First On-The-Water Test Of All 3 Live Sonars | Humminbird Mega Live, Active Target, Garmin Livescope
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- Опубліковано 29 вер 2024
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Equipment Mentioned in this Video:
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Humminbird Helix Gen 3 with Mega Live Transducer
Lowrance Elite FS with ActiveTarget Transducer
Garmin GPSMAPS 1022XSV with Livescope Transducer
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Probably the most comprehensive review I have seen on these products. I will give you a score of 10/10. Thanks for all the time you and Bass Tank spent in putting this together.
Great test thank you !!!!
I think you did a wonderful job as I was torn on which unit to get thank you very much for your time and effort.
Thank you, answered a lot of questions, gave better answers than bass pro shop
Thanks Johnny I am a total tech dummy I have never updated my phone not even sure how to do updates so I’m going with the sonar you do not have to touch. Thank you
Another VERY good video. Thanks for the hard work that went into this.
However, I think you were much too generous with the scores you gave to Lowrance and Hummingbird. I actually like the "clutter" that appears in the Garmin, as opposed to the perfectly clear background on the other two. The resolution and detail of the brush piles and tree truck were MUCH better on the Garmin than the others. On the Lowrance, I could only see 1 fish dot, where the G and H both showed 2. The resolution of the tree and brush were MUCH inferior on the L and H. If you had not told me I was looking at a brush pile on the 80 and 120 ft ranges, I would never have known they were there. The L and H both looked like just a few random blips. I would have thought they were noise.
Thanks for your comparison!
I like the Garmin
I've been waiting for this video!!!!!!
That hummingbird is ruff
You settings on the garmin livescope are not ideal so this is a bad comparison...once dialed in mine looks 50 times better so poor comparison imo..
Not here to argue brands, but i would say the same about how he had active target set up.
I'd like to see you revisit this test now comparing the latest improvements to transducers and updates to see how they have changed.
Target lock actually gives a person a reason to use mega live over other options now because the image is not going to make people choose it over the other options.
I am beyond disappointed in Hummingbird. I bought a new boat this past spring and I went with Helix counting on the new front facing sonar being ther best on three market. I mean Hummingbird had the advantage of watching the other two brands going to market first and learning from their mistakes so I was absolutely convinced that theirs would be even better but at the very least just as good but no. They freaking went to final phase and must've known "Yep! We're the worst. Hey let's start selling it! 😃"
Wtff
It's all Garmin technology so I don't really see the difference in someone trying to buy the best brand. Garmin is licensing this technology to the competitors. It was a wise thing to do and it definitely got Lorenz to drop that lawsuit against Garmin for down imaging. There was a whole lot of stuff that happened with this technology and the reason why the Rance got it before hummingbird did. It's just great for people to now just buy the component tree for their unit rather than having to buy a brand new setup. It was going to be a mess because a lot of people were against Garmin I've been garment from day one. But now you can stick with hummingbird. I would probably add a third hummingbird graft to my boat which I have two garments already, but to help mega side and down on the transom and pair it with the old trucks would be pretty nice.. or I could just buy the garment Force for the same price and keep my two units.
It's really disappointing that Hummingbird was the last to come to the game and had other units to compare and is the worst out of the 3. I love all their other products that's why my boat has all birds and one stand alone Garmin at the bow. Great side by side review!! Very informative!
Best maps, best side imaging and best down imagining. Too bad HB couldn’t have the best live imaging.
Clayton Schick had been running the mega on his last few videos. The quality looks way better than this.
To be honest, he doesn't seem to have the Humminbird settings anywhere close to optimal. Granted, megahertz frequencies will suffer on range. But the whole point of delving into that frequency range is to improve image clarity, not extend range.
@@ElementofKindness Yeah well, electromagnetic waves work that way. We had radiowaves crawling over obstacles at 1930s, 1960s moon shuttle live radio. Try to get more highend engineers to start fishing. 3 days of no Bass creates innovations.
Humminbird has target lock now which is pretty cool but definitely still behind when it comes to the image you get to see.
