Which size sounder/gps

Hi guys,
Maybe you all could help me choose which size fish finder/gps combo to get. I have decided on the Hummingbird brand, but am trying to decide if a 3" color screen or 5" grayscale would be better. Is having color or size more important? I will probably be mounting it around my feet.
Thanks,
Jeremy

Go for size and battery life...  Color looks cool, but it will drain your battery much quicker than the larger gray-scale screen.

Is having color or size more important?

*Er-HEM!* Size is always more important... 

Maybe you all could help me choose which size fish finder/gps combo to get. I have decided on the Hummingbird brand, but am trying to decide if a 3" color screen or 5" grayscale would be better. Is having color or size more important? I will probably be mounting it around my feet.

Get the biggest, baddest unit you can afford.  I went with 5", color, and GPS and I am glad I did.  Built in GPS means I have one less thing on the yak.  It also gives an objective measure of speed when battling a headwind and you do not think you are making any headway.  Also great in the fog.  My unit lives near my feet and the 5" color is easy to read even in full sunlight.  However, my eyes are probably much older than yours.

What Demonick said.  IF the unit is mounted up front, in front of your feet, the little screen is pretty hard to distinguish objects.  5" much bettah!!!  Abd get the one with the bright  supertwist screen, better in sunlight.  I have a Humminbird Matrix 97 on my PB, it's been great, but the smaller units like 385c has good reviews:

http://reviews.basspro.com/2010/10205389/humminbird-humminbird-385ci-compact-sonar-gps-chartplotter-combo-reviews/reviews.htm
   

Thanks for the advice guys. I wish I could say it made my decision easier. Ideally I would get the 5" color model. However, my budget only allows for one or the other 5" gray or 3" color. I'm not apposed to closer mounting locations, just thought by the feet would be most out of the way. I guess it is a toss up either way.

Rawkfish: I knew someone would go there.

what models amd makes have you been looking at? missed that part of your post......

Color is a luxury (I'd even go so far as to say its a distraction), plain and simple... size matters.

Others might be using their finders in a more refined manner that I do, but I would go for the 5" gray scale over the 3" color.

All I'm looking for on my sounder is depth, what the bottom looks like, and marks in the water column. You get all of that in grayscale, including the ability to differentiate between hard and soft bottoms. Color gives you even more detail about the structure, but as far as I'm concerned it's more detail than I need. I'd definitely go with a bigger screen that's easier to read from a distance than a smaller screen with more detail.

brightness trumps monochrome, I don't know that monochrome comes in the TFT supertwist, which is bright even in sunlight---correct me if there's a reasonably priced "gray" screen that's really bright. 

Humminbird's greyscale displays are FSTN (supertwist) as well. 

I prefer the greyscale fishfinder for the very same reason I love my Kindle and hate reading from backlit displays:  Clarity, Contrast, and Simplicity.

If I had to choose between size and color, I'd choose size. 
Luckily I am a well-endowed, swarthy fellow so I get both. 

After spending much time at the shop looking at ff/gps units, I have decided on the humminbird 385ci. It has a color 3.5" screen with built in gps. At a distance I could actually see better detail on the smaller color screen than the larger gray scale screen. If I was just getting a FF, I would probably go with gray scale, but for gps the color was really nice. That and I don't really need to compensate for anything by going bigger It also has a sd card slot that is nice.

I have another question, which I searched all over this site for and couldn't find an answer. Is it really necessary to have a specific shoot thru-hull puck style transducer or can I use the transom transducer to shoot thru the hull? 

Thanks

The 385CI is a very nice unit. I'm loving mine so far. Did you look at the screen and think that's kinda tiny at first? I did, but it is very visible and readable even with a split screen up.

you can use the transom mount transducer.

You can shoot thru just fine with the supplied transducer----see the Drillin and Cuttin section for tips.