Trail Cams for around $100.

In the buildup to the deer season, I’d like to add a few more cams to the lineup.

Currently, I’m running all Bushnells and while I’m very happy with their performance, the $180 to $200 price tag per camera is a bit of a drag. By the time you throw in tax, shipping, and a new card, we’re well over two bills.

Trail cams are starting to take on the Apple iPhone/iPod model where the price never goes down, they just pile on more (and oftentimes questionable) features and the price either stays the same or goes up. By next year, there will be 15-20 megapixel cameras on the market.

With the sheer number of cameras on the market, there HAS to be some sleepers out there in the near-$100 range, doesn’t there?

I was looking at the Stealth Cam G30, for instance. It gets reasonable reviews and it’s $109 on sale with free shipping. Any thoughts on that one?

What are the other alternatives in the near-$100 range? I don’t need cellular, I don’t need 10 MP, even my 8 MP cams are dialed down to 3 or 5 MP. I don’t need GPS. I don’t need time lapse. Heck, I don’t really even need video. I just want to watch more trails than I can currently cover.

Ideas?

Thanks.

Grouse

This is one option.

https://www.google.com/shopping/product/15841285846077184797?q=covert+mpe-5&biw=1920&bih=936&bav=on.2,or.r_cp.r_qf.&bvm=bv.74649129,d.aWw,pv.xjs.s.en_US.ZIOukfQmgko.O&tch=1&ech=1&psi=4twNVNHQE9GsyAT_mYLQAQ.1410194658840.5&ei=69wNVO7TBYyhyASL2ICgCQ&ved=0CHoQpiswAQ

I have the old flash version of this entry level device. Works great. Takes tons of pics on one set of batteries.

Another option, but slightly more. Very good camera though.

https://www.google.com/shopping/product/1248839541240382162?biw=1920&bih=936&output=search&q=covert+mp8&oq=covert+mp8&ei=Ud0NVMyOEJD_yQSsiIKwAw&ved=0CG4QpiswAA

Well, interestingly enough, a brand that I’ve never looked it seems to get a lot of very good reviews online. In fact, it’s pretty close to the hands-down winner:

Browning’s Strike Force – $129 + free shipping, no tax, and an 8MB memory card.

4.1 Stars on TrailCam Pro and gets a “top value” ranking.

http://www.trailcampro.com/browningstrikeforcereview.aspx

Anybody have one?

Lots of cams in the $100 range that seem to be OK but with a lot of issues, but for $130 there seem to be some really good performers. Seems like that’s the cutoff line.

I’d just like to be able to get into more cams in the sub-$150 range all in, rather than the $200+ range and then tax, memory card, mount, etc on top of that.

Grouse

I got a Moultrie M880 as it was only $140 and it has all the bells and whistles and takes great pics!

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Yes, I looked at the 880, but I didn’t see a price quite that good. They were closer to the Bushnell Trophy Cam price, and so it would have been tough to justify switching brands.

I should mention that I’m thinking of doubling down and buying two more cameras all at once. Probably risky because if the new cams are bad, I’ve just doubled the trouble, but I REALLY want to cover more ground.

Grouse

They are $139.99 at Scheels, I also have 2 of the bushnell sentry cams and can honestly say this 880 is a better camera.

Sorry, here is the link. http://www.scheels.com/shop/SearchDisplay?storeId=10151&catalogId=10051&langId=-1&pageSize=20&beginIndex=0&searchSource=Q&sType=SimpleSearch&resultCatEntryType<a

I just ordered a Wild Game innovations Blade 8X from Sportsmans Guide. With their buyers club it was $62. It has the blacked out flash and 8 megapixel. Is it works out I might buy a few more. The price is good until 10/31.
DT

Well, I was going to recommend a scoutguard 550v, but after looking at the brownings, I think I may try one myself

Chasing game also gives the brownings a favorable review (the 2 they looked at). I really like the scoutguard but I do wish it had a better flash, guess that behemoth Moultrie i40 flash has me spoiled, but it appears the browning would solve this issue, and a faster trigger to boot.

poomunk wrote:

Chasing game also gives the brownings a favorable review (the 2 they looked at). I really like the scoutguard but I do wish it had a better flash, guess that behemoth Moultrie i40 flash has me spoiled, but it appears the browning would solve this issue, and a faster trigger to boot.

Yes, all the reviews I’ve read give the new Browning cams really high marks.

Now just to throw a wrench in the gears, I thought I’d decided and I was going to order up a couple of Browning cams.

Then I got home and the Midway USA sale flyer is on the counter. Guess what’s on sale? The 6MP Bushnell Trophy Cam! $129!

Now this is the older version of the Trophy Cam, not the HD version, so it’s “only” 6MP, but all the other features are the same. I’m backing down all my cams now to 3-4 MP, even though they all can run at 8 MP just because I don’t see the point of filling up storage with high res.

So now I really have to think. Do I want to keep everything Bushnell just for the sake of operating efficiency? The Trophy Cams have given me excellent results for 3 years now. I have to think about this.

Grouse

Can’t complain about trailcampro’s service, ordered Monday night and look at what was on my chair when I got back to the office just now.

I can see your quandary on where to jump ship or not, I’m the kind of guy that likes to keep consistency also, if your not pulling the trigger right away I can get you some feedback on how this one handles my testing before I put it in the woods this weekend.