Outstanding video! I really appreciate the hard work and time you put into this awesome comparison. I'm now planning to purcahase a forward facing sonar and am leaning toward Mega Live so I don't have to buy another brand of sonar. I have one Helix 10 Gen 3 on the console and one on the bow, so I assume I wouldn't need another sonar unit.
My question is, have you done a follow up comparison to find out if Mega Live has improved after some updates?
Thanks for all you do!!!
Looks like the software side is 30y behind cellphones. Just waiting when group of Nokia/Apple engineer stops working and starts fishing.
Siri, find me a fish.
Great video. Thrilled Garmin stood out ( what I use ). I would have thought Lowrance and Humminbird would have been alot better than Garmin. Especially with Garmin being out for years giving Lowrance and Humminbird alot of info to build from. Thanks for your time and all the info you share with us..
Honestly man Lowrance and garmin are about the same
Garmin has the IP, the others are working around patents that Garmin invented and has exclusive rights to
Great test but use all the options on all three units . You have to turn the contrast/gain up on the ATarget you had it set too low. It will get grainy. You can see target separation a lot better as well as distance. If your going to adjust the Garmin unit and not the AT that’s not a fair test. Turn them all on Auto and do a test. Then use the features and adjust contrast/gain! I can pick up my crappie jigs 40-50 feet out all the time. I know I could have picked up that big bait further than 60 feet.
Agree, he didn't know how to adjust each unit for the best performance
Only Garmin showed a “limb”, the others showed a bunch of dots/lines that you would have to infer is a limb.
Angles are everything in my short time with live sonar. This test would have had to been done in a pool or awuarium with slick water and the transducers placed and unplaced at the exact sae location. The possible reason for loosing the bait is that he is comimg in and out of lowrance and humminbirds beam due to boat bouncing and his cast being on the edge.
Great job!! We all love direct comparisons...I’m surprised more UA-camrs don’t do more of them. Keep up the good work.
Truly some of the best educational material on you tube.
While Garmin requires you t adjust some settings, its a 2 sec adjustment on the screen. Looked to me that the gain was too high in this comparison for the Garmin.
For the image clarity test, I feel like your gain settings are going to make a pretty big difference here. How did you attempt to calibrate them against each other?
Time for another review since the new update 1.170 for megalive dont you think?
Turn back light up and gain down on livescope and it will be as clear as the others
I love how you constantly say: "It CLEARLY shows....etc": my 70 year old eyes are "clearly" not seeing what you see! lol....if you ask me, all three of these are WAY behind what they might become in the future.....I am too spoiled: when I look at the DI and SI on my Humminbird , I see almost photographic clarity, to breathtaking clearness.....this stuff?? I can't imagine being away from the machine and being able to discern the things that you are pointing out, as I CAN see them with my head one foot away from the large computer screen, but on the water?? T'aint gonna happen!!!
I guess i dont have the eyes for it... how could you ever tell the difference between the brush pile and fish? The sonar image as a whole is constantly fading in and out. Without actually catching something off the blob of color i would never be able to tell. They all look terrible to me... 🤔 😕
Good Stuff! I would reccommend Trying the Active Target on a HDS Live unit vs the Elite FS. I run the AT on the HDS Live and it Looks quite a bit better. Tons of Variables but I would reccommend giving it a shot!
Basically saying all unit were not properly setup to its full potential.
Great comparison very appreciative! Having said that based on the images you were comparing I personally would have ranked the Garmin images way higher than you did. You actually gave them the same score in some categories where I was thinking they weren't even close in comparison. I'm not a Garmin fan-boy by any measure but it looked way better in every category to my eye.
That's because he can make Garmin look better with the settings and not the others. My Helix 7 DI, SI GPS is as clear as a picture when i set the settings right. I'm sceptical of these kinds of videos as i am not there to adjust the setting myself. I hate background noise like he showed with the garmin and why not use the same color for all three ? It's been my experience that amber is the way to go in most cases and you will see fish bright yellow.
@@ronaldbrennan5806 Ya, certainly seemed like a clear bias to me.
