Your experience with trail cameras

elker

elker

CGN Regular
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Vancouver Island, BC
I had two browning strike force for 8 years. They started eating batteries last year. Before that they were very efficient with batteries. One time the camera was taking the images of a dry creek bed and the river flooded with water. It took thousands of useless photos of moving water with floating woods. The batteries were largely unchanged. However the browning is very slow in capturing the moving animals. I saw a black bear walking on a beaver dam and my camera didn’t have any videos of it.
A few months ago, I bought a spylink force dark, which boasts of quickest image catching. What a junk it is!!!! It does not have smooth moving video at all. The moves in the video is like you are fast forwarding your vhr with a remote control. When the rabbit jump, the video only shows the curves of the bright eyes of the rabbit. It doesn’t catch a moving animal fast enough either.

What’s your experience with trail camera?
 
So far i've had good luck with stealthcam cameras, they've lasted pretty well, batteries will last from summer to hunting season, they seem to catch animals walking by, but not an excessive amount of bushes moving pictures. The easy quick set dial is nice for me, a decent compromise of price/quality, i mostly have refurbished models, which helps the wallet.

I had a few cheaper simmons cameras, worked good for a year or two, then they all #### the bed in various ways.

Moultrie worked good, but i found it a little sensitive and i end up sifting through a ton of pictures of grass moving to try and pick out a deer. I could probably play with the setting, great picture quality though.

Wildgame cameras i found middle of the road, they're ok, but miss stuff or are slow to trigger sometimes, so you need to point it down the trail instead of side on to it. They do seem to last pretty long, so if you get a great deal on them i wouldn't not buy them, but not my first choice.

I haven't tried any other brands, so can't comment beyond those.
 
Brand experience is limited, I have bought Simmons and Moultrie. The one Simmons is still going strong, the moultrie’s wouldn’t work outa the box and I returned them. I generally buy the cheap 2 packs, then if they walk off I’m not out a ton of money. I’m not looking for crazy high res images so they work well for me.
 
In my experience, they work for a season or so, then function erratically, ie not taking pics. Seem to work as tested in the living room, but not afield. Perhaps a more expensive or late model would be better. These are the cheap units I have used.
 
Ive had stealth cams simmons and wildlife innovations the best ones ive found for picture quality and batteries would b the wildlife innovations up to 500 600 pictures a week for 3 months and i only have to use 8 aa batteries the whole 3 months
 
Jesselegend01 said:
Ive had stealth cams simmons and wildlife innovations the best ones ive found for picture quality and batteries would b the wildlife innovations up to 500 600 pictures a week for 3 months and i only have to use 8 aa batteries the whole 3 months
Click to expand...

That seems excessive, are you using reg nicad’s? I’m getting a year or more out of 4AA lithium’s in my cheapo Simmons, I don’t do video though. They stay out all year.
 
I have really tried to like Spypoint over the years, and have bought multiple different models of regular and cell cameras. They seem really hit or miss though. Multiple cameras where they don't keep the date/time and they will randomly reset it, others that corrupt pictures randomly (sometimes a whole SD card), cell camera that stops working after being out a couple weeks with absolutely zero support other than "change the batteries", etc. I likely will not be buying any more after the poor support I got for my cell camera.

Have tried a few other types too - Bushnell, UWay, etc... no real complaints, but it has been my experience if you leave almost any of them out all year it seems like after 2-3 years they all die or become unreliable anyways (winter temperatures <-40, not counting wind chill). Haven't tried any of the higher end ones though like Reconyx.

From a value perspective, I have found some of the better ones are the various rebadged Chinese ones with side motion sensors. They are cheap, take good pictures, batteries last a long time, and seem to have a much further detection + night vision range than a lot of other cams. I'm sure there are bad ones that slip through, but I haven't got one yet anyways. Have 11 different cameras out right now and one of these is actually the camera that has been running longest, but maybe I am just lucky.

Try and pick a camera with either the totally infrared ("black") LED's or hang them up high out of visual line of sight. Some of the ones that flash closer/into the visible spectrum (cheaper Bushnell, etc) are really obvious once it gets dark and show up even to my eyes as a red glow.... so they aren't good for security purposes, and might turn that nice buck nocturnal or make sure you only ever see 1 picture of it.
 
Have used a lot of different ones - friends dont let friends use Wildgame Innovations, Muddy, Tasco or Simmons cameras....

Stealtcam by far has been the most consistent and reliable for me. No issues with Bushnell and great warranty service if required. Two months into using a Spypoint cellular - despite bad ratings on Cabelas mine seems to be functioning well. Moultries I have are bulletproof but slow trigger speed and reset time.

