Underwater video cameras

[PFS]

I was wondering if anyone has had experience with any type of underwater video systems, fish cams etc. For some reason, I can't get it out of my head that it would be cool to look around under the boat and see what's going on down there. I've looked around on ebay and some other sites and I've seen cams that are pretty reasonable in price. The one I like the look of best is this one: http://www.seaview.com/product_info.php?products_id=62 There are cheaper ones on the market, and I know I could spend a whole lot more. I'd mostly be using it in fresh water, and not very deep. Thanks for any input.

Paul

 

[waterinthefuel]

Re: Underwater video cameras

I have one of the first ones made in about 2002 or 2003. It works pretty good. You can't tell what direction the camera is facing but you can see a lot of interesting stuff. However, even in very clear water I can only see a foot or two. It seems it's not as clear as you think it is. It runs on a 12v battery, so you can hook it up to the boats battery with little effort.

That reminds me I want to make a wire to hotwire mine to my boat. It's neat. We have an old highway that goes under our cove. With the camera you can put it down there and still see the lane markings! How neat is that? I've bumped bass with mine....I'll be trolling along slowly and out of the abyss a siluette of a big old bass it gets clearer and clearer and you look at the screen and see that you're going to bump him and then "thump" you feel it in the camera cable and see the fish move out of the way on the screen.

They're cool as hell, but in a freshwater lake don't expect any more than 2-3' of visibility.

 

[bcons]

Re: Underwater video cameras

I have one, they're a cool toy. Sometimes they work well, sometimes they don't. I use mine ice fishing also, it works.

Look at youtube lots of clips of real people using them, not promos or pic's from the manufacturer. Most even tell you what camera they're using. It's an easier way to judge performance.