@@pmm422 Agreed.
I'm surprised with the poor showing from Humminbird, they had way more time to work on this thing and get it sorted out and still delivered the third best product. My dream of only having one brand of electronics on my boat is still just a dream.
Ya same. Hopefully in a couple years they get it right , mega 360 and live scope from garmin is the combo to go for now .
If you back the gain down on the Garmin, you would have a much better picture... 80% is way too much.. Back it down to 70-72% and you'll be more impressed.
Great breakdown on these 3 units! Thanks for your hard work doing these comparisons cause for a weekend warrior it would be impossible to to obtain the info to have provided in this video. Keep up the good work🎣🎣🎣
The problem with having a clean screen is fish can also get filtered out. My fish finders always have the least amount of filtering that I can get away with. Garmin should be a 9/10 with lowrance and humminbird at 4 or 5. The filter issue is why you see everything on the garmin and only 70% on the other 2 units. I guess if you like a clean screen while missing 30 to 40% of everything underwater that is a personal choice.
Very nice review & analysis! As someone who is VERY new to using fish/depth finders, I really appreciate all the images, video clips, & explanation you put into this.
Yeah you're pretty bad at adjusting your Garmin livescope I mean that's pretty bad adjustment on the Garmin you should see mine you'd be like holy crap crystal clear you can see the fish's tails oh never mind I didn't notice you didn't have the 34 plus transducer
I'd rather have the noise, and the ability to control it.
Black, no noise, background worries me about missing things.
Unless they somehow have the world's best AI developed algorithm...
Maybe I'd be more trusting in a decade or 2
😂
Jonie, you do not have the garmin set up right, the gain is way to high, needs to be at 50-55, and color gain at about 90. Your garmin transducer also needs to be level, and the cable to the rear. My garmin is as clear as both the others. Kentucky
Really your not dialed in on anyone of them …
Garmin. Simply. Clearly. Better.
LOL
Fast forward 2 years. I'm interested to know what you still think.
God the background noise from garmin is horrible
Thanks for the review. Would have wanted you to change the sensitivity for all units to see what happens when you lower it on the garmin and bump it up on the other two.
Anyway, waiting for one of these brands to make something that is between panoptix and active target. Still feels very.. unfinnished. Garmin is way too grainy and you also see all elements. Active target has a too narrow beam and the bottom is flickering. Mega live seems like a worse active target.
Plus the massive Garmin decal on the side of the boat makes me question if there's any bias involved...
Would like to this test done now with the latest Humminbird update. Seems the new Humminbird update geatly improved these issues in your original test
Your gain is way to high on the Garmin unit. All that grainy screen will go away at 50-60% gain.
You will also filter out the fish and the limbs of the tree. I tested the unit at 50% - 60% gain and you could barely see the tree or fish. I'm going to make a video explaining why I used the setting I did with side-by-side comparisons with different settings.
Turn color gain to 90, adjust the gain down to about 60-62, will clear up screen, then remove grid lines. Ky
I think you really missed in the forward range scores. The Garmin you said required several settings adjustments to achieve the result you graded, the Lowrance required no adjustment, the Garmin is also very, very noisy. I think the test should be done with no adjustments between tests as most people are not looking to make 4 adjustments one a single target to get the best results in each category, rather get the best of each category with consistent settings. BUT judging as you did, I think the Garmin should be more like a 5 or 6 out of 10 due to noisy image and having to stop and make adjustments to get the results. Other than that one category, I thought it was a good showing of the units capabilities. For me, I think Lowrance was the best over all in consistency in results, while it was not as crisp in target separation, it seemed to return consistent usable readings. Just my thoughts.
I would love to see this with the new mega live updates. I believe it may be the best now. But the tech os only going to get better every year.
Great work. Comparing only at "most likely used actual fishing distance" @40ft from brush/object would have been a good category. Probably panoramic grainyness would be issue then?
If Garmin mapping wasn’t so atrocious they would have the market cornered. But that mapping is worse than anything I’ve ever seen in a fishfinder.
