trail cam recommendations

[packerbacker]

hello

i am looking to get my first trail camera. about all i know is i think i would like one with an ir flash but dont want to spend a lot of money. 250.00 or less i'm thinking. i dont need lots of frills, just a dependable model with good battery life. i have been told by many to avoid cuddeback and ive seen one malfunction badly. a freind who has a spouse that works at a cabelas said that cuddeback is the camera most often returned and my local bow shop says the same - he wont even carry them anymore. i dont live all that close to where it would be set up so trips to check on it would be infrequent. most i have asked said moultree would be the way to go. does anybody have any experience, thoughts or advise for me in picking one ? thanks

mitch

 

[taylorhaught]

i have the cuddeback capture ir (infared) and am really happy with it. you can pick one up for about $230 and in my opinion cuddeback is the best there is. fast triggers and quality pics. they also last a long time on 4 d batteries. I have some pics to post soon

 

[HawgHunter]

I have the cuddeback infrared. Very long battery life and is easy to use once it is programmed. Bear season alone it took over 2000 pictures without a problem.

 

[Redclub]

I have a Cuddeback capture and Excite, Capture gets a lot more pictures per set of batteries (about a 1000) even in cold weather. They are made in China now. I had a $400 one and it failed after 2 years Cuddeback warranty was for chit.
Redclub

 

[Redclub]

Here is a pic I got on X-Mas

Excite

RC

 

[sproulman]

ir cameras

all these cameras have issues.

i-40 from moultrie you can get now for 180 dollars.

i think stealthcam is good one too.

those 2 are under 200.

 

[Big Mac]

I have used a Cuddy for 4 years and just got a Moultrie I-40 last fall. The Cuddy takes good photos but has a shorter battery life than the I-40. Cuddy has 4 batteries and I-40 has 6. I took over 2000 photos over the winter here in Alberta on a single set of batteries with the I-40. The Cuddy went through 4 sets in the same time.

hello

i am looking to get my first trail camera. about all i know is i think i would like one with an ir flash but dont want to spend a lot of money. 250.00 or less i'm thinking. i dont need lots of frills, just a dependable model with good battery life. i have been told by many to avoid cuddeback and ive seen one malfunction badly. a freind who has a spouse that works at a cabelas said that cuddeback is the camera most often returned and my local bow shop says the same - he wont even carry them anymore. i dont live all that close to where it would be set up so trips to check on it would be infrequent. most i have asked said moultree would be the way to go. does anybody have any experience, thoughts or advise for me in picking one ? thanks

mitch

 

[user 70]

Since Jan. 1, I've picked up a Scout Guard SG550 and a DLC Covert II Assassin. They are both IR and based around the same camera guts, just a little different case and the DLC added one more IR bulb. Battery life is phenomenal. I've been running the SG550 since the first week in January on the same 8 lithium AAs and they are going strong. You should be able to pick them up for about $200. The single pics can be set to 5M resolution. A week ago I set them to video mode and here are a couple of samples.

This is from the SG550:


DLC Covert II:

 

[squirrelhawker]

That is one lazy deer! Ours go over fences.

 

[Davexx1]

From what I have read over the last year, all of the trail cameras are having "issues". There is not any one camera that seems to be absolutely troublefree. All seem to have some problems of one kind or another even the more expensive ones.

That said, good warranty and factory support is very valuable or else you end up with an expensive paperweight. Warranties are 1 or 2 years. After that, you are on your own.

Trigger speed is very important. Cuddeback seem to have some of the fastest trigger speeds. I have an original Cuddeback 3.0 digital and love it. 16,000 photos over the years so far and still working perfectly. I am thinking about buying another, the Cuddeback Capture ($200) but have heard both good and bad about it and all other cameras.

Frankly, I do not like IR night photos. IR range is usually very short and dim and the plain black/white photos do not look good. I prefer a flash type camera because the night photos are in living color and much more detailed. The deer get used to the flash and it does not seem to bother them after that.

Good luck.

Dave

 

[vabowhntr]

Check out chasingame.com to read reviews. It looks like they are testing a wildgame innovations ir cam right now that runs $100. Trigger speed of just about 1 second, which is pretty good, even when compared to my cuddyback no flash. Only took about a thousand pics before the batteries went dead, but that was in two weeks. Don't know how long it would last around here, I don't think I would get that many pics in a year.