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Covert Issues

BOWDUDE

BOWDUDE

New Member
My Covert is taking tons of pictures with nothing there. I think when it is windy it is picking up any blade of grass. Not sure if the sun shining on it is giving it the heat. In one week 3000 pics, only about 35 had something in them.

I love the camera other than this issue, great trigger speed, battery life unreal. I have bumped the sensitivity down.

Bowdude
 
Yes my coverts do the same thing. The really bad part is when my code black does it and sends my pictures of nothing over and over again. :(
 
Wondering if the sun shining on it cause the heat?? Thinking about putting a shield above.

That would be a bummer having them sent over and over.
 
What cardinal direction are your cameras facing? Regardless of brand, I have far fewer "blank pics" when I face them north. You already mentioned that you are going to try a lower sensitivity setting, which I would have suggested too.

I have had several brands of cams over the years and the three Covert's I have now are the best cams I have ever had IMO. Yet, I still get some "blanks"...but I often notice that some of the "blanks" occur just seconds before and after I have something in the frame. So I think they may be sensing movement that is just outside the frame.

I run mine on high sensitivity FWIW.
 
I had a similar problem when i first put my covert's out. Once i changed the setting to the lowest sensitivity i got far fewer blank pics. Also like Daver said pointing them north whenever possible also helps. I also try to trim out any limbs or grass that may get picked up.
 
Coverts have a wider field of detection range then what the camera actually takes pictures of. which will account for some of your blank pics
 
I had the same problems last year when I borrowed a buddy's Covert for my daughter's elk hunt. It was bad enough that it was killing my batteries after only a few days and 1700 pictures of grass swaying. I read on a forum down here of a few other hunters having the same problem and it was mostly because of what chipterp said: wider field of detection. Some of those guys ended up putting a small strip of tape on each side of the sensor to narrow the detection window and that worked, too.
 
I run all my coverts on the lowest sensitive unless they are pointing to a wide open field. I dont have any problems at all with blank pics or missing anything.
Az hunter- 1700 pics was draining your batteries? I rarely have to replace any batteries from july-feb. 10's of thousands of pics on one set of batteries. I think i had one go for over 30,000 pics and it still wasnt dead
 
Had this exact same problem when I used coverts 6-7 years ago. Hundreds of blank pictures and hundreds of pictures of tails and legs of deer. I do not use covert anymore.
 
Six or seven years ago I may have still been using a 35mm trail camera. My point is, things have changed dramatically in that timeframe. I agree it's easy to write a company off if you have a bad experience, but I think you're doing yourself a disservice if you judge Covert on their cameras from that long ago.

I have used the tape over the outer edges of the sensor with success. It seems to help center the animal in the frame. I run all of mine on low sensitivity, and whenever possible face them north. I get some blanks, but generally I can set them up to avoid it. Open areas with shadows from clouds and the heat from the sun tend to be the biggest culprit of blanks, followed by grass/branches blowing around in this constant wind we seem to have anymore.
 
Seems like a lot of quirks and a lot of headache. Rather have one good camera than 10 that I have to be afraid won't have been working after sitting 3 weeks. Sounds like they are needing some work yet. Been down that road.
 
Oct-Lull said:
Seems like a lot of quirks and a lot of headache. Rather have one good camera than 10 that I have to be afraid won't have been working after sitting 3 weeks. Sounds like they are needing some work yet. Been down that road.
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I think you misunderstood my post. They work fine. I was giving a couple pointers to help get optimum performance, but none of that is necessary. I have a couple units from 2012 that have never been inside. Both have taken well over 50,000 pictures. My red 40 is on its third set of batteries after four years of constant use. I would put their cameras against any on the market at comparable price points. I can't compare them to reconyx, because I world never drop that kind of cash on a trail camera, but I don't know of any other brands that I would say are better than Covert. I don't work for them. I'm not getting paid to promote them. I just believe they make a quality product and I hate to see somebody say "throw them away" because they had bad luck seven years ago.
 
DGorman said:
I think you misunderstood my post. They work fine. I was giving a couple pointers to help get optimum performance, but none of that is necessary. I have a couple units from 2012 that have never been inside. Both have taken well over 50,000 pictures. My red 40 is on its third set of batteries after four years of constant use. I would put their cameras against any on the market at comparable price points. I can't compare them to reconyx, because I world never drop that kind of cash on a trail camera, but I don't know of any other brands that I would say are better than Covert. I don't work for them. I'm not getting paid to promote them. I just believe they make a quality product and I hate to see somebody say "throw them away" because they had bad luck seven years ago.
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Ditto on DGorman's post. Also, I have had multiple brands through the years and I have seen where a particular brand is fine one year and then the next...complete frustration. Let's face it, with the way many lower end consumer electronic products are sourced year to year, the branding is nowhere a guarantee of quality from one year to the next, regardless of brand.
 
We will have to agree to disagree. Tried many brands and most do not work very well. I bet there are plenty who won't buy a Cuddeback on here. I have had good ones and bad ones, but the new ones for 150$ have worked well. The originals were great. Middle ones were not so much. I for one don't waste the life of my cameras running them March thru June. But then I don't hunt turkeys and I don't want a pile of velvet pics of 4" nubs. Everyone has their own MO.
 
DGorman said:
Six or seven years ago I may have still been using a 35mm trail camera. My point is, things have changed dramatically in that timeframe. I agree it's easy to write a company off if you have a bad experience, but I think you're doing yourself a disservice if you judge Covert on their cameras from that long ago.

I have used the tape over the outer edges of the sensor with success. It seems to help center the animal in the frame. I run all of mine on low sensitivity, and whenever possible face them north. I get some blanks, but generally I can set them up to avoid it. Open areas with shadows from clouds and the heat from the sun tend to be the biggest culprit of blanks, followed by grass/branches blowing around in this constant wind we seem to have anymore.
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Interesting on using the tape, I wonder why they didn't fix that problem while they were manufacturing them? Sounds like a pretty easy fix to part of the problem? I also purchased 6 cuddeback captures around that same time frame ?(6-7 years ago). 4 are still working, the other 2 died within the last 16 months. Other than taking d batteries they worked awesome. I know a lot of others have had bad luck with cuddies. I'll probably never try another covert, I switched to reconyx but also have one of the new cuddies.
 
It could just be false triggers from the wind or sun or the camera could just be junk... Was it still taking pics when you got back to it or did it fill the card in the first couple days it was out? If it filled the card early then theres a 50/50 chance its junk. You might luck out and be on the good end of that 50% and its still good, get a hold of Covert theres a way to remove the batteries in a certain order to give the cam what covert calls a hard reset and that could fix the camera. If that doesnt fix the problem toss it, if its more than a year old Covert will only allow you to purchase a new cam thru them at a "discounted" rate which is normally more than you can buy them online for. Ive been down that road a few times ive lost a half dozen covert in the last few years that were over a year old and thats the best they would offer which isnt really anything since i could replace them on my own cheaper. But if it was still taking pics when you got to it then chances are it is the sun, wind, small unseen critters, or larger animals outside the camera lens field of view but chances are you dont have 3000+ bad triggers from animals unless its over a bait pile.
Also on a side not if you ever have the opposite problem when the cam isnt taking any or only a few pics when you know you should have had a lot then its probably a bad sd card... ran into that problem quite a few times
 
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