I want to buy a trail camera. Have never owned one in the past. I am willing to spend $100 to $150. I don’t need anything fancy like wifi just want good reliable unit that takes good pics onto an SD card. I went to Amazon and so many units have ratings from 1 star to 5 star that I don’t know what to buy. Even names like Browning have crap reviews. Can you guys help me?
I have 3 brownings. The pictures are good but I can say there customer service is crap if your camera ever has a problem.
I’ve owned a crap load over the years and the Brownings have served me well. I use them for my farm as well as job site security. The one thing I have been disappointed in with Browning has been the battery trays. Of the 25-30 brownings I own, I’ve had about 6 trays break. Easy enough to order replacements, but I think they should be better.
Regardless of what brand you buy, run quality batteries and never let them run 100% dead in the camera while in use.
I’ve had such great service from the Bushnell Essential series (currently, I believe it’s version E3) that I won’t buy anything else.
Image quality is fantastic, day or night. Trigger speed is excellent with few if any false triggers. Battery life is second to none. I have had one camera run for over a year, including through a MN winter, with one set of Raovac alkaline batteries. I wrote the date on the batteies when I installed them so I know this to be correct. 1 year and over 5000 pictures from one set of batteries.
I have every Essential cam I ever bought, I believe the oldest is going on 4 years old now, so longevity is good.
Watch Amazon.com. They have gone on sale several times for <$100. I have Brownings, Moultrie, and Stealth cams, but the Essential will be the only model I keep buying unless Bushnell somehow screws it up. Lots of good cams, but only Bushnell checks all the boxes AND at a very good price if you catch them on sale.
Grouse
I have 6 Bushnell Trophy Cam HD Aggressor Low Glow Trail Cams, I do not remember how old all of them are but I bet the oldest one is at least 5 years old if not older. They all still work great never have had an issue with one of them not working. Like Grouse said battery life is awesome I use lithium’s and they last for over a year. I only run pics on mine instead of videos because videos do eat up the batteries allot sooner then the pics. I also picked these up when they were on sale for $100 or less. Not sure if they even make these anymore but they look exactly like the Essential.
Grouse or anyone else:
Fleet farm has a sale on StealthCam’s QV20 at 3 for 99. In an attempt to saturate our 85 acres. With this thread’s recommendation, I have 3 of the Bushnells and tried one of the Walmart Tasco’s. The Tasco had serviceable enough pics to let the viewer know an animal had been by, not always the best picture, but if the animal wasn’t in a hurry, good enough.
But curious if 3 of these stealthcams at 33 bucks a piece would be an upgrade from the Tasco. Thinking of getting 6 more cams to cover the other 40 acres of property. Thoughts and thanks in advance!!!
The two pics are from the Tascos that I pulled yesterday.
Mark
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Grouse or anyone else:
Fleet farm has a sale on StealthCam’s QV20 at 3 for 99. In an attempt to saturate our 85 acres. With this thread’s recommendation, I have 3 of the Bushnells and tried one of the Walmart Tasco’s. The Tasco had serviceable enough pics to let the viewer know an animal had been by, not always the best picture, but if the animal wasn’t in a hurry, good enough.
But curious if 3 of these stealthcams at 33 bucks a piece would be an upgrade from the Tasco. Thinking of getting 6 more cams to cover the other 40 acres of property. Thoughts and thanks in advance!!!
The two pics are from the Tascos that I pulled yesterday.
Mark
I have always ran Moultries and they’ve been great. I recently saw a deal on a two pack of Steath Cams that was too good to pass up. I don’t remember the exact model but something 26. Take a look at the last pic in the trail cam photo thread to see an example of what my cheap Stealth Cams put out. Not real impressed so far. I will say I had one years ago that was phenomenal, but it ended up getting stolen.
I have very limited experience with stealth cam cameras. I only have one. Since it’s up in the field right now I can’t even tell you what model it is it’s about 2 years old.
The picture quality isn’t anywhere close to as good as the Bushnell essential series. It certainly possible but as with most cheaper trail cams where the image quality suffers is at night.
But at three cameras for 99 bucks I’m a sucker for cheap cameras. I’d honestly give that deal a try and see what you think. A lot of times with trail cameras good is good enough. Especially if you’re looking at shots where the deer are very close to the camera. Field monitoring might not be the best because the image quality won’t let you zoom in perhaps but at that price I’d certainly give it a try.
If you do go for it post some pictures and a review.
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