I was looking to see if there were any video's of a Lowrance HD-8 series of the unit in chartplotter mode but i couldn't find one. Lowrance makes great. ( fishfinders ). sounders but how do they compare with the Garmin GPSMap chartplotters. Was thinking on buying either a Lowrance HD-8 or a Garmin 4008 or 4208., any opinions on which would be the better chartplotter. Tug
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Lowrance ChartPlotters
- Thread starter Tug
- Start date
starcrafttom
Active member
look on you tube. i found lots of videos of the hds-8 in fish fnding mode. should be some at their website too.
I have a Lowrance HDS8 and I previously had a Garmin chart plotter. While I haven't used the newer Garmin's I have played with them in the store. I've also spent many hours play with Raymarine chart plotters on the boats of various friends. IMHO, the Garmin's have by far the easiest to use/learn user interface of all the chart plotters. Raymarine has the most difficult to learn/use and the Lowrance is someplace in the middle. I love the Lowrance for it's fish finder, but I do miss my Garmin for a chart plotter. The software on the Lowrance is so-so both in terms of user interface and other things like scroll speed. In particular, zooming in an out on the map takes a bit longer than on a Garmin as does cursoring around on the map to look at different areas. I've been thinking about adding a Garmin to my boat just because I like the UI a lot better. That would free up the Lowrance to be used primarily for sonar and radar. At present, when I'm cruising, I usually have the Lowrance with a split screen of sonar and chart plotter with the chart plotter zoomed in fairly far. I have a second chart plotter (Navionics on an i-Pad) that is zoomed out. When fishing, the iPad plotter is zoomed in and the Lowrance is switched over to sonar only (unless it's foggy in which case the Lowrance is used for radar/sonar). If I were to start again from scratch today, I'd probably go with the Garmin for a chart plotter. However, the new Raymarine units with wireless connectivity to an iPad or iPhone are looking pretty sweet also.
I have had several Lowrance chart plotters and they are great. The Garmin is just a little easier to use (in my experience). Definitely better fish finders from Lowrance. In the past--there was an issue with the GPS antennas and radar beam--but I believe that has been resolved. On the Hull Truth, there is quite a bit of information on Lowrance products. Bluewaterpirate currently has a Sinrad NSS8 and a Garmin 740 side by side--I believe some of his videos in the past had the comparable Lowrance with Garmin comparison. Do a Google search "Lowrance electronics screen Shots blue waterpirate. You should come up with a number of comparisons. He does great work.
Roger, that kinda sums up what i already suspected , the Lowrance is a great unit for fishing..not the best chartplotter. I will just replace my Garmin GPSMap 172c for one with a larger screen, i would like a 8 inch , something i can see and use my Lowrance X510C as a fishfinder. Thanks Tug
Tug":1h7lejjf said:Roger, that kinda sums up what i already suspected , the Lowrance is a great unit for fishing..not the best chartplotter. I will just replace my Garmin GPSMap 172c for one with a larger screen, i would like a 8 inch , something i can see and use my Lowrance X510C as a fishfinder. Thanks Tug
To be fair, the Lowrance is not a bad chart plotter, it's just not as slick on the software side as the Garmin and I'm pretty damn picky when it comes to software.