It is just a small camera lens and LED lights on the end of a 5 meter cord that uses your android camera as a monitor plugged into the micro USB on the phone. The LEDs are around to the lens and if you turn it on you cannot see anything. Also in the dark part of the boat slip I could not see much.
I took it out to try it and dropped it in the fish basket, we had cleaned all the crappie in it. So I went on below it. Well you can see the little fella that was there. Very hard to control where it points and I cannot tell how deep. So then I tried a little later to check out the tree we sunk. Nothing there that I saw or they were spooked off.
I am planning on getting an old 2 piece cheapie fishing pole and taping the cam to the tip and then I can stick it down into the brush piles and see what is there. I realize this is a novelty and really will not effect how I fish but you know those days when something keeps ripping your minnows off the hook and you want to see if it is bunch of little crappie, bluegill or something else.
Water quality was poor, I could only see maybe 16"-20". I will post up more vids if I am more successful with the fishing rod idea to control the viewing angles instead of just dangling a cord. I would have taken more video but I wanted to fish and not piddle with the cam. Proof in concept, it functions. (I really bought it to try to find a rattle under my jeep)
Oh, I paid $14 for it shipped, and I tried the proprietary software but it would not work on my galaxy S5 so I downloaded an app for free and it functions fine.
you also might try a golf ball retriever. I think that it would be stronger and you'll get your mini cam back that way.