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Our rep firm has the Browning cameras in the MINK states. I can tell you that the demand on the Browning Spec Ops XR and Strike Force is unbelieveable. Our dealers have very satisfied buyers and people coming back for their second, third….cameras

Just a note on lessor $$$ cameras. This is something I don’t know the answer to. I have bushnell, Wildgame, and others that were in the 70 to 90 dollar range. After 2 to 4 years of use, they suck the batteries down to nothing in a matter of days to only hours. I have 7 cameras sitting in a box that are useless. If I put new batteries in them and set them out, the batteries will be dead within 24 hours. Frustrating, as i knew i wasn’t going to get great trigger speed or high quality images. But just to monitor deer or turkey patterns – they were suited o my needs.

Initial thoughts – battery tray doesn’t come out quite as easily as they make it sound, not a real big deal. Simple set up, breezed through it without needing to read the instructions, very similar set up to the moultrie cameras (at least my old 2008 i40 one), hopefully the LCD screen on this one will not suffer the same fate as my moultrie one did after a couple seasons (quit working, but I had the pattern of buttons to push to make it work memorized). If you’ve got fat fingers like me you may want to have a small tweezers on hand to get the card out, not enough room to pinch it with my fingers and (lack of) fingernails. Took it into the bathroom and kept the lights off to ‘test’ the IR flash, definitely noticeable to the human eye (just like all my other IR’s), filter only flips once when switching to IR and vice versa, there is a slight noise when it does, but its not horribly loud.
Has a 30 second countdown when you set it ‘on’ till it goes active, I like to wait and make sure the first picture it takes is me standing in front of it (date/time reference should the time-stamp get screwed up, and to be sure its working).
I will put it up in the backyard and run some test on its trigger/flash/image quality this evening.

I picked up a g42 stealth cam at fleet farm on sale for $125 a couple weeks ago. Normally I think $149. Good reviews. Fleet farm now has a line of moultrees for sale, I saw yesterday. Not that there ever has been a need for an exscuse to go to fleet farm but this is a good one.
G42 stealth cam no glo 10 mp 100 ft range with video.

I got some drunk who tosses a empty pint Vodka bottle in my ditch a couple times a week. I think he rides a bicycle (who would guess no DL?) Maybe I need a trail cam to ID this clown.

Night testing this evening I noticed the fast trigger, seemed to capture me each time, though I didn’t give it a hard test of staying as far on the fringe of its sensor ‘sides’ to try and make it shoot without me in frame. Attached is one that I was somewhere between 25 and 30 yards from the camera. My shed is all of 40 yards from the camera (the reflectors and light in the background was a train passing behind the house) I monkeyed with the video option a little, but I really don’t plan on using the video in the woods so not overly concerned. Definitely a pretty nice flash on it, good distance and no ‘tunnel vision’.

Not a totally fair comparison, but I attached a picture froma while back from my scoutguard, looking at the 2 though you can definately see the tunnel vision of the SG and a lot dimmer flash as the deer is 15 yards at the most from camera.

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Appreciate the fast review Poo.

Of course, it would help if you’d post a test of the video mode. Maybe you could go out in your back yard, put on some Lady Gaga, and dance like nobody’s watching?

I’m really on the fence about what to do here. Now Cabelas has the Trophy Cam 6 MP on sale for $129 as well. It’s a little more than I wanted to spend, but like you said, standardizing has its advantages.

They also have the bottom-of-the-line Browning for $80. It doesn’t get the great reviews that the higher end ones get, but for $80, I’m kind of tempted to slum it and see what happens.

I have to admit that for all the fancy features I have on the other Trophy Cam HD’s, all I really use consistently is the 4 MP still shots. Once in a while I’ll do some vids when I know I’m going to be checking the cam within a week or so, but beyond that I seldom use the other features like Plot Watcher, so I’m not really getting my money’s worth out of a $200 camera.

Grouse

I’ll reset it tonight and get some video, I want to do the ‘perimeter’ test more thoroughly too before I stick it in the woods.

I should get home in time to get some daylight shots this evening too.

I didn’t save the test videos I did, but I did notice they have sound.

Set it up and played with it some more this afternoon/evening. I did do some ‘edge’ testing tonight and found you can get it to trigger on the very edges of its cone and you will not be in frame (but just barely). I moved over just until it triggered then stood there, the next cycle I moved one body-width farther in and then it had me (so its only going to affect you if a critter gets just inside the cone then just stands there and never crosses). Not anything I’m un accustomed to, this is why I have all of my cameras on at least a 2 shot cycle and when on trail scenarios (versus food, like the one I have watching 2 apple trees) I always keep them on the lowest reset time (this camera is 5 seconds).

I got a few daylight pics and then a daylight and nighttime video also. (Someone will have to tell me how to post a video)

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You will need to upload your video to YouTube and then place a link to the video here.

Well I looked at Cabelas and decided in favor of keeping the fleet standardized.

They had te Bushnell on sale for 129. Ideally 20 more than I wanted to spend. But the tradeoff is I know what im getting.

If they would have had the 79 Browning I would have tried it in the interest of science. I may still do that.

Will post some test pics later today.

Grouse