I own a Marcum VS825 SD. Got it on sale for $800. Regularly retails for around $900. Cabelas or Whole Sale sports might still have it on sale. The unit down, the Marcum VS485C is a good unit too but with a few less features. 50 ft cable vs 100 ft on the 800, and it doesn't show camera depth, water temp or relative direction. It also doesn't come with a camera panner I don't believe and trust me you'll want one. It's ridiculous that you have to pay an additional $400 for these features but it is what it is.
This is my second unit from Marcum. I owned an LX-9 prior but returned it. Felt overpriced for what it did and also had some issues (screen freezing, shutting down, battery getting zapped after full charge). I could have tried to troubleshoot but for $1,600 I shouldn't have to. The Marcum VS825 SD is much better but I still had issues. Water somehow got in between the screen and the plastic. Had to disassemble to dry it off. Again, stuff like this shouldn't happen to goods at this price point within the first few weeks of use.
The Marcum units have good visual quality for a fishing camera (but crap quality if you compare it to today's cameras on cell phones). Low light performance is excellent and the larger screen size is nice. These units aren't as mobile as the Aqua Vu Micros which work better as scouting units but can still be used for sitting and watching from a stable location but you'll need to shell out extra for a panner and a base to set them up on. The Aqua Vu's do seem to have a wider FOV than the Marcum. Something to consider. Visually quality isn't quite as good, but definitely acceptable.
I dislike the Marcum's size and weight, especially if I'm also bringing my sonar. But I do like the screen size, ease of use, battery life and the fact that it comes with its own base (just unzip the unit, flip up the screen and drop the camera down; set up the panner if you plan to stay for awhile). Knowing the temp of the water at different depths is also useful.
There really isn't an ideal solution for camera/sonar/GPS combo yet. At least not for a price that makes sense. You can purchase the Marcum LX-9 but it doesn't have GPS. Marcum did launch a new unit, the RT-9, that incorporates all these features but it'll cost you around $3,000 or so and the kinks are still being worked out. Marcum customer service is better than most other brands, but it's still pretty terrible given the price tag on their goods. And the GPS/Mapping feature on the RT-9 doesn't use Insight Genesis, which is what you'll really want for accuracy and because other mapping services don't have a large number of the lakes in Alberta.
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