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provides moving sonar images of fish, baitfish and lures directly
under and to the right and left of your hull. On-screen range scales
help you pinpoint depth and distance to the left or right.
The LiveVü Down display can also include a separate window
displaying a conventional screen-history view that shows the
bottom contour, weeds and other structure in greater detail.
Panoptix also includes RealVü 3D Forward and Down modes,
which present realistic 3D views of a wide “map” of bottom
contours ahead of, under, to either side of and behind the boat,
along with the depths of detected fish and baitfish and their
distance from the transducer.
The display can be oriented to a birds-eye view from above or
a submerged side view, letting you choose the look that’s easi-
est for you to interpret.
RealVü 3D Forward mode digitally scans 30 degrees left and
right ahead of the boat, presenting a 60-degree-wide picture
of the water you are approaching. The Panoptix transducer
doesn’t physically move back and forth 60 degrees; it contains
a series of elements arranged in sort of a fan pattern (called a
phased array), and it fires the elements consecutively from one
end of the “fan” to the other and back.
You can see bottom contour detail in shaded 3D, and you can
see fish and baitfish ahead.
A series of degree lines can show you how many degrees to
port or starboard each target lies. And you can control how
quickly the forward area is scanned to provide more or less
detail making it easier to identify where the fish really are.
Panoptix makes full use of its color display. Screen pictures
can have a black, blue or white background, and a vertical
on-screen color bar synchronizes certain colors with certain
depths. This allows you to look at a spot on the bottom or at a
suspended fish and tell its depth by its color rather than having
to look at a screen cluttered with a confusing web of wire-frame
depth lines and trying to associate the fish with the closest line
and then tracing that line to an on-screen depth scale.
RealVü Down mode constantly scans a 60-degree wide (side-
to-side) area from ahead of your boat to behind it. It shows
the bottom in the same kind of color-shaded 3D contour used
by the Forward mode, and it uses the same vertical color bar
depth indication system.
The depth of suspended fish and baitfish, and their direction
and distance from the boat are clearly shown.
Since the digital scanning is near real-time and not dependent
on boat movement forming a screen history, both the LiveVü
and RealVü 3D Forward and Down modes work perfectly while
the boat is stationary.
Both the Forward and Down system transducers are even
equipped with internal Attitude Heading Reference System
sensors that constantly adjust the sonar beams to compensate
for boat motion. You can sit there, cast a lure and watch it fall,
and see the fish reject it and move away or follow it and even
grab it as you retrieve it back to the boat.
Panoptix-compatible products include Garmin’s 741/721,
1000/800, 7600 and 8000 series units, and the Forward and
Down transducers are expected to be available in the spring of
2015 at a suggested retail price of $1,499.99 each.
The Forward transducer is available with both an included
trolling motor mounting kit and a transom mounting kit. The
Down transducer comes with a transom mounting kit.
Visit http://www.garmin.com/panoptix for more information. ■Northshore’s
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