sure the unit will deliver much better accuracy if i set zooms, wide beams, inverse refelection, etc. perhaps color charts tell you this in an easier fashion? i wonder is it more important to have/know how to use all of the features than color,black and white issue. ill be interested to see what more experienced guys have to say.

 

perhaps its all just shades of gray........

[Pete1986]

TTT I'm in the same boat as the OP, with so many on the market, and dealing with sales people that don't really know the products it would be

Nice to hear what people with experience have to say.

 

Pete

[The Urban Fisherman]

Color HANDS DOWN guys!

 

I used a color Humminbird GPS combo all season last year and got used to reading structure, fish etc. with the color graph, then got a better boat last fall and put a Black and White graph on the bow by my electric motor and am completely frustrated with it. It still works, but going back to reading a black / white graph is very frustrating. I find myself pivoting my color graph around and looking back at it from the bow of the boat while fishing.

 

My black/white graph is going to be converted into an ice fishing unit this season, and I'm going to put a color graph on the bow next spring.

 

Short and sweet, Humminbird is my brand, but everyone will argue that their preferred brand is better.....just like anything else.... Just do some research on price point vs. quality and come up with your own conclusion. I say get a Bird.

 

Cheers,

Ryan

[Billy Bob]

I have to agree that if you never had a color screen you will be OK. But once you have color you will never want to go back to B/W.

 

You get what you pay for and for the best 2D sonar on the market right now is hands down Lowrance. HB makes a fine side scanning unit but now Lowrance is about to launch their side scanning unit in Nov ' 09. Here's a peek at what is coming.

 

http://www.lowrance.com/en/StructureScan

[cram]

Is it because seeing colour is easier on a sunny day (something i have never had issues with on my old black and white), or that its better for identifying structure/fish?

 

If i'm going to spend ~400 bucks its basically down to a low resolution small screen colour or a far better resolution and big screen black and white.

[Raf]

well you know my opinion from the other thread

 

colour advocates seem to all say that it is easier to identify what is on the screen however, i have never had an issue IDing structure, bottom composition or arcs (fish) with a monochrome unit either - no matter the conditions.

 

in a perfect world where budget is of no consequence by all means get the colour. but if i was to sacrifice quality for colour I say no way.

[Lunker777]

well you know my opinion from the other thread

 

colour advocates seem to all say that it is easier to identify what is on the screen however, i have never had an issue IDing structure, bottom composition or arcs (fish) with a monochrome unit either - no matter the conditions.

 

in a perfect world where budget is of no consequence by all means get the colour. but if i was to sacrifice quality for colour I say no way.

 

Agreed !

[Bob Devine]

If you can afford it go colour. It is much easier to read in sunlight and determine what you are looking at. I would uggest Lowrance myself for fish finding capablities. The pics are 2 Lowrance units on a bright sunny day in May on Lake Erie.