I want to get some kind of electonics for ice fishing this year, but cannot afford to buy both. To be used for using in the metro area punching holes and mainly searching for panfish with my 5 year old son.
If you had to choose one, would it be a flasher or underwater camera?
I am thinking of the Showdown ice Troller or Marcum underwater camera.
With out a doubt, go with the flasher. I would NOT go ice fishing without one. I don’t own a camera, but have been with others that do. I don’t think the camera has helped me FIND any fish, but it is useful to see what type and size are down there. The flasher on the other hand helps FIND them – don’t leave home without one.
Hey Ben, for me a flasher is a must have. A camera would deffinatly be second on my list. Not that a camera isn’t a great tool, because it is. It’s just that a flasher will actually help you catch fish any day of the week. Where a camera is more of a tool I use to obtain information like, species identification and structure type.
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With out a doubt, go with the flasher. I would NOT go ice fishing without one. I don’t own a camera, but have been with others that do. I don’t think the camera has helped me FIND any fish, but it is useful to see what type and size are down there. The flasher on the other hand helps FIND them – don’t leave home without one.
X2 
Go with the flasher first, look at a camera down the road!
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I want to get some kind of electonics for ice fishing this year, but cannot afford to buy both. To be used for using in the metro area punching holes and mainly searching for panfish with my 5 year old son.
If you had to choose one, would it be a flasher or underwater camera?
I am thinking of the Showdown ice Troller or Marcum underwater camera.
X2!! Always make sure the batteries are charges as well. 
flashers are tools, cameras are more for fun.
get the flasher first. that way you can find the fish, you can watch them swim at a later date, but you have to find them first!
As other have said get the flasher. I have both and rarely use my camera. The kids love it though.
flasher x2
I’m in the same position as Dvoracek and want to buy one or the other. I’m a newbie to using either and don’t know the pros/cons of the flasher or camera.
My pea brain tells me a camera would “find fish” by showing fish on the screen plus show the species, size and depth.
Could someone be so kind as to explain how a flasher “finds fish” yet a camera can not?
Thanks for the help.
Flasher.
You will get a lot more information ie depth and if there are fish versus a camera. I don’t have a camera but I also beleive they would only work great in clearer lakes. If you fish drity or stained lakes you might be wasting your time.
I agree with what most people are saying, get the Marcum Flasher or showdown first, a lot more versatile to use, very important tool. But I use my Macum VS825sd camera for a lot of uses, its not just for fun, even though it is. I like the camera because it tells me the depth, and I can see if there are fish there, or around me, and what the structure is, I can see pockets in the weeds, a weed change up, a school of fish that is 20-30 feet away, or find the exact edge of the weeds or a bottom change up, some of this stuff you can do with a flasher, but most not, or as quickly as you can with a flasher. I use both, and would really try to find a way to swing both, using the combo will get a lot more fish on the ice when used properly!
Hope this helps
Tanner Wildes
I prefer the camera, but only because I fish the same body of water & know it well. If out scouting for fish you need a flasher. The camera has been helpful in understanding what picky fish will hit. You can see their reaction to different presentations until you find one that works. Last winter we had Eyes’ all over but could not get them to hit. We noticed that they would check out the bait offered but not hit it. We started playing around with different jigging methods and saw that they would follow the jig up, but only at a certain speed-if too fast or slow they would lose interest. The camera was awesome for this. With the help of the camera we figured out that we needed to hit the bottom hard 3-4 times, and lift up a foot, pause for 1-2 seconds and continue lifting until around 5-6 feet up …them BAM. Caught many more fish thanks to the camera.
Flasher. Flasher. Flasher.
The entry level units of today were the top of the line a few years ago. You will love it. I suggest the Marcum VX-1.
You could also go, cough cough, vex…..
Couple things to remember:
Camera does not work at night – flasher does
Camera does not work in unclear water – flasher does
I will not fish without a flasher! Flasher is a must in the ice fishing world IMO!
Check out craigslist, you can find some great deals on there – or also some are listed on IDO’s classifieds.
A flasher can be put into operation even without a hole in the ice in a few seconds. A camera takes time to deploy. There are places here where you can drop your camera in 3 feet of water and see fish. Your kids will love to fish with the camera as long as they can see fish. If you happen to decide to fish somewhere where there are no fish, they will get bored and cold quick. There are times when I know I am on fish that I leave the flasher in the truck but never at home. Start with the flasher and get a camera when you can if you decide this sport is for you. I especially like the camera when looking to place tipups or sight fishing for pike and bull gills.
I will also add the a flasher does not require sunlight to work but my camera does. You will mark fish with the flasher if they are down there whether it is day or night. I know the Marcum Camera’s are supposed to be good in low light but my Cabelas POS quits working around 30 minutes before the sun is down. Right when you want it tot work the most 
Flasher, I’ll sell you my camera cheap. You can have my flasher over my dead body
Flasher……!
