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Trail cam Survey

Shredder

Shredder

Life Member
Well it is getting to be closer to the time where we will be setting these things out and I was wanting to get some ideas from our members here on what cameras they are using. What I am looking for are the top quality retail cameras you all have used and picture quality both day and night. If you have one of the newer Infra-red type cameras, those are of interest as well. What I am wanting to know are

Price
Flash range
picture quality
battery life
Security to tree
How well it blends in
Sound it makes
etc etc etc

It would be helpful if you could post some pictures day and night that we could compare.

I am a huge fan of homebrews but those are not what we are wanting to look at in this post.

What our goal is here is to try and find the best camera with the best features at the best price and try them out. If possible, I would like to see one of the companies as a sponsor of the site by fall and possible offer special PMA member pricing
 
Last year was my first year using trail cams. So I only have experience using one kind of camera. Hearing horror stories from friends of their $300-$400 cams getting stolen, I decided to go cheap, so I picked up a Moultrie game spy 100. At the time it was only $100. Then you have to buy a memory card & 6v battery as well.The camera itself doesn't have any security features. Any locks put on it, can easily be broke by snapping off the plastic pieces of the camera. That being said, the best security I could think of was to camo it up. A bottle of liquid nails & a couple cans of camo spray paint the bold black box camera blended in nicely with just about any tree. The camera itself is 2.1mp. It takes good pics if set up right. If you're looking just to get pics of the deer in your area and you have a mineral lick set up, it's the best buy for the money. Take good pics day or night with good flash range getting solid pics of stationary deer. However, if you're looking for trigger speed to see what deer are using a specific trail, I would not recommend it. You could set it up facing the trail, but out of a 3pic series, the best you can hope for is 1 good pic. Both the trigger speed and delay are slow. When they discontinued that model, I picked up an additional 2 cameras at $50 each. Good deal if you ask me. I like the rechargeable 6v, and ease of the SD. There are some down falls though. Each camera over times gets picky on which SD card it will read and take pics to, and I also from time to time, get a stupid SDcard Locked message. I thought about picking up one of the new D40's, since they are now the cheaper model out there, however I don't like how they went away from the 6v battery. All said and done, I like the cameras I have. They work just fine for the kind of scouting I do. Of course if they get stolen, I would be upset, but I wouldn't be out $300+. If I were to get a new camera, I don't think I would go retail. I've seen enough home brews to convince me that's the way to go.
The top pic is an example of setting up the gamespy over a mineral lick. Good quality night time pic. The bottom pic is set up on the side of the trail. The only reason I got a clear pic was b/c it was daylight.
1MOREYEAR.JPG

G2Buck.jpg
 
I've been using 3 different kinds.

Here is the first one, which I like the best. Stealth Cam V330 3.1 megapixel, around 125 bucks.

Day pics

Trailcam2BW001.jpg



Night pics

Trailcamera465.jpg


BW2004.jpg


Next is the Cuddeback IR cam. Really impressed with the day time pics, but night pics suck. Price on these are 399.99. Daytime mexgapixels are 3, night time 1.3.

Day

MR3050.jpg


MR3051.jpg


MR1164.jpg



Night

MR1007.jpg


This next cam is a Moultree I 60 IR cam. I am very impressed with it. Great night time shots, and very good day time pics. Day pics are 6 megapixel and night are the same. Price is around 299.99

Day

Moultrie1214.jpg


Night

Moultrie1074-1.jpg


I'm really starting to like the IR cams, but the least favorite is the Cuddeback. Here is a good comparison. The cuddeback IR was on the same tree as the Moultrie I60. You can tell the difference big time.

MR1139.jpg


Moultrie1074-1.jpg
 
I see in the new cabelas catolog that Cuddeback came out with two new cameras. With one on of them being an affortable infared.

I wonder if it will be any good???

I currently own a Cuddeback Excite and a Stealth 2.0 MP camera.

The Cuddeback takes great pics day and night, but the Stealth blows it out of the water for battery life.
 
I guess I should add that the Stealth has absolutly awesome battery life. In the extreme cold temps this winter, I was getting around 1000 pics every 3 days and the batteries were never dead. The moultries are a little harsher on them, but I think it had alot to do with the cold temps effecting it. The Cuddebacks are great on batteries as well.
 
<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Quote:</div><div class="ubbcode-body">I guess I should add that the Stealth has absolutly awesome battery life. In the extreme cold temps this winter </div></div>

How cold bud and what kind of battery size? That's my biggest battle. I saw the pics it took and the $125 and immediately thought....ooohhh. /forum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/grin.gif
 
Well, probably not as bad as the temps that you guys deal with, but we had a week where the high was in the teens and the lows were in the -'s and it never ran out of battery life. I checked cams about every 4 days and usually had 1000+ pics and still had juice to the battery. I use rechargeables, so I always rotated stock everytime I checked cams.

