Trail Cams: Best of Breed?

[The Dude]

I did a couple of searches on best trail cams and noticed there hasn't been one in a couple of years. I've been through some cheaper models, and found they're not worth the hike to set them up. A lot of tech has changed in over two years, so I have two questions:

1) What's the BEST possible trail cam out there, and

2) If you were going to accumulate a set of 3-6 cams, and wanted quality at a reasonable price, what would you go with, and why?

Thx all.

[Ambush]

Tough criteria Dude.
You're not going to get the "best possible" and a set of "3-6 cams for a reasonable price" in the same package.

The newest cams are five times better and half the cost of cams even only five years ago.

You need: fast trigger speed, infared flash and good battery life. Smaller the better. I have three cams now, but only really use the one.
I have one expensive older Bushnell that takes great pics and video, but the trigger is SOOO slow and battery life is mediocore, Uses four D-cells.
One older Stealth cam that is not bad.

The one I use is a Scoutguard. Good trigger speed,and super battery life. Probably several hundred pics on eight AA batteries if there not all night pics. Works down to at least -25.

Expect to pay $150 for "decent" cameras. Find a good sale and you may get them for $100 each.

For $250 - $350 you get quality cams and a real sick feeling when you find only the cut strap by the tree where you left it.

[Buck]

I Agree with Ambush $150.00 is plenty to spend and wait till there on sale i just bought two Stealth Cam Rogues on sale for $80.00 no big deal if the go missing

[Sprig]

I have two of the Reconxy 600 cams , if you do a search on these cams you won't find a bad word about them . But there not cheap. My pics are great quality day or night .
No pics of just darkness or waving grass, every pic has animals in it . Great cams

[Elkaholic]

Also never just use the straps to secure your trail cams. Go to www.camlockbox.com (http://www.camlockbox.com) and get one for what ever camera you buy. Worth its weight in gold to protect your investment. I run Moultrie i40s, i-45s, m80 all take excellent pics and last a long time on batteries. My i40 lasted the whole season on one set of 6 D cell batteries. The m80 seems to use batteries faster but it also uses AA. We found once we adjusted the settings down we were seeing much better life out of the AA. I myself prefer units that use D cells as they just seem to last longer for us. Also I forgot to say that Canadian Tire has the i-45 camera for $150 bucks right now.... that's a $100 off of regular price! Perfect cam with a good price too.

[bushpig slayer]

i got the wildview from canadian tire 2for 1 100 bucks been out in everything takes nice pics no need to spend lots of money will do great

[TheProvider]

IF your into reasearching before you buy a certain brand/model, try and make sure its waterproof. My first cam was one of the first digital models and was fine in ontario, first season in squamish it didnt last long due to moisture. Have a cple moutlrie d-55 ir and havent had any problems with them, easy to setup. only con is 6 c batteries but even then they last a few months. They come on sale regularily. Next models I'll be buying will be m-100, lil smaller, longer battery life and aa's instead of c's.
Battery life is important but think about how much you'll check your camera. If your gonna leave them for months on end then its important, Every cple weeks or month then it isnt as important. I will tell you this though it sucks checking your cam and finding the batteries dead.

Picture quality- Think about what your using your cam for. Do you wanna see brilliant pics of game animals or are you wanting to just get and idea whats out there in your area. Mine are 5megapixels and I'm happy with the pics but I wouldn't personally go less than 5. Some cameras will advertise 8megapixels for day but only 2or 3 at night. And we all know them sneaky trophy animals love being nocturnal.

IR Sensors- This I think gets alot of ppl. Theres some cameras out there that advertise a 60ft ir flash but the cameras only take 3-4megapixels. DO you think your gonna see much of the animal if your camera is 3megapixels and the animal is standing at 60ft at night. Think about where your using the camera, are you using it in meadows and open areas where you'll wanna cover large areas? or setting them up on game trails where you'll only need to cover 0-40ft

Research customer service also. Trail cam duds do happen and it sucks when you phone up the company and they wont do anything about it.

