Rating cams I have used.

[Bearswamper]

I started with old Wild Game Cams my son had been using. Ate batteries -the overly expensive "C" ones. Ants always had nests in them. A water-ways patrolman who used them for surveillance recommended Bushnell (10 years ago). Bought one, liked it. Ended up with 4 more. Then Bushnell changed design, and Spypoint cellular was recommended by the same individual. Great I thought, there is a cell tower 200 yards from our camp field. It worked for 1 month. Tried to upgrade through the app. Multiple attempts to contact CS, by phone, e-mail -all with no person contact. I gave up due to all the bad reviews and I will never buy another SP product. I also hated those micro-cards I have enough trouble holding on to the SD cards. I evaluated my needs and determined that I don't need pics sent to my phone as I live 15 minutes from camp. I now have 2 Brownings and still getting used to their programming. I would buy another-IF they don't change their set-up radically. All my Bushnells are still going. Once in a while I have to take them home and open them up to remove moisture build-up. They even survived bear attacks. They were fixed with JB Weld.
It took me awhile until I came to the realization that lithium is king- cheapest in the long run-last more than a year in everyday use- and not affected by cold.

 

[West_Fork]

I have an old basic Bushnell that just keeps ticking. It has been the most reliable and consistent camera, and it as basic as they get. It has bugs living in it and after 6+ years it just keeps working. It also seems to be one no body is interested in stealing.

 

[356]

I too stated with the Wild game Innovations cameras…it was my first, and most expensive camera at over $250, and featured the new at the time “black flash.” The first camera lasted a month and stopped working. It was repaired under warranty, but a few months and stopped working.

 

[356]

I started with old Wild Game Cams my son had been using. Ate batteries -the overly expensive "C" ones. Ants always had nests in them. A water-ways patrolman who used them for surveillance recommended Bushnell (10 years ago). Bought one, liked it. Ended up with 4 more. Then Bushnell changed design, and Spypoint cellular was recommended by the same individual. Great I thought, there is a cell tower 200 yards from our camp field. It worked for 1 month. Tried to upgrade through the app. Multiple attempts to contact CS, by phone, e-mail -all with no person contact. I gave up due to all the bad reviews and I will never buy another SP product. I also hated those micro-cards I have enough trouble holding on to the SD cards. I evaluated my needs and determined that I don't need pics sent to my phone as I live 15 minutes from camp. I now have 2 Brownings and still getting used to their programming. I would buy another-IF they don't change their set-up radically. All my Bushnells are still going. Once in a while I have to take them home and open them up to remove moisture build-up. They even survived bear attacks. They were fixed with JB Weld.
It took me awhile until I came to the realization that lithium is king- cheapest in the long run-last more than a year in everyday use- and not affected by cold.

Thanks for sharing your experiences. I too stated with the Wildgame Innovations cameras…it was my first, and most expensive camera at over $250, and featured the new-at-the-time “black flash.” The first camera lasted a month and stopped working. It was repaired under warranty, but stopped working a few months later. I changed to Moultrie, and still have a 2013 A5, 2017 M40 and 2018 M990 running at our cabin. The A5 was easy to set up and got good battery life out of the 4 C batteries. The Moultrie Mobile (first gen) worked, but was expensive, ate through batteries and problematic. My first camera with a video screen to check pictures in the field was a Walmart no-name brand that was about $50 (2015 or so) that I still use for surveillance duty. The instructions were in French, but it was easy to figure out, takes great pictures and the batteries last well over a year. The downside is that it does not date stamp the pictures (the pictures files do have dates).

As for my current camera ratings, I would give the Spypoint Link-LTE-S (solar) a 9/10—very reliable cameras and no batteries to mess with! The Spypoint Flex a 8/10—alkaline batteries last about five months; The SpyPoint Flex-S (solar) is a 7/10 and has a separate thread on the pros-cons of what should be a great camera. My new Muddy Matrix gets a 9/10 (fairly new, so time will tell, battery life on send-now setting poor); Cuddeback J system 8/10 and Cuddeback G 9/10—these are a pain to set up, but are well built cameras. Ironically, none of the “super high“ definition cameras seem to take noticeably better pictures than my old Moutrie‘s.