Later on in the year, I changed the camera mode where it didn't take as many pics and left it for about 3 weeks in "pretty cool" temps, lows in the single digits to teens to highs in the 30's and still had battery when I went and checked it again.
 
I use primarily homebrews but the production cams that seem to be rising to the top lately are the Moultries. Particularly the I60 due to good pics, flash range and long battery life. The M60 appears to be a good white flash cam also. A guy at work just bought one of each so I guess I'll have to wait to see it function in person till this season.
 
If you are going to go the Moultrie route, don't get the D40. By far, well as far as I know, the cheapest digital but you get what you pay for. Crappy pics IMO and with as many D cells as that thing sucks dry in a weeks time it would be worth your money to go with something a little more pricey. Upcoming season I'm going with homebrews although by the looks of nanny's pics I might be investing in a Stealth V330.
 
For trigger speed, cuddeback is hands down the fastest. Check out these next few pics to see what I mean.

MR1196.jpg


MR2002.jpg


I can't find any really good pics to compare for the stealth, but is has a pretty fast trigger speed as well. I have had it set on many trails with the 3 shot mode and it gets all 3 pics of whatever triggers it. This was the only pic that I could find with something moving in front of it.

Trailcam2BW037.jpg


The Moultrie seems to have a pretty good trigger speed as well, although I haven't used it on a trail yet.

Moultrie1271.jpg


Moultrie1559.jpg


Moultrie1022.jpg
 
<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: nacho</div><div class="ubbcode-body">I have always heard those new Moultries were good on batteries?? </div></div>
The only problem I had with batteries was using rechargeable D cells. They gave me 3 days of camera life in my Moultrie D40. I went to Duracells and battery life went to around 3 weeks (set to take pics at 1 minute interval over a mineral lick, took about 800 pics).
 
<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: nacho</div><div class="ubbcode-body">I have always heard those new Moultries were good on batteries?? </div></div>

I personally haven't seen them be very forgiving on batteries. I think it is because they are running so much flash for the IR, that it drains the batteries. Here is a picture of the I60 .
 
I have had 3 TrailMac digitals for a few years now and have not had any trouble with them at all. They have been tested in temps down to -15F before shutting down. Price is about $450.00 each with security bracket and locking cable. Then I updated cards (XD type and 2 for each camera)so probably around $500.00 each. Camera and flash run on a single CRV-3 battery, and the sensory unit runs on 2 D-cell batteries. I have gotten as many as 500 pics on the D's and the CRV-3 is good for about 700 pics. I have not purchased it, but there is an additional feature called the "battery extender system" that costs an extra $50.00 that is supposed to add pretty good life to the batteries. I cannot say anything about it because I've never used it. There are a few operating features that I would change, but over all the unit is very simple to use and is quite foolproof after reading the manual. The Olympus camera has a phone cord installed into it by Olympus themselves, so they put a pretty good warranty on the camera. I think the whole unit comes with a one year warranty but don't quote me on that, I've never had to worry about it. The camera is an Olympus D-425 at 5 megapixal, it can be removed from the unit and used as a pocket camera, also has a nice LED viewing screen so you can view your pictures in the field. It takes great pics. Its fully water proof. Its completely silent when the housing is shut properly. And the realtree AP camo blends into most tree's. I love these trail cams and will have a few more in the future. Heres some pics.

Nice day light pics. They make nicce 8x10's when you get a good one.
McNeck1.jpg

MyBuck6.jpg


Real good night photo's. This top one was taken during a rain shower.
PA310007.jpg

P1010038.jpg


Shutter/trigger speed isn't to bad either.
Eagle.jpg
 
I have so many cameras I cant even remember.
I will say this..an I40 moultrie with a 1 gig sd card.

battries will last at least 4 months...thats right.

I have taken thousands of pics and movies on the same battery that
they have the battery thing down.

pics are good too.
 
<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: nannyslayer</div><div class="ubbcode-body">I guess I should add that the Stealth has absolutly awesome battery life. In the extreme cold temps this winter, I was getting around 1000 pics every 3 days and the batteries were never dead. The moultries are a little harsher on them, but I think it had alot to do with the cold temps effecting it. The Cuddebacks are great on batteries as well. </div></div>
That stealth looks like the ticket for the money...what is the size of the batteries?
 
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