Humminbird Zoom Feature?!?!

[dbort]

 Are those pre set or can you adjust to what ever water you want, I fished 27 feet last week at, daybreak I set my lowrance to only show the bottom 8 feet, at 9 am I looked at the bottom 16 feet, noon whole water colum and a split to also look at the bottom 6, then in evening just look at bottom 5...also zoomed  is it like that, set any depth you want??

Also what's up with my buddies who own vex's, I ask what depth and it takes like 5 minutes to get back to me, no exact digital readout, does the hummingbird have exact readout?? very important for deep water wally's near structure. and bowls for deep perch..

Both the 45 and 55 have the digital display.

[USMarine2001]

the digi read out gives you a faster response to where the fish are

[perchslappinmy]

For those of you with 45's and 55's, help me understand why you chose those over the 35.  I have a 35 (which I'm very happy with) and as far as I can tell, the only things I'm missing is

1) LCD readout of the depth - would be nice to have, but not necessary.
2) 2 extra colors - What can you accomplish with 5 that you can't with 3?
3) Target feature - Seems like a completely useless feature, but maybe I don't understand its use.

Not trying to ruffle feathers, just wondering if I'm missing out on something owning the low end of the totem pole.

The 55 has 2400 watts the 35 has 800.The 55 has 6 colors which gives me a little better idea how big they are and where they are in the cone.The 55 has a 9 amp battery the 35 and 45 have a 7 amp.On the 55 all the info is on the lcd readout (depth,beam setting,gain,noise,battery percentage,zoom indicator).The 55 also has a backlight option for the lcd for night fishing.The 35 has 4 manual depth settings,the 55 has those plus 7 auto depth settings.The 55 has the carrying case thrown in for free.I agree totally on the target feature,I've never used it.With all that said I don't blame anyone for picking the 35 over the 55,they both have the same zoom and dual-beam transducer which I think are most important.Enjoy!

[TIBS]

whats the deepest you guys have used the humminbirds? I'll be fishing in 120-160 ft of water sometimes and have heard bad stuff about the deep water usage... I still have $130 to cabelas and theya actually have humminbirds in stock, sold out of fl20s i found out after waiting almost 2 weeks after ordering it, and they don't sell the lx-5's

I'm still waiting for my local deep lake to freeze, then maybe I can give you an answer.  Part of the reason I got the H-Bird is because i used to have an FL-8 and those only read to 120', and do it poorly.  The birds are supposed to be good to 200', at least thats how deep the scale reads to, whether they perform in those conditions has yet to be seen.  I too plan on using it in the 120'-160' range someday. (maybe deeper as long as the ice gets good enough, the lake goes down to 237')

[TIBS]

I don't really get it either. I dont own a flasher. so you turn it then the two lines split the screen, then what. what ever is inbetween the two lines are the 5 foot margin and what ever is to the right of it is the rest of the water colum?? 

Whatever shows up between the 2 white lines clockwise is magnified 2X, when the birds are in zoom mode, they throw the depth scale out the window, that's why the bottom signal moves when the zoom is turned on.  Whatever is outside those white lines does not get zoomed.

Take a look at the 3rd picture, the white lines are shown between the 2' mark and the 12' mark, so if there were anything between those to zones, it gets magnfied 2 times.  Everything before the 2' mark and after the 12' mark are not magnified.

[TIBS]

For those of you with 45's and 55's, help me understand why you chose those over the 35.  I have a 35 (which I'm very happy with) and as far as I can tell, the only things I'm missing is

1) LCD readout of the depth - would be nice to have, but not necessary.
2) 2 extra colors - What can you accomplish with 5 that you can't with 3?
3) Target feature - Seems like a completely useless feature, but maybe I don't understand its use.

Not trying to ruffle feathers, just wondering if I'm missing out on something owning the low end of the totem pole.

I too decided on the ICE-35, the target feature, extra color palettes, and the LCD screen were not enough to entice me to pay the extra 200 bucks.  The extra power may have been nice, but I got zoom with this unit, that's all I really wanted for upgrading from an FL-8.

[troutaddict33]

I'm still waiting for my local deep lake to freeze, then maybe I can give you an answer.  Part of the reason I got the H-Bird is because i used to have an FL-8 and those only read to 120', and do it poorly.  The birds are supposed to be good to 200', at least thats how deep the scale reads to, whether they perform in those conditions has yet to be seen.  I too plan on using it in the 120'-160' range someday. (maybe deeper as long as the ice gets good enough, the lake goes down to 237')

I heard so much bad about the hummibird in deep water that it scares me. Like someone sugessted to me in a PM, the power on the smallers cone is much too small. SO, after a few weeks of let-downs and debate, i ordered an LX-5. Thanks alot for all the input and answers

[TIBS]

I heard so much bad about the hummibird in deep water that it scares me. Like someone sugessted to me in a PM, the power on the smallers cone is much too small. SO, after a few weeks of let-downs and debate, i ordered an LX-5. Thanks alot for all the input and answers

The only thing i've heard bad about deep water with the birds is that the wide cone sucks in deep water, which is normal, my wide cone sucked in deep water on my fl-8 too.

Haven't heard a single comment from someone who's actually used these units in 100' or deeper, maybe I've missed something, but no matter, still happy with my ICE-35

[SNAGGER]

  THANKS for all the info........

[Airs24]

hope this video helps.

Great video, this sold me 100% on the Humminbird Ice 45...  Thanks for the link!