Monitoring demersal fish assemblages in continental shelf waters is important for informed decision making, conservation efforts and sustainable management of marine resources and ecosystems. We contrasted demersal fish assemblage compositions and spatial distributions using stereo-baited remote underwater video systems (BRUVs) and an unbaited drop camera to assess the effect of method in tropical, subtropical and temperate locations along the west Australian continental shelf. Baited stereo-BRUVs tended to better capture bigger target species while the unbaited drop camera tended to observe smaller more cryptic species. We also showed differences in the effects of spatial covariates across the baited and unbaited methods. The contrasting results obtained from BRUVs and the unbaited drop camera emphasise that methods matter in capturing the diversity and spatial distribution of demersal fish species, highlighting the importance of selecting appropriate methodologies for monitoring and management of demersal fish assemblages.