new sunlight viewable marcum and aqua vu ?

[thorson]

Has anyone checked these units out yet first hand? How does the marcum compare to the aqua vu? Are they truly viewable in the direct sunlight? Are you truly able to see colors underwater with the marcum?

[thorson]

bump

[LMITOUT]

I don't believe they have officially hit the market quite yet for any reviews. It was mentioned somewhere else that there aren't any at the St. Paul ice show either, but I believe they said late Nov/early Dec so it won't be long before we get some comments about these newer units. Mine is on order and patiently waiting for it to arrive!

[blueroof]

The marcum units will be available in two weeks, the aqua vu sometime in January. Pretty much nobody has any first hand experience, let alone a chance for a side by side comparison.

Marcum lists the video screen of the vs820 as having a resolution of 800h x600v. I was told at the show the DT7 will be VGA, 640h x 480v. I think the rep was mistaken on this spec, to me the screen appears to have a 5:3 aspect ratio, not 4:3 (VGA.) I would really like to find out the screen resolution. For the price difference, I would think the Aqua Vu would have more pixels than the Marcum.

The Marcum is a sony HAD ccd, the Aqua Vu has a samsung ccd. I know sony is generally considered to be top dog in the consumer ccd world. I was asking the company reps, neither knew the specific image sensors. I'm guessing they are both 1/4".

I would think the optics in both units would be top notch. Personally, I'm leaning towards the Marcum. Unless someone with knowledge can convince me the electronics in the Aqua Vu are superior.

We use digital ccd imaging devices for fairly high speed motion analysis at the University, 1/3 and 1/2" ccd chips are pretty expensive. Last time we bought a board level 1/2" ccd sensor, it was over $1000. The bigger the sensor the better the ability to capture images in low light.

hope this info helps, LB