you can use it as just a camera or just a sonar or the combination of the two. i used the camera to recover my auger a few days ago and then went fishing with the sonar. i did see a sleeping bluegill on the bottom and found the bottom to be a light tan silt.
sonar has much better coverage than a camera and is much faster to deploy and start using.
water clarity is a big deal, just like it is for your eyes to see so is light. light on a camera attracts plankton and they clog up the screen, more so at night when they come out in full force. using both will eat a lot of battery. using dedicated holes is fine. i use them for the transducer and two for fishing from and a forth if i want to use my camera while fishing.
i was thinking about picking up the recon 5+ because it uses ir and led lights and is much faster to deploy from a pocket and then go back into the pocket. i watched some other folks use one (aqua-vu micro) and they just went from hole to hole looking for fish. once found they stowed the camera and started fishing. so that was a new concept for me to see on how you can use them. most of the time extra holes you can walk up onto and take over is not an option where i normally fish tho. i have to make them and use them, but the sonar tell much more much faster, so i use it 99% of the time and the camera less than 1%. i don't see me using it more either. they are a pita to use, but fun once set up unless a fish wraps up around the cable.
you have to think of how you would use it or how would you benefit from using one. if you would sit and fish with it or scout or both. the screen size matters too. the motorized part that holds the camera comes into play if you want your hands back and the camera in the water. so check those out too. there are only a couple to check out. marcum uses tiny little screws (size 0) to change batteries and is not rechargeable. so you either have to take it apart to measure batteries so you won't need to change them on the ice or bring the screw driver and batteries onto the ice. it would have been nice to have it a rechargeable unit or have it tap into the sonar battery for power.
the sonar is top notch! i like it it a lot! a few minuses of it are;
-it is missing 2.5 feet of seeing your jig. if you standing on a foor of ice and the ducer is in the water an inch, then your only missing 1 foot of not seeing your jig. on my hb ice-55 that two feet is nothing but worthless clutter anyway.
-the auto depth is still flaky even after a long awaited software update. using dynamic manual is better anyway. it forces the bottom of the lake to go to the bottom of the screen to have the most viewable space to watch for fish.
-having to switch between mode 1 or mode 2 to be able to use in water less than 10 feet is still needed even after the long awaited software update. this lowers the return gain, but you need that gain back to normal in water more than 10-12 feet depending on jig size so your not turning the gain up too high killing the battery.
