Bias against Humminbirds

[waterinthefuel]

Ok, I know it's beating a dead horse, but I wanted to bring out something very specific about something brought up earlier here. If you click on the link below and read the article, it shows a boat on the bottom, and what each depthfinder shows the boat as on the display. Now it rants and raves over the Furuno, but if you look at the Hummindbird's screenshot, it looks much closer to the shape of the boat than any of the others, especially the Furuno. Does anybody else see this "bias" against this depthfinder?<br /><br /> Depthfinder Report

 

[JB]

Re: Bias against Humminbirds

Yep, WITF,<br /><br />I am prejudiced against H'Birds.<br /><br />My prejudice is based on personal experience, not hearsay. I have had 2. Both had the same problem with losing the bottom.<br /><br />If I can't find the bottom, I don't have a depth finder, much less a fish finder.<br /><br />I know nothing about the newer models and I don't knock them, but once burned, twice shy.

 

[waterinthefuel]

Re: Bias against Humminbirds

Well JB, along the same line I've owned 2 and both worked beautifully for me. I don't think a boating magazine should have a bias. The display clearly shows the boat represented more accurately on the Humminbird, but since people don't like them anyway, they don't even mention its accuracy. <br /><br />Even in that light, that report says the Humminbird is good, but can be a little better with a better display. <br /><br />I think the display of the Furuno is horrible. The boat on that display looks nothing like the sunk boat, in fact it more closely resembles a stump.<br /><br />Sounds to me as if it's as good as any, if it's company's history doesn't shoot it in the foot.

 

[18rabbit]

Re: Bias against Humminbirds

Waterinthefuel – that is the Powerboat Reports’ article. They do not accept advertising from anyone so there is not likely to be significant bias on the part of the publisher.<br /><br />Fwiw, PBR does not indicate what sounding the photo is of. Perhaps the Humminbird is of the boat, the Garmin is of a reef, and the Furuno is of whoknowswhat. I think they were merely illustrating the heads for each manufacturer, not a comparison of any actual display.<br /><br />But now that you mention it, I am starting to see a bias TOWARD Humminbird in this thread…

 

[lund17]

Re: Bias against Humminbirds

I've run Bottom Line, Eagle, and Humminbird. In my experience finding bottom and marking fish the Hummer is the least trustworthy. It stays on my boat as a depth finder(sometimes!) but when I NEED to know fish, structure, botttom, bait clouds,etc... I don't even look at it. My humble opinion

 

[DJ]

Re: Bias against Humminbirds

I DO NOT like H'birds. They lose bottom at anything over displacement speeds and are unreliable. This is my opinion.<br /><br />With that said, they would have to convince me that they have a good product-again.<br /><br />I can be convinced!!

 

[Sloleak]

Re: Bias against Humminbirds

I think sometimes people who buy a 100$ sounder expect 400$ of performance. Hbird makes some very cheap models but you cant compare a wide 100 to a Lowrance or a Garmin. Ive spoken to several people about the new Matrix series and they say they are 100 times better than the older Hbirds..I havent seen one yet but they sound like they are going to be decent..only time will tell

 

[Boatist]

Re: Bias against Humminbirds

Water<br />I hope you understand the difference in the picture display has nothing to do with the unit it self. Every unit shows the same boat. The boat looks wider on the hummer for one of two reasons. Either the speed of the boat but since this was a test the boat speed probably as close as they can get it. The second factor is chart speed, the hummer speed is just set faster than any other unit. This is just a personal adjustment, set if fast like on the hummer and you streach out the display but do not have much history. I know the Lowrance and Furuno have this adjustment and suspect they all do. So many people have been on this board and others with problems seeing bottom at planeing speeds. I guess they could all have installed the transducer wrong. I looked at the units twice at boat shows but now do not even stop at their booth. If you really think it best buy it but I will stick with Lowrance, Furuno, or Garmin.

 

[Franki]

Re: Bias against Humminbirds

The construction of the hummers is well made and well thought out..<br /><br />I think the problem is they always seem to skimp on the transducer.. small and very sensitive to angle changes.. I find just moving around in my boat can cause it to drop out..<br /><br />I suspect that in my boat, the hull design is making a bad issue even worse.. but when I temporairly put a mates navman on the boat.. it performed lightyears ahead of the hummingbird.. <br /><br />So I'll be buying the top of the range navman if I can afford it.. and keep the hummingbird so I can put it on the boat when I sell it.<br /><br />The navman is not the best around, but its the best I'll get for the money I want to spend I think.<br /><br />Hummingbird are not particulary good at supporting their products from my experiance.. they just reiterate whats in the units manual.<br /><br />rgds<br /><br />franki

 

[vidar]

Re: Bias against Humminbirds

Hi!i got a Eagle classic and it workes fine i 25 miles and depth up to 160 meters...i glued the transduser inside hull bottom..only thing i dont like is that it does not have a memory when turned off...have to set up every time turned on...