Definitely flasher, I have both and I don’t use the camera very often because it is more hassle than it is worth.
If you are on very finicky panfish that are biting so light you can’t feel it a camera is nice so you can see the bite but other than that you can get everything you need from a flasher, day or night, clear or murky.
Wife and I both use Marcums and love them.
I agree a flasher is way better overall, but a kid may like the camera better. Cameras are pretty neat in some situations they are much better than a flasher, but day in and day out a flasher is way more bang for the buck. I’m willing to bet you could get a cheap flasher and a really cheap camera for not a whole lot (if any) more than a fancier flasher. Should be able to get a cheapo camera for around $100, then find a reasonable flasher for you… 
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I’m in the same position as Dvoracek and want to buy one or the other. I’m a newbie to using either and don’t know the pros/cons of the flasher or camera.
My pea brain tells me a camera would “find fish” by showing fish on the screen plus show the species, size and depth.
Could someone be so kind as to explain how a flasher “finds fish” yet a camera can not?
Thanks for the help.
A flasher allows you to see if there are fish below you. It is real time sonar to everything is “right now”. You can go around hole to hole and drop your transducer down. Once you learn how to read a flasher, which is really easy, you can quickly find out if you are on fish or not. You can even shoot through clear ice with a flasher. Little spit on the old hole, to clear out any air bubbles, set your transducer on it and you should be able to see if anything is down there. You don’t even have to drill a hole. Hope that helps you with your question Map Guy. They are invaluable on a new lake as well because you can cover tons of water in a shorter amount of time. Good luck this year. Also a camera can find fish but you have to drill a hole to use it. Or find an open one. The camera can also spook fish as you lover it down so that can be a negative. You can rig your camera to point downwards so you can see over top of the fish without getting into the school but it still takes time to lower down. Flasher is a lot faster. I would get a flasher first and then go to a camera. Check out craigslist or here on the classifieds. Any flasher, Markum, Vexilar, or Humminbird will greatly increase your efficency on the water and should help you increase your catch. Again, hope this helps.
A flasher will “alert” me of fish and structure below. Savy flasher anglers can also determine fish location in conjuction with their presentation as well as fish reaction to their presentation. When it comes right down to it ~ a flasher saves me time figuring out the game our finned friends below are playing. The time saving correlates to more fish on the ice.
A camera will “show” me the speices of fish present or type of structure below as well as fish location and reaction. In short ~ seeing is believing and a camera lends that edge over a flasher. For the series side of my angling ~ the majority of my camera usage is during open water scouting runs or in mid winter pattern with finicky fish. On the lighter side ~ the camera is a wonderful tool of interest for a youngster in a shanty. At least this is the case with my youngster!
One drawback of the camera is the coax cable connecting the ctv module with monitor. Some anglers feel managing the cable is combersome and set up time is compromised. I’ve heard fellow bucket dwellers debate which direction the ctv module was pointed ~ this of course with no camera compass and a low end model. Still ~ others will argue monitor glare renders most brands of camera’s useless in ambient lighting conditions. With today’s technology ~ some of these drawbacks have been addressed with higher end models but the coax still remains.
If I had the choice of either a flasher or a camera ~ I’d select the flasher 9 times out of 10. But if I had the option for both ~ well…..
Very few will disagree, the ice fisherman should have a flasher. As a number of posts indicated, they don’t care what color the water is they will tell the depth and if there’s any fish in “that column” below your ice hole. With a little practice, a person can tell the type of bottom, weeds and other bottom features. We don’t have to be a Pro to tell if it’s a walleye or a perch getting ready to nab the bait.
The flasher is the first choice because of it’s versatility in any condition!
Now if our lakes and rivers were clear enough to see 10 feet in any direction, I think the flasher would be out of business and replaced by the camera.
Why? The flasher does what it’s good at. Showing what’s in the cone of signal directly below the ice.
For the folks that aren’t using the camera’s they own, I would say one of two things.
1. You’re missing fish
and/or
2. You are using older cameras that don’t have Darkwater Technology.
Number Two First:
Inexpensive cameras and older cameras have the LED lights around the cameras iris. This causes light reflection that gives the viewer the “snow storm” effect. Using a camera like this is increasingly frustrating as the light at the end of the day faded. The time when most of us NEED a camera.
The Marcum line, using the Darkwater Technology places the lights above the iris and eliminates this reflection.
Cameras that don’t work after dark or in deep water are now going to the “kids” as a toy.
Want proof? Watch 1 minute of this video. At the 30 second mark you’ll see the bottom of a boat as the camera is being lowered into the dark depths of Pool 4 with the camera lights turned off.
