As far as digital vs mechanical I prefer the mechanical for a couple reasons.
The fish finder versions that have a flasher view don't work as good as a mechanical flasher and none of them have narrow beam(most have 2 beam but they are wide and super wide since meant for use on a boat not flasher). The benefits of gps and sonar graph view can be nice at times though which some people value.
The digital flashers like LX7 and LX9 are good units but are large and power hogs. I prefer the smaller lighter units with longer battery life especially considering the price difference.
The Humminbird units have a rebate going right now so the 55 would be $625 at the fishin hole after rebate right at the top end of your price range. I would sooner pay the extra bucks for the 55 to get the carry bag and couple other little features it has.
The only brand I haven't used is Vexilar but the only one I would want of them is the FLX-28(in large part because it isn't noisy like the other ones) and it is pricey.
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