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ok i have seen brianK’s post about the marcum camera but i am wondering how much better they actually work in dirty or stained water? last year with my aqua view on the local lakes around here i couldnt even find my reel weeds i had out, yeah they are that stained, is this new camera going to be any better in these conditions? i really dont want to spend that much on it if its not going to work on the lake i fish mostly
All cameras need light to reproduce an image and the amount of light needed depends largely on the quality of the camera head.
If you do a little reading online regarding video cameras you’ll see that there’s a huge disparity in quality from one manufacturer to the next and one of the benefits of higher quality and higher priced video cameras is their ability to reproduce an image at lower light levels (lux).
So the quality of the camera is very important. All MarCum cameras use a Sony camera head inside those water-tight housings we dangle below the ice. Because MarCum starts off with a higher quality camera the images are going to be of higher quality than the other cameras out there that use a lower quality camera.
To help with the decision between color and black and white you need to consider the environment you will most often be fishing. It takes more light to reproduce an image in color so if you find yourself fishing in dirty or stained water most of the time, look for a high quality black and white camera.
If you fish clear water lakes and rivers and you’re willing to give up 15 – 20 minutes of viewing time (this is w/o the on-camera lights) at sun up and sundown when a black and white camera OF SIMILAR QUALITY is going to be able to capture a serviceable image at lower light levels then the color camera is the way to go.
In your situation it sounds like a black and white might serve you best. The 820 from MarCum produces a stunning image at low light levels. Basically if the 820 can’t reproduce the image… you’re not going to find another underwater camera that will.
The benefit of the 825c comes into play in lakes and rivers that don’t have dirty or heavily stained water. You’ve seen the images BK has posted here and those came from the Mississippi River at depths greater than 25′. I’m sure you’ll agree those images are pretty fantastic and the Mighty Miss has never been confused with a gin clear lake in Canada.
In fairly clear lakes the addition of color produces an incredible image with a greater depth of field than I ever thought possible and the 825’s have made ice fishing a heck of a lot more enjoyable for me… and they’ve actually helped me to learn quite a bit about fish behavior and how they interact with their environments since I first dropped one below the middle of last winter.