The option to turn on Screen Capture is in the Settings menu. Go to it in the Settings menu and turn it on, then you can save the current screen any time by hitting the unit’s power button.

Screen captures are saved to the unit’s internal memory and you can then transfer them to an SD card and move them to your computer.

One odd thing – I have to turn the screen capture feature on every time I power up the unit – it is not one of the feature settings that your unit remembers after powering off. This has resulted in me missing a few great screen shots because I keep forgetting that I have to turn the feature on every time I restart the unit.

There is hope for me, though, they say even a worm learns after three or four hundred times…

Great screen shots, and I never would have guessed rock stairs to an old barn foundation!

Your high speed sonar picture got me to thinking, we hear so much about how SI transducers don’t work well or cause problems on high performance boats at faster speeds we tend to think they won’t work at cruising speeds on slower boats that can mount them with no problems and we don’t even try to use them there. I think that’s a mistake. I have an aluminum walk-thru windshield walleye boat with a top speed around 35-37 MPH and SI works all the way up to wide open for me. I get some interference but important structure items are plainly visible.

Check out the wrecked bridge piling support with two partial pillars still standing on the right side view of one of these shots and a creek channel I passed over on the other. The speeds at which these recordings were made are displayed on the screens.

Just reading this thread again I noticed your greeting…

Sorry about being so rude. I certainly agree that fishermen are the winners when manufacturers compete, and thanks for the welcome!

Great screen shots and a cool video at the link.

I’m surprised the thin tree didn’t show up on the side pass, I would have thought you’d be able to see something of it.

About turning your transducer around, did you notice there is a mention in the installation instructions and in the owner’s manual of a choice in the menu that lets you reverse the left and right side views on the screen to correct for that? I installed mine “backwards” with the cable coming off the rear end of the transducer so I didn’t have to bend it tightly against the transom, then I used that menu selection to reverse left and right and it shows everything in its proper place.

<<It is going to be tough to decide between the Lowrance and the HB.>>

That’s going to be a big question for a lot of folks. Both companies make top notch products and it seems like about the time you can decide which one you like best a software update can come along that changes everything!

The board’s manage photos option in the reply section says it will handle .PNG files and that’s how the screen shots are named when saved on the unit, but I had to convert the shot into a .JPG file to get it to load. (I may be doing something wrong). To get them off the unit you put an SD card in one of the unit’s slots and then go into the unit’s “files” menu and download the screen shots from the unit’s internal memory to the card. Then you stick the card in a reader attached to the computer to save them on the computer’s hard drive. It’s actually a bit easier with the Humminbird system which saves the shots directly to an SD card in one of the unit’s slots when you save it out on the lake.

Both brands save the shots with a single press of a button, a GREAT help to me as an outdoor writer, I used to have to freeze the screen when I saw something I liked and then turn the boat and angle the screen to get the light right so I could shoot pictures of it with a camera. That was way more difficult.

It may be too late to have any bearing on your decision, but for what it’s worth I have been running a 997 since they came out and I think it’s a solid unit. I get to test lots of units and the SI feature is something I don’t want to have to do without anymore. It is one of those things that you worry about being a gimmick – until you see it work.

I am one of those guys who got used to the way things look on a down-looking sonar back during the paper chart recorder days and I was underwhelmed by the performance of all the early LCD units because I couldn’t help but compare them to the paper machines. I started being impressed with Humminbird LCD units about the time the Paramount models appeared, followed by the Matrix series where they started taking a systems approach, and on up to the present units. In my opinion, being acquired by Johnson Outdoors has turned out to be one of the best things to ever happen to Humminbird. I think the last software update before the current one which enabled you to turn TVG on and off was a huge step toward presenting things more like they looked on paper machines. I’m looking forward to the January release of the DownImaging feature. I don’t see Humminbird leaving 997 owners behind in the foreseeable future so if I were you I wouldn’t worry about buying one.