Lowrance fishfinder/gps combo map quality

Has anyone ever had problems with map resolution on the low end combo gps/sonar units? 

I stopped at Fishermans on black Friday(my first mistake) to pick up sand shrimp for yesterday's Willy trip.

Anyway, they had the lowrance 68c smap reduced to $200 bucks. My understanding is that it is basically the same as the Eagle Cuda 350 but color. I could not pass up the deal.

I figured I could always return it if I decided it was a bad move

I am used to being able to download full resolution nautical charts that show detailed bottom topography,  but it looks like with this one I am stuck with the
Pre-loaded charts.

Have any of you off-shore fisherman felt that the detail was insufficient for what you wanted to do?   More importantly, has anyone ever felt that the lack of detail ever let them confidently get into an unsafe situation?

The 68c is a STOLE at $200. I have both the M56 and the M68c and found the inshore map performance stellar. But that's what it is, an outline map. Very good shore detail, but lacking In terms of depths (what else is there offshore?).  It does give you wrecks, Nav aids, tides and currents though and for me, that makes it worth considerably more than its selling price. The color unit seems to eat batteries a bit faster, but I can still get at least 2 full days on a 7 amp-hour gel-cell.

If you want to play with it and see what it does without hooking it up, there is an emulator at:

http://www.lowrance.com/upload/Lowrance/Emulators/M68C_demo.exe

Gotta love Fisherman's black Friday sale.  I think that was the only one I have ever gotten out of bed for. Do they have any more?

Yeah it was a really good price!  I couldn't resist.

As soon as I saw it, there was no stopping me.  I went through two whole cans of pepperspray before I even got to the electronics counter.

Were you on the dispensing or receiving end of the pepper spray?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

IHop, you saw that news story about the lady pepper spraying people to get an xbox right? 

I'm not sure if they were going to keep the price for a while or not,  but I was there 20 min before closing and they still had the one I got, so who knows.

The emulator does not work on my pc for some reason, so once I get a chance I will spend some time messing around with the demo in the store.

I just want to see how much detail there is along the Oregon coast and over on the Georgian Bay in Ontario. 

Seems I remember the M68 did not have a coastal map of the Queen Charlotte Island's in BC. It found the bottom and gave me a line back to camp just fine. A quick check on the emulator confirmed that it stops at the US border.

The inability to load charts is the only major shortcoming that I can find with this unit. But if you can find another ff/gps that can for less than $200 let me know!

I am used to being able to download full resolution nautical charts that show detailed bottom topography,  ...

Download from where?  Are you referring to the standard NOAA charts or more resolution?

I can't remember what unit I had on my boat.  We had to purchase maps that covered the Georgian bay with a decent enough contour interval for navigation.

I think that it is probably a standard resolution, because the contour interval on the gps was the same as the paper chart.

I think we bought it through Garmin?

The water over there is really treacherous though.  They call it 30000 islands, but there are also 30000 shoals.

The price is good, but if I can't get charts for my summer fishing grounds I might have to look elsewhere.

I called Lowrance and they informed me that this unit does not and can not cover Canadian waters, so it looks like back to the store she goes. 

I looks like they are just about to release a new compact model -  the Mark (b&w) and the Elite (color).  These will accept updates from an SD card- so I just have to wait until January. 

Bass Pro already has the Mark 4 listed for $200.  That is the same price as the M68c I got, and I definitely would prefer to have a B&W unit that will cover all the water I fish.  I'm not willing to spend much more than that though.

In the mean time - If anyone missed the black friday sale at Fishermans, and wants a Lowrance m68c for $200, let me know. 

I need to return it before Friday because I am heading out of town.