What is your favorite trail cam and why?

[Telemark]

Also, what is your least favorite and why?

 

[Telemark]

I really hate Bushnell. Every product I've had from them was garbage.

I currently have a Primos Proof cam that is the main workhorse of my predator efforts. It takes great photos and rarely has a glitch.

 

[Mortenson]

Browning has turned into my top brand. Great battery life and dependability. Probably won't buy Moultrie, stealthcam, or Bushnell again. For now anyway.

 

[Telemark]

I have two Moultrie that I'm not impressed with. They started out top performers, but both have poor performance lately.

I forgot to mention that I have been impressed with my SpyPoint cameras. I have one that survived a bear attack, but gave out eventually. I have another one that performs very well and has good features. I will try to get a model number for it.

 

[SWIFFY]

I think Brownings are the best for the money right now. The Dark Ops is my favorite. They perform great and for cheap and their customer service is top notch.

I dont care for Cuddebacks anymore.

I think they all have ups and downs and good years and bad.

 

[ruskbucks]

I'm sticking with brownings. I have a spec ops and 2 dark ops. I like the black flash because they don't seem to spook the animals much. I have had no problems with them so far. Their night time pictures could be a little better.

 

[Northbound]

I like wild games purely since they're cheap at menards. I run between 20 and 30 cams most of which on public grounds. Wild game are cheap enough not to lose sleep about them being stolen. They generally fail after 2-3 years but at 40 bucks a piece on sale I'm OK with that. Old junk cams are also great decoys, I'll put them in obvious areas so my competition thinks a area already has to much pressure: )

I am considering the Cudi link system for my home farm this year

 

[H20fwler]

I really like the Moultrie 990i 2nd gen...loaded with Duracell's. I've been running a couple of mine year round for over three years, I think I have around eight now. I like the easy to set up and use, good pic quality, batteries last for 6 months+ and they are priced good usually $99-$110 at Rogers.

 

[Peplin Creek]

At one time or another, I have ran cuddebacks, brownings, bushnell, spypoints, moultrie, wildgame innovations, Spartan go cams, promos and exodus. Most need some modifications in the sensors so they capture less blank images. I have had some favorites and some real duds. I am not sure I have a favorite, or one that stands out in front of everyone else. I enjoy the exodus, browning dark ops, moultrie m-888i and the new cuddeback dual flashes. Each have pros and cons so it’s hard to just pick the best. For me the biggest thing is reliability, and whether or not deer notice the camera. These all seem pretty decent at accomplishing those two things.

As far as cell cams go, I do like the Spartans a lot over the spypoints I have owned. Better picture quality, great flash range for black flash and they just seem to work.

 

[Charles Clear]

I have had some great Coverts but Browning has become my new go to brand. Very east to use and program, very high quality pictures day and night, and I can usually find nice deals on them if I look hard enough.

 

[kl9]

I like wild games purely since they're cheap at menards. I run between 20 and 30 cams most of which on public grounds. Wild game are cheap enough not to lose sleep about them being stolen. They generally fail after 2-3 years but at 40 bucks a piece on sale I'm OK with that. Old junk cams are also great decoys, I'll put them in obvious areas so my competition thinks a area already has to much pressure: )

I am considering the Cudi link system for my home farm this year

You must use some sort of gps unit to keep track of 30 cams?


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[Natty Bumppo]

Old junk cams are also great decoys, I'll put them in obvious areas so my competition thinks a area already has to much pressure: r

I do the same thing. I also use them on my private property as a deterrent. I've even gone as far as buying a cheap little rubber antenna on Ebay and mounting it to an old camera so it looks like a wireless trail cam and then putting them out in very conspicuous locations about 10' feet up.

 

[Telemark]

I like wild games purely since they're cheap at menards. I run between 20 and 30 cams most of which on public grounds. Wild game are cheap enough not to lose sleep about them being stolen. They generally fail after 2-3 years but at 40 bucks a piece on sale I'm OK with that. Old junk cams are also great decoys, I'll put them in obvious areas so my competition thinks a area already has to much pressure: )

I am considering the Cudi link system for my home farm this year

Which Wildgame do you buy from Menard's?

