Looking for a new finder

[Notime]

This is a two part question. First off I am not starting a battle between brands, I have had a few different ones over the years. I am looking to upgrade to a HD/GPS unit. I am looking to keep everything under $500 bucks. I am also looking at chipping the unit. Which brand, Lowrance or Hummingbird, is the better option? The second part is, Which brand of HD map is better, Lakemaster or Navionics? I have a handheld H2O with a lakemaster from '08 and I really like it, unfortunately it is slightly out of date and I do not know if I can get either of them updated. I should point out that I typically do not fish large lakes. I have a plain Jane 16' Lund Tiller with a 35 Evinrude. Thanks for your input!

[CaptainMusky]

You don't want start a brand battle but you want to know which is better? Lol

IMO the lowrance elite series units cannot be beat for price. In fact cabelas as a "one shot" price on the elite 7 for $399 right now. That's a unit that does traditional sonar, down scan and GPS. Screaming deal!

Regarding chips you will have choice of navionics and lowrance chips. Both are good. One may be better for some lakes while the other for different lakes.

[delcecchi]

You don't want start a brand battle but you want to know which is better? Lol

IMO the lowrance elite series units cannot be beat for price. In fact cabelas as a "one shot" price on the elite 7 for $399 right now. That's a unit that does traditional sonar, down scan and GPS. Screaming deal!

Regarding chips you will have choice of navionics and lowrance chips. Both are good. One may be better for some lakes while the other for different lakes.

That one shot deal for the elite 7 INCLUDES a chip. Lowrance house brand, but I think it has lakemaster data on it, based on the version of vermilion on mine last summer.

[CaptainMusky]

Even BETTER deal! The lowrance chips are great. Never hurts to have navionics too. Lowrance and lakemaster are the same up to 2011. Lowrance chips carry LOW and rainy too which is a separate chip for lakemaster.

[ClownColor]

I agree with the above but with Lowrance coming out with the Gen3's, I would expect some great deals on the HDS gen2's in coming months (cabelas already dropped the 8 by half) and especially before opener. I would bet the HDS 7 will be around $500 or less.

As for the lake chips, if you get the Lowrance, Navionics has some great features with those units. I have both Navionics and insight and use Navionics all the time...I was lucky enough to get the platnium for the same price as the premium, otherwise I wouldn't have gotten it.

What I also found funny that some shops had "buy a humminbird, get a free navionics chip"...found that funny since Lakemasters was joined to humminbirds hip....