Lowrance Active Target Live Sonar

Looks like all 3 of the sonar manufacturers now have their own version of active sonar, or Livescope or Live Sonar, depending on the company. Prices are all similar, products look the same, too.

Link didn’t work for some reason. Good intro video on Russell Marine Products YouTube channel.

The new Active Target will be compatible with HDS Live, HDS Carbon, and the new Elite FS. Looks like it’s the real deal, the video images are pretty amazing. Retail is $1499 USD, so likely around $2000 all in in Canada. I better start saving my pennies…

They also announced the new Elite FS series to replace the Elite TI2. The Elite FS will be compatible with Active Target live sonar, gets a full pinch to zoom touch screen, and is now fully networkable with Ethernet. It’ll be the best bang for the buck sonar unit out there.

https://www.lowrance.com/

Waxy

The new Elite FS will be a game changer for sure based on price point. I will definitely be looking to add one and sell off one or more of my old mules.

I have been waiting for this as the first gen for Lowrance was basically garmin a old tech so i didn’t bite. This I will bite.

Clarity looks to be awesome. Any word on an ice package?

Modern electronics are ridiculous. I don’t know how the common angler can afford to upgrade the electronics in their boat every friggin’ year with new technology.

gimruis wrote:

Modern electronics are ridiculous.

x2

gimruis wrote:

Modern electronics are ridiculous. I don’t know how the common angler can afford to upgrade the electronics in their boat every friggin’ year with new technology.

I have 3 lowrance units in my boat. One is a GenII HDS, the others are HDS Touch GenI and a Gen III. I dont buy new ones every year and usually dont buy the latest model being released then sell off one of the older units. I havent bought a new unit in probably 4 years. Id like to get down to 2 units, but I need real estate at the wheel because I have one unit only doing sonar while the other GPS. Id like a 12 but they are unreal expensive.

Heres Humminbirds Mega Live sonar comming March 2021

https://www.russellmarineproducts.com/product-p/7103041-hum.htm
https://fishfinders.factoryoutletstore.com/details/1059500/humminbird-mega-live-imaging.html

hop307 wrote:

Heres Humminbirds Mega Live sonar comming March 2021

https://www.russellmarineproducts.com/product-p/7103041-hum.htm
https://fishfinders.factoryoutletstore.com/details/1059500/humminbird-mega-live-imaging.html

Go start your own thread and quit polluting this one!

Waxy

It’s a good point though. All three have live versions by next summer. Hopefully it brings the market price down a little. This will work with Carbon and Live units.

EPG I was just at scheels and they have a 7 inch live ice bundle but it was with the live ducer… think old panoptix. I’m sure they will have one soon enough. I will try and give a review from my ice fishing this winter with the new active target ducer after I play around with it a bit. As I already run Lowrance Lives in my boat.

The new elite series will be far more affordable than the live series and be able to do much of the same.

Waxy wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>hop307 wrote:</div>
Heres Humminbirds Mega Live sonar comming March 2021

https://www.russellmarineproducts.com/product-p/7103041-hum.htm
https://fishfinders.factoryoutletstore.com/details/1059500/humminbird-mega-live-imaging.html

Go start your own thread and quit polluting this one!

Waxy

I thought I would enlighten you people to what a real sonar company looks like.

Eelpoutguy wrote:

Clarity looks to be awesome. Any word on an ice package?

I did ask this question in the staff training on it and as of right now they won’t have anything right away but it could come within the year.

Chris Messerschmidt wrote:

I did ask this question in the staff training on it and as of right now they won’t have anything right away but it could come within the year.

Do I understand this correctly since you may know more than the rest of us. Looking at lowrance’s website, it appears it comes with multiple mounting brackets but you need to use different ones to achieve the desired view. Its not just as simple as changing the view on the display unit? Hmm, not sure I like that, though I understand that could be difficult designing a transducer that can do all the views when mounted in one location, this is limiting it I think.

When I went with a friend that bought livescope last winter the transducer needed to be manually moved between the down and forward positions by rotating it on the mount. It was as simple as picking up the pole and rotating the transducer. I would think Humminbird and Lowerance would be similar.

You both are correct. It needs to be adjusted for views just like livescope does. You do not need to spend the extra 100$ on a certain mount like livescope to have it do certain views.

I am guessing that is what all the R&D on all the companies is trying to come up with next. Getting all the views into one ducer without having to move it and bring the cost down is not going to be an easy task but guessing it won’t take long to happen.

Ripjiggen wrote:

You both are correct. It needs to be adjusted for views just like livescope does. You do not need to spend the extra 100$ on a certain mount like livescope to have it do certain views.

I am guessing that is what all the R&D on all the companies is trying to come up with next. Getting all the views into one ducer without having to move it and bring the cost down is not going to be an easy task but guessing it won’t take long to happen.

This is correct info. It does come with the bracket for everything like stated above. Garmin you do need to purchase a $100 bracket for there perspective view. There are some other ones on the market which I did try and work great as well that are cheaper.

hop307 wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>Waxy wrote:</div>

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>hop307 wrote:</div>
Heres Humminbirds Mega Live sonar comming March 2021

https://www.russellmarineproducts.com/product-p/7103041-hum.htm
https://fishfinders.factoryoutletstore.com/details/1059500/humminbird-mega-live-imaging.html

Go start your own thread and quit polluting this one!

Waxy

I thought I would enlighten you people to what a real sonar company looks like.

Why did you mention Humminbird then?

Waxy

arcticm1000 wrote:

When I went with a friend that bought livescope last winter the transducer needed to be manually moved between the down and forward positions by rotating it on the mount. It was as simple as picking up the pole and rotating the transducer. I would think Humminbird and Lowerance would be similar.

I still cannot figure out how to do that with rubber washer supplied. I need to mess with mine a bit because I don’t know why you would need to turn it down anyway. Aiming it out still shows straight down and back a bit.

We were both fishing in his skid shack. We put it in the middle of us pointing down (so we could see the oval below us) and we could both use it for jigging. It was pretty cool to the different fish come from the different sides and different depths and different speeds. Every once an a while we would flip it to forward view and scan around to see if there was a school close. We had a couple of tip downs close outside and in forward view we could see those also. Cool stuff! I plan on buying Humminbird’s version in the spring.

EPG I understand what you are saying. Straight down doesn’t give you as much info. The other modes however like perspective view on livescope and scout mode on Lowrance the transducer has to be angled different.

The down view will give you a bigger cone angle side to side. I think I would be using the same view as you EPG most of the time. Although that perspective view and scout mode looks pretty awesome as well.