Well coffee cup is empty gotta go get more

[bubba350]

try this website they review all of te trail cams http://www.chasingame.com/

[4pointer91]

If $$$ wasn't an issue http://www.trailnsecuritycameras.ca/hco_uvision_um562_cellular.html
sends pictures via GSM network to your smartphone immediately or daily
anyone ever try one of these in Canada?

[TheProvider]

If $$$ wasn't an issue http://www.trailnsecuritycameras.ca/hco_uvision_um562_cellular.html
sends pictures via GSM network to your smartphone immediately or daily
anyone ever try one of these in Canada?

I'd love to try them cept most my spots dont have cell service.

[Ourea]

If $$$ wasn't an issue http://www.trailnsecuritycameras.ca/hco_uvision_um562_cellular.html
sends pictures via GSM network to your smartphone immediately or daily
anyone ever try one of these in Canada?

I have one of these in my trail cam arsenal. It is very cool but you also have to fork out for a monthly data plan to your cell provider, something to consider. If there is reception in the area you are looking to hang a remote camera that is too far back in to be practical to check regularly, this is a great tool. It is pretty cool to have pics SMS'd right to your cell phone.
TheProvider makes valiant points especially about the customer service of the company you purchase from. On that note I want to give a shoutout to Chase at UWAY OUTDOORS...... a sight sponsor as well. We have purchased numerous cameras from him and he has been exceptional to deal with, always answers your questions and concerns promptly and services the product if you do have problems.
Based on his recommendation I picked up another cam recently, the UWAY NX50.
http://www.uwaycanada.ca/uway_nx50.html
This cam is the sh*t, even comes with a lockbox. The LED menu is a breeze, extremely clear. There is an alignment feature in the menu. This allows you to look at the LED screen and it shows the field of view that the camera is seeing. This is brilliant when you are setting up the cam, no guess work, no need to take test pick after test pick trying to get the camera aligned.
Out of the 12+ cams we have in our arsenal this appears to be the slickest.
Worth looking into.

[TheProvider]

I have one of these in my trail cam arsenal. It is very cool but you also have to fork out for a monthly data plan to your cell provider, something to consider. If there is reception in the area you are looking to hang a remote camera that is too far back in to be practical to check regularly, this is a great tool. It is pretty cool to have pics SMS'd right to your cell phone.
TheProvider makes valiant points especially about the customer service of the company you purchase from. On that note I want to give a shoutout to Chase at UWAY OUTDOORS...... a sight sponsor as well. We have purchased numerous cameras from him and he has been exceptional to deal with, always answers your questions and concerns promptly and services the product if you do have problems.
Based on his recommendation I picked up another cam recently, the UWAY NX50.
http://www.uwaycanada.ca/uway_nx50.html
This cam is the sh*t, even comes with a lockbox. The LED menu is a breeze, extremely clear. There is an alignment feature in the menu. This allows you to look at the LED screen and it shows the field of view that the camera is seeing. This is brilliant when you are setting up the cam, no guess work, no need to take test pick after test pick trying to get the camera aligned.
Out of the 12+ cams we have in our arsenal this appears to be the slickest.
Worth looking into.

Looks like a great cam, might have to pick one up. Decently priced as well and thats a god point being able to see where the cam is sighting without having to do tests.

[The Dude]

I tried the 2/$100 Crappy Tire cams. I ended up throwing them in the Sally Ann donation bin. waste of time taking them out. (Bushnells I think)
My buddy lent me another Bushnell a couple of years old, and it was lame as well. Lots of pics of waving grasses and deers asses.
Might try a UWay on for size. Try and get one or two quality cams and two or three cheaper "scout" cams, I can throw wherever.
It's a work in progress.
Thx for the input guys.

[boxhitch]

I recently bought two Moultrie M-80 compact cams on sale at WSS.
One works great, the other is proving to be temp sensitive right out of the package. Works fine indoors but it freezes up outside.

