Hello everybody. I'm looking to upgrade my fish finder this winter and I'm looking for opinions and thoughts on whether I should look into one with down scan or one with side scan. I've basically narrowed my choices down to the Humminbird 899ci HD SI and the Lowrance Elite 7 HDI. I'd like to hear from people that have these and similar units and share everything you can from quality of the picture to ease of use to anything else you can think of.

You get more coverage and technology with the 899ci HD SI Combo.

It has dual beam 2D sonar, Side Imaging, Down Imaging as welll as GPS/mapping.

 

The Elite 7 HDI has dual beam 2D sonar, Down Scan, and GPS/mapping.

 

The screen resolution is about the same.

 

The Down Scan will have a sharper image than Down Imaging since it is generated from a dedicated Down Scan sonar crystal. The Down Imaging from a Side Imaging unit is computer generated using the two Side Imaging sonar crystals.

Most consider the Lowrance 2D sonar to be superior.

 

To get an idea of the "lay of the land", nothing beats the side looking imaging technology regardless of which brand. Raymarine and Garmin have new units that have that technology capability also. The best part is you can see with is "over there" without going over there.

 

I underlined some terms since each is a trademark for each brand.

 

I have three Humminbird Side Imaging units that do all three technologies and two of them have the additional  360 Imaging.

 

Refer to the posted screen shots above.