Best ones going for the price point in my opinion are the following Camparks from Amazon.ca. Small, easy to conceal, take 4 AA batteries - the ones I used for surveillance on a heavily used road fronting my deer hunting property for people dumping crap on it took thousands of pictures using Lithium batteries wihout requiring battery replacement. For 65$ I have been very happy

https://www.amazon.ca/Campark-Camer...rds=campark+game+camera&qid=1613695003&sr=8-9

I also have a couple of the other Camparks and they are working well to date.
 
So far so good...no issue with spy point

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Out of at least a dozen cams used by our group, I'd say at least 10 of them are SpyPoints and have worked out very well so far. One of our group left his out from Nov-March and
was still working when we retrieved it. It had almost 1000 pics on it, unfortunately mostly moving bush but it did have quite a few Moose, Bear & Deer. I've left mine out most of the winter for Deer & Coyote and AS LONG AS THE BATTERIES ARE FRESH they seem to hold up well. The biggest problem I've had is, I have to reset the date every time I turn it on. (On 2 of them) Don't care about resolution, though it's pretty good, I just want to see if an animal is there. I test them 2-3-4X a year and generally they only pick up an animal inside 18-22 metres. I've spent many hours looking at reviews and though there are better units out there, they cost 2-3X what I've paid for the SpyPoints. One time I had an issue with one of the cams and the Spy website directed me to a site where my son REPROGRAMMED it.(? not sure what the correct term is, I'm useless on computers). It worked, problem solved. One final item, when I set up a cam I ALWAYS GO TO TEST MODE to prove it's POINTING CORRECTLY. For the price, I think they're pretty good.
 
kamlooky said:
Don't buy a fruck'in SpyPoint.
Their service/support really really sucks Ol`Oscar.
Click to expand...

Have you tried their support recently? I have and it has improved tremendously....in the last week I have initiated a support chat 3X and been connected with a support person within minutes each time. So IMO they have solved much of their support issues. However, having a responsive support staff doesn’t exactly make up for a crap product.

Spypoint products are awesome when they work but infuriating when they don’t. I had major issues with my link evos when I first got them. Horrible support and issue after issue. But once I got the kinks worked out I was a happy camper....for about 18 months. During this time the cameras functioned but several times I watched animals large and small walk in front of the cameras and no pics - I’ve had this happen with other brands of cameras so I’ve learned to just accept that.

Recently I started having issues again. This time the support has been responsive but the issues can’t seem to be resolved. I had 2 cell cams working flawlessly for 18+ months and then out of the blue, both stopped transmitting at practically the same time. From my perspective is sure seems like spypoint changed something on their end but they deny this of course and because my cameras are out of warranty it appears I am sol.

At this point I would not recommend spypoint to anyone. Having a trail cam that sends pics to your phone is amazing! I will never buy another non-cellular camera. But I’m looking at options other than spypoint now. Cheap price and responsive support is great but when you factor in the frustration factor and a lifespan of <2 years, I think there are better options.
 
My Bushnells always crap out in cold weather (-20C or worse), especially the video. Stealth cams have been pretty good. Not great but dependable..slow trigger sometimes. I have an expensive Reconyx that is a solid performer. No video, but no issues either. Good battery life on all of them
 
I have a spypoint micro LTE. I have been using it for security purposes and it has been awesome. Having the photo sent to your phone right after they are taken is a game changer. Would be nice to have a video option as this one only takes pictures. I think you have to spend big money for that.
 
As others have said they all seem to screw up at some point. Bought a couple of stealth cams last year and they worked great. I put them out last fall and both of them would only record 6 pictures. After some fiddling around I finally reformatted the Sd cards and they seemed to be working again. I won’t know for sure until I retrieve them next month. I always use cheaper cameras so if they go missing it’s not a big loss
 
If you can find them, in my experience nothing is better than Cuddeback. Long battery life and the picture quality is amazing. Top that off with extra fast trigger speed and setting options and you’re good to go. Mine have been in service for about 10 years and have yet to have any problems.
 
I have really good luck with my moultries. I have one I leave out year round. I put energizer lithium batteries in it in the fall of 2019 and its still running on them. Don't ever waste your $ on the Spypoint cel cams. They are absolute garbage! I returned mine and got my $ back. I bought two more Moultries with the $.
 
I buy wildlife innovation cameras when they are on sale. Basically cheap enough that I don’t care when they get stolen. I’ve had one for 7 years now still working like a champ. Others start acting up after a couple years.

Certainly not the greatest camera but when on sale for $50 bucks it’s hard to beat them in an location where you know they will go missing

I have one SPYPOINT cell cam that has been working perfectly for the last year. I’d buy another in a heartbeat but there are sure a lot of people who don’t like them. The guy who recommended them to me told me to follow the setup instructions to the letter and I have. So far so good
 
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