Anyone Used This Game Camera?

[archeryrob]

I like the moultries because they have power ports on the bottom and I can run them off external batteries. 8AA batteries every two months gets expensive fast.

You can use any camera and trying to catch predators moving around your coop doesn't need to be an expensive camera, so don't go crazy with it. Hunting company sell these for Mega pixels and guys buy into the hype of it. You don't need that high of pixels and I work in CCTV and their numbers are wrong and inflated.

Spy came and wild game cameras can work just don't go really cheap and really expensive can be a waste of money.

They use SD cards and you need and SD card reader for a USB or a slot on your desktop or laptop to read the SD and and they will work on your computer. I usually have extras and just swap them out in the field.

 

[cmom]

I do the same every morning I make my rounds and collect the cards from the cameras and at the same time I put in newly formatted cards. I have several cards for the cameras. I turn off the cameras when I collect the cards because here the predators roam primarily at night. When I go out to collect the eggs in the evening I make the rounds again and turn on the cameras. I use video which does use the batteries quicker but I use rechargeable batteries. There are a lot of good videos on YouTube that can show the differences between cameras, for example no-glow vs low-glow among other things. Since I'm looking for cameras that give good nighttime pictures I opt for the low-glow with at least. I have 7 cameras like this one and the pictures are very good. I look every once in awhile and come across a sale for one identical. I realize this one is no longer available but I got 2 of them for $32.95 each when they were.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07N62MSMT/?tag=backy-20

 

[archeryrob]

I have a whole bunch of the rechargeble batteries as I tried running the game cameras on them. Yes they work but an akaline battery set will run several months. Rechargeables start at at a lower voltage and maybe run a month and the camera quits working. I use this setup for powered boxes and I can run a camera on the 12v 7ah battery ($15) from August to february easy. I can recharge then in 15 to 18 hours and they last 6 - 7 years. Normally longer than the cameras last. My battery box only works on mountie and cameras that have the bottom power port.

It might be a bit much for non-hunters. But it makes my camera maintenance issues go away.

 

[Howard E]

A while back I went shopping for a really nice trail camera, nice of course being relative......but for my purposes, I couldn't justify the expense of nearly $200+. I wanted to know, but not that bad. So what else was out there?

I settled on this one.......partly on the basis of the number of reviews. That was my first exposure to the fraud that is Amazon reviews........which in this case is not entirely fraud.....but when the camera arrives, a free gift of some sort is promised if you will give the camera a favorable review, which explains the 4,000+ reviews. Buyers didn't do that on their own as we assume is the case with most products. A backdoor form of "buying" favorable reviews.

Mixed emotions about the camera.....uses the micro SD card which was not included.....purchased separate, as were batteries...........setup is finicky, but once you get there, it works pretty well. This one also has an lcd screen built in, plus a USB cable to download photos directly....so no need for a card reader. So all around......not a bad little camera.....and will fill you in on what is going on out there.

Anyway......these are some of the photos taken in the past few days.......taken over a bait can set to see who might be lurking about.



All this about 50 yards from my backdoor. The coon/skunk photo has a video and is pretty funny to watch.

 

[Howard E]

Then more recently, decided I wanted a 2nd modern era game camera, and while I was in Walmart, strolled over to sporting goods to see what they might have. After spending 10 or 15 minutes staring at the packaging, I sought out a sporting goods clerk and asked him what they sold the most of........he said this one.....said they sold more of these than all the rest put together.

OK, this is a cheap, no frills camera.....but even at that price does include an SD card and 8 alkaline batteries. I had no hope or expectations, but it has turned out to do a pretty good job. Good enough to know what is lurking out there.

My goal from this set of pics was to find out if I had coyotes lurking about. So bait and a canine trapping lure was loaded into the small bush in the foreground. Bush is next to my driveway and about 60 feet from my back door. Bush is about 25 feet from the camera, which has a long focal length. Camera instructions said best distance about 20 to 30 feet from subject if you could pull it off.



Buck is about 50 feet from camera.

A rabbit.

Didn't think it would matter when I set camera up, but there is a road about 120 feet or so behind the bush. Camera was picking up all kinds of vehicle traffic on the road, as well as vehicles coming and going at house across the road. That is a sensitive camera.

Neighbors dogs........canine lure works.

In this photo, picked up 3 robins. In a previous setup, it was picking up bluebirds, cardinals, jays, etc at 10 feet.

Because this is a cheap, no frills camera, one downside is you need a card reader. In my case, I use my Canon camera as my card reader and to upload photos using it. Battery life taking photos is good. Have not taken any videos, but may do that starting later today.

For a cheap camera to find out who/what is lurking about, this one ain't bad.

 

[Mtnboomer]

I use them for hunting all the time. Browning makes an excellent cam that takes quality video as well. Moultrie's more expensive models do well but their lower end models have not been reliable or as durable as their older models were. Wild Game Nation are decent enough so long as the animals are not moving to quickly. Cuddebacks are fast but more expensive.
There are many other brands that are VERY expensive and some very economical. In general you get what you pay for but typically the major factor in cost is trigger speed, video and image quality, and battery life.

 

[Howard E]

What I wonder about with these super cheap cameras are how many misses they have. Target animals showing up that have obviously been in the field of view for some time....but for how long and how many others did it also miss entirely?

But at the same time, it would be easy for a sensitive camera to generate thousands of pictures and hours of video to sift through.....the video being memory hogs.

The Campark camera is pretty bad about taking pictures of fixed objects when the sun warms them up enough to fire the sensor...even when pointed away from the sun. In the photos in the woods, I had several daytime shots of nothing....all about an hour or so before dark when the sun warmed up the trees above my bait can.

But as far BYC folks go......those just wanting to know whodunnit or what goes bump in the night, they may be all a person needs.

Neighbor down the road who hunts the property across the road from me has several game cameras up that send photos to his cell phone in real time. As in 4 or 5 of them. Hate to think how much $ he has invested in game cameras. But that might be the ticket for someone who wanted to keep a close eye on their birds and do something about it if a varmint was in the process of breaking in.

 

[cmom]

@Howard E, I wonder how many IR LEDs the Walmart camera has. I looked it up but it didn't say.

 

[cmom]

Most of my cameras have 49 IR LEDs which make for good nighttime pictures.

 

[Howard E]

IR sensors? I don't know and instructions are silent on anything related to specs. Barely tell you how to use it at all. So actual photos are all I have to go by.

Also, on the IR......on the Campark photo of the fox.......the camera was set to take one photo, then 25 seconds of video. On the video, the fox was seen sniffing around for a few seconds, then looked up directly at the camera for about 3 or 4 more seconds, then got spooked and ran off. Fox saw or heard the camera in operation. Didn't think they were supposed to be able to do that.

Campark camera also has a wide angle, very short focal length. That camera was only 5 or 6 feet from targets. The WG camera has a longer focal length......at the distance those shots were taken, Campark photo targets would have been very small.