Trail Cams 2019

[Butch627]

I am looking for a new trail camera, just to be used around the house to see mostly what 4 legged or flying critters are around at night or when I am not around during the day. I would be very surprised to find any 2 legged ones but all the better if they are on my property. In the past I have had problems with moisture even though they are not getting rained on. It would be convenient if it talks to my phone. I went to cabelas website to try to get a look at todays offerings and there were 22 pages, that is more than I can digest. The last thread I found here was a year ago and I figure that there are probably all new models out. I am not looking to cheap it out nor looking to have the best one in the county.

What are you guys using and liking of the current offerings?

 

[two70]

I run Cuddebacks and that is what I'm most familiar with. If you were planning to run multiple cameras in remote locations I would recommend the Cuddelink system cameras like I primarily used last year but since you are looking for a single camera to run in your yard, that actually makes it a little bit tougher to find a good fit in the Cuddeback lineup. The first thing I would suggest is looking for a Cuddeback Long Range Ir camera but this is a discontinued model and a bit hard to find in new condition. The second option would be the color version of the same camera with a standard flash. The standard flash does not allow you to take night time video though. The third choice would be the current production 20 MP Long Range Ir though I would look for a better price.

I have less experience with the 20 MP Long Range Ir than the older models but it is built similarly to those earlier models and they have served me well for 3-4 years. IMO, these models seal out moisture better than some of the newer models but I would also recommend purchasing a Cuddesafe which will help reduce the amount of rain/snow that comes in direct contact with the camera. I've also heard good things about Browning and Stealth trail cameras but do not have any direct experience.

 

[mom45]

Mine are all stealth cams. I haven't heard very good things about the ones that send the pics to your phone though.

I have G42NG and DS4K models.

 

[rengler22]

I am looking for a new trail camera, just to be used around the house to see mostly what 4 legged or flying critters are around at night or when I am not around during the day. I would be very surprised to find any 2 legged ones but all the better if they are on my property. In the past I have had problems with moisture even though they are not getting rained on. It would be convenient if it talks to my phone. I went to cabelas website to try to get a look at todays offerings and there were 22 pages, that is more than I can digest. The last thread I found here was a year ago and I figure that there are probably all new models out. I am not looking to cheap it out nor looking to have the best one in the county.

What are you guys using and liking of the current offerings?

I am using SpyPoint Link Micro cameras this year and images are sent to my phone. In the past I've used a mixture of high quality cameras that I would catch on sale. This year I wanted to try cellular cams for the same reasons as you most likely. We are in a pocket of Parke County where Verizon gets ZERO signal, so we went with the non-Verizon variety. Initially, only one of my 4 cameras was transmitting images to my phone. I didn't really know what I was doing with the antennas / antenna strength when I put them out there so I didn't position the antennas in the right direction.

As I mentioned our lease is out in Parke County (Indy resident) so I wanted to make sure the next time I went out there I got it all figured out so I wouldn't be making another trip and pressuring more than I have to. For that reason, I bought some wired antennas and ran them up each of the 4 trees we placed them on. Secured them using zip ties. After that I started receiving images without fail. It's possible that I could have just re-positioned / re-directed the antennas attached to the camera, but I had already purchased the antennas so I put them up.

The cameras all still require a memory card and I'm glad they do. While the images that are transmitted to your phone are super convenient, from what I understand (at least for SpyPoint) they transmit lower quality images. When I pulled the memory card and viewed the images from the one camera that was transmitting, they were much higher resolution and clarity in comparison. I can still count the points, see if it’s a spike vs Doe, etc. and waking up to the notifications is really exciting. All in all, I'm pretty satisfied after a bit of a learning curve and purchasing $60 in antennas to make sure the products work.

Each camera comes with free unlimited 'cell' service for the first 30 days. After that you have to pay a monthly (can be annual, it's cheaper if paid up front) fee to keep receiving more than 100 images per month. There are a couple of tiers ranging from $5-15 per month if you do it month to month. I'm going to see how many months I have a hankering for game images, but right now I'm doing month to month. With turkey, deer, and the bonus season it might end up making sense just to get the annual membership which saves a few bucks a month.

The app that goes with the SpyPoint cameras is pretty slick. Everyone in my hunting group installed the app and we all receive the images at the same time. It's pretty fun when a big buck is captured you know the group text is going to start heating up!

Any questions just let me know. This is all super fresh in my mind so I'm glad to answer anything I can. It's very possible SpyPoint wasn't the best choice, but all the research I did seemed to come up with sites with paid affiliate links and who knows (they're probably not) if they are unbiased reviews or they're just pushing their product. So I figured I'd give these a chance and if they didn't meet my needs I'd sell them and start over. They seem like they'll work for a couple seasons, or at least until I can't resist the new technology!