Post Your Game Cam Pics Here!!!

[Daphne_loves_mealworms]

Hoping to resurrect this thread. These are from the past week, disregard the inaccurate date and time on the camera. I can’t be bothered to fix it! My other camera that just picks up videos caught the fall bear and bobcat visits last month, but I haven’t uploaded the videos yet.

 

[Florida Bullfrog]

The season’s best buck so far on my farm.

 

[speckledhen]

I'm sorry I'm so lazy about downloading my cameras. Life has been a nasty wench lately. Love those pics.

 

[speckledhen]

Hey folks, I am thinking of getting a camera that transmits to my cell (Ultra Mobile on T-Mobile network), but I'm lost. They say Cloud storage then want you to pay for a plan. Why would I need that when I have plenty of that on my phone ? Sorry if it's a dumb question. I hate cellphones, but I had to get rid of my TracFone. I only want to see the pics transmitted to my cell (Samsung S20 Ultra 5G), get the alerts, don't want Cloud storage at all. I have seen several different cameras, but I'm confused about a lot of it. I have hardly ever used a cellphone at all, not since the early 2000's when I was a realtor so I'm phone-dumb. I have seen cameras that have internal 33 MB storage and such, no SD card needed. Any recommendations?

If I just get too confused, I'll just get what I always get, maybe with solar panel so I can skip all the batteries. ACK! I am really hating technology these days. I've surpassed my former computer nerd husband in knowing what's what -his knowledge is old- unless my son who lives 3 hrs south of me has time to help, I am flying blind. I guess I could just get a Reolink camera system that is just for security, transmits to the house. The ones that say they work on WiFi would have to be placed next to the dang house, the range is so limited.
All the reviews are so sketchy! Most are not verified purchasers so prob fake.

I did download my three remaining cameras today and nothing exciting to show...car coming, car going, FedEx, cat, cat, deer, possum, raccoon and no roaming dogs for once, which is good.

 

[mdees88]

Hey folks, I am thinking of getting a camera that transmits to my cell (Ultra Mobile on T-Mobile network), but I'm lost. They say Cloud storage then want you to pay for a plan. Why would I need that when I have plenty of that on my phone ? Sorry if it's a dumb question. I hate cellphones, but I had to get rid of my TracFone. I only want to see the pics transmitted to my cell (Samsung S20 Ultra 5G), get the alerts, don't want Cloud storage at all. I have seen several different cameras, but I'm confused about a lot of it. I have hardly ever used a cellphone at all, not since the early 2000's when I was a realtor so I'm phone-dumb. I have seen cameras that have internal 33 MB storage and such, no SD card needed. Any recommendations?

If I just get too confused, I'll just get what I always get, maybe with solar panel so I can skip all the batteries. ACK! I am really hating technology these days. I've surpassed my former computer nerd husband in knowing what's what -his knowledge is old- unless my son who lives 3 hrs south of me has time to help, I am flying blind. I guess I could just get a Reolink camera system that is just for security, transmits to the house. The ones that say they work on WiFi would have to be placed next to the dang house, the range is so limited.
All the reviews are so sketchy! Most are not verified purchasers so prob fake.

I did download my three remaining cameras today and nothing exciting to show...car coming, car going, FedEx, cat, cat, deer, possum, raccoon and no roaming dogs for once, which is good.

Are you wanting one for watching deer or for watching driveway to see who's coming? If for deer, are you putting it on a feeder/bait pile or on a game trail?

These cameras have sim cards in them like your phone. They will either pick up ATT or Verizon towers. They do not have to match your phone service provider. You pay a monthly fee because it works like a cell phone, texting you images/videos. The photos are typically stored on a server somewhere (cloud) so you can access them from either the app on your phone or from their website on a computer.

Some cameras have built in storage (like Moultrie edge) and some will require SD cards. I have 6 Moultrie edges and they are "okay" for the money ($50-75 on sale). But because they have internal storage, I have to download the images/videos through the app, I can't just walk up to the camera and swap out SD cards. I don't feel like these are the best choice if your goal is to aquire lots and lots of high quality video footage. (But they work well for putting on scrapes and game trails to pattern deer).

I had 3 spypoints (about 4 ago) and had trouble with all 3 of them. My buddy has 3 and his work okay, so maybe they are better now...

Tacticam Reveal X Pro is probably one of the best options for the money ($150), in my opinion. Not sure how their plan pricing is though.

The Moultrie Edges take 16AAs and last anywhere from 1 month to a year, maybe. I have one camera that has been out for 3 weeks and has taken 650 15 second videos and the battery is saying 71% (this one is on a feeder, gets a lot of action). I have another one that has been out for 5 weeks, has only taken 20 pics and 2 videos (not on food source) and it still shows 99% battery. I buy all my AAs off of Amazon for WAY cheaper than store bought.

