Furuno FCV585
Our Full Review

The Furuno FCV585 is a follow-on and updated version of the well-respected Furuno 582L dual-frequency color sounder. This fish finder is one of the few pieces of marine electronics on the market today that still uses a rotary knob for control of certain functions.

Fine-tuning the gain control remains a critical element in getting the most out of any top-quality fish finder and having a rotary knob for easy and instant adjustment is, in our opinion, essential. All we can say is thank you Furuno for keeping a rotary gain control knob.

Furuno FCV-585

Our Furuno FCV585 test unit display measured 9.1 inches wide by 9.1 inches high and had a depth right at 4 inches.

The full package ships with the display unit, power cable, owner's manual, a 1-page operator's guide, a beefy mounting bracket, and hardware to flush mount the display.

The display unit contains all the essential electronics internally so the only extra component needed for full functionality is a transducer.

Several transducer options are available for the Furuno FCV585.

They run the gamet from 600-watt capable plastic transom-mounts with built-in water temperature sensing to a 1000-watt capable bronze thru-hull with water temperature and speed sensors.

According to Furuno Communications Manager, Jeff Kauzlaric, "If a customer wanted to use one of the transducers that were intended for the larger Furuno FCV1100 that does not have a 10 pin connector they would need to add the MB1100 matching box. The MB1100 takes the combined, dual frequency output from the sounder and splits it so that each frequency is on its own pair of wires."

We mounted the display using the accompanying bracket; it held securely. There are two twist-lock ports on the case back for the power and transducer cable connections as well as a single ground wire connection.

This unit can interface with NMEA 0183 devices using wiring that is part of the power cable.

Screen Size and Viewability

The Furuno FCV585 is fitted with a color LCD screen measuring nearly 7-inches high and full 5-inches wide; on the diagonal we measured it at 8.4 inches. It features a portrait layout and carries a resolution of 640 pixels vertically and 480 on the horizontal.

With its nearly 7-inch screen height this Furuno sounder has a large pixel count displaying the water depth. As a matter of fact, in height it is the screen equivalent of most landscape layout 12-inch screens.

On The Water Performance

The left portion of this Furuno FCV585 screen shot shows the low frequency output, the middle section the high frequency, and the right side is the A-scope column. You can see the wide beam of the 50 kHz pulse found all three of our targets and painted a very distinctive fish arch shapes for the two nearest the surface. Less accuracy at this frequency made the deepest target arch somewhat less defined because of its proximity to the bottom echo. The narrow beam width of the 200 kHz display clearly shows better target definition. It managed to paint all three targets with more accurate sizing than the lower frequency output. We achieved our best results using manual range and gain settings. In the header line you can see where both are set to manual, with a gain setting of 9.0. Overall on the water performance of the FCV585 was excellent, as good as any sounder we've tested to date.

Our review of the Furuno FCV585 took place on a bright sunny day with the unit temporarily mounted under cover of the T-Top on our test boat.

When viewed straight-on we found the screen to be bright and sharp with excellent contrast. We noticed very little screen darkening even when viewing a steep side angles.

When viewed through polarized sunglasses the screen does darken a bit more at steep angles, still overall prove this is a very high performance display screen.

When viewed from straight in front with the glasses the screen darkening is negligible. The screen does exhibit a small amount of reflectivity. We gave it an excellent rating for daytime viewability.

A quick press of the on/off pushbutton brings up the brightness and contrast menu onscreen. Each can be adjusted to one of 10 levels using the cursor pad arrows.

Nighttime viewing was rated good. As the screen brightness level is reduced the brightness of the control backlighting increases. Selecting the night color palette turns the water black and the targets a light blue.

Controls and Operation

Pushbutton and rotary knob controls are on the right side of the front panel. The main menu is reached with a press of the Menu/Esc key, then a selection is made with the cursor pad arrows, and finally the selection is accepted and executed with a press of the Enter key.

Below these keys is the Range button, a press here brings up the depth range menu box and allows the user to choose between automatic or manual. When you arrow over to manual eight user adjustable range selections appear and can be selected with the up/down arrows.

If the Furuno FCV585 is interfaced with a GPS unit the mark button will save a waypoint when it is pressed. We did not test this feature. Next down is the Function key, with it you have one-button access to one of eight user selectable functions.

The rotary gain control knob is next in line and allows the user to switch between two automatic gain settings, fishing or cruising, and manual gain with successive presses of the knob. Manual gain is adjusted by rotating the knob. The actual value is displayed in the header line at the top of the screen.

The next knob down affords instant selection of seven different modes of operation. Here you can choose one of two navigation data displays, full-screen high frequency, full-screen low frequency, either of the preceding two with zoom added, as well as a dual frequency mode.

Whenever a new mode is selected a mode menu pops up onscreen for several seconds indicating the new mode.

We got the fastest screen refresh rate in either full-screen mode, adding zoom or choosing dual frequency slows the screen speed noticeably.

Furuno FCV585 Specifications

Functions and Features

Some notable features available on the FCV585 are A-scope, shift, user selectable zoom, adjustable picture advance speed, variable depth display number size, and user selectable data boxes.

A-scope can be turned off, to normal, or to peak. Peak leaves a trail in the A-scope column for several seconds after the initial data was written to help the user track faint signals more easily.

Zoom mode selection is accessed through the sounder menu and can be set to bottom lock, bottom zoom, or maker zoom. Bottom lock range can be set to between 10 and 30 feet while bottom zoom can be set to anywhere between 7 and 2500 feet.

Picture advance can be set to one of eight speeds ranging from stopped to 4 times the ping rate. For our testing we used the 1/1 speed setting which writes one column of pixels for each ping of the sounder.

The display screen color palette can be set to white, blue, black, monochrome, or night. We used the default white for our daytime testing due to bright sunny test conditions.

Up to two data boxes can be displayed onscreen, data points are user selectable. Transducer power can be set to either 600 or 1000 watts of power via the sounder menu.

A header line displayed at the top of the screen indicates the gain mode, range mode, operational mode, and if menu selected on—battery voltage. When in the manual gain mode the actual gain setting will be displayed too. The header line can turned off if desired.

Final Thoughts

The Furuno FCV585 has all the capabilites you'd expect to find in the fish finder of this caliber. Combine that with outstanding performance and the big screen and you've got one of the best recreational sounders on the market today. Make sure when you order this unit you add a transducer appropriate for your boat and usage.

Buy the Furuno 585 fish finder here.