Monday 6, Sep 2010
Lowrance’s new Elite series of colour fishfinders and GPS chartplotters deliver a new standard of feature-rich, high-performance, easy-to-use electronics at a very affordable price.
Comprising three models – Elite-5x fishfinder, Elite-5m GPS chartplotter and Elite-5 combo – the Elite series has been designed with a 12.7cm (5”), 480x480-pixel SolarMAX™ 256-colour display with best-in-class brightness for superior viewing of chart detail and sonar graphs – even in the brightest sunlight conditions and from wide viewing angles.
Offering greater coverage for a variety of fishing and boating conditions, the Elite series of dual-frequency fishfinders provides the Lowrance standard for superior clarity, performance and target separation, while the chartplotters provide out-of-the-box, plug-and-play navigational functionality.
The Elite-5x and Elite-5 fishfinder models utilise a transom-mount 83/200 KHz Skimmer transducer that provides up to 120° of fishfinding coverage, as well as accurate temperature readings. Both sonar units can reach depths of over 300m with 500 watts RMS power/4000 watts of peak-to-peak power. To help anglers avoid missing a good area of fish-holding structure, both models also feature a unique TrackBack™ function that allows users to scroll back and review multiple pages of fishfinder display history.
For ease of installation, the Elite-5 and Elite-5m chartplotter models feature a built-in 16-channel GPS+WAAS precision antenna, along with an external antenna option. Both units also house a waterproof micro SD memory card slot and come with Navionics Gold charting. In addition, owners can store up to 3000 waypoints, 100 routes with 100 waypoints per route, 100 retraceable plot trails and up to 10,000 points per trail.
Other features of the Elite series include a new mounting design with an easy-to-install, quick-release, tilt-and-swivel bracket that offers convenient removal for storage and remounting. The backlit, enhanced keypad is configured for simplified single-thumb control of easy-to-use menus and an Advanced User Mode for expanded feature selections. The Elite-5x, Elite-5m, and Elite-5 are fully waterproof to IPx7 standards and come with a one-year limited warranty.
The Elite Series was released to the Lowrance dealer network during the national roadshows earlie tyhis year and is now available to consumers. RRP starts from $699 for the Elite-5x and rounds out at $1,099 fro the Elite-5 combo unit.
I have had the pleasure of using the Elite Series in every thing from kayaks to large ocean going trailer boats over the last two months.
All technical jargon aside, they are easy to use and work well in both fresh and salt water, and the transducer beam is as wide as you will get without moving to a much more expensive side scan sounder.
I found they worked well on trout, golden perch, murray cod, bream, flathead (yes, flathead will sound up off the bottom at times, for example, when you motor over them in deeper water), kingfish, snapper and jewfish just to name a few.
In summary, I rate them as the best in their respective price brackets by a country mile.
Further information or visit:
www.lowrance.com.au
See you on the water.
Rob Paxevanos
