Studying fish in Wisconsin

[ESOX-MASQ 0]

Thank you to all the moderators and contributers to this forum, I've spent about a week reading posts trying to learn as much as I can about CCTV systems and terminology. I'm a PhD student at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, Center for Limnology studying fish and food webs in northern Wisconsin lakes. I've been reading this forum because I know very little about CCTV and need advice on assembling underwater video surveillance equipment to study fish behavior.

 

My overall goal is to understand the timing of prey fish activity over the coarse of a 24hr period in different habitats of freshwater lakes. I've had reasonable luck using over-the-counter camera systems (Aqua-Vu), but I was hoping that contributers to this forum might help me design a system better suited to my needs. (better night viewing, maybe cheaper, longer record time, better resolution)

 

I need to be able record underwater video at the edge and in the middle of lakes, so I have been envisioning stand alone 12V systems that include a B/W camera, IR illuminators, battery, and video recording capability (memory card recorders??). Ideally I'd like to set up 3-5 of these systems in a lake at the same time, so keeping costs down is consideration but not a deterrent. We have rafts with other sensors on them so we have sturdy mounting platforms above the water.

 

Are these the kind of cameras I should be looking into?

Matrix ILC-400

Speco CVC 627

Lorex CVC6990

 

If not these any advice on other systems?

 

What about IR illuminators? Will I need them if I get the right kind of camera that already has some? Video capture in the dark is a critical need because dusk/dawn is when all the action happens. I've looked at the 48-LED IR illuminators on Ebay and assorted sites, I was planning on sealing these in clear housing...is heat going to be an issue?

 

I have a memory card based video recorder made for the Aqua-Vu cameras and sold by NatureVision (sorry can't post links yet).

Is this the best I can do (I doubt it)? Are there 12V powered recorders? Can they add a time stamp?

 

Thank you in advance. I'm hoping some of you can help. I'm mechanically and electronically inclined, but new to video, so don't feel free to tell me to go read more, at this point I don't even know what I don't know. I'll try to answer all questions as quickly as I can. I added a post to the Introductions forum and feel free to mention any specific posts or posters that you think could help me or shoot me a PM.

 

Thanks again,

Brian

 

Other notes:

I'm hoping to be able to see and identify fish within 1m of the camera, or further, I'm just not sure what is possible.

[Guest]

I dont gonna come with so much adivce too you, but I do know that here in Norway we have some salmon farms with some pretty high tech underwater cctv system, making analyze of the fish size and fish numbers inside a fish silo and then calculate the amount of food beeing used to feed them.

 

We also done just a few sales too some salmon "traps" which is used in season s when the slamon is swimming up river.

 

 

Have a nice day!

 

 

 

JD

[rory 0]

Hi, welcome to the forum.

 

If the budget can afford it, you should be looking at ExtremeCCTV.com, they have pretty much the best IRs and also they have underwater cameras.

 

www.extremecctv.com

[ESOX-MASQ 0]

Much of this work is experimental in nature so I'm not sure I have the budget for the ExtremeCCTV, plus I couldn't seem to find any prices on their website.

 

Does anyone have any experience submerging any of those other cameras?

 

JOINDVR, do you know what kind of cameras those salmon farms use?

 

Thanks,

Brian

[RickA 0]

You will be looking for cameras with an IP68 rating, anything less will be a loss unless you are going to provide an underwater housing for the camera.