Lowrance HDS-5 Gen2 or Humminbird 587ci HD DI?

[ricohman]

I am going to buy one of these in short order.
Besides the better resolution, what else does the Humminbird do better?
The HDS-5 seems newer and faster and shoots way deep. But I don't fish in a thousand feet of water.
The Lowrance is $20 more and both take the same Navionics chip for Canada.
I just can't pick one.

 

[dingbat]

Re: Lowrance HDS-5 Gen@ or Humminbird 587ci HD DI?

Re: Lowrance HDS-5 Gen@ or Humminbird 587ci HD DI?

I am going to buy one of these in short order.
Besides the better resolution, what else does the Humminbird do better?
The HDS-5 seems newer and faster and shoots way deep. But I don't fish in a thousand feet of water.
The Lowrance is $20 more and both take the same Navionics chip for Canada.
I just can't pick one.

1. Resolution means nothing on a unit with digital zoom.
2. Good luck seeing beyond 500' while moving with either of those units.
3. I wouldn't buy a unit that advertises the power output in anything other than RMS and the cone angles at -3db.

 

[ricohman]

Re: Lowrance HDS-5 Gen@ or Humminbird 587ci HD DI?

Re: Lowrance HDS-5 Gen@ or Humminbird 587ci HD DI?

1. Resolution means nothing on a unit with digital zoom.
2. Good luck seeing beyond 500' with either of those units.
3. I wouldn't buy any unit that advertises the power output in anything other than the industry standard RMS.

I thought both of these are rated output in RMS?

 

[ricohman]

Re: Lowrance HDS-5 Gen@ or Humminbird 587ci HD DI?

Re: Lowrance HDS-5 Gen@ or Humminbird 587ci HD DI?

Its buying time. The bird does not come with a cover. I saw the demo and I really like the resoloution. Then I saw the hds demo and its also great. Both need the navionics chip for Canada.
The bird seems to have a secondary scanning mode that shows structures under water and the lowrance has a bit better map in my opinion.
I can't make a bad choice here.

 

[TerryMSU]

Re: Lowrance HDS-5 Gen@ or Humminbird 587ci HD DI?

Re: Lowrance HDS-5 Gen@ or Humminbird 587ci HD DI?

Its buying time. The bird does not come with a cover. I saw the demo and I really like the resoloution. Then I saw the hds demo and its also great. Both need the navionics chip for Canada.
The bird seems to have a secondary scanning mode that shows structures under water and the lowrance has a bit better map in my opinion.
I can't make a bad choice here.

I agree. There is no bad choice. Last year I was making the same decisions and I bought the HB unit, because I found good on-line support and the HB has true DI (The Lowrance does not have true DI.)

TerryMSU

 

[ricohman]

Re: Lowrance HDS-5 Gen@ or Humminbird 587ci HD DI?

Re: Lowrance HDS-5 Gen@ or Humminbird 587ci HD DI?

The bird does not take the Platinum Navionics card. The Lowrance does.
Do I need the 3D imaging? Is the platinum a waste of $45?

 

[ricohman]

Re: Lowrance HDS-5 Gen@ or Humminbird 587ci HD DI?

Re: Lowrance HDS-5 Gen@ or Humminbird 587ci HD DI?

I went with the 597ci HD DI and the premium card. It seems if you want the structure scan and all the extras the HDS is considerably more money. But I think either is great and the Humminbird will do me just fine.
I don't think the Platinum and its 3d imaging is all that useful for what I need.

 

[Jlawsen]

Re: Lowrance HDS-5 Gen@ or Humminbird 587ci HD DI?

Re: Lowrance HDS-5 Gen@ or Humminbird 587ci HD DI?

I went with the 597ci HD DI and the premium card. It seems if you want the structure scan and all the extras the HDS is considerably more money. But I think either is great and the Humminbird will do me just fine.
I don't think the Platinum and its 3d imaging is all that useful for what I need.

There are a couple of things left to consider.. Downriggers being one and screen size being the other. I have the HDS-8 and I'm looking at putting a Cannon downrigger on my boat. The downrigger can be setup to use the HumminBird to control the depth but you can't interface it with the Lowrance. I need to buy an HumminBird 700 series or better if I want that functionality. That's a bad point. The HDS-5 screen is inadequate for 3D presentations and also for the structure scan. The 7 was still not very good but the 8 makes all the difference in the world. It's like going from "That's nice" to "WOW".

 

[ricohman]

Re: Lowrance HDS-5 Gen@ or Humminbird 587ci HD DI?

Re: Lowrance HDS-5 Gen@ or Humminbird 587ci HD DI?

There are a couple of things left to consider.. Downriggers being one and screen size being the other. I have the HDS-8 and I'm looking at putting a Cannon downrigger on my boat. The downrigger can be setup to use the HumminBird to control the depth but you can't interface it with the Lowrance. I need to buy an HumminBird 700 series or better if I want that functionality. That's a bad point. The HDS-5 screen is inadequate for 3D presentations and also for the structure scan. The 7 was still not very good but the 8 makes all the difference in the world. It's like going from "That's nice" to "WOW".

Thanks for this information. I was shopping the HDS7 as I thought the screen on the 5 was a bit small. I can see a bigger screen in the future but I think either in 2d would be a great choice. The bird has many good reviews but the HDS5 gen2 is new so there is really no feedback yet.