Hummingbird 3D Sonar?

[FullTilt]

Has anyone had a chance to see one of these in action? I saw an add (I think it might have been a new gear review in a magazine) showing the display and it looked impressive. From what I could tell it is able to produce an image that looks like a black and white video of the lake bottom. Suposedly Hummingbird has been lying in the weeds from a somar standpoint and this is going to be their next big thing. Ahother question, can this thing use the navionics chips? I'd be interested to hear from anyone who has had a chance to use it.

[Slyster]

I'd be very curious too. I was just on their site and was suprised that they even sell side scanning sonar now... check out the 900 series SI... technology like the stuff you see on the national geographic channel.. I wonder what finders will be like 10 years from now.

[Prior Laker]

I looked at the Humminbird 947 3D widescreen, it is color 7 inch screen that does support Navionics hot map chip. After reading discussions on this board about the benefits of having separate GPS and locator I ended up purchasing a Lowrance 6000C (a 7 inch color GPS unit) and Humminbirds Matrix 47 3D. The Matrix 47 is not color, is GPS capable but can not use mapping chips. It does have the same 3D capability, 640V X 320H 5 inch screen and max peak to peak power of 8000 watts. The total price for these separate units was the same as just the Humminbird 947.

I've had my boat out twice with these units and am very impressed with each. The Humminbird is by far the best locator I've seen even when just in 2D mode. The 3D mode seems to work very well but I've only been on realitively uninteresting metro lakes so far. I can't wait to see how it performs on a lake with serious structure. I'm going up to Rainy first chance I get to give it a real workout.

The only concern I have with it so far is the size of the transducer. It is about three to four times larger than a standard transducer (really sticks out from the transom) and a replacement is $100 so that could be a problem.

The reason the transducer is so big is because of the separate beams needed to create the 3D. At this point I would recommend the 3D as it really makes it easier to understand what the bottom looks like. The power and screen resolution is also impressive.

[sami0115]

the 3d technology looks like an awesome way to "see" the bottom. i think it may be my next purchase.

[FullTilt]

Prior Laker,

Does the Humminbird 3D come in color? I'm leaning toward a seperate GPS and sonar but I'm hooked on the color display. Is there a huge cost difference in the 3D sonar between color and B&W?

[Prior Laker]

The only options in 3D are the color 947C, GPS mapping and sonar 7" wide screen for $1650 or the Matrix 47 sonar, gps capable but no mapping with 5" monochrome for $500. Since I wanted separate units I decided to give up color on the locator and got a 7" color Lowrance mapping unit. If color is the deciding factor you may want to consider the Lowrance combo unit that has a 10" display then you don't give up so much screen for each function but of course you don't get 3D on the locator.