Lowrance Elite-5 DSI

[scott craven]

for anyone in the market for a new sounder /plotter
Lowrance Elite-5 DSI is on sale at West Marine June 24 only for $329.00

 

[fish stalker]

fin rights! thanks for heads up im on it!

interesting. it does come with the chip in case anyone is wondering. but with the dsi feature it only works in freshwater or about 100ft of salt. I watched the video last year the dsi is crazy. Thats just what the wm guy told me. Still planning on grabbing one.

 

[rockdog]

Wow. That's a really good price. I have the elite 5 gold, and it's pretty good.

 

[trendsetter]

I got that flyer today too. If it comes with charts and transducer that is an awesome price.

 

[Seafever]

yes....but the card that comes with it, although called a "Navionics Gold", is actually a production custom bundled chip.

The detail on that bundled chip is not as good as the stand-alone Navionics Gold Coastal Canada card.


So you'll probably end up buying the better card later on anyway......cost approx $224 bucks at some places.

 

[scott craven]

I should mention that the sonar on this unit is designed for fresh water.
It will only read in salt up to about 100' (per west marine )
this does not affect the chart plotting.

They have the salt water model on sale at $429

 

[fish stalker]

Does anyone have any experience with this model or other lowerance dsi models? It look like this may be discontinued but arnt all models eventually?

When I called this morning the guy said 100ft in salt water. Then this afternoon another guy said 200. Even if I cant see structure on bottom I still want to know where bottom is! I asked if water temp settings would work for thermoclines, he said it will say 'cold haha' not really the educated answer I was looking for.

Looks like the bass guys love them. but again shallow and fresh water.

i would really like gps and sog unit.

 

[casper5280]

I have a HDS10, If I added one of these would my unit over ride the Elite setting and read what my unit reads? Just want to add one as a second or third unit as I don't have a unit for the flybridge.

 

[scott craven]

It would run on a separate transducer, so they run independently of each other.

 

[Degree of Freedom]

If that thing doesn't have the detailed gold charts and isn't meant for saltwater, then this is a much better deal...

http://www.harbourchandler.ca/

Sales ends Thursday

 

[fish stalker]

guy said it does come with the gold charts, said the chip is worth 260.

thats a good deal too. Ill go in and play with both today.

the transducer is a special dsi thing that is tied in with the power and not a seperate cord so cant be switched out they said. I dont know about hds if its the same type thing.

 

[fish stalker]

ok after getting mixed messages from wm I called lowerance. After a painful info extraction basically the dsi is a structure oriented unit and will not even show where bottom is after 150 ft and fish are hard to mark. the elite 5 is more a fishfinder based unit and will show better fish markings and basic bottom. harbour chandler it is!

 

[scott craven]

I think if you need a chart plotter, this unit will suit most needs.
It sounds like the sonar is the problem.
If you already have a separate sonar device, this unit would probably work out fine.

 

[Seafever]

I looked into getting the Elite 5 Gold at Harbor Chan.

The only difference with the Elite 5 DSI is just that....you can go DSI on it.

The lady (owner?) at Harb Chan took about an hour to do run throughs with Gold Chips.

The Elite 5 Gold (and Gold DSI) does not come with the 249$ dollar card.....it comes with a bundled so-called Gold Card that is designed for lower price-point units.

We had a look at the Rat's Nose on WCVI with the bundled card......very little detail.

Then she put the 249$ stand-alone card Gold card in.......much better detail on contours at Rat's Nose....but nowhere near as good as the older chips before the mapping companies/government got their nose out of joint and changed newer cards tp less detail.

I have the Elite 4m (map only) due to space considerations.

The card that comes with it is the same one that comes with the Elite 5 Gold . She showed me that difference by demo.

I ran mine........and the detail is just barely adequate. The unit must be set on "Navionics Coastal Canada" in the chart select when you turn you it on. If you leave it on "Lowrance" you get nothing north of the border.

The stand-alone "better" card is also called " Navionics Coastal Canada".

If they are giving you the "better" card with that unit for that price.........that is a very good deal.

I looked at the onsale Elite 5 Gold and DSI Gold at West Marine too for 429 bucks.

Same story there........the bundled Gold card is not the same as the stand-alone Gold card.

 

[jeffywestcoast]

Seafever i to purchased the elite 4m and elite 4x finder as to have a dedicated unit for each, is the card supplied with the elite 4m the good card? seems to have pretty good detail for land based stuff but i noticed too the all i seem to get is contour lines with depths on them, i have mine set to coastal canada also but everytime i fire it back up it reverts to default settings.

 

[Degree of Freedom]

I bought an Elite 7 HDI earlier this year and purchased the upgraded card. As Seafeaver mentioned, detail on stock card was crap. I'm pretty sure the card that comes with the Elite 5 gold is the good card, and therefore the $399 is an amazing price... but you'd need to make sure. The crap card shows the Rat's Nose as one contour line.
Even if you're only looking for a fishfinder...why not pay the extra $50 for the Elite 5 Gold and get a backup chartplotter as a bonus?...not to mention you'd be avoiding giving WM any of your money

 

[Seafever]

The card that comes with the Elite4m is not as good as the stand-alone card.

It does show bottom contour/depths.....but not as good as the stand-alone card.

Every time I turn mine on, sofar, I have to go in and program it to "Navionics Coastal Canada".

Otherwise I get nothing on the screen except " Lowrance" setting...which is default.

The Lowrance map setting is good if you were fishing, say, Friday Harbor or Puget Sound......but north of the border there is nothing.

Probably there is a way to keep it on Canadian setting.......instead of having to do it every time......

But I haven't figured that out yet.

Also.....when my boat sits for more than a day, I disconnect all battery leads.......so that may have something to do with it, i don't know.

The lady (owner I think) that is at Harb Chan really knows her stuff when it comes to chips, cards and GPS units....

I plan to upgrade later to the better MicroSD Gold card.

I would have had to if I bought the Elite 5 Gold unit also........

I have now been into Harb Chan 4 times in total to sort out the "card" issue..........and that is what she told me every time.......lucky she didn't recognize me or she would have said " Oh Geeeez.......not YOU again.....!!..."

 

[fish stalker]

The tech support lowerance said the elite gold and elite gold dsi are different. Its not just Turing dsi on of off. If you go over 100-150 ft your screen will just blink.

There is a bass site that has a 56 page thread on this unit where they get in depth about the transducer and side scan angles.... But this all means nothing in salt. The guy said fish will be very hard to see on dsi. I might phone back and hopefully get a different guy. I'm in Vic and can't go into hc

 

[jeffywestcoast]

ya i kinda wish i had done a little more research before purchasing..(how many times have i said that)..my elite 4x couldn't find a baitball to save it's life..guess i should have fig's that for getting a sounder and a chart plotter for under 600 bucks... my supplied card i received is the navionics gold..

 

[Degree of Freedom]

The card that comes with the Elite4m is not as good as the stand-alone card.

It does show bottom contour/depths.....but not as good as the stand-alone card.

Every time I turn mine on, sofar, I have to go in and program it to "Navionics Coastal Canada".

Otherwise I get nothing on the screen except " Lowrance" setting...which is default.

The Lowrance map setting is good if you were fishing, say, Friday Harbor or Puget Sound......but north of the border there is nothing.

Probably there is a way to keep it on Canadian setting.......instead of having to do it every time......

But I haven't figured that out yet.

I take my Elite 7 right out of the boat after every use, and I only had to change that setting the first time I turned it on when I first purchased it...wouldn't have thought it would be much different on the 5