Underwater cameras

[FishingFourFun]

I would like to get a color underwater camera. Has anybody used a MarCum VS825SD or the VS625SD? How was the color?
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[OCF]

I have the Marcum 825 & I love it. The color is surprisingly good down to about 30 - 35 feet. After that depth things start going to shades of green & gray. I am not sure what happens after 50 feet. I guess the water absorbs various color wave lengths & only certain colors get down to depth.

The screen is surprisingly clear & works great even with cold temps. I have had it out in zero degrees and it worked great. (I previously had a Cabelas camera and it seemed like it took a while for the screen to warm up before you could see anything in cold temps.)

The 825 comes with a camera panner, a direction arrow and depth indicator on the screen, which makes it extremely easy to determine which direct the camera is pointing & what elevation is in the water column. I can find my jigs extremely fast. (we used to screw around for hours with the Cabelas & Aquaview brands)

The 825 is a little pricey, but is a hoot to use while fishing. I would highly recommend it.
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[JeepNut]

The wife got me a Marcum 825 for Christmas and we took it up to Strawberry on the 3rd and had a blast with it. It worked very well at the depths we tried 15-25 feet. You could tell exactly what the fish were and it was fun to watch the fish's behavior with different jigging motions. My son could even pick out the crawdads on the bottom. One big cut tried to eat the camera which he couldn't quite swallow.
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[HATH]

Just don't get the cheapest camera out there. I used my brothers cheap one last weekend and I couldn't see a thing, and the way it's set up you can't really control which way the camera turns, so we couldn't even find our lures in the screen. Spend a little more and get a good product!
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[Strikes_R_Us]

What ever camera you get, I strongly recomend getting a tri-pod w/locking cord grommet! What this is, is like mentioned in one of the above posts where he couldent control the camera, when you lower the camera down, the cord lock rubber grommet keeps the camera fixed at one point. You can move the camera by holding the grommet and twisting the cord and then letting go of grommet and reset down on tri-pod. I can very easily move the camera from one jig to the next as long as the depth is the same.
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[ChubbyChaser]

I have a cheapo aquavu I bought at cabelas, it has some pros and cons. Pros:its really fun to see what's beneath you, helps you know if you should be able to stay put or move on somewhere if the fish are not there, helps you see how fish respond to your bait, Cons: its heavy, mine uses a 12 volt battery which probably weighs about 6-7 pounds alone. Mine is black and white and on sunny days it can be really hard to see the screen, as Hath mentioned, I have no way of knowing which direction my camera is facing as it turns randomly as it drops, this makes it really tricky to even find your bait.
So if you buy one, spend a little more and get color, and get the most compact unit you can find, and one that has some kind of directional indicator. They can definitely be a good tool and watching a fish take your bait 20 feet below you is a blast![sly]
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[fuzzyfisher]

the only thing i would look for in a camera is if you can addjust it to look strate down the hole.. if ya cant set it up to do that it's not worth getting.. the last while i have seen guy's that have the kind that have to be the same depth as the jig's to see the jig's.. seems to scare the fish a lot.. but setting it 15 to 20 feet above the jig don't seem to scare the fish as much.. and makes it a lot easeyer to see the jig. and no turning the camera trying to find it..

check out my ice fishing videos on youtube

[url "http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PBlyUg1KMWg"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PBlyUg1KMWg[/url]

all the icefishing videos was shot with the camera 10 to 20 feet above the jig..
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[Potsy]

I bought the cabelas one with color monitor like it but would have liked the one that has the rotating camera. my camera has never scared fish away they usually come and see what it is brush up against it but not spooked so much
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[fuzzyfisher]

well you go a head and keep useing it. but not around me.. i had a guy up at Cleveland a while back fishing abot 20 yards from me.. I was hitting fish left and right he was getting one every now and then.. he asked if he could drop the camera down by me and see why i was hitting them and he was not.. as soon and he droped the camera i stoped catching fish.. after about 20 min's i told him to take the camera away i started catching fish again right away..

and i'll tell everyone this if you want to catch big fish leve the camera out of the water all together it realy scares them..
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[stan55]

As mentioned before you should really try pointing the camera down the hole rather than sideways. I suspend mine 5 to 8 feet above my jig depending on clarity. Gives you a 360 degree panaroma - you will see fish appraoching from all directions. If jig disappears set the hook. Simple and effective way to use cameras. No worries about camera direction etc. Takes a little practice to actually see fish - they do have natural camo. The color cameras help here. Full disclosure I own a Marcum 826 and this is exactly how I use it.
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