Thinking about new Dragonfly7 fishfinder/gps

G Gallagher

Looking at the Raymarine Dragonfly 7 sonar/gps with Chirp technology.

Is anyone using it now and if so what do you think of it? The new structure scan looks pretty interesting.

PaulNBriannaLynn · Posted: Thu Sep 18, 2014 3:43 pm Post subject:

We're seriously considering this unit too... It looks great! I wish someone would buy it and give a good writeup. I was really impressed with it at the boat show but real world experience is what its all about.

ghone · Posted: Thu Sep 18, 2014 11:03 pm Post subject:

Likely a good unit. Raymarine has improved since FLIR saved them. I'd recommend making sure if at a boat show, you can make it do some basics, without the salesperson making it dance. Walk up to it, push a few icons and see if you get somewhere, without a trained salesperson running it. Their older stuff was a long way from user friendly.
It looks pretty good, but then again...
George

Captains Cat · Posted: Fri Sep 19, 2014 6:50 am Post subject:

starcrafttom · Posted: Fri Sep 19, 2014 11:28 am Post subject:

I have been thinking about one for the back deck. I would just like to use one for the day first or talk to some on in this area that has one.

As far as the user friendly menus of the Ray marine, I never really had a problem with them but last year Raymarine hired a couple of cell phone/app programmers to completely redo there menus and windows. If you can run a cell phone you can run there menus. Not the problem it was in the pass.

Wefings · Posted: Fri Sep 19, 2014 5:37 pm Post subject:

FWIW I had one on a rental boat of ours and removed it pretty quickly . The FF didn't do anything I needed better than the Furuno it replaced . I think it was an early 5 incher combo Dragonfly. I operate in shallow water and from what I understand CHIRP does best [is only useful] over 300 feet . It was like going from HD TV to old 8 MM film with the odd amber hue.Not up to Furuno color FF standards that I am used to .
The GPS was unimpressive as well . The Garmin went back on as well . The new Garmin stuff is easy to use and has all the bells and whistles .
Marc

My IRA · Posted: Fri Sep 19, 2014 6:19 pm Post subject:

I don't own a dragonfly unit but our Raymarine C127 multifunction with radar works sweet and the new software makes everything so easy to use.

Sunbeam · Posted: Fri Sep 19, 2014 7:34 pm Post subject:

I recently bought a Raymarine plotter, and it has the CPT-100 transducer with it (cigar shaped one that is similar to the CPT-60 that goes with the Dragonfly, I think). I hope I like it better than you did, Marc! Haven't tried it yet...

breausaw · Posted: Fri Sep 19, 2014 10:19 pm Post subject:

I have one on TripleJ, nice unit for the money. Only gripe I have is the bracket, it's cheep and wobbly. Once I decided on a location I ended up using a bit of hot glue to keep the unit from wobbling. I also think down scan and chirp are over rated, more hype than reality.
If I fished shallow fresh water perhaps it would shine a bit more but in the salt I've not seen or experienced any ground breaking revelations.
I use the dragonfly in combination with my 741sx to have a full screen fish finder, the combination works well.