Practical Sailor's gear and boat reviews take the guesswork out of your buying decisions.

Volume 30
Number 1
January 1, 2004

Color LCD Fishfinders Under $1,000

Furuno leads the pack again with its top-performing, easy-to-operate FCV 600L, trailed closely by Garmin’s new and impressive 320C.

Our field, from left to right: the Furuno FCV 600L, the Garmin 320C, the Lowrance LCX-18C, and the SI-TEX CVS-106L) are shown mounted on a 25’ Contender center console test boat in Florida.

Our last fishfinder (scanning sounder) review was about a year ago, in the December 2002 issue. In that article we covered six monochrome sounders priced under $400. This month we'll look at four units equipped with color LCD screens. Why the change to color? Simple—they supply more information. A monochrome screen might be able to display four to eight different shades of black-gray-white that our eyes can recognize, while a color screen can show 16 or more distinguishable colors.

How does that additional information translate into an advantage for the user? Additional gradations on color screens make it easier to differentiate between hard and soft bottoms, protrusions on the bottom like…

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