Has anyone on the forum any experience with the side imaging units?  I am interested in buying one but before I spend a thousand dollars would like some input!

I just put a797c2si on mine two days ago I'll hit the water saturday morning I cant freaking wait to turn that thing on I probally wont even wet a line I'll be sure to post and let you know how it is also theres a forum at yahoo side imaging that shows pics from people who have them they are pretty interesting you should check it out.

My local lake seems to attract those things like skeeters to fresh blood.  On one of the Allatoona boards, many of the people have them, including Triton Mike, who is a great guide on the lake (he is a member of these boards - just don't see him too much).  Everyone who has them just LOVES them, and I can't wait until 15 years from now when I can actually afford one too. ;D  

People post screenshots on the site, and I am amazed at what they find, RIGHT IN MY MOST COMMON FISHING GROUNDS.  I have been all over this one section with my regular depthfinder, and found a couple of brushpiles, and then some guy comes into my crappie fishing section with that, and finds a freekin road with pilings for a bridge, and meanwhile I am dropshotting a little bush I find.  

The only complaint some folks with the 797 have, is they wish they had spent the extra few bucks on the larger screen of the 997.  But from everybody I know who has one, it is well worth it.  

I have been using a 997c for 3 months and it is absolutely awesome.  Side imaging will allow you find things you never would have know where there.  You will not be disapointed with it.

I have been using one every since they came out. Love it. Will show thing that you cannot believe.  I have a 997c SI  on the console and a Matrix 97 on front

Help me understand. Can you take your regular transducer and aim it to the side like it was a flashlight? Would you be able to see what's in the 30* cone? Is the hummingbird side imaging like having multiple flashlights combined for greater visibility? Or dose it require different software/ hardware to interpret the side shot sonar?

Thanks in advance.

Your standard sonar usually runs at 200 khz at a cone angle of 20 degrees.  The Side imaging runs at either 455 or 800 khz and has a cone angle of .5 to 1 degree.  So, just pointing your current transducer to the side will not give you anything like what side imaging shows.  It is just different technology.  You could probably get some readings doing that but they would be very hard to decipher what you were looking at.

Well I put the 797 in the water today and all I can say is these are unbeliveable I went to a spot I usally fish in the mornings I could tell that it had a rocky bottom by feel but my old unit never showed anything other than a hard bottom well on the 797 I could clearly see several good sized rock piles scattered over the whole area which makes me like that spot even more and the balls of baitfish you see on this thing are as clear as can be I was using the split screen and there were several things you would see on the SI that the regular sonar didnt show all I can say is so far I love it although I have to move my transducer because I lose the bottom as soon as i plane off I went and bought a SD card today so I can take pics with it I dont like having to take my Hot Maps card out to use the SD card I would have thought that the hot maps would load on a hard drive on the unit and you could remove the card either it dont work that way or I'm doing something wrong but other than that I would recomend buying one normally I couldnt afford it but Ive been doing some work on the side thats let me upgrade several (toys) on my boat.

The Navionics maps can't be transfered from the card to the unit.  You can however purchase the NVB (Navionics Value Bundle) that has all of the Hot Maps premium maps loaded into a memory chip at the factory.  That is one that that is nice about the 997, it has 2 memory card slots for maps and saving screen shots.  The NVB runs and extra $200 for the 797, 997 and the 1197 that will be out the Jan of next year.

I was going to buy it with the nvb but they didnt have it so I just bought the card I would use 99% of the time I guess I'll just have to chalk this up as a lesson learned and just have to live with changeing cards as nessesary but thats a small price to pay for having the technology that this thing has.

I was in Bass Pro yesterday and looked at their display models.  Wow.  The side imaging looks superiorly clear compared to the standard 20*/60* cone on regular hi res finders.  The small screen looks amazing, but the wide screen looks amazinger. The amount of information increase over the standard fish finder is staggering.

I am fishing out of a boat that cost less than $2000 after all rigging.  No way could I justify a fish finder that costs more than my boat.  But Wow.  That thing is like x-ray vision.

I can't justify the cost but I will find a way to get one next year!

I can't justify the cost but I will find a way to get one next year!

Ditto that.  One of our boats we will only have between 3500 and 4000 in when we finish restoring it, and the other, that it would get put on, will have just over a thousand when we finish with it.  But, even so, if I get the money, you can bet I will have one, and will have a transducer on each boat, so I can use it on 2 of our 4 current boats.