 

[yoderjac]

For me, it is the old BuckeyeCam Orion. The primary reason I like it is reliability and lifespan. I used many brands and cameras prior to investing in a BuckeyeCam system. In fact, I even taught a class on trail cams to our state hunter education instructors. We ask a lot from trail cameras. Point and Shoot as well as cell phone cameras take great pictures for low cost, but they have an operator. In most cases, the operator either focuses or initiates an autofocus that allows the camera to make adjustments before snapping a picture. We don't expect them to detect game with a low false alarm rate, trigger in less than a second to capture running/flying game, take good pictures without alarming game, and do so for weeks or months at a time operating unattended in all weather conditions.

I bought my first BEC when they released the Apollo which was a stand alone precursor to the Orion with an upgrade path. I soon upgraded it to the wireless Orion. Over the next year or two I fleshed out my 11 camera Orion network. Most of these cameras are closing in on 10 years of 24/7/365 use with no failures I can blame on the camera. I have recently sent some of them back for refurbishment. This includes wear items like the lexan lens cover, connector replacement which wear over time and such. With the proper balance of programming and solar panels, they run completely unattended for many months or even years with no attention. They transmit full resolution images to my PC at camp with no recurring cost unlike cell network based cameras.

These cameras are not for everyone. Reliability and longevity is most important in applications where you don't want gaps in data caused by missed/slow triggers, dead batteries, and camera failures. Research projects and collecting longitudinal data for making QDM decisions are good examples of applications where reliability in important. These cameras have a high up-front cost, and setting up long distance RF communications at these frequencies in challenging environments requires some technical aptitude. However, when you amortize the cost across the lifespan (almost 10 years and they are still running strong), the cost dramatically drops. If you consider your time checking cameras and maintaining them as valuable, the savings is even more over the long run.

While they may not be a fit for the casual hunter, the advantage of limiting human influence when checking traditional cameras can be very beneficial to most applications.

They are certainly my personal favorite because my primary purpose is supporting QDM decisions but that doesn't mean they are a good fit for others.

Thanks,

Jack

 

[Northbound]

You must use some sort of gps unit to keep track of 30 cams?


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Yep for sure, I've lost a few over the years and then find them while shed hunting. Now I Mark them on scout look app. Some times I'll have cams within 100 yards of each other to figure out patterns, always at least one per parcel I hunt. This year I hunted 9 public sections so cams are not just too scout deer but also determine other hunters pressure

 

[Northbound]

Which Wildgame do you buy from Menard's?

I've had every type they sell, most are 8mp, here's 4 that I pulled yesterday while shed hunting. The two on bottom are great video quality. The one on upper left seem to be most durable ones I've had as a few are 4 seasons old. Black Friday this year they had 8mp cams for 30 bucks. They had 12 left when I got there so bought em all.

Most importantly are batteries. I run Rayovac in summer but switch to Duracell or energizer in October when Temps drop.

And turn the cam off before removing card. Otherwise you can mess the card up. Took me a while to figure that out

 

[Bszweda]

What camera has the best motion detection and trigger speed? I've had Brownings and Moultries and have been disappointed.

 

[Telemark]

What camera has the best motion detection and trigger speed? I've had Brownings and Moultries and have been disappointed.

Primos Proof cam is pretty good.

 

[Peplin Creek]

I found that motion detection on the brownings were a little too good. I had to put electrical tape on the sensor so I could center more objects.

 

[yoderjac]

I found that motion detection on the brownings were a little too good. I had to put electrical tape on the sensor so I could center more objects.

Not too good; too short and wide. PIRs can be designed to be short and wide angle or a more narrow longer cone.

What camera has the best motion detection and trigger speed? I've had Brownings and Moultries and have been disappointed.

"Best" depends on the application. My Orions have long narrow PIRs with a couple hundred millisecond trigger times with a very low false alarm rate. Can't beat that on trails and target animals are centered in the pictures. On fields, deer can feed around and be in the field of view of the camera and if they don't cross the field of view of the sensor, not picture is taken. That is not an issue for my application, but it could be for some. The other consequence is that the long range PIR will trigger on at 60 plus yards. While this is great during the daytime, with black flash, you can easily get eyes at night. With photoshop, you can often post process these images but it is a consequence of the design.

Cameras with slow trigger times often use short wide PIRs to compensate. You get lots of pictures of heads and tails on trails with these. On fields, trigger time is usually less important as deer meander and feed. The short wide PIRs generally don't trigger on deer outside the flash range.

Thanks,

Jack