Marcum VS350 - Close Up Look

[Dave]

MarCum Technologies introduced its new underwater viewing system for 2005, the VS350. I’ll be using the VS350 this ice season and thought I’d give you a quick close up look.

The VS350 is an entry-level underwater viewing system priced at less than $200US. The low price doesn’t mean low quality, however. The brunt of the VS350 capabilities comes from a Sony low lux CCD underwater camera. CCD, or charge coupled device, is a part of the camera that reads light and captures video and still images as millions of pixels. The higher the pixel count of the CCD, the higher the resolution and the clearer the picture.

A seven-inch black and white monitor is used for the 350 systems. Standard controls like brightness and contrast are found on the monitor. An extra control found is the dimmer control; to increase or decrease the infrared lights on the camera. I don't believe any other manufacturer besides Marcum utiliizes a dimmer control for that purpose.

To open the front control door, push in and then lift up.

The camera connection, video port, brightness control are located on the rear of the monitor. The battery and monitor slip out of the soft case relatively easy for access while on the ice.

The VS350 comes with 65-feet of cable and has printed depth markers every five-feet; so you know how deep the camera is underwater. I would've liked to have seen more visible depth markings on the cable but, they are there.

The monitor and 12-volt battery is housed in a padded denier soft pack-carrying case with built in collapsible sun shield.

Shroud fully open.

Shroud's inside support flaps folded in before the shroud is fully collapsed and velcro'd closed.

Mesh storage compartments on each side of the case hold the cord wrap and camera.

Initial installation of the battery and camera setup are basic steps and defined well within the instructions.

The battery, and inline fuse, are housed under the monitor behind a velcro'd front flap. Simply open the flap to connect the charger unit.

There’s no battery charge status indicator on the 350 but, after an overnight charge, it was off to the lake.

My 1st stop was in 35 FOW on a cloudy day. I wasn’t expecting to see much, that far down with no sunlight. To my surprise, game fish were viewed without the infrared lighting system. Increasing the infrared lights did increase the amount of particulates that were seen in the lake. It’s not a very clear lake. Without the infrared lights, viewing fish six feet away wasn’t a problem. After watching some crappie hit the minnow, it was off to shallower water for a quick viewing test.

My 2nd stop, at 4:30pm was in 13 FOW. Snowing and cloudy conditions. The viewable distance increased to about 15 feet. We watched a couple of small walleye hit the jig and minnow from the hole on the other side of the fish house 8 feet away.

The view angle of the camera can be changed slightly by moving the ballast weight forward or backward. The detents in the weight snapped into place securely.

My first impression of the Marcum VS350 is pretty good. Being use to the auto-panning VS560 left me a little flustered after using the VS350; as holding and turning the cable to adjust the camera's view is time consuming. But, I remembered, this is an entry-level system for under $200! I would definitely purchase the ice arm and steering clips though. I think that $15 option would make using any non-panning camera a lot easier; in regards to directing the camera.

Using a flasher, such as the LX-5, and an underwater camera are tools to teach kids what's going on in the underwater world.

Exploring the lake bottom and watching a fish take the bait is a bonus!

[Lake Trout]

I needed that info. Thanks. I still am leery about underwater cameras because last year I purchased then returned an Aqua View Scout after the camera housing filled with water after one hour the first day out. I still want to purchase one and was looking at the MarCum after my problem with the Aqua View. I'm putting off my purchase until the ice thickens as I want my one year warranty to be in effect well into next ice fishing season since I will not drive out the way the ice is now.