Can you expand on the mapping issue with Garmin. This might help with my decision between the three names. Are the other areas like down view, etc. similar?
@@hikenmikes8262 The mapping issue could be area dependent. I live in east Texas and even the lakes that Garmin says are covered are not actually covered. It just shows a big white square. As far as down and side imaging they are fine. Maybe not HB Mega clear but definitely clear. 2d sonar is also pretty nice.
@@texasvet7241 thanks!👍🏼
Why are you not using hds live instead of the elite that's a cheaper unit vs the more high dollar garmin an hummingbird....also seems like you are prejudice in your scores.
All three units I used cost between $900 and $1,100. They are all mid-tier units, not high end units
I would have given Humminbird 10/10 on target separation. You are clearly a Garmin fan.
Great review. One good addition would've been the comparable prices of these units for the same sized screen. So what does each one cost with all things equal? Then you can make a better decision on what to buy if you want to save money given that you may not care about some of those limiting factors. I struggle to figure out all the models too....like what exactly do i need to buy and how much is it for the full package for these products. Maybe it's worth saving $400 if you don't care about limited forward range, etc.
all units with all devices cost well over 3 grand so why not get the best one with that much money being spent? sacrificing performance over 300 dollars with 3000 spent ,doesn't make much sense!
I love your videos you are so detailed and it helped my fishing tremendously. I wish you would show more fish finders with grass or mukey bottom. Lot of the lakes in Northern Ohio are very seaweed/lily pad lakes
Really cool comparison. One question, since you obviously have way more experience with Garmin and dialing in its settings, how did you ensure you were gettin* the best possible settings for the units you didn’t have a years worth of experience on?
there is not perfect settings. You have to change your settings every time you use it to dial it in to depth and range. You should only be changing your gain and depths and range........
Settings are not optimized. Faulty test.
The lake I was testing on was stained and I was looking at old brush. If I was on a clear lake with hard bottom and big trees, the image would look very different and I could have turned the gain down a lot.
That’s why I mentioned lake conditions before the test. I promise this is the best image you can get in the conditions I was in.
I spent 2 different days out on the water adjusting every single setting on every unit to get the best possible image with each unit in the conditions I was in.
Live scope can be cleared up way better than what you got here ….
If u didn't know what that was u would of never knew for sure without Garmin no comparison at all and Garmin will get alot clear than that it's not set up right
I set up the units for the best overall performance in all categories. You can make objects on the Garmin unit look better, but it makes it harder to differentiate the size of fish, hurts Target separation and makes it harder to track the bait at long distance.
I was also looking at old brush that will have weaker returns and was also in stained water. A bigger/newer tree in clearer water will look better with these exact same settings.
Very good review compared to what is out there, most of which being pro staff plugs, so admittedly the bar is rather low. That said, given the necessarily limited parameters of your tests (which I understand because at this point in time, its probably not possible to do a single video that encapsulates all the parameters. This would probably best be done from a video editing standpoint as a series recording versus one stand alone recording, BUT I digress)
It seem to me the big takeaways for the average angler are these.
For the Humminbird, WAIT. It's just not there yet in terms of functionality compared to Lowrance and Garmin.
For the Lowrance Active Target, if you're a guy who doesn't get a lot of fishing time and just not capable or interested in jacking with the adjustments, this is the one you want. Seems the Lowrance Active target stayed true to what Lowrance does best. Hook it up, plug it in and just turn it on an it will "work". Their usual "plug and play" methodology.
For Garmin, if you really want the best picture and don't mind playing with multiple system settings and spending the time to learn it and get comfortable with it, it has the best picture, currently. Sound about right?
Did you try to reduce gain on the Garmin to clean up the noise and see if the tree was still visible? I agree with your scores but I am not sure it was a level playing field if you did not attempt to dial down the Garmin system. And I have had Garmin for 2 years and learned something about color gain to pop out fish more so thanks!!
Mid range units on. Lowrance and bird
Best comparative review I’ve seen so far. Garmin looked the best. I agreed with the scoring
Excellent video. It just shows how much better the livescope is against the other two. There is no comparison.
