Chartplotters

Jinks

Jinks

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14 Jun 2004
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Swansea Marina
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Following a post on here a little while ago I've started looking at small (5 inch diagonal) chartplotters. As has been mentioned on here previously, there's currently a good deal in Marine Super Store who are selling 198c's for a well discounted price and 292c's seem competitive too.

Reading the descriptions, the 292 comes with "an enhanced worldwide base-map" whereas the 198 doesn't so you would obviously need to buy the relevant Bluechart making the price about the same as the 292.

Never having owned a chartplotter, can anyone tell me whether the worldwide base map shows sufficient detail of the UK to be of any use or is the G2/bluechart also necessary with this model?
 
base maps are pretty useless for anything within a couple of miles of the shore - and arguably more in areas such as the East Coast and large estuaries.

What price point are these units? At 5" the Lowrance 3500C/3600C with 480x480 resolution and 450 inc mapping take some beating.
 
Yes, saw the lowrance at local swindlers over the weekend. Looked very good value and not bad quality but I seem to have a thing for Garmin.
 
You will still need the Bluechart with the 292 but much better unit with stacks of features not listed even on the garmin site.

I've looked at the lowrance and it is cheap, but it crashed in demo mode giving me a blue screen of death, which is not what you would want out at sea. Go for the Garmin, much better kit imho.
 
Sorry Duncan - I must read posts properly.

198 is on offer at £320 so with software would be comparable in price to the Lowrance. 292 is about an extra £150.
 
you are only required to read them if you start them!

my personal view would be as follows -
198c is a discontinued model, has 16 colour capability (against 256) and is less than 1/3rd of the definition of the Lowrance 3500 (234x320 v 480x480)
I don't know but would be prepared to bet it's redraw/refresh rate is slower.

The 292 is more directly comparable with the 256 colour tft display, current model etc but is still 1/3rd of the definition of the other model. The enhanced basemap is however more interesting as they appear to be trying to deliver more meaningfull coastline info; stated as within 300meters of the 'shoreline'.

If I could get a 292 with mapping at the same price as the 3500 with Nautipath mapping I would probably go with the Garmin despite the lower resolution but I don't think that's an option - is it?
 
If your looking for a smaller plotter then you might consider the Garmin 276C which is the best unit they have ever produced. It will double up for in Car nav too, and has the brightest sunlight viewable display I have ever seen. It is only 4" but has the best and most intuative software menus of all the Garmin units. We also found the new fixed Garmin 2106 (6") excellent, though not quite as bright as the 276. What I like most about garmin is both the unit software, and their PC software, both MapSource and nRoute. I also like the new E and C series Raymarine, but IMHO their software just doesn't have quite the same level of excellence you find in the Garmin's, and especially Garmin's PC integration. Garmin or Raymarine take your pick, all others are poor cousins.

Btw, for any Flyers on the Forum the Garmin 296 is a tri mode unit, Marine, Car and Aviation with a world aviation database and Jeppesen data (ie same as the 276 + Aviation data)

I remain sceptical about all this new 3D underwater stuff from Garmin G2 and Navionics Platinum - what is the point of acuratly displaying inacurate sea bed data from 150 year old lead line surveys. G2 and Platinum only make sense for charts derived from updated and detailed modern sonar suveys. Otherwise it's like an out of focus image taken on a 9 mega pixel camera - pointless
 
Useful buyers guide in this months PBO about budget colour chartplotters, I had it here in the office all week but now I seem to have taken it home so cant remember which once came out best.
If you want to know remind me when I am back in on Monday and I will
 
What worries me is the 276c had been around for a while now, and surely its likely to be discontinued in the near future?
I like the fact you can take it home to plot, then take it too the boat, don't think you can do it with the 292, can you?

Al.
 
what does it matter if it's discontinued. It still works the same, if it's a current model or not. It's predecessor the 176 was around for ages, and mine carried on working well after it was discontinued, and if it hadn't fallen off the pontoon I'd still be using it
 
They were all reviewed pretty well, and final choice seemed to come down to personal preferences. The winner was the standard horizon unit which I don't know much about, but certainly the choice available these days at the budget end of the market makes the decision to get one or not a bit of a no brainer. Compared to even 2 years ago the performance they offer is amazing. Just have to pick which one you like best.
 
[ QUOTE ]
If I could get a 292 with mapping at the same price as the 3500 with Nautipath mapping I would probably go with the Garmin despite the lower resolution but I don't think that's an option - is it?


[/ QUOTE ]

Not that I can find at the moment. A reasonably comprehensive search shows Marine Super Store as the cheapest available so approximately £150 more. I was interested in your comment re: resolution as I wasn't hugely impressed with the "picture quality" of the Lowrance and if it's better than the Garmin, well .......

One of the difficulties is that there's such a huge range to choose from so few stockists are able to to demonstrate different models. There's always SIBS but the cost of petrol will probably be more than the £150 difference /forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif Still I can always go and drool over bigger boats and possibly meet interesting people in the beer tent /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

Thanks to the rest for your comments.
 
[ QUOTE ]
what does it matter if it's discontinued. It still works the same, if it's a current model or not. It's predecessor the 176 was around for ages, and mine carried on working well after it was discontinued, and if it hadn't fallen off the pontoon I'd still be using it

[/ QUOTE ]
I would prefer to buy as new a model as possible, with the Bluecharts seem to be changing, they are obviously going to progress further with that, and eventually all their chartplotter will run with the G2. As i say I think its best too buy as up to date model as you can.

Al.
 
we have the version previous to the 292 and have no regrets, easy to use and good screen, ours has seen some abuse on 3 boats and has done us proud. Looking to upgrade to a larger screen on the current boat now though.
 
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