Trigger time is about 1 sec in tests. Have to avoid waving limbs and grass
I saw deer asses til I adjusted the aim to along the trail instead of across, once I found the travel pattern

[Stone Sheep Steve]

Somebody want my POS Stealthcam? Bloody company won't even answer my emails...hoping I'll go away I guess?

They sure seem to have a pile of money to spend on sponsering some big name hunting shows. Maybe divert a little of that coin towards customer service.

SSS

[Ourea]

The reality is that there is a failure rate with all low to medium price point cams.... just some manufacturers fail rates are higher than others thus the importance of going with a supplier that backs up their product. Uway is great in this regards.
There are a lot of variables that affect trail cam performance as well, know your cam's menu inside out so you know how to program your cam to get the best results for the conditions. Don't just "hang" your cam after spending 2 mins learning the basic menu.

[KevinB]

Another website with decent reviews is: http://www.trailcampro.com/2011falltrailcamerashootout.aspx

They seem to focus mainly on the detection circuit, trigger time, and recovery time.

I don't own any cameras, though.

[KevinB]

try this website they review all of te trail cams http://www.chasingame.com/

Hey that looks like a pretty indepth set of reviews. Wow, they sure don't like the Bushnell Trophy Cam!

[knightcc]

I too have tried to do a bunch of research and read alot of the reviews on Cabelas.com. Try that out, there are a ton of reviews on modern cameras there. It seemed to me that even the expensive ones even bad reviews. So I bought an $80 Wildgame Innovations camera that had IR and what reviewers thought was a fast trigger speed.

Couldn't be happier. IR works great, even had a nice 9 point sniffing the camera. I will be getting more of them for sure in January when I head over to the U.S. Battery life is very good in my mind. The only drawback is there is no viewing screen but for $80, I can take a laptop into my spots to quickly check cameras. I don't need 8MP shots or video. I just want to see which bucks are in my different hunting areas. PM me if you want me to email you samples of the photos.

[todbartell]

Bushnell Trophy Cam 8.0MP. Best camera out there for the $$, long battery life too

[bubba350]

I too have tried to do a bunch of research and read alot of the reviews on Cabelas.com. Try that out, there are a ton of reviews on modern cameras there. It seemed to me that even the expensive ones even bad reviews. So I bought an $80 Wildgame Innovations camera that had IR and what reviewers thought was a fast trigger speed.


Couldn't be happier. IR works great, even had a nice 9 point sniffing the camera. I will be getting more of them for sure in January when I head over to the U.S. Battery life is very good in my mind. The only drawback is there is no viewing screen but for $80, I can take a laptop into my spots to quickly check cameras. I don't need 8MP shots or video. I just want to see which bucks are in my different hunting areas. PM me if you want me to email you samples of the photos.


i just buy two sets of memory cards and swap them when i swap the batteries that way i limit the amount of time im in the area. also I only head in mid day

[sobirch]

How is the battery life in cold weather

[The Dude]

I too have tried to do a bunch of research and read alot of the reviews on Cabelas.com. Try that out, there are a ton of reviews on modern cameras there. It seemed to me that even the expensive ones even bad reviews. So I bought an $80 Wildgame Innovations camera that had IR and what reviewers thought was a fast trigger speed.

Couldn't be happier. IR works great, even had a nice 9 point sniffing the camera. I will be getting more of them for sure in January when I head over to the U.S. Battery life is very good in my mind. The only drawback is there is no viewing screen but for $80, I can take a laptop into my spots to quickly check cameras. I don't need 8MP shots or video. I just want to see which bucks are in my different hunting areas. PM me if you want me to email you samples of the photos.

I'd LOVE to see 'em, PM sent, Cheers.

[BlacktailStalker]

6 hours, a bit of knowledge, $100 for parts & a case, specific used cameras off ebay for around $100 and you can make a cam better than anything you can buy.
I made three that were awesome, .8 second trigger speed, best picture clarity and but the thieves liked them too.