The Moultrie plans cost $10 a month but since I use all my cameras for video only, I usually buy an extra 50 video downloads for $1. So $11 a month, per camera.

 

[speckledhen]

@mdees88 Thank you for your detailed answer, much appreciated.
The Tacticam did catch my eye during the search, but I'm still murky on it sending pictures to my phone and why do I have to have another monthly pay plan if I have a cell plan in place already, makes no sense to me. I have to pay a monthly fee in addition to my cell phone cost, I will likely skip it. I guess I'll just use the regular SD card cameras that I have to change out the SD cards. The idea of Cloud storage seems pretty insecure to me.

I have SAVA Cam and a Zimoce, can't recall the name of the other one. . My StealthCam and a tiny Apeman compact one both bit the dust, the Victure was a piece of crap. these Chinese companies make it all too confusing with different names for cameras that are pretty much identical and all the fake reviews, ugh. I guess I need to stay Old School, get others like the ones I already have. I'm not even sure I'll keep a cell phone after the year is up so I suppose that it makes no sense to buy a game camera that requires one. I hate apps so I definitely don't want a camera with internal storage only. Before this new phone, I just had an emergency burner phone but the idiots at TracFone screwed up my account and I had to dump them after years (minutes cards you buy b4 type). Don't really want one at all, to be honest because I rarely leave my property. Not relevant to the conversation, of course, LOL. Back to square one. You helped me decide!

ETA: I can't even find one anymore that is a good one with view screen, uses SD card only. Where did they all go? Walmart has horrible selection and why post reviews by those who are not verified purchasers?

 

[Florida Bullfrog]

View attachment 3677116

The season’s best buck so far on my farm.

Got him again last night

 

[TwoCrows]

A wild horse...

Deer...

 

[Qwerty3159]

Hey guys,

Nothing interesting to share on my cams as of late but I wanted to plug the following YouTube channel if you’re interested in trail cam videos. This guy sets them up mostly in Florida - the footage is usually pretty exciting, lots of bears and I even remember an endangered Everglades mink making an appearance.

https://youtube.com/@ShrikeZone?si=QEOBiN8tiSg7uMzL

 

[Florida Bullfrog]

Hey folks, I am thinking of getting a camera that transmits to my cell (Ultra Mobile on T-Mobile network), but I'm lost. They say Cloud storage then want you to pay for a plan. Why would I need that when I have plenty of that on my phone ? Sorry if it's a dumb question. I hate cellphones, but I had to get rid of my TracFone. I only want to see the pics transmitted to my cell (Samsung S20 Ultra 5G), get the alerts, don't want Cloud storage at all. I have seen several different cameras, but I'm confused about a lot of it. I have hardly ever used a cellphone at all, not since the early 2000's when I was a realtor so I'm phone-dumb. I have seen cameras that have internal 33 MB storage and such, no SD card needed. Any recommendations?

If I just get too confused, I'll just get what I always get, maybe with solar panel so I can skip all the batteries. ACK! I am really hating technology these days. I've surpassed my former computer nerd husband in knowing what's what -his knowledge is old- unless my son who lives 3 hrs south of me has time to help, I am flying blind. I guess I could just get a Reolink camera system that is just for security, transmits to the house. The ones that say they work on WiFi would have to be placed next to the dang house, the range is so limited.
All the reviews are so sketchy! Most are not verified purchasers so prob fake.

I did download my three remaining cameras today and nothing exciting to show...car coming, car going, FedEx, cat, cat, deer, possum, raccoon and no roaming dogs for once, which is good.

The real reason plans cost money? Its a good way for the camera companies to make money. They’ll sell the cameras on the cheaper side and make it back up through the subscription costs. It is what it is. Several years ago when cell cams were new technology you could put some
models on your phone plan. But I don’t think those sorts of cams exist anymore.

I run the Moultries. I have several Edge models and one older Delta Base model. All seem reliable. I get about 6-8 months of battery life with alkalines, in places with poor signal strength, with a large number of photos and videos. I don’t think a solar panel is worth it with today’s technology. If you need very long term usage, lithiums can provide it. Picture quality is decent. You get low res pics sent to your phone, and if you request you can have individual pics or videos sent to you at full resolution. I pay big bucks for my plan to have unlimited photos. Its worth it for me. I use mine mostly for security instead of wildlife watching. It just so happens that the paths and access points trespassers generally take are what the mature whitetail bucks like to use.

I have several decent, discrete, non-cell trail cams, but its hard to go back to using them now that I’m used to using the cell cams. I learn a lot more about what animals are doing and why when I can see their movements in real time. Also, I think me not disturbing areas encourages elusive wildlife to use those areas more often. I’ve never had more mature bucks on my farm than this year where I’ve stayed out of certain sections of the farm for months at a time, letting the cameras be my eyes.