Anybody have experience or feedback with the Showdown from Natures Vision? Is this a good product? Worth the money? What about it compared to the Vexilar or Marcum? Thanks for any information.
January 8, 2009 at 2:24 am
#1300060
Showdown By Natures Vision?
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January 8, 2009 at 2:49 am #735130
Jay,
I’m going to be honest. Nature Vision owns Marcum and makes the Showdown. Marcum is a sponsor of In-Depth Outdoors.
If you don’t have the money in your budget right now for a Marcum, a Showdown will catch you fish. IMO..the Showdown does not compare to either a Marcum or a Vex.
Yet there are folks that love their Showdowns.
Hope that answers your question.
PS Welcome to Ido!
January 8, 2009 at 3:07 am #735135Jay,
Welcome to IDO…
JackJanuary 8, 2009 at 3:09 am #735136Jay, Marcum makes a nice unit at a similar price point called the VX-1. Many of the retailers are running nice specials on the VX-1 right now. You may want to start with Sportsman’s Warehouse.
The unique feature of the Showdown is the vertical read out. I personally was able to get used to the dial display of the conventional units. If that isn’t of appeal, clearly the Showdown is your top (and only) choice.
Sully
January 8, 2009 at 5:23 am #735188My good bud bought a showdown(forgot his vex on a lotw trip)
..he’s used it for a year and loves it! He claims he’ll never use his Vex again. We’ll see. I tried it and didn’t care for it.BIRDDOG
January 8, 2009 at 1:40 pm #735224Quote:
Jay,
I’m going to be honest. Nature Vision owns Marcum and makes the Showdown. Marcum is a sponsor of In-Depth Outdoors.
If you don’t have the money in your budget right now for a Marcum, a Showdown will catch you fish. IMO..the Showdown does not compare to either a Marcum or a Vex.
Yet there are folks that love their Showdowns.
Hope that answers your question.
PS Welcome to Ido!
I second this! Very well put BrianK!
January 8, 2009 at 8:51 pm #735424I have found the Showdown to be a great second unit.. Newbies can sit in front of it and figure out what is going on rather quickly. Good target separation too. my only complaint is the display can be a little slow at times.
January 9, 2009 at 2:29 pm #735620I have a Showdown that I have been using this season and have been very pleased with it. The screen is easy to read. It is very sensitive and picks up the smallest jigs I have – and I have fished in water up to 30 feet deep. The battery life is great as well because there are no moving parts like the flashers, and there is no hum or sound that emits from the Showdown. Also, I have had no problem eliminating the intereference while fishing next to a Marcum and a Vexilar FL-18.
It also has a zoom feature and the user is able to adjust the area of the water column to zoom in to. I love the zoom feature on this unit and use it almost all the time.
The bad – The LCD screen will slow if the unit gets too cold, but it does have a built in heater the user activates if needed. The top 5 feet of the water column will then be filled with intereference that can not be corrected. The screen is only black (4 level grayscale) and white, with an indiglo color backlight. This means that it can be hard to see those fish hugging the bottom if you are not watching carefully. If you watch the screen carefully, you will see the bottom lines fluctuate indicating fish. On the Flashers, these fish are easier to see as you would see yellow appear on the red bottom. The color on the flashers makes it much easier to see the fish on the bottom.
Some people complain that the unit is too “tipsy” because it has a smaller footprint and stands taller. I find that this is true, but I just pat the area flat with my glove and it is fine. I do like the smaller footprint as it is easier to use in my one man fish house.
The final gripe is the cone on the unit. It has a single beam cone at 18 degrees. It would be nice to have a dual cone as some of the flashers have.
All in all, I am happy with my Showdown. The price is right and I think it is more affordable than other brands and it does have some nice features. I do have to say that after fishing next to a Vexilar FL-18, I like the color screen and I also thought the Vexilar tuned out interference better than my unit could.
I hope this review shows you some of the good and bad of the Showdown. My next unit will be a flasher with the color screen so that I cen see those bottom hugging fish a little easier.
~Brian
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