I'm pretty new to the sounder world so I wont go down the path of brand wars, but...

I just gotta HumminBird 998 sidescan out of the States (ebay) another website to check would be jandhproducts.com)) for just under 1700, its ships UPS which is delivered By Aust Post here when it lands.. took about two weeks from purchase to get here..comes with a transducer, humminbirds are preset to country of origin so it will be in american scales..feet/fathoms, miles/knots etc..not hard to make a little conversion table though..You could get the model lower in the 898 for under 1500... The 800 series and up will also allow you to add the 1kw transducer for deeper water if ever needed...

Best to have a read of the humminbird site to understand all the slight differnences between the models, micro processors for better screen returns etc etc... I've only used mine a few times so I still have a long way to go on learning all fine tuning involved..

Hope that helps somewhat..

Hey Adam, i  have a Lowrance HDS 10 with side scan, only just got it but lots & lots of bells a wisels and still playing with it may need a uni deg but it looks nice. I got it from ALL Boats they have a big range and a on line cataloge also i think,i am sure they would negotiate a deel on postage.

I have a Lowrance hds 10 g2 running next to a humminbird 1197 both with sidescan in my opinion the Lowrance is a a sharper picture as the sidescan transducer has an extra crystal element , this really shows a more detail.  The Lowrance transducer is a better  hydro dynamic design due to its shape , in simple english it can operate at faster speeds with more surface wave interference  than the Humminbird which does not handle chop and slop as well as the Lowrance. This being said i have to add that i prefer the 2d display of the humminbird compared to the Lowrance, in standard conventional mode the humminbird has a wider colour palette or colour range, it too is simpler to tune, BOTH SHOW FISH but i prefer the wider range of colours on the Humminbird which give an easier interpretation of bottom composition. The other factor to consider is that the humminbird models have sidescan incorporated into them while sidescan is an add on at extra cost, so in effect the humminbird is actually cheaper IMPORTANT FOR A LIMITED BUDGET.  In ballance  i would go for the humminbid the sidescan is a little less sharp but for my purposes the  humminbird 2d picture outshines the lowrance, this is what you will be using the most and lastly the price. THE MAJOR FACTOR IN USING SIDESCAN IS YOU NEED RELITIVELY CALM WATER NEITHER UNIT CAN HANDLE CHOPPY CONDITIONS WHICH DISOREINTATES BOTH TRANSDUCERS  , the lowrance handles up to 10 knots of breeze the humminbird breaks up at a lower wind strength. As for fish detection in sidescan, unless the waters calm, with light winds slow sounding speed and the fish is large, forget it fish just dont show up. The sidescan is for looking for lumps or ledges once in good country go to 2d to check out fish. On a big screen running both views side by side is the go.  For any Lowrance users i have the Lowrance Structure scan lss1 module for sale,  second hand including transducer for $450 its advertised in the Quokka.

Cheers fellas, this will be used for creek fishing mostly with a bit of offshore.  Any barra users got any opinions on this?

Really cant get any love on this one, rather disappoining. :(

Pm Hlokk, he raves about his hummingbird with ss!

Go humminbird.  At the barra classic this year, we spoke to many punters and it was our opinion tha t the humminbird was better, and probably has better back up service etc.

Thats my vote Adam and I run one myself.

Really nothing to complain about and all sounders have pro's and cons but I much prefer humminbird.

If you need any further advice just PM me but my initial advice is get the biggest unit you can afford.

cheers