See these fish run up at it? There's one. Welcome back ladies and gentlemen. This video is breaking down the best fish finders under that $500 price point. I did a video on this two years ago, but newer models have came out and they've actually got a little bit better tech, which is why I want to do another video kind of updating my series of what I think are the best units under that $500 price point. Before we actually talk about each unit, I want to talk about the $500 price point. That is what gets you into the side imaging market of the fishing electronics. The reason side imaging is so important, you're able to cover a lot more water in a short amount of time and being able to do that, finding brush piles, rock piles, weed edges, you're going to be able to find fish a lot faster than with just 2D or down imaging. So being able to buy into that side imaging market, in my opinion, is very, very valuable. But speaking of value, here's what I would demand out of a unit if I'm spending $500. First thing it has is 2D traditional sonar. All of these units have it. They have some form of down imaging, down scan or down view technology. Garmin calls it clear view. They also have side imaging, like I already talked about. And they should have not only just a GPS function, but also a built-in contour lake map system. Lorans has their sea maps. Hummanbird has lake masters and Navionics, and then Garmin uses Navionics. So if I'm spending $500, those are the things I demand out of this unit. So number one and number two are pretty much neck and neck. They didn't used to be, but this year, Lorans came out with a newer model, which is the hook reveal. And that, to me, in my opinion, they're neck and neck with the Hummanbird Helix 5. But let's just start with the Hummanbird Helix 5. Offers the 2D traditional sonar down imaging and side imaging. This isn't mega imaging. It only offers the 455 or 800 kilohertz side imaging and down imaging. But it still gives a very crisp, clear picture. Helps you find fish. Actually, one of the original fish finders that I used to have on this boat, it's a great unit. If you're just starting out in the fish finder market, it comes with built-in Hummanbird base map system. I think it's over 10,000 lakes already built out and contoured for you. Cool thing about Hummanbird as well is it can take both a lake masters chip and a Navionics chip. There's a little microSD card slot, I believe, on the left side of the unit that accepts these Navionics or Lake Masters chips. You can upload new maps if you need to. Obviously, you've got to purchase those Lake Masters or Navionics chips if you want to upgrade to a different mapping system. But Hummanbird also offers the AutoChart Live feature, which if Navionics or Hummanbird or their Lake Master system doesn't already have a built-in contour for that lake, you can actually build your own. Actually, all these units that I'm going to talk about can do this, but it's just a really cool feature for that $500 price point that it's a nice little bonus. The reason I used to rank this as number one is because Hummanbird used to be the only manufacturer that actually came with a built-in contour mapping system. Plus, it also accepts two different manufacturers in terms of Lake Masters and Navionics mapping cards. The Hummanbird Helix 5 is priced just under $500 and it comes fully loaded. It's a great unit and it used to be my number one unit. Now it's tied for number one. With the next unit, the Lorance Hook Reveal 5 Triple Shot. Yes, that's a mouthful, but basically it's their newer model of the hook series that they came out with and it's a triple shot meaning it has side scan, down scan and 2D sonar technology. So the cool thing that Lorance did this year, they actually have their CMAP system, which is Lorance's, I guess, Lake Masters or Navionics. They're mapping contour system built into the hook reveal series, which is what made it number two. The last video I did, I didn't think it was good as the Hummanbird Helix 5, but now that they have a built-in mapping system, I think Lorance is right there with Hummanbird. The one difference between Hummanbird and Lorance, Hummanbird is definitely more of a manually friendly adjustment. For those of you who'd like to tweak settings a lot, I would recommend Hummanbird. If you don't know anything about fish finders and you want a super simple screen page setup, the Lorance hook reveal series by far the simplest and most user friendly setup there is. Hands down. It comes with 2D sonar, comes with down scan, which is Lorance version of down imaging, comes with side scan, which is again the side imaging tech. These are again our 455 800 kilohertz, they're not some sort of ultra HD or mega imaging tech. If you want those you got to step up to about a thousand dollar price range, but for 500 bucks this is a solid unit, again comes with that CMAP, base map, lake contour, preloaded and I believe you can add a US Canada Navi-onix chip to it, but I think it has to be installed by the manufacturer, which is an option you can select when purchasing it. But again, the CMAP system, I've heard