If you watch closly, you’ll see a cloud of silt as the camera hits bottom. Then the lights are turned on going through the 4 levels.
See the silt? That’s what turns other cameras into…well, kids toys!
Watch the rest of the video (with the sound turned off if you don’t like country 
). Don’t look at the fish. Look at the silt that’s kicked up by the fish and how the picture looks! This video was taken in up to 50 feet of water. There is no light there!
To say a camera doesn’t work at night is TOTALLY TRUE…as long as we aren’t talking about the Marcum line of cameras!
I’ll be back after dinner for #1.
Sorry the picture is a bit tilted. I was drifting down stream and had the camera pointing towards shore which tipped the camera to one side.
Put the camera head down enough to see fish and they scatter. Watch them come back in and you can watch (if you can find your bait and hook with the camera–and that is not as easy as it sounds) them take the bait if it remains in the field of vision of the camera. The camera needs reflected light to see which means it works well at the surface and at the bottom but not in between.
Place the transducer in water and it will see fish and they will not see it. You can “watch” fish come in and follow the bait and be prepared to set the hook. See fish at the bottom, at the surface, and in between.
There really is no question about which is the most useful tool for most cases. The only time I will leave the LX5 at home is when I’m in shallow water exclusively–First ice and last ice.
Flasher. Flasher. Flasher all the way!!!
Ben, your choice of the Ice Troller is perfect!
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For the folks that aren’t using the camera’s they own, I would say one of two things.
1. You’re missing fish
and/or
2. You are using older cameras that don’t have Darkwater Technology.
1. You’re missing fish.
Why do I say that?
Since the flashers shoot straight down, they skip what’s off to the side. If there’s under water structure, like the “Pitching Pole” in the underwater video above, your flasher will not tell you it’s 20 or even 5 feet to the side.
Structure holds fish.
Now my partner in crime MNick said to me today, I don’t just punch one hole. I punch a lot of them in a diagonal line out to the deeper water. Then check them with my flasher.
The camera will tell you if there’s any fish and what kind and size they are at each one of the holes AND if there’s any off to the side. A flasher just can’t do that.
Personal example. I was fishing Square Lake a few years ago. I was drilling holes and drilling holes. Then checking them with a flasher. Nothing, nothing and more nothing. It wasn’t until I dropped my camera down and I found the gills and crappies off to the side. I ‘spose could have found them sooner or latter.
The other piece to this is the light bitters.
Someone might have posted about this before. There are times when that bait goes in and back out of a fishs mouth a person can react fast enough even with spring bobbers.
Using a camera gives the angler the edge by watching the fish come in..when the white wax worm is gone set the hook?
Using this alone has turned a couple fish into a meal for me many times.
Alright, off the soap box and done with the preaching. I figure everyone is at the Ice Show and I would be typing to myself anyway.
I think everyone has seen the wintering flatheads shot with the Marcum 825c. I can’t wait to see what the new 825sd will do with the New Sony Super HAD II’s!
Hey Brian,
If you want to trade me one of the new Marcum’s for my Cabelas POS I will surely put the dark water technology to good use. I am pretty sure if I went out and bought one right now I would be sleeping in my boat. I have it on the list for next year and I show her every day. I do agree with your post above. I have also had days where I would catch many more fish than my partner because I could see exactly when to set the hook.
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I’m in the same position as Dvoracek and want to buy one or the other. I’m a newbie to using either and don’t know the pros/cons of the flasher or camera.
My pea brain tells me a camera would “find fish” by showing fish on the screen plus show the species, size and depth.
Could someone be so kind as to explain how a flasher “finds fish” yet a camera can not?
Thanks for the help.
Flasher hands down – a flasher is great because you can see if there are fish in the water column instantly. If you have a camera you would literally have to slowly lower it down while rotating the lense to get the same affect. When people say a flasher finds fish they mean that as soon as you drop the transducer down you will know within seconds if fish are there. If you get some practice reading a flasher you can tell how fish are reacting to your lure, how close they are to your bait and even a rough idea of the size of the fish. Cameras are also very hard to adjust your water column…example: you are fishing crappies in 15 feet of water and the fish are schooling in the 5-10 deep mark – a flasher will show your lure in relation to all the fish in the water column in real time so if you see a mark come up at 8 feet you can reel up to him and get your bait in front of his face…with a camera you would have no idea if there fish above or below you.
I have both and the only time i think a camera really beats a flasher is if you are fishing very shallow (less then 5 feet). At that depth a flasher has a hard time picking up fish unless they are right below your transducer, a camera can be helpful in such situations.
my 2 cents, good luck!
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If you want to trade me one of the new Marcum’s for my Cabelas POS
Ummmm Russ….
I’m thinking about it….no. 
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