Humminbird 858c Combo 7-Inch Waterproof Marine GPS and Chartplotter

• 7-Inch Diagonal Screen
• 480V X 800H Pixel Color Screen
• 16:9 Color TFT Screen
• 1500ft, 2000ft
• DualBeam PLUS Sonar
• 7-Inch Diagonal Screen
• 480V X 800H Pixel Color Screen
• 16:9 Color TFT Screen
• 1500ft, 2000ft
• DualBeam PLUS Sonar

I purchased this in August 2010 excellent delivery time, The 898cSI is great sonar unit wished I had purchased earlier. My one recomendation would be to study the manual and fimilarize your self with settings and operation in the simulation mode this will save you lots of time on the water. Don't forget to register with Hummingbird I received my unit and there were updates already available which I updated as soon as I installed the unit. Make sure to reset defaults before and after updates are installed.

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Controls are intuitive easily used with very little instruction. The displays are clear and easy to read. The detail on the side and down imaging is impeccable. I trolled into an area with multiple stick-ups, looked at my down-image and it appeared just like a forest below me!

The transom-mount transducer cracked after our first use on a wooded KY lake even with the break-away mount in place. I have already ordered a new one. If this continues, I will downgrade my rating. I mounted the transducer as high as functionally possible on the transom, right at the idle-speed waterline, so it should not have cracked that easily.

Overall this is an excellent unit. I would suggest you go out to the internet and extensively research the use of side and down imaging, as the instructions that came with the unit were mostly sales pitches and not practical applications of the new technology. That said, I will still buy another Humminbird when the time arises.

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I've had this unit for nearly two months now. The side imaging is amazing! It can go out to 250 feet on either side of the boat. The shallower you are, the less side range you get, so at about 40 feet, I get all 250 feet to either side.

I found may new wrecks in the Tampa area, and one of them actually looks like a patina photograph when looking at it with side imaging. Absolutely amazing!

The video out means that you can hook this thing up to any TV, I tried it, and it works. what comes out of the video out connection is a replica of the screen, I wish I could select what to display on it, such as the map, sonar or side imaging, but that's not the case. I'm thinking of hooking this thing up to a 14-16" flat screen to get better details.

The detail of the side imaging is amazing, I can clearly see abandoned crab traps at the bottom.

The basic map that comes with it is, hmm.. not as good as expected, so I shelled out the $200 for the Navionics Platinum card, and now it's like using Google Earth with detailed bottom contours.

having this unit on my boat actually makes me glad that my Lowrance fell apart!

Two drawbacks, hence the 4 stars. There are preset buttons on the front (3 or 4) for quick access to pre-programmed screens, I could use a few more, and the screens (i.e. half map/half sonar) cannot be mixed and matched, you get what you get so If I wanted a screen broken down to sonar and map on one side, and side imaging on the other, I'm basically out of luck. The unit is software upgradable, so hopefully Hummingbird will make that functionality available someday.

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The other reviewers have covered the main points well, but my first time on water experience was frustrating. Side imaging views lacked detail-everything was flat. (I was on water with many sunken trees.) No water temp appeared, tho by searching the internet I may have discovered that answer.

This poor experience was, I think, caused by two main things-lack of an on-water manual and inability to use the simulation mode effectively. The unit did not come with, nor apparently is one available from Humminbird, a home power supply converter, so how are you supposed to hook this unit up at home to use the simulator? I am very reluctant to use just any power supply and/or cables. I do hope someone has some suggestions.

The images were at first too dim to see at all but eventually I managed to diddle with enough settings (again no manual!) to see some images. The normal sonar eventually showed a decent image, tho still not as good as my Humminbird 345c.

I hope I'll be able to give a higher rating later-but for $1400 I certainly don't feel like I gotten anywhere close to my money's worth.

Update: Up to four stars since I got to where I can see the screen by changing the palette to what appears to be an oddball color combination & the use of a sun shield. (btw, a night colors option, like car GPS systems, would be a nice option.) I did get the sonar display tuned to the point that it is excellent. However, decent images on the SI and good images on the DI continue to elude me. I'm still not seeing any of those nifty images the ads show (and once again-yes there are plenty of targets in waters I'm fishing on).

I'll keep at it and report if I've had any more success.

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I already had a Humminbird 997 and decided to upgrade my front system from another brand name. I could not use my 997 because it did not have ethernet capabilities so I put it on my pontoon boat. I ordered directly from Humminbird but was told (after a week of waiting on the back order) that it would be another 8 weeks. They advised me to go to Amazon.com and I recieved my two units in 1 day! The units needed the upgrades but if you register them on line with Humminbird you instantly get these to down load on an SD card. I especially like the two SD card slots. Really satisfied with these units but I was used to running my 997 si down imaging unit. I agree with the others that a manual should be sent instead of just the CD disc. It would be nice to have a hard copy for the boat without having to print out all those pages.