Topic: First time out with 999...questions.

[BradC]

Had the 999ci hd si out today for first time.  Pretty cool what these can do.  It was a pretty bright sunny day and I was having a hard time getting a good screen setting that showed detail and was easy to read.  I've seen several great screen shots in the light blue/gray color, but when I used the blue color, it seemed much darker looking and hard to read, not as bright as the shots I've seen posted.  I was hoping to get some tips on the initial setup of the unit from others for color palette, contrast, etc. as I could not seem to get a setting that was good.  Most of the areas I was in were 12' or less and I was looking from 50' - 100' out at various shorelines.

Thanks.

Brad

[mako9man2]

I had the same problem with my 999 the first few times out in shallow water.  Everything seemed washed out with very poor detail.  The trick was to leave the contrast set about neutral and reduce the sensitivity on the SI setting well below neutral then manually set the SI range to about three times the depth of the water.  12ft of water needs about 35-40ft of water on each side.  What happens is the 800mhz beam is blasting the shallow water and washing out the returns.  Sorta like looking into the headlights on a car.  As soon as I reduced the sensitivity images became very distinct.  I have been using one of the amber screens.  Still need to experiment with the others as I have seen some amazing screen shots on this site.     

[rnvinc]

I will use Inverse or Blue on a cloudy day...
I will use Inverse or Green on a sunny day...(occasionally Amber 1)...

Enviromental conditions will have a lot to do with how the sound pulse is reflected back to the xducer...

*Soft mud bottoms require higher sensitivity settings because the sound pulse is being absorbed into the mud...
*Hard sand or gravel bottoms require lower sensitivity setting because the sound pulse is readily reflected back to the xducer...

I keep the "SI Enhance" window overlayed onto my SI image any time I'm viewing SI....

This gives me instant access to the SI Sensitivty setting as the bottom composition changes...
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Contrast higher than default ...and Sharpness higher than Off ...will definitely make fish echoes pop out better on the image...but at the sacrifice of making the overall image "grainy"...

"Grainy" is not a bad thing ...when your looking for fish...and bottom definition is not as important....

Rickie

[tr7]

Rnvinc I like your idea of having that on the screen for easy access. How do you go about getting that on there. I'm also a new user to this unit.

[rnvinc]

Rnvinc I like your idea of having that on the screen for easy access. How do you go about getting that on there. I'm also a new user to this unit.

While viewing a SI screen...press Menu 1 time...

This will open the SI Xpress menu where the SI Enhance can be found....



Rickie