Marcum VS825c

[wintertim]

So has anyone laid eyes on, or plopped money down on one of the new Marcum VS8-- series underwater cameras? I'm really curious about the VS825c color unit. I know that color cameras give it up in the area of light sensitiviy compared to B&W, but it sure does look sweet

[fishinlocal]

I have wondered the same thing. I am looking to drop some good money on a camera this year and have been looking at the Marcum VS560. I then saw they had the 825c. I did notice the 800 series does not have the rotating camera housing. That may break the deal for me.

[LMITOUT]

Welcome to Fishing Minnesota fishinlocal!

I pre-ordered the 820 and now just waiting for it to arrive. They haven't made it to the market quite yet, so there probably won't be any reviews or reports on either of these 800 series cameras for a while yet. Hopefully soon!

[Warren]

I pre ordered the VS825C , Reeds will ship it when it gets here . I think real soon

[wintertim]

LMITOUT and Warren,

I'd love to hear about them as soon as you get them and get a chance to try them out. Will you post a report? The whole package (camera, monitor and case) looks to be getting nicely refined here on their nth generation.

Tim

[LMITOUT]

Will do!

[Hotspotter]

I had my first chance to test a VS820 and a VS825c on-ice yesterday. The first thing that immediately strikes you is the 8" flat-screen and no hovering over it to see what's going on. We simply drilled a few holes in a weedy flat, and I was more than impressed.

I'm still a little dissappointed that the camera doesn't rotate in its housing like my VS560, but I took advantage of my time out there and gave the camera compass a whirl as well. I was surprised at how steady this was, and the fine tuned adjustments you could make.

The color was incredible, esp. for the green weeds, but we were in White Bear Lake, pretty shallow, with good clarity conditions. In murkier water, I'm guessing that the B/W VS820 is going to perform better and provide the highest contrast for better viewing. So for my own, that's what I have on order, a VS820.

I tell you what though, after seeing that color, esp. if you're a panfisherman in search of green weeds or specific weed species, the 825c is going to be worth its weight in gold.

As the sun went down, the image became more difficult to see, but we didn't test with the lighting. I wish now that I would've, as I'm sure that would've cleared things right up.

If you have any other specific questions, just drop them here and I'll do my best to answer.

Joel

[wintertim]

Thanks for the report Joel. I haven't owned an underwater camera yet so I can't speak from experience, but everything I've read in the forums so far suggests that no camera is much good after dark, even with LEDs turned on. It seems most people just shut them down once the sun sets. If that's true, maybe the color/B&W issue is a moot point afterall.

[wormfishin]

Taped a mini mag lite to the camera last season worked great for about 20min until the batteries finally died from being in the 33degree water so long. Dropped a few lights down holes in the past but only the one time on purpose, worked great.

[fishinlocal]

Anyone have any other experiences with the new marcum cameras? color or not?

[LMITOUT]

I don't believe they've shipped yet, as I haven't heard anything about them.