Camera reccomendation

I have been using a borrowed aqua view scout for a few years but it had to be returned home. Looking to get a camera of my own (I really enjoyed it and perhaps used it as much as my lx-5). Wife doesn’t really fish but will be a good sport and watch the fish on screen, I like to take non fishing friends out, and most importantly the boy is almost 3 so I am looking for a camera to get him excited. I also only have a pop up so generally once we plant there is no moving.

I am open to any suggestions, but partial to marcum since I have had great customer service experience and it is in my backyard. I think my main questions are:

-what camera to get?
-is the vs8 worth the $ over the vs4 and why?
-is anything usable outside/sunlight view-able (this was my main complaint of the scout)?

Thanks!

I did a fair amount of research on this prior to picking one up earlier this year. I had a Fish TV for a while which works ok in clear water during the day, but outside of that it wasn’t great. A buddy I fish with has a Vexilar camera that was hands down better than the Fish TV. He even admitted that the Marcum is the gold standard in cameras. You are on the right track with the Marcum.

As far as the VS8 or VS4, I went with the 4. The biggest difference I could find was the 8 has the temp, depth, and direction of the camera. Getting this information was not enough for me to spend the extra money. Some swear by it, I don’t get out enough to make it useful for me.

Just my two cents. Good luck.

So last year I picked up the Marcum PanCam and I love it. It is super easy to use and the added features of it hooking to your phone and being able to take screen shots or videos is nice. I believe you can pick them up at Scheels for about 300 bucks.

My Marcum VS380 has been very reliable and you can often find them for under $300.

825sd @ $500.00

Above is one in our classifieds. I thought I saw one for $450. the other day but didn’t see it now.

Here’s a quick 30 second video I captured with the 825.

I’ve got a brand new VS625SD in the classifieds for $450. Brand new, never used. Exactly the same as the VS825SD but with a slightly smaller screen.

VS625SD

My advice is get a camera with a small screen that you can easily manipulate into position to see (like inside your coat). The Vexilar Fishphone and Marcum Pancam utilize your smart phone. Excellent option. I love the Fishphone. I assume the aquaview micro allows for this as well.

I had the VS625SD camera and sold it to upgrade to the VS825SD, imo it’s all about the screensize….If you had a football game playing on 2 TV’s side-by-side but one screen was bigger, you’d watch the game on the bigger screen. I also use the camera in the summer time to search out boulders and weedbeds… love it

The SD series is worth the added $$ imo, I use the Depth and Camera direction arrow all the time…

buy used, it will save you a ton of $$

That was my vs825sd for sale in the classifieds. Only reason I sold it, was that I purchased the LX-9 that includes the camera. Loved the vs825sd. I agree on the screen size comment. It made viewing much easier. However, I’d argue that no camera really needs color. You could save yourself some $ by getting just a black and white camera. The depth and camera direction I used quite a bit, but didn’t pay that close of attention to water temp while ice fishing. Probably a mistake, but I just didn’t look at it very much.

I agree on the colorkill feature, although there are times when one works better than the other, but unless you use the camera in very clear lakes, you probably won’t switch away from B&W.

Thanks for the info! No surprise I’m swayed towards marcum. I’m still wondering:
-use outside in the sun-can you see them (The 8 says it is 3x brighter – brighter than what?)
-do all the marcum units have the same video quality (just different screen size and features)

I’m new here but not new to ice fishing. I wanted a camera and I decided on the Marcum WiFi camera system. I liked that I could use my tablet that I already had. I like the idea that I can be in my hut or jigging a hole a good distance away and just turn on the tablet and see whats going on. Also that all the controls such as panning the camera or adjusting the lighting are all done from the tablet as well.
Unfortunately there’s no ice yet so I cannot give you any feedback on the unit except it works great in the living room.

I don’t think there’s any camera screen that is truly legible in the sunlight, Marcum does sell a sunshade that goes over the screen and helps a ton, you could also just make your own… The resolution depends on the screensize, I believe the actual camera modules output the same resolution, it’s then determined what the screen can display.

Thanks for all the great info! This site is always helpful. After reading what I can find and looking at them in person I think I’ll end up with a vs4. The frills aren’t worth the extra hundreds for me unless it meant they work better in sunlight. Plus they are on sale until dec 31 and I have $50 cabela bucks (and a new m&p). I’ll probably wait till after christmas to see what craigslist does since there is no ice anyway.