Mega 360 or Garmin Perspective?

[TNReb]

I have both on my boat. I have LVS34 with a forward/down/perspective mount, and Mega 360.

Let me start by saying - I am not a fan of Humminbird imaging/graphs/etc.

However, Mega 360 is much better than LVS34 Perspective. I find Perspective largely useless. It very much depends on the depth of the water.

While I agree with the above post that Perspective has the advantage of being real time... the quality of the image and range is often so poor that you can't do much with it.

[WranglerSS]

Fished a derby yesterday and Perspective mode showed some things I would not ha seen waiting on the 360 to refresh. It picked up a bait ball on the right side of the screen that forward wasn't picking up due to being out of the cone. Was able to point at it an separate the stripers from spotted bass quickly, then throw a Kietech at the spotted bass and catch them. Seconds matter when they are moving like they were yesterday.

[78Staff]

I ran the 34 in perspective this weekend - it was pretty impressive, much nicer than AT/AT2. I think I still need to tweak the settings a bit, it wasn't as nice a pic as Cory's at SJR, but still. I can see the benefit of a Forward and Perspective setup, but not sure i want to give up the 360 to do it. The 360 shows structure much, much more clearly. The LVS34 in Perspective Mode is finicky about depth though, ie if you get it dialed in for 5-6 ft or so, then move into 10ft, it appears to lose the portion of the bottom closer to the boat.

I can barely run the 360 in the water with the 34 in perspective mode on a Fish Obsessed Mount - stepping off the boat the pins come out of the water and the 360 stops... it's that close. Obviously probably not the specified 6". Going to look at the mounts again and see if I can eek some more room out of it.

[Wayne P.]

I ran the 34 in perspective this weekend - it was pretty impressive, much nicer than AT/AT2. I think I still need to tweak the settings a bit, it wasn't as nice a pic as Cory's at SJR, but still. I can see the benefit of a Forward and Perspective setup, but not sure i want to give up the 360 to do it. The 360 shows structure much, much more clearly. It is finicky about depth though, ie if you get it dialed in for 5-6 ft or so, then move into 10ft, it loses a portion of the bottom closer to the boat. Just the geometry of the beam angle.

I can barely run the 360 in the water with the 34 in perspective mode on a Fish Obsessed Mount - stepping off the boat the pins come out of the water and the 360 stops... it's that close. Obviously probably not the specified 6". Going to look at the mounts again and see if I can eek some more room out of it.

It does not lose the bottom close to the transducer, it will have more water column recorded as the depth increases. It's Side Imaging that rotates==no difference. The coverage is from the water's surface to past vertical under the transducer on both sides. You can turn off the water column if you want and only show the bottom (Contour Mode).

[BamaBass99]

I ran the 34 in perspective this weekend - it was pretty impressive, much nicer than AT/AT2. I think I still need to tweak the settings a bit, it wasn't as nice a pic as Cory's at SJR, but still. I can see the benefit of a Forward and Perspective setup, but not sure i want to give up the 360 to do it. The 360 shows structure much, much more clearly. It is finicky about depth though, ie if you get it dialed in for 5-6 ft or so, then move into 10ft, it loses a portion of the bottom closer to the boat. Just the geometry of the beam angle.

I can barely run the 360 in the water with the 34 in perspective mode on a Fish Obsessed Mount - stepping off the boat the pins come out of the water and the 360 stops... it's that close. Obviously probably not the specified 6". Going to look at the mounts again and see if I can eek some more room out of it.

I find that forward is still really effective until about 2’ of water. I’ve tried perspective but I find myself still looking at forward more and looking for movement.

[BamaBass99]

That's a nice picture. With a bottom composition like that another difference is you'd likely see those beds with 60-70-80 ft away with 360, not 30-35.

Find the stuff with 360, fish the stuff with FFS.

This is why I’m going back to 360. Perspective seemed to have limited distance.

[78Staff]

It does not lose the bottom close to the transducer, it will have more water column recorded as the depth increases. It's Side Imaging that rotates==no difference. The coverage is from the water's surface to past vertical under the transducer on both sides. You can turn off the water column if you want and only show the bottom (Contour Mode).

Yeah I did a bad job of trying to explain :). I was trying to say the LVS-34 perspective looses bottom view. I see where my post was confusing, I will fix it.

[78Staff]

I ran the 34 in perspective this weekend - it was pretty impressive, much nicer than AT/AT2. I think I still need to tweak the settings a bit, it wasn't as nice a pic as Cory's at SJR, but still. I can see the benefit of a Forward and Perspective setup, but not sure i want to give up the 360 to do it. The 360 shows structure much, much more clearly. The LVS34 in Perspective Mode is finicky about depth though, ie if you get it dialed in for 5-6 ft or so, then move into 10ft, it appears to lose the portion of the bottom closer to the boat.

I can barely run the 360 in the water with the 34 in perspective mode on a Fish Obsessed Mount - stepping off the boat the pins come out of the water and the 360 stops... it's that close. Obviously probably not the specified 6". Going to look at the mounts again and see if I can eek some more room out of it.

Adjusted the mount some, was able to lower both the FO mount for LVS and also drop the 360 down a bit more a couple more inches, getting it into the water better.

Also, really like VX Premium Map... so much so I might consider putting a Helix at the console just for the mapping :).

[BamaBass99]

Adjusted the mount some, was able to lower both the FO mount for LVS and also drop the 360 down a bit more a couple more inches, getting it into the water better.

Also, really like VX Premium Map... so much so I might consider putting a Helix at the console just for the mapping :).

VX mapping is great. I added a Helix at the console for that reason as well as superior SI. Noone beats Humminbird's SI.

