# Humminbird 561 vs 571 vs 581



## tomme boy (Jun 24, 2013)

Looking for a new FF. I want the DSI HD feature. Trying to decide between these. Anyone have one and what can you tell me about them.


----------



## FerrisBueller (Jun 25, 2013)

Is that because of the price range of those units? Right now for $379 you could get the Lowrance Elite-5 DSI with internal GPS. It's a little more than the other units you listed, but it has a nice color screen which is a nice bonus. This is a great price as it has the built in GPS. There is also the Elite-5X for $349, but that does not have GPS. Even lower price than those units is the Lowrance Elite-4X DSI running about $200 and it is a smaller unit but still has the color display.

Are you particular to a certain brand? Or are you just shopping the prices?


----------



## 2sac (Jun 25, 2013)

The problem I see with the Lowrance DSI units is they don't have 2d sonar. The HB units are DI and2d. If it were me, I'd get the 581 because it includes the GPS. If you don't need the GPS, the 571 is HD and the 561 is not.


----------



## tomme boy (Jun 25, 2013)

The 561 does come in HD DI now. 

I just ordered the 581i. I got it brand new delivered to my home for $261. It should be here by the end of the week. Hopefully anyway. I went with the HB as I have had a few Lowrance models in the past and they all failed within 6 months. A x45,X65 and one of the $100 units. The x45 and 65 were both sent back to the factory and fixed. They lasted another month or two. They are both sitting on the bottom of the river.


----------



## FerrisBueller (Jun 25, 2013)

I think that the HB's have a better mapset as well if you use it for GPS. I personally think the lower-end HB units out perform compared to the Lowrance


----------



## wihil (Jun 28, 2013)

Wow. Whole bunch of stuff going on in this post...

Of the three HB's you listed there is a very large difference between them (guessing that you'll be looking for the DI versions). All the units are black and white LCD screen, and are backlit. None of these screens are HD by HB's standards, but one is close - the 581. 

The resolution on the 561 is terrible. 320x320, which is bottom of the barrel when compared to many units out there.

The resolution on the 571 jumps to 320x640, which helps, but still kills your vertical resolution which is most important. The unit is also available with both the 2D and DI, but does not have a GPS for mapping.

The 581 has a 640x640 resolution for nice, sharp imaging. It also has both 2D and DI which is preferable. It also has the GPS (581i DI), which is very helpful, but the unit does not have any maps loaded on it's own (a base map). In order to see contour lines and things other than the shoreline, you'll need to purchase a 3rd part card of your choice based in your area for the best results. 

If you could swing it, and are willing to deal with a B/W LCD unit (which it sounds like you are), I'd go with the 581 and be happy as punch. It'll do everything you need and you'll still have money in your pocket vs the larger fancy color units.

I love me some fancy color FFer's though. :lol: 


Lowrance has options also, but you asked about HB, so there you go. For what it's worth, HB owns the multi frequency fish finder market under $500, and for good reason - Lowrance is taking notice.

-EDIT-

Saw you went with the 581i - you'll love it. Great choice. If I could go back to a B/W unit, that's the one I'd use.


----------



## tomme boy (Jun 29, 2013)

I went with the 581i hd di. It should be here Monday. The resolution on the 581i is 640 x 320.


----------



## jethro (May 9, 2014)

Post revival!! Did some searching and just wanted to add some important feedback on the Humminbird 581i which I bought recently. It's a great unit especially for the price, but there is one thing that is a real problem for some people. This board seems to have very few coldwater fishermen, but I am one. The GPS is for some reason horribly inaccurate at slow/trolling speeds. This should not happen with GPS at all. I have a 20 year old Garmin GPS IV that is dead accurate at slow speeds. Even my Droid phone with the Navionics App is dead accurate, but the Humminbird is horrible under 3mph, it jumps around constantly, enough to make it worthless for gauging trolling speeds. For trolling salmon and trout you need very specific speeds- I like 1.8mph for trolling sewed smelts and 2.2-2.6 for flatfish/hardware. Any cheap GPS should be accurate to within the 10th of a mph at any speed but this 581i is not. I've been trolling for years and years and have always used handheld units that I need to reload with batteries all the time, but I thought the 581i would be awesome to have hard wired to the boat and now I don't have to look between my handheld and the fish finder. Above 3-4 mph it becomes quite accurate, but lower than that it's useless. 

For a warm water fisherman or someone that just wants to navigate it's really an awesome budget fish finder. The GPS works great for navigating and marking waypoints. Also showing you your tracks. The down imaging is great! It shows depths and speeds at full throttle on my boat. Just not ideal for people slow trolling.


----------

