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Looking to buy a New trail cam - what's best b/t $100-130

N

nicholas buck

Member
Joined
Feb 13, 2016
Messages
40
Location
Columbus, ohio
Hey guys

I got about 3 $50-80 cams right now all ir cams and wanted to add a little nice one to my fleet for checking the summer inventory this year. What works best for all you . Any feedback or reccomendations I should consider before shelling out some$$.
 
Re: RE: Looking to buy a New trail cam - what's best b/t $100-130

nicholas buck said:
Hey guys

I got about 3 $50-80 cams right now all ir cams and wanted to add a little nice one to my fleet for checking the summer inventory this year. What works best for all you . Any feedback or reccomendations I should consider before shelling out some$$.
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I've thought about buying nicer ones too, but just can't make myself do it.
I've been using a cheap ir Moultrie for a couple years (I started out with six, but now I'm down to two after breaking one and having a couple stolen) so I just bought a $37 primos camera Friday off amazon and am gonna try it out when it Arrives next week. If it works well and doesn't spook too much, then I'll get more of them.

I don't depend on cameras too much, but I do love looking through the pictures. I doubt I'll buy any of the expensive ones, since all I really like to do is get an idea about what's going on in various areas at different times of year. I usually only get one or two pics of bigger bucks before they spook and avoid the camera. Sometimes I don't get any at all. The old bucks are wary, but I get plenty of young bucks and does as well as other game on cam.
There's a group of three does that shows up several times every day on one of my cams. They know the cam is there. One of them often stands within inches of it and licks it. That particular doe hasn't been in pics the last week or so. I'm guessing she's isolated herself in order to give birth. Can't wait to see the little bambis. They're always fun to watch
 
I was making my own homebrews for a while and they worked great for several years. Eventually things started going out but the good thing about them is you can repair them since you built them. Then I found the plotwatchers and they lasted for like 4-5 years before they started giving me issues. I've had lots of brand name ones that didn't last a year. I bought a Moultrie 880 last spring and its been in the woods since I got it running on video mostly. I put in lithium batteries and it almost lasted all season. I was impressed. I think they are on sale at Academy online for $89 and free shipping. I'm sticking with the Moultrie's. They make cheap models and high end models. All depends what you want it to do and the quality pics you want. A moultrie was the 1st camera I bought once they started using SD cards and I'm still using that camera. Its BIG! Its like strapping a microwave to the tree! LOL
Nothing pisses me off more than going check a camera I left out for a while, undisturbed and it didn't work properly. Makes me want to use it for sporting clay practice!
 
The moultriesI have been using malfunction often at night. They'll give you an image with no ir flash so the image is black. I'd you put it in another program to edit the image, you can usually lighten it up to see what's in frame.
I used to get mad about that, but then I thOught:why do I care which deer I see at night? I can't shoot them at night. The only thing is that sometimes you'll see a bruiser at night so you know he's in the area.

. I'm normal. It's everyone else that's weird.
Shaun.
 
I use 3mp Tasco from walmart for $48 and they have performed flawlessly for the past 2 seasons. I staretd buying them for use on public land and was so impressed I just use them everywhere now. I own 3 of them and I love them. All you do is you insert your memory card and turn it on. Turn back off put memory card on the laptop and it will have a time update. that is what you have to do to keep the time/moonphase up to date otherwise you will not get a date/timestamp for photos. There are no fancy lcd screens to mess with or anything simply hang it on the tree with your batteries and memory card installed and turn it on and walk away. It only has 1 switch on/off and that is it you cant look at pics in field unless you have a laptop or a way to pull the sd card images but the simplicity of the camera really minimizes its ability to malfunction. Plus if it breaks or gets stolen I still have the other $100 I didn't spend on a high dollar camera and I can replace it with 2 more.
 
Bushnell Essential E2 ($110) or Aggressor ($135 on Amazon) would be the best you can get for the price (per the request of the OP). They both have quick triggers and take decent pictures. Read the reviews on the trail camera review sites for more info but a similar camera used to run around $200 or more. As for cheap cameras you get what you pay for. I've thrown a couple $50 wild game innovation cameras away and I wish I would have just used that money to buy one good camera that would be still working. I did a side by side with 2 of the wild game cameras to a Bushnell trophy camera (same reset time, etc...) and there were a lot of pictures the Wild game camera missed. If you're trying to actually use the info for Hunting purposes I'd recommend a better camera, if you want a picture every now and then I'd go for the $50 camera.


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Re: RE: Re: Looking to buy a New trail cam - what's best b/t $100-130

Prill87 said:
As for cheap cameras you get what you pay for. I've thrown a couple $50 wild game innovation cameras away and I wish I would have just used that money to buy one good camera that would be still working.
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That's great words of wisdom there. I too have learned the hard way.



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I run several brands and right now, for the money, I am really liking the Browning Strike Force and Dark ops. I run 25 cameras right now and so far I have only had one strike force (2013 model) die on me. Browning is working on it right now. I have no experience with Bushnell.
 
DaveT1963 said:
I run several brands and right now, for the money, I am really liking the Browning Strike Force and Dark ops. I run 25 cameras right now and so far I have only had one strike force (2013 model) die on me. Browning is working on it right now. I have no experience with Bushnell.
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I also heard good things about the strike forces. I was going to buy them or a couple bushnells and I chose the bushnells. People complain about false triggers on the new bushnells, and I agree it was a problem on the auto sensor function, but setting it manually seems to have fix it.

In the end I think anything with a trigger speed of 1 second or less that reliably fires will get most pictures of deer if they're set up correctly on trails. The only difference in faster triggers that I notice is more pictures of foxes and coyotes that were probably blanks before.
 
I personally have run a couple of the wildgame ones and a few browning trail cams. You really get what you pay for with the $50-$80 cameras which I felt was low quality and alot of missed or empty photos. The 2 browning cameras I believe were stike forces lasted 1 season and then just stopped working. I have 7 bushnell trophy cams models now and I could not be happier. On a set of lithium batteries I can get anywhere from 7-12 months depending on my personal settings. My photo quality is great during the day and at night. I think all cameras at some point false trigger I just can say that I have had nothing but good experiences with my bushnells. Plus with alot of the newer ones out there you can set it up to take photos at certain times for a timelapse feature or just let it run all day. If you go the timelapse way it is really great especially in big fields because the camera takes a photo every few seconds or what your settings are which may catch a deer moving out of range of the infrared sensor which you would not have seen on a regular mode. However this feature is more useful during the day time hence you need light but as far as you can see so can the camera.
 
I like the bushnell trophy cams and I put them all in bear boxes because I've had the bears destroy too many cams on me. I usually pick them up on sale for between $100-125. I switched to them 3 years ago and they are all in working order except for the ones the bears got to.
 
Whatever you do, don't buy the Primos cam that's on sale for $37 on Amazon right now.
It does take good pics. .. sometimes. But half the ones it took are over exposed and it doesn't always take photo even when you walk in front of it. I got a few good pics of deer in a spot where I wasn't sure how much deer traveled. But I won't buy another one.



Shaun.
 
I picked up a Browning Dark Ops HD a few months ago (Got it after reviews from a few guys on here and over at the beast) and I couldn't be more pleased with it. Amazon has them for 119.99 right now. I was really torn between it and the black IR coverts, and the price made the decision for me. (plus a few more reports of issues with this year's covert line than browning)
Edit, typo on the price.

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