[Revolution Sonar]

I found perspective of very little utility with the LVS34. It was ok out to 50 feet at best when conditions were right After talking to several pros and "industry" people at the classic, I picked up LVS62 for perspective and Wow, the difference is dramatic. I can see structure easily out to 150 feet with 62. The extra power of the 62 really pays off in perspective. Also, running a 34 in forward at the same time as a 62 in perspective, gives me a Randy Blaukatgasm.

[BamaBass99]

I found perspective of very little utility with the LVS34. It was ok out to 50 feet at best when conditions were right After talking to several pros and "industry" people at the classic, I picked up LVS62 for perspective and Wow, the difference is dramatic. I can see structure easily out to 150 feet with 62. The extra power of the 62 really pays off in perspective. Also, running a 34 in forward at the same time as a 62 in perspective, gives me a Randy Blaukatgasm.

Do you feel this is the best combo out now?

[Revolution Sonar]

I had Mege360 for six months with a Solix 15. Now both are gone from my boat if that tells you anything. I now call the LVS62 in perspective the '360 killer.'

For me, the combination of LVS34 with LVS62 OR Activetarget 2 with LVS62 represents the state of the art. The only way to improve on this is to run double 34s/double ActiveTarget 2s in forward mode, offset 20 or 18 deg with a LVS62 in perspective.

And no surprise, I'm a BIG proponent in using a state of the art sonar aiming system bring it all together.

Paul Bird
www.revolutionsonar.com

[78Staff]

VX mapping is great. I added a Helix at the console for that reason as well as superior SI. Noone beats Humminbird's SI.

It's doable... simple enough to pull one of my HDS Pro's from the console and replace with a Helix, although I would probably prefer a Solix for the touch screen. I don't really need two HDS's at the console specifically, as I pretty much run mapping only on the left side HDS. I already have 3DSS for SI so not looking to replace it, athough I suppose I could run it as well. I just completely re-did my bow though, so not sure I'm ready to take on a console redo right now lol.

Maybe a Helix would be fine, I mean guys have been using maps on the non-touch Helix for years... I've just gotten accustomed to HDS's touch screen for mapping. Would certainly be cheaper.

[BamaBass99]

Do you feel this is the best combo out now?

You are still limited by a narrow cone in perspective correct? So in deeper water, say 15+ you are not seeing the bottom well? That was the case with the LVS34 at least.

[BamaBass99]

It's doable... simple enough to pull one of my HDS Pro's from the console and replace with a Helix, although I would probably prefer a Solix for the touch screen. I don't really need two HDS's at the console specifically, as I pretty much run mapping only on the left side HDS. I already have 3DSS for SI so not looking to replace it, athough I suppose I could run it as well. I just completely re-did my bow though, so not sure I'm ready to take on a console redo right now lol.

Maybe a Helix would be fine, I mean guys have been using maps on the non-touch Helix for years... I've just gotten accustomed to HDS's touch screen for mapping. Would certainly be cheaper.

I run a Garmin and a Helix at the console and bow. I actually don’t mind the Helix being non-touchscreen at all. I still think it is pretty efficient.

[Meleagris1]

I had Mege360 for six months with a Solix 15. Now both are gone from my boat if that tells you anything. I now call the LVS62 in perspective the '360 killer.'

For me, the combination of LVS34 with LVS62 OR Activetarget 2 with LVS62 represents the state of the art. The only way to improve on this is to run double 34s/double ActiveTarget 2s in forward mode, offset 20 or 18 deg with a LVS62 in perspective.

And no surprise, I'm a BIG proponent in using a state of the art sonar aiming system bring it all together.

Paul Bird
www.revolutionsonar.com

Agree 100%

[BamaBass99]

Agree 100%

You have went this route as well?

[Revolution Sonar]

You are still limited by a narrow cone in perspective correct? So in deeper water, say 15+ you are not seeing the bottom well? That was the case with the LVS34 at least.

With the factory mount you will have a growing blind spot from the boat outward as you get deeper. The lack of vertical adjustment in perspective is a design flaw on the factory mounts but it would add a lot of complexity that I am sure they wanted to avoid.

On our mount, we have 64 micro serrations, which gives 5.6 deg notches of movement up and down in perspective mode. Once I get in deeper water, if I want to lessen the blind spot at the boat, I simply rotate one notch down and go from the factory Garmin 11 degree down to 16.6. This comes with a reduction in ultimate range, so it is a tradeoff, but one the angler can make easily and quickly to match conditions.

[Meleagris1]

You have went this route as well?

Yes - dual 34s now and soon to be 34 and 62. Running it side by side with M360 and after 40 hours and 1 tourney I find myself rarely looking at 360 anymore. Only reason I havent taken it off is because I fish team tourneys and my partner wants me to keep it. What I’m probably going to do it mount the XR in perspective on a 360 like pole that is stationary - it’s really not necessary for that to turn as the FOV is plenty wide - will also be easier for the guy in back to know where things are.

[trashmanssd]

The biggest think I like on mega 360 is the ability to overlay your way points on the mega 360 image. It's great for not getting on top of something you have marked before you may see it with live. Map may work also but I have a tough time judging distance on the map. I set mega to 100-120 feet and once it's in the circle I can set myself up about 50-60 feet from it and make a cast past it and drag the bait to the spot. Amazes me how old timers used to be able to triangulate a position from a couple visual spots and get on a smallish rock pile or brush pile or individual large boulder. I have GPS and mega 360 and garmin lvs34 live and spot lock and I still have to make multiple casts to get on the structure I am trying to fish. Especially if its 50 or so feet out and off at an angle, I always try to get down wind and spot lock so the structure is as close to straight of the bow as I can.