The A50 came with basic "maps" I added the Platinum Navionics compact flash card for where I boat [Eastern Great lakes/St Lawrence]

I've been eyeing this one up as well....what charts come with it? I would like to connect it to a Mercury Smartcraft engine as well.

Mine came with both coasts and the Great Lakes, but I think there may be different models, so you better check.

I use a Garmin GPSMAP 640 came with lake charts already preloaded, has a quick release to remove for security, works well, could use a little brighter dispay.

I used to sell Marine radios and chart plotters etc.

Garman- by far one of the top of the line units for a large cruiser or big water boat. Expensive units but cool touch screen actions!
Disadvantes- charts are expensive and high maintenance of plotter
Advantages- great info and even pictures of marinas. Lots of extras can be added later but at a cost.
Lowrance- not a bad unit. Not very customer friendly for updates and limited for info. Charts expensive
Raymarine- not bad. Can have added radar etc.

My favourite... Standard Horizon.
Reasons-Reasonably priced for budget minded boaters, great charts at reasonable prices. Menu driven and easy to use. My particular model cp350 has built in radio and my MMSI number is all done internally. Small compact 7 inch screen is small enough to read but doesn't take up the whole dash!

By the way all ne plotters can be wired to existing radios with DSC so when you press the distress button and your have properly input your MMSI number, they transmit your gps coordinates and info.

I hope that helps? Let me know if you have any questions regarding particulars. They are all good and bad in thier own ways, so I hope my advice wil steer you in the right direction of your personal needs.

GREAT INFO STINGER!!!

Not looking to "Hijack", but, have a quick question? My Raymarine has the new "Sea Talk" set up, as well as the regular NMEA wires, any thoughts on which is better or experience with "Sea Talk"?

I also need a new VHF radio, on a smaller boat is it worth spending the money for the one with AIS? I think Standard Horizon is the only one who makes it. Or is it more of a "toy"?

I just bought a garmin 500 series. Just used it on Wed.
You dont have to have the cards, but it does add some pretty nice functionality. The cards are expensive (retail), but you can find them used. I got a used Huron/erie (includes LSC) for $50 shipped.

I have never used a marine GPS unit and this has been very userfriendly thus far.

Inland shores only needs the AIS. This is done by adding the NMEA output from the plotter to the radio so it transmits to commercial vessels. They will be able to see you and anyone else around them because you are transmitting your lat and long at intervals.
I suppose this would be helpful in the narrows of LSC or in the Thousand Islands, but in the open lakes I guess your vision is enough?
It is a very cool feature and all boats can see each other on the plotter screen.

By the way, Standard Horizon is not the only one who makes it. It is available from Icom (which is probably imho one of the finest radios manufactured) Uniden and all other rigs with the new DSC. they are all climbing aboard the same technology recently. Older radios are still being sold without these options, but beware as I just threw six radios in the garbage that I could not even get 25 dollars for!!! Brand new in the box- had them on the shelf as a blowout sale, but they had no DSC and no one wanted to buy them , even for their little aluminum fishing boats?

One other neat option is the MMSI numbers inputs for the DSC equipped radios. It is free to get these numbers and your encouraged by government to do so and register your vessel. The MMSI number is inputted into the rig and cannot be changed once installed, so therefore the radio is now "fingerprinted" so to speak.
This has cut down on radio theft from marinas in the last few years.
The neat option is that you can set up "groups" of have all your pals in a list and you can talk on the radio and see each other on the plotters.

***note of caution***

When applying the MMSI number into any rig you only have TWO (2) chances to get it right! If you fluff it up the rig must be sent to the manufacturer to be reset internally.
Read the instruction manual for your particular rig and input these numbers very carefully into the rig.

I hope I answered your questions?

I have heard that the Standard Horizons customer support isn't as good as Garmin? Since you seem to be well versed on the various GPS makers, What do you recommend for a guy that runs 70+ in Northern Lake Huron where the bottom changes radically and boulders are big as a house?

Standard horizon cp190i have good detail for lk st clair?