if 500 is your budget and not the amount you wish to spend then go something along the lines of hummingbird 571 hd di. its got hd down imaging as well as traditional 2d sonar and splitfire so you can have down imaging and 2d on screen at same time. i here people rave about lowrance but the only issue i have with them is that they dont have the "bang for your buck" choices that hummingbird has, the 571 model i mentioned is about 250 where as a lowrance model in that price range will have either down scan imaging OR traditional 2d sonar but not both, if you want both then the price range goes drasticly up. but as stated before if 500 is what you can comfortably spend then look into a lowrance, if 500 is your top dollar but youd rather spend less then go hummingbird