I also leaned I should try the basic color palette of the livescope in weeds. I have been using the blue palette but it’s not the greatest in the weeds.
I’ll take Lowrance Active Target all day, that Garmin looks horrible in my opinion, and HB is a huge disappointment
Gain on garmin to high. You should have run the gain on garmin about 68-70, would clean most of the clutter and still see all the detail. I get a much cleaner picture on my Ultra 106sv and can see a very small bait clearly. Can see jerkbait at 45’-50’. Garmin still has the best overall picture.
Very generous scores for the two off brand livescopes. A lot of those cons on the two units are a deal breaker when compared to the livescope. If livescope didn’t exist, the other two units would be relevant. We must demand better performance from these companies by not buying these sonars until they improve the product to compete with livescope. Great video Johnny. Super content!
and just like we holding off on the mega live maybe v2 will be decent and cheaper 1500
Really good job. Very thorough and informative. I may get forward facing sonar but may wait for another new generation of models to come out. Im sure, like everything else.. they will ( slowly ) improve to drive sales on new ones.
As a Florida fisherman and being in much shallow water most of the time, perspective mode would be more useful to me. I wish you had done a review on perspective mode and the three units also
I think the scores are a fair look at the 3 sonars. I have the AT by Lowrance and after watching this comparison, I’m glad I chose the active target. It also made it easy because my other displays are Lowrance.
I like the review but I don't understand why you didn't use the same color palettes for each. The color palette you're using on the Humminbird is darker than the Garmin and Lowrance therefore it is obviously not going to pop with the dark blue shading vs the orange/yellow.
I'll tell you right now with the last update on the mega live it is 300% better now I can see a tiny little swivel 0 to 80 ft no problem join this up with the target lock and I don't think you can get any better setup it is so easy
I just bought the newest mega live and I can say that it is a lot better than what this video presents it to be.
U mean last update is 1.300 right?
The Garmin is easy to see
No comparison Garmin is the best.
In every way i agree 💯% with your review. Garmin stood out from the rest by quite a bit. Im not in love with the grainy background but it shows fish and structure better. The only thing i was confused on was the brush pile. I couldnt see it on all 3 😂
Without looking at the Garmin image first, I wouldn't be able to make out what the other two were displaying. Garmin was the clear winner.
one nice setting the humminbird has is the ability to trails on a moving target. This setting really helps for tracking the lure or a Bass.The other two units I do not believe have that. Good review
You can do trails with Garmin. Been that way since the original panoptix. Just an FYI, trails are nice at times.
Very nice and detail comparison. Suggestion that you could perhaps include in how noticable swiming fishes appear on all 3 units and how easy it is to track them base on imagery.
Yea livescope dominates!
I can make out what type of fish it is by the way they move..
I’ve got all three units, of the two I’ve got installed Garmin is definitely better than Lowrance, I purchased the hummingbird unit last week to install on my bay boat and I’m disappointed seeing some of these results but knowing all of these manufacturers I agree that software updates will be forthcoming and definitely improve image quality
Are you planning on running the Humminbird on the Mega 360 and the other(s) as live Livescope and Activetarget?
I currently have a lowrance hds gen3 9in at the dash. I want to add two more 9 or possibly 12in units. One at dash and one at front of boat. Which units and brands would you recommend?
The grain look on the Garmin makes me nuts - my eyes are old . It is hard to see compared to the other two. I bought the Hummingbird unit. I think it will only get better with updates the next few years . The screen being black in the back is easier for me to see and use.
you can remove most of the clutter on the live scope in about 10 seconds mine is never that clutterd
Thanks for the review Jonny, you were way too nice to Lowrance and Humminbird and I use all Humminbird.
Garmin is two times better than both to my eyes
Thanks for the strong effort to make the comparison. But unlike so many others in here, I have to disagree with your scoring. All the noise and clutter on the garmin and you have been using the unit for a year and have learned to dial it in to your liking, I have to severely downgrade garmin. I have seen a few other video with people who have had lowrance since it came out and their results look much better than what you have. Hummingbird is too new to give it a fair review. I’m betting in the long run it comes out on top even though I’m not a fan (I have Lowrance after changing from garmin)
But not trying to disrespect you….I liked your vid and was able to pull my own opinions from it. Just thinking your comfort zone of a garmin may have skewed your scores a tad. Tight lines.
