What Brands of Trail Cameras worked best for you?

D

dand883

CGN Ultra frequent flyer
Rating - 100%
82   0   0
What brands and models of trail cameras have you used in the past and what worked well, and what is junk to be avoided?

After having a few cameras out the past few years I've slowly lost a few to curious bears and the elements of having something electronic out in the elements for 2 years in a row, and I want to replace them for next season.

Currently I'd been using some wildgame innovations cloak 8 cameras I got on sale a while back. They've held up pretty decently, use 8 AA batteries and I pretty well get the full summer and most of a fall out of a set. They trigger a tad on the slow side if something is walking side to side, so you need to angle them to look down a trail rather than catch what walks across it.
I've actually been pretty happy with how they work for the price I got them, but any reviews I've read of the newer WGI models seem to be pretty bad. I don't know if I'm just easy to please, or if I lucked out with two good ones.

the other cameras I had were the simmons whitetail model. The battery capacity of 4 is kinda crappy as they last the summer, but then start to fade right before hunting season starts. They also won't work with a mini SD card with the adapter, something the WGI cameras don't care about. They also seem to just be plain picky when it comes to SD cards, sometimes they work fine, other times they just refuse to read the card. I have also had cases where one week I would have 40-50 pictures, and the next week nothing. While it is possible that that was the case that no animals came by that spot that week, I should at least get one or two of branches and weeds swaying in the breeze.
For the price they were better than nothing, but i wasn't super impressed with them, and being so inconsistent it's hard to pay for more of them. They also seem irresistible to bears. I've had 2 of them that a bear has tried to take a bite out of now, with no bears ever trying to eat my WGI cams. I don't know if it's the colour (grey for simmons, black for wgi) or maybe they plastic has a different smell, but i probably will stay away from them.

If anyone can recommend what they've had good luck with, or what is junk and i should avoid. I'd like to keep the price around $100 per camera, but I've got all winter to keep an eye for when they go on sale.
 
I have the same experience as you with WGI cameras. I get pretty much a year out of good batteries, which I think is great. I've had a couple that just stop working after a couple of years, but for the price, I'm OK with that. When they get stolen I'm not as upset as I would be with more expensive cameras. The ones that stop working I just put in obvious places as decoys to protect the working ones from thieves. Pictures are decent, and I don't need any better quality. Faster trigger speed would be nice, but the newer ones are faster.

I have one stealth camera that I got a very good deal on and its been great, but can't bring myself to spend the money for another when I can get WGI for 1/2 the price.

You get what you pay for, but again, I'm not too upset when they go missing or stop working because I didn't pay much.
 
I bought three Moultrie cameras from Sail about 6 years ago. They were larger older type at $49/each. Fantastic cameras. SD card, Four D batteries last a whole year. Still use them for trail and cabin security. They work at -30.

I also have four new ones, they use 8 double A batteries and only last a month, If you use the built in screen to preview the pictures, the batteries die. I'm constantly feeding batteries into them. On two of them, the "black flash" failed and they don't take night shots.

I don't understand why the prices are going up instead of down on the basic camera! At some spots, i just need to see what's at the feeder and at what times. Also, the cheap ones are good for public land where there's a higher risk of someone stealing them.

I've heard good things of Uway (inexpensive and Canadian).
 
Last edited:
I've got a dozen Browning cameras and really like them. They use 6 or 8 AA batteries depending on the model. They are quite a bit more than the 100 bucks you want to spend but in my opinion they're worth it.
 
I have 15 or so different trail cameras of all different makes. I have given up on WGI as some last a season and then die. My best is a Bushnell Trophy but I won't put it out where it may get stolen. More and more I am going to Stealh Cam especially as I can buy them in Dunham's Sports in the states for as little as$49 US. They work great for pictures or videos and easy on battery life. Older Moultie came with C cell batteries are bullet proof but 1 minute between pictures. Work well in cold weather.

A new one I have been trying is a Muddy camera similar to the Browning. Takes videos with audio. Small, takes 6 AA batteries. I used one all last winter taking videos of coyotes running along the fence at the back of my house. Great battery life and video quality. Also use for video surveillance system at my deer property. TSC had them on sale last week for 70 CAN and I picked up another.

Use good batteries especially in cold weather. I have been using Duracell Quantums and very happy with them.
 
I have one called “Covert”. It is fantastic and I recommend it highly. In three weeks it took 1042 crystal clear pix and was still going strong when I pulled it.
 
Tried a bushnell and spypoint with poor results. Now running 5 Stealthcam 42ng (?) and two less tech models. All working well but really happy with the former. Good battery life, awesome range of functionality and literally will take pics at 100’. Resolution is first rate and easy to program.
 
Reconyx, Ltl Acorn and Browning cameras in that order have been the best for me. Reconyx are very expensive though. I am one of the guys that has had bad luck with Bushnell cams and wouldn't take another for free. Metal boxes are worth the cost if using them in bear country.

I have also had good results building a pivot mount that screws into the tree and the other end threads into the 1/4-20 female thread on the camera. I carry some screw in tree stand steps with me and mount the camera 12-13 feet up the tree and remove the screw in steps when I am done. Seems to not attract the attention of bears or thieves when it is out of the line of sight.
 
I have 3 Stealthcam G42NG that have just finished their 2nd year with no problems. The rest of my cameras are Moultries, and I can't say the same for them. The older (discontinued) M80 series was ok, but the red glow spooked bucks. I've had nothing but bad luck with the 880's and 990's. I can't vouch for the latest generation of Moultrie, since I'm done wasting money on them, but I will be adding more Stealthcams.
 
I’m new to the trail cam thing. I bought a couple of refurbished stealthcam no glows on camofire in late winter last year (quite a bit under your budget btw), I’ve got a couple thousand photos so far and I’m very happy with the battery life, but I put them out in the spring and haven’t ran them through the winter yet.
I did mount the one camera facing east (like the instructions tell you NOT to do) and as a result photos taken really early in the morning are kinda washed out. And I’ve also gotten a lot of photos with no animals in them, but I think a fair bit of that is due to how I have the cameras aimed. But so far I’ve gotten pictures of moose, mule deer, white tails, black bears and elk, oh and some snowshoe hares so I’m pretty happy with myself.
 
Run an old primos bullet proof that had been working well but the 1 sec trigger sucks unless you have it near feed. Also branches and moving grass could set it off. Batteries last forever.

Have a few spypoints that seem to eat batteries. Night pics are kinda blurry if the deer are moving more than a slow walk.

Have a browning as well that has great battery life but again kinda blurry at night. Great range but disappointed in the blurriness.

My buddy has a moultrie and his night pics are very nice compared to mine but his is at a feeder where there isnt fast moving objects so more testing will be required.

In the process of rigging up 12v battery boxes to help prolong the battery life of my cams just so i dont need to change batteries as often especially in the cold weather.

Also as with all cameras, if you can semi cover them, do so. Freezing rain all over the cam sucks especially on the latches. If you can tuck the cam under some additional cover then do so.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom