Pond survey camera suggestions?

PHXAZCRAIG wrote:

So basically yo need an underwater drone. (Try asking about it in the drone forum here. Maybe something exists, but if nothing else you might get some tips on what is needed to stream images back, still or video.

Good idea.

Speaking of video, is that more what you need here, or at you trying this with a collection of still images?

Just as a thought, due to the limited visibility, perhaps you could build a tripod rig with camera attached that you lower down on a line until it sits on the bottom, then using a remote release (or just timed shots perhaps with no user interaction), get shots from a camera that is pointed down and focused at the required distance. Then, using a boat, just pull up the camera and drop it down onto another location. Keep track of where the images are being taken if you can't review in real time.

My boat mount was simply a long clamp on the edge of the boat with the camera about 2' underwater. It wouldn't be hard to move the camera down further to trace the bottom (which isn't completely flat and has some obstructions, such as tree branches), except I don't want to risk hurting the liner by scraping the camera rig against it, so I at least want a live view to position the camera safely above the bottom. I suppose I could try using one of the $3 endoscope cameras just to watch for adjusting to follow the bottom and one of the other cameras to capture better images of what's there? I know a 1/2 acre pond doesn't sound big, but it's 21,780sqft, so optimistically assuming a 3ft view radius, a full survey would require 242 separate camera positions to be sampled!

I can probably use my GPS tracker to know where each sample was taken +/-3' or so.

Anyway, I was hoping somebody here would just say, "Here's how I did that." Not happening, eh?