Ay....time to do the do the test again. Everyone is saying the new live update has made a big difference.
For people who can't fish, stare at this screen all day!
Nice vid!! Garmin by far is the leader, they invented it....others follow. I run gamin aswell, you may want to factory reset your graph, turn your colour down a bit and keep your gain between 55-61. Best picture settings I have found. Great vids keep it up!
Garmin didn't invent the technology they bought it.
Reference? They took out the patent?
Strong work Jonny. Well done as always. You provide very thorough and detailed information. Thank you!
Is it possible to turn a DI- down imagining transducer 90* degrees and use it as a side imaging fish finder?
Great review! I fished with a buddy who had Lowrance. I was able to take my knowledge from Garmin setup and tweak his unit to get a much better image. It was difficult to track our baits past 50feet. Garmin for the win!
Jonny, WOW! Great vid. Let me fly you here to MD for my next tourney. Let me know....
great job, exactly what I was looking for in a comparison review. I'm looking to purchase one of these units in the ice fishing bundle. I think my decision is made. Unfortunately I purchased a humminbird helix 7 G3N last year, based on info that it would be compatible with the mega live when released, however they didn't make it happen, you now need the G4N. So I'm going with the Garmin panoptix livescope ice bundle. I'll keep the humminbird as well, its a great unit.
No, they always said 8-15 Helix G3N & G4N & 7 G4N. But you're better off with the Garmin 😆
Instead of using the lowrance elite you should have used the Simrad evo3s units. They will provide all the setting control you were missing. The active target on simrad evo3s looks WAY WAY better than on any lowrance elite or Live unit. Lowrance units are really weak performers compared to Simrad units for some reason. And they lack a lot of control and adjustability compared to the Simrad units even with the same transducers.
Awesome job Johnny. 18 people fish with cane poles and trot lines. Seriously if I still worked in a marine section of a store, I would just loop this video all day.
Good video I have a garmin and with a bit of tuning you can get a better image and also get rid of the back ground clutter.
Absolutely agree, Humminbird Mega Live is very disappointed for me, regardless I'm a Humminbird products fan...
During this test were you using the lvs32 or newer lvs34 transducer? The new lvs34 is supposed to be alot clearer and crisper image so I was just wondering thanks. Im going to buy a livescope this week and trying to decide between the lvs32 and lvs34.
You should set the gain on the Livescope in the 60s. That would take care of most of the clutter you have going on thus giving it a higher score. I have never had to run mine past 68 in 22 feet of water.
Great Job. I greatly appreciate the side-by-side comparisons. Personally, I think all three brands have a long way to go to live up to their advertising hype. I would have given each unit a score of 3-4 point LOWER than you did for each test. I'll save my money and wait for product improvements. Thanks again! Very informative!
Great video. What monitor do you run on the bow with your forward facing sonar? You run garmin panoptix correct?
Hey Johnny can't wait to see the next compare. Livescope plus will blow you away, hit me up if you want the discount to buy it, I work for Garmin
You need to compare them looking down 80-120 feet depth where the Big Macs are. Garmin will get 10/10 the rest will fail.
Given he only did a fair comparison on all 3 brands straight out of the box without spending 1-2 hours on each unit fine tweaking to get the best possible screen image which would make for a extremely boring video as a unit comparison I think he did a great job
I shake my head at a lot of peoples comments on here seriously
This video is 2 years old and it still seems that Garmin still has the edge over its competitors from all other data I have been collecting
Hopefully all 3 big brand companies come up with upgraded units soon this year or early 2025 that he can run the same tests again with current technology units
Let me guess...
Before even watching your video, you will select Garmin as the leader. I know because you introduce the video standing in front of your boat with a huge GARMIN decal on it. Hmmm....