Eagle fish finders

[northgabassfisher]

hear lately ive been looking for a new fish finder. I started to looking a Lowrance X47ex, then I went looking at gamin 250, and now i think I found the one its a Eagle fishmark 480 for $199.99 it got 1500 watts http://www.eaglegps.com/Products/Sonar/FishMark480.htm

then theres one other one im looking at the Eagle seafinder 480-DF $239.99

http://www.eaglegps.com/Products/Sonar/SeaFinder480DF.htm

for 40 bucks I can get 4000 watts but it made for the ocean will it make a diffrence if I use it in smaller resovoirs. and do any yall have any of these units. and what one do yall think is a better one my max is $250.

Thanks,

[Ben]

The 480DF has a 50Khz transducer that works better in deeper water.  Unless you're fishing deeper than 50 ft, doubt you will need it.  The 50khz doesn't have the resolution in shallow water the 192Khz.  The main thing is the 192Khz has approx 20 degree cone which gets awful wide at 50 ft, the 50Khz has approx 8 degree cone which lets you pin point your target much better.

Now, with all that said, I have a 480 on the bow of one of my boats and don't like it.  I have the old Lowrance X-75 on the bow of another and on the consoles of both and like them much better than the 480, ever though the 480 is suppose to have twice the resolution.  

When Garmin first came out with the 240, I bought one of those, used it about three months and gave it to my brother, didn't like it either.  

I know the Eagle is made by Lowrance and it's suppose the be basically the same unit without some of the extra features.  I've have two Eagles, the 240 and the 480.  The 240 wasn't bad, but the 480 is not even close to being in the same class.

[northgabassfisher]

so your saying that the eagles are not as good as lowrance but there better then garmin. but lowrance to me it looks like the you eather get a realy good one but pay $500, or you can pay$150 for one a get a not so good. to me it sounds like that eagle takes the place between those two price ranges of $500-$150 if that makes since.

but the 480Df will not read good in less than 50ft right. but the 480 will read good to 1Ft to 800ft right.

but what I herd I need to look for is the watts and pixels.

so do you recomend the Eagle 480DF or the 480

[basser89]

I have recently bought a 480. I've used Eagle's on my boat since I purchased it 7 years ago! Although I haven't had a chance to install it on my boat yet, I've tinkered with one at a few fishing expos in my area and really like the set up and the details the 480 shows! Now I must add that I'm upgrading from the Ultra Classic Plus (160 x 160) that I originally bought when I got my boat. I will say that when I put the 480 on next weekend, I feel that I'll be more than satisfied with it! Hope this helps!

[northgabassfisher]

Thanks for the input guys, im still thinking should i get the 480DF or the 480. agin thanks for the input guys keep it comeing.

Thanks.

[Boo]

I have a Eagle Fisheasy 2 and Fishmark 320 and they both suck! My advice is too stay away from Eagle products. I've had nothing but problems with their fishfinders since day one.

[Ben]

northgabasser,

I guess I didn't explain things real well. The 480DF has both, the 192 and the 50 Khz transducers. The 50 Khz works better in deeper water because of it's narrow beam width. The 192 works better in shallower water because it has much better resolution and the wider beam width lets you see more of the bottom. Once you start getting over 40 - 50 ft deep, unless you have a very narrow beam 192Khz transducer, the beam with will be so wide, it makes it very difficult to locate what you're seeing on the screen.

If you don't fish deep lakes, you don't need the DF is all I meant.

As for cost, you get what you pay for.  It's gonna be hard to get a good LCD for less than $300.

As for the reasons I don't like the eagle 480, I don't like the color of the screen, I don't like the limited backlite control, (I do a lot of night fishing). There are a number of features the Lowrance units have for custom setup I like the Eagle doesn't have. I've never been able to get the Eagle's screen to be as clear and noise free as the Lowrance's and still show the detail the Lowrance units. Now this is comparing it to my X-75's, these are old units but I still like them. Since I use the flashers more than the LCD's, they still suit my needs.

As for the Garim, the one I had, if you adusted it to get rid of all the noise and garbage on the screen, it also lost a ton of sensitivity.

[northgabassfisher]

alright guys thanks for all the input. thank you ben for clearing that up now I under stand and I got one more ? for yall how about the X52, but I know what yall are saying that its hard to find a good finder for under $200 or $300, but $200 is all the money I can spend right now and I just wont the bast finder for $200 or less the X52 is like $189.99 or the X47ex is like $160.99.

agin thanks for all the input.

[Ben]

I don't know anything about those two, never used them. I would not buy one with less than a 240 pixel screen. You start getting less than that, and you will start loosing a lot of detail on what's down there.

You might like the 480. As far as function, it works fine and the things about it I don't like my not be a problem for you. I never use one in it's automatic mode and there are some features in my old X-75 that seem to make it work better for my use. There's nothing saying when I get my next new Lowrance's they will have the features I like in the old ones. As you know, they keep updating them to make them more user friendly for the general public, and do away with some of the more indepth programming.

One thing in the auto mode, the 480 uses fish ID as a default and I absolutely can't stand the garbage on the screen. I want to see what's down there. With fish ID that computer thinks everything between the bottom and the surface is fish, even thermoclines and wave distortions.

That X-87 looks like it would make a fair unit for $150.  320 mega pixel ain't a bad resolution.

[northgabassfisher]

yea after I found that deal on cabelas im starting to lean to it some. im not sure if you read it in some of my other posts but do you know how old it is and I cant fid it on the lowrance web site.

Thanks