Very easy to use, but good only to about 100m.  Have had mine for about two years and it's not missed a beat.  I wash the unit down when I wash the boat after each outing - no I don't mean wipe the unit, but actually soap and rinse it.  Just leave it all connected till it dries and it will be fine.  It's connected to my Furuno 585, so I have the GPS data on the sounder, which makes it easy to mark spots.

1985 Boston Whaler Outrage 18 Johnson 140hp 4stroke

as alfred said, good and easy to use but the gps only run c-map, personally i would be going for something that runs the Navionics gold cards, alot better mapping system

The Tackle shack, for all your fishing needs
huge range of stock to suit any fisherperson.
PH:9248 3800 unit 3/11 Alexander drive Malaga

Email thetackleshack@bigpond.com

LB67. I have both the Navman 4500 (Fish Finder/Depth Sounder) and the 5500 (GPS).

As both alfred and Mako have said, they are pretty easy to use. I have them both flush mounted in the helm bulkhead:

I've had both since I bought my boat new in Dec 2005. The only issue I had was the 4500 transducer's eventually degrading the clarity of the display it would 'loose the bottom' at anything more than about 15 knots and display spurious depth figures (like 200m in a 10m area). When I took it back to my boat dealer, they informed that Navman had issues with the orginal transducer and had since outsourced the transducer. I had the post market one fitted and now the 4500 readings are clear as a bell at any speed - right up to full WOT - which just under 40 knots.

That said, I know of folks on here (and they'll be arriving to post in this thread soon ) that have had these or comparable units and have since moved on to what they describe (and I don't misbelieve them) better units.

As far as depth goes, I've never fished in anything deaper than about 60m (still working on convincing my wife deckie ) , so I can't comment on their bottom holding ability.

Hopefully, I'll get a chance to head out into deeper water soon as I'm both keen to fish those depths down here and to see how the 4500 goes.

Ideally, I'm hoping one of the boating guys with a Furuno unit comes down and we can sit on the same ground and take some pics. I'd be very interested in seeing the difference between the two. 

Colin Molloy

(Colin 2 - Co-founding member of the prestigious Colin Club)

an online hand held unit with a tethered transducer - under $90 and while it may be a piece of junk, i bought a metal detector for $130 from the same mob - tracks wires better than the unit i paid $2400 for. For 90 bucks it's worth a go.

I've had my 6600 for 3 years now in my tinny in an extremely exposed area (Ram mounted off the gunnel coaming) and have had no trouble but have heard of plenty of horror stories. Have used the C-map Max and Navionics Gold (in a mates larger boat who runs Lowrance) and haven't discerned any diff (same info and zoom capabilities) :-]?
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Happiness is fishy fingers with a stiff rod in my hand

Dreamweaver I have had the same problem can u let me no what brand u got and a cost if u don't mind the one i have make a lot of noise to.

only good until 80-90m deep with actual detail. Once you get to 100+m forget it, as they don't have enough detail.