really good things about it. If it comes preloaded with that, I think it should be okay. Lorance also has the ability to create your own mapping contours, so if the lake or river or pond that you're on isn't contoured out by the base map system, you can actually drive over it, create your own mapping system, great feature for 500 bucks or it's a little under 500 bucks I believe. It's a great system and it's a super user friendly, I highly recommend if you've never used a fishfinder before, the Lorance hook reveal series, hands down the most user friendly series there is. And that's number one in two, even though they're tied at number one. Number two is the Garmin Striker series. And as you can see, I have Garmin on my boat, I got a Garmin trolling motor, I got two units up front, these aren't the Striker series, these are the Echo Map UHG series. The reason Garmin is a step below Hummanbird and Lorance is because it does not have a built-in base mapping system. And for this class of units, not these ones, but the Striker series, the Hummanbird Helix five, the Lorance hook reveal series, for 500 bucks, I fully expect if I'm going to buy a fishfinder or a fishing electronic unit, it comes with a built-in base map system. I don't care if it's Navionics, Lorance, or the Lorance C map system, or the Hummanbird Lake Master's Charts, but it better come with it because $500 is a lot of money. And Garmin Striker series, unfortunately, doesn't come with it, doesn't come with the Navionics. I think if it did, all three of these units would be phenomenal units. The Striker series does come with your 2D traditional sonar, comes with Clearview, which is down, down imaging, and it comes with Sideview, which is Sideimaging. The one thing I do want to talk about is I got a message on Facebook about somebody trying to buy a Garmin unit. If you see the letter CV or SV, CV stands for Clearview. That's basically saying that unit is only capable of down imaging, Clearview, down imaging. If it has SV, that means Sideview, the unit is capable of side imaging. So if you're buying an aftermarket or a secondary market, like Facebook Marketplace or Craigslist, be sure you know what you're buying. The Hummanbird units should say DI or SI for down imaging or side imaging, but the CV and SV I get are a little confusing to some people. CV only means it has down imaging. It is not side imaging compatible. So don't be fooled by that if you are buying something on Craigslist or Facebook Marketplace. But the Garmin Striker series, the cool thing about the Striker series, you can actually scale up the first two that I mentioned, the Lawrence and the Hummanbird, were only 5 inch screens that came in at 500 bucks or less. The Striker series, you can get the 7 SV for about 500 bucks. So you get a little bit bigger of a screen, but you do not get the built-in contours for the lake maps. So if the mapping system isn't really important to you, maybe you fish only two or three bodies of water and you can again in the Garmin Striker series, you can build your own mapping system by simply driving over that pond or river or lake that you're on. It will create your own mapping system. It just takes a long time to do that, which is why I highly recommend if you're going to spend 500 bucks and get a unit that has built-in lake contours already. But if that doesn't matter to you, I'd look at the Striker series. It's a little bit bigger of a screen. Again, I run Garmin's, they're solid units and all of these run a 455 and 800 kilohertz down view, clear view, side view, down imaging, side imaging, whatever you want to call it. They run the same frequency, so they're going to produce roughly the same image. As far as simplistic user-friendly setup, the Lorance Hook Reveal by far is the most simplistic. I would say the Garmin Striker is probably next. And then as far as manual manipulation or tweaking settings, Humminbird, for those of you guys that really liked tweaked settings, Humminbird's a way to go. So those are the three units that I would recommend if I had 500 bucks and I was looking at buying a new fish finder. Number one and two, basically tied for number one, the Humminbird Helix V and the Lorance Hook Reveal. Again, if you or somebody who really likes to adjust settings, I'd go with the Humminbird. And if you're somebody who's never used a fish finder before, want something super simplistic, the Lorance Hook Reveal series. If you don't care about the mapping system at all, check out the Garmin Striker series, 7-inch screen. It's a little bit bigger for the same price point, but again, no mapping system built in. So those are my three units for under 500 bucks. I will leave links below. I know the products right now can be hard to find. So I'll try to leave multiple links in the video description, hopefully they're in stock somewhere. Appreciate you watching. If you have a price point that you want me to break down, let me know in the comments section below. Questions or comments about a specific unit? You can message me on either Facebook or Instagram. Appreciate you watching as always and good luck on the water.