I'm in the market for an upgraded fish finder and seeking opinions on some of the newer units. I was going to get either the Eagle 480 or the Lowrance X135. However, after seeing them in person, I really like the brightness of the color screen on the Lowrance X510C. Anybody using this? Any thoughts on the new side scanning Hummingbird units? At $1000, that's getting to be a real commitment. I already have a color handheld GPS unit, so I can do without GPS capability at this point.

--J

I fish Humminbird units, but will say that the color units of all the companies are great. I would not buy a B/W unit again. color is the way to go.

My vote is for the 480. Great unit for the price. Just as good as the lowrance. I got rid of all the humminbirds I had, did'nt like the graphics at all, I thought they were slow and spotty. As for the new color models, I have'nt used any, so I don't know. Don't forget that the color units usually have alot less pixels. pixel count makes a big difference in what you are seeing.

I haven't seen a need to switch to color personally.  The info being produced by a color graph is the same as a BW, just in color.  The price just doesn't justify it.  I've yet to see where it really made it any easier to read or discern structure.  

I have the 480 too. Love it! Best $200 I spent.  If I was gonna spend the big bucks Id get those side imaging birds now.  But i dont. Could you imagine a $2000 unit on a 16 foot G3 with a 25hp 4 stroke! ;D

The 480 is a great unit for the price of 159 coming up in the bass pro shop spring sale..I had this unit and liked it..That being said I have the 520c gps lowrance color and it is the only way to go meaning colored..I love the unit..I seriously thought about buying the side imaging hummingbird but was informed by randall that it does not work well with trolling motor only speeds..Doesnt make any sense but that is what was said..Just depends if you want to spend 350plus for the color graphs or 200less for the bw..

I had the oppotunity to spend 2 days at the Humminbird facility in Eufuala, Al.  And the side imagine works just fine from trolling speeds up to about 30 mph, at least it did on the boat we were using.  As far as the color units, I would recommend them over the grayscale ones.  They have the same or better resolution that the grayscale ones and much easier to see in bright sunlight conditions.  You mentitioned the x-510c.  For a little less money you could get a humminbird 777c2.  It would have a higher resolution screen at 640X480 than the lowrance and more power at 4,000 peak watts to 2,400 peak on lowrance.  It is also gps ready meaning you could use your handheld gps as the antenna for the 777c2 and have full gps functionality on the display.  If it were up to me I would go with the side imagining, it does exactly what they say it can do and no other company has anything that can touch it.

Thank you all for the information.  

I really like the bright screens on the color units, because I do a lot of midday fishing and figure that I would be able to see the screen from different areas of the boat much easier.

-J