Kevin Van Dam Forums

Well, I have a 20ft Ranger.. Bought used, and has some older, cheaper fish/depth finders. I’m looking to upgrade here pretty soon, front and back fishfinders that is.. I’ve been leaning more towards Lowrance HDS 7-10, but i’m not sure on this. I think I would like all of your opinions, suggestions, etc and your reasoning! Thanks a lot all

HeathJ7 - 10 February 2012 06:16 AM

Well, I have a 20ft Ranger.. Bought used, and has some older, cheaper fish/depth finders. I’m looking to upgrade here pretty soon, front and back fishfinders that is.. I’ve been leaning more towards Lowrance HDS 7-10, but i’m not sure on this. I think I would like all of your opinions, suggestions, etc and your reasoning! Thanks a lot all

The HDS units are nice but you really need to get the structure scan system along with it.  You might want to look into some of the cheaper Lowrance units if you do not want side imaging or just don’t care about it.  The Elite-5 DSI offers navigation and down scan.  I have the HDS-8 and use nav in spit screen with down-scan 90% of the time.

Down scan does not = traditional sonar.  It’s the same high detail, high frequency sonar as side imaging but in a conventional 2D format.

To put things in perspective, I payed $1,300 for the other 10% of the time that I use the side imaging on the HDS-8 with structure scan system if compared to an Elite-5 DSI that offers nav and down-scan (no side imaging) for $600.  You get increasingly bad cases of diminishing returns as you move up the Lowrance ladder.  I love the HDS-8 and my only complaints are that I wish it had the same screen size as the HDS-10 and that the structure scan system was a lot cheaper.  You can’t help but feel a bit cheated when you are forced to buy a $600 structure scan system to plug into your HDS-X to have side imagining and down scan.  I didn’t think much of it until I noticed some of the cheaper Lowrance units offering more substance for the money.

I have the HDS-8 and 7.  Very good units.  But if that is the route you are going to take, wait for the Gen 2 units.  Those have the StructureMap on them.  This feature basically takes the water column out of the picture so you are seeing what’s on the bottom directly below and to both sides of the boat.  Keep in mind that you have to buy the StructureScan which is a separate unit.  This will allow you to get the DownScan (same angle as traditional sonar but with high detail) and StructureScan (ability to see the bottom on both sides of the boat). 

Humminbird has this built into them and you don’t have to buy a separate unit, but when I researched them I preferred the operations of the Lowrance units and pictures were better.

Have you gone to Lowrance.com yet?  Check it out if you haven’t.  There is lots of info on there.

Plus, there is a guy called Dr. Depth that has videos and other tools to help you learn the units.  He’s kind of geeky, but it is informational.

I like my Lowrances, I have the older 520s but they havent given me any trouble for the past 4 years. I want to upgrade as well, but thats not happening for awhile.

Two Humminbird 998 SI units will run you about $3500 new off eBay. Both have side imaging, down imaging, and GPS.
Two Lowrance HDS-8 units will run you about the same with the LSS-1 SideScan unit included.
Its just a matter of what you prefer. I have owned both. Humminbird is a little faster when changing screens. IMO Lowrance offers better sonar and SI images and GPS navigation. Down side to Lowrance is the screens take a second to load and there will be an extra transducer for the LSS-1. The processor with the HDS-8 Gen2 is faster, but its more $$$.

I’m going to be blunt just to error on the side of caution.  The HDS series does not have side imaging and down scan built into the head unit itself.  An HDS-whatever, is a GPS sonar unit with basic sonar included.  In order to have side imagining and down scan you must purchase the “structure scan” system and plug that into your HDS-whatever.  The structure scan system is roughly the size of a car audio amplifier and can have multiple HDS-whatevers plugged into it.  It is not included in the purchase of your HDS-whatever and is a $600 item.

To sum things up, the HDS series is a component system with it’s separate structure scan system and the hummingbirds are not.  I dislike the hummingbirds as they have a clunky user interface.  A single “view” button to toggle through all the views modes comes to mind.  The HDS-whatever is more of a PC or smart phone layout with a main-menu/desktop button and you are able to quickly switch view modes via navigation with the HDS rather than having to hammer the “view” button over and over to scroll through the views in a linear fashion as with the hummingbird units.  The screen resolutions are higher on the HDS units as well.  In 2010 when I had hands on with the hummingbird and lowrance, the hummingbird just seemed clunky and poorly designed when compared to the HDS series.

I had my mind made up on the hummingbirds over the internet, but once I got hands-on in store I vastly preferred the lowrance HDS units and lowrance wasn’t even on my radar at the time.  I couldn’t be happier.

Thanks everyone, I appreciate it everyone, I was leaning more towards the Lowrance anyway.. You know what theys ay huh, go big or go home right?

HeathJ7 - 11 February 2012 04:45 PM

Thanks everyone, I appreciate it everyone, I was leaning more towards the Lowrance anyway.. You know what theys ay huh, go big or go home right?

Glad to see you enthusiasm.  In this light, can I recommend the HDS-8 over the HDS-7?  Get the the additional buttons of the HDS-8 and I believe it has a bigger screen too but I am not sure.  I haven’t used an HDS-7 but I can’t imagine life without the bottom buttons on the HDS-8.  Go big or go really cheap.  Get at least an HDS-8 or higher or get an Elite-5 DSI or something.

Go big or go for one that will work on the bow when you upgrade… lol

Ha ha, sounds good.. I want to get one by this summer.. I really need one for the bow and sterring console.. HDS8(Atleast) will be my first purchase then I’ma need something to go on steering column too I reckon… Ha ha jk,  Ima put it on steering column then maybe a good upgrade for the bow, eventually probably an Elite5 on bow too prolly I dunno man.. Trying to disypher is frustrating sometimes, and its not liek there that cheap either.. Desicions descisions..

I am a Lowrance guy so far and have the HDS8 and HDS 10.  I like the 3D lake bottom images but really could not care less about the side imaging and down imaging stuff.  To me it’s a bit gimmicky (just my opinion), and everything I need can be determined from looking at the 3D image shown on the screen (drops, tapering points, weedlines etc.).  I really don’t need to see EXACTLY what it looks like. 
The Humminbirds have made huge gains lately and LakeMaster who makes great chips was bought by Humminbird, so chip availability will go away for Lowrance owners .

The both do a good job.  Go with what you can afford and what you actually need.