Humminbird adds Down-Imaging!

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I was afraid the article would say, “add transducer and cables for only $xxx extra.” Jason, give your HB buddies a hug for us. First Lakemaster, WHICH ROCKS – Love the Rainy/LOW chip… and now down imaging. How much cooler can it get!!

Mike

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I have to agree. I didn’t even read the whole article before I thought, “I’d like to have that, but what’s it going to cost to upgrade.” That is simply amazing and I applaud HB for offering that.

I’m in the medical imaging industry and I know all the medical imaging companies charge unbelievable prices for upgrades.

I’m really excited to employ down imaging.

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I’m trying to get a better idea of how the picture is taken. If I’m going straight forward is the picture from an angle infront of my boat? 20 feet behind the boat looking forward? Or from the side?

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Think of imaging like this. Imagine a loaf of bread. You take one slice out of the middle of the loaf and examine the “face” of the loaf.

Same thing for this. As you move forward on the water, you will be imaging things that you go over. So you’ll basically be seeing images as if you are walking along the bottom traveling in the same direction as your boat.

As the face of the loaf of bread is examined without the dimension of depth. This will be the same.

If you look at the diagram Moreyes posted. You’d be standing back by the 30 looking in the same direction as the boat is traveling.

Hope that helps.

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I’m trying to get a better idea of how the picture is taken. If I’m going straight forward is the picture from an angle infront of my boat? 20 feet behind the boat looking forward? Or from the side?

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Here is the response I got on your question:
The signal is taken from the Si beams. The Si beams are very narrow front to rear so the DownImaging sonar view would not be showing anything in front of or behind the boat.

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Greg Walters

Here is my question. If you don’t have to upgrade the sonar on the Birds only the software then doesn’t that mean HB has been holding out on us all these years and had this technology for a long time?

I would have thought you would need a transducer change. This is awsome news, but makes me wish they would have released it years ago… Makes you wonder if they were holding this ace in their back pocket waiting for a competor to up them… then slap it on the table and say Winner Winner Chicken Dinner!!!

The information has been there all along in the form of sonar returns to the transducer. Writing the correct code to interpret those sonar returns and display them in the form that we now call Down Imaging is what has taken time. And that time is now over….Down Imaging is upon us!

As for holding something back? Well, a prudent company always has new technologies that are forthcoming…new features that anglers demand…new materials and processes that help hold the costs of the units down to the extent possible. I don’t think that Humminbird is holding anything back, but I know that people will continue to be amazed and excited as Humminbird and MinnKota roll out new, thoroughly-tested technologies with features that anglers appreciate.

Well said

The down imaging will be a nice bonus, for sure… But SI itself is where its really at, and HB has been doing that for YEARS prior to the competition. If you know how to read SI, DI is just icing on the cake. DI is just taking those same sonar readings that SI has been using all along, and putting them into a different format. Again, its a great feature (especially for those who are new to SI or can’t visualize it very well), but it is by no means a whole new world of technology… It will basically give the same info as the SI, just a different viewpoint. Kudos to HB for keeping their product up to date, and thanks to Jason for keeping us all up to date!

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The information has been there all along in the form of sonar returns to the transducer. Writing the correct code to interpret those sonar returns and display them in the form that we now call Down Imaging is what has taken time. And that time is now over….Down Imaging is upon us!

As for holding something back? Well, a prudent company always has new technologies that are forthcoming…new features that anglers demand…new materials and processes that help hold the costs of the units down to the extent possible. I don’t think that Humminbird is holding anything back, but I know that people will continue to be amazed and excited as Humminbird and MinnKota roll out new, thoroughly-tested technologies with features that anglers appreciate.

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Somebodies gotta say it, so I guess I will.

I’m amazed that this is a “FREE” upgrade, because I know for a fact, that most of us would’ve been willing to pay for it, if for no other reason than the “down scan” from the competitor had me thinking of taking a look at that unit. Not any more.

I think if it had been a pay to add upgrade, it may not have “stung” the 797 users quite so badly.

looking forward to the new color pallete also.

If it was a pay to play, I probably would NOT have upgraded just to get the DI, and might have been put off a little even… However, HB gets a HUGE thumbs up for making it a free software upgrade, and I can only imagine that keeping thier current customers happy will translate into amazing amounts of word-of-mouth recommendations and higher sales in the future. Very smart customer service/sales move on HB’s part. With all the current problems with LOW’s customer service dept, HB has put themselves in a great market position.

For the most part, I agree with you, so let me explain a little further:
I wasnt thinking a huge amount like4-600, but more like 50-100 for the DI upgrade. I wouldve spent that in a heartbeat, just to have it.

I guess Ruger 25-06 mentioned that he was also surprised it was free earlier.

There must be some extensive menu items in the DI upgrade, because some of the pictures that Joby Smith posted on another website, show the information on the left side of the screen, which indicates a 997 (probably), as the information bar is on the bottom of a 1197.
He has the screen split into 3 views, which hasnt been an option prior.

Should be interesting, thats for sure.

Could be a knockout punch and the way things are going and past record for the competition, it could be available to Humminbird users before the competitions.. November to January is only one glitch away.

3 way split screen will be very cool and useful for sure.

When is LOW’s version supposed to be out, anyway???

I sure hope it doesn’t knock out Lowrance. I just hope the market share they have lost in the last 12 months or so will force them to be a better company. The more competition we have between these two, the better of we all are.