Trail cam for Dummies
- Thread starter greyphase
- Start date
4wanderingeyes
5 year old buck +
Apple Junkie
5 year old buck +
I am a certified dummie. I have both Browning and Bushnell trail cams and both are simple and reliable.
Belchertown Bowman
5 year old buck +
Don't get a cheap one. My buddy bought a four pack for like 80 $ and to configure them is a nightmare! No screen, not intuitive!
Mortenson
5 year old buck +
I did have a cam a few years, a Stealthcam, that had 3 ready to go settings where all you had to do was pick which 1 you wanted. That's if you didn't want to make custom settings. I'm sure cams like that probably still exist? Maybe email the helpful guys at Trailcampro and ask their thoughts.
IkemanTx
5 year old buck +
My Brownings have been dang near bulletproof. I have been buying them exclusively since 2016. I have only bought 8 (2 traded for other gear), but a buddy of mine currently has just over 50 cameras, almost all of them browning dark ops.
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chucker66
5 year old buck +
I just bought a camera from Apeman. It was $39 on Cyber Monday. They have several models ranging from $40 to $80. This camera has a 2" screen so you can actually look at your photos with the camera. It als does time lapse and so far takes great pictures. The PIR seems very responsive as I'm getting pics when the garbage truck goes by 75 feet away. It feels like a pretty solid camera and I juts put it up on the land yesterday so we will see. I felt like I couls not go wrong with that price to at least try it out. I have also read a lot of review about the camera's from Apeman and they were all pretty positive.
j-bird
Moderator
I too have had luck with the brownings in the $100 ~ $150 price range. I used to use the lower brands (stealth I think) but they are pretty much disposable after about 2 years. Only thing I don't like about my lower end brownings is they are red IR flash.....my next cam will be a black flash type....
If you like the idea of having them record video (I think the video tells me more than a simple pic) - make sure the cam will accept a larger capacity SD card. My Brownings will fill as 16G card in 2 weeks simply because daytime file size is 300,000K, nighttime is about 60,000K per file....if you have a lot of activity they may fill even sooner. If your doing pics....I still like the larger capacity in case the cam needs to sit a bit longer than normal for some reason....I hate the idea of missing something because a card is full!
If you like the idea of having them record video (I think the video tells me more than a simple pic) - make sure the cam will accept a larger capacity SD card. My Brownings will fill as 16G card in 2 weeks simply because daytime file size is 300,000K, nighttime is about 60,000K per file....if you have a lot of activity they may fill even sooner. If your doing pics....I still like the larger capacity in case the cam needs to sit a bit longer than normal for some reason....I hate the idea of missing something because a card is full!
IkemanTx
5 year old buck +
The 2017+ year Browning’s (dark Ops and command ops and above) all accept MASSIVE memory cards. Just be sure to get the correct TYPE of S.D. card. There are several generations out there, and only one type is accepted in the large sizes by most cameras.
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Jordan Selsor
5 year old buck +
Wal mart 10mp tasco for $40. I am impressed so far
Jordan Selsor
5 year old buck +
I second or third browning cams. Black ops and other can be had for 100.00 and free shipping this time of year. Cabelas had them on thier site a couple weeks ago for that.
Can use 32 gb cards. Whatever cards you do get, get ones that are rated 10 in the little circle on the cards, for quality pics and video.
Can use 32 gb cards. Whatever cards you do get, get ones that are rated 10 in the little circle on the cards, for quality pics and video.
Bowsnbucks
5 year old buck +
I'm also a dummy on gadgetry. 
The camp member who runs a number of trail cams at our place uses Browning and told me to invest in Browning too ………….. due to my lack of cam-smarts. - Signed Homer Simpson. Doh!!!
The camp member who runs a number of trail cams at our place uses Browning and told me to invest in Browning too ………….. due to my lack of cam-smarts. - Signed Homer Simpson. Doh!!!
scott44
5 year old buck +
After you posted this last time I tried a couple of these and they work good for the price, easy to set-up.
Catscratch
5 year old buck +
My Browning goes through batteries pretty quickly (depending on how many pics it takes). What's annoying is that it quits taking night pics when batteries go under 70% charge. Makes the bat life pretty short as I want night pics.
IkemanTx
5 year old buck +
Are you using decent batteries? There is a drastic difference in battery quality out there. If the amperages drop too far you will start getting problems. I run energizer lithium ions, and can run thousands of pictures without losing flash range or nighttime motion detection. The amperages basically don’t drop until they are completely dead. They will read 95-100% battery until they are all but 30% used up. I put them out in July, and just swap them out at the end of the year. I have filled a 200gig card with videos over 8 months and not burned through a set of the Energizer Ultimate lithium’s.
Another thing I have done is I run video mode on most of my setups. You get to see so much more detail with videos. The newer brands of browning cams will take up to 512GB cards so long as you use the XC generation of the SD cards. Also, no cards lower quality than class 10 for me. It lowers the read/write errors and corruptions.
I pull all cameras in late February / early March and then clean them thoroughly with compressed air and store them in an airtight box with dissonant packs to fully dry them out. I figure they are an electronic, so I baby them like one when they aren’t in the tree.
EDIT:
Here is a discharge chart of several brands, and the amperages they hold through their discharge cycle. Look at how much better the lithium perform... (E2 on the chart).
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