Tactacam reveal x

[g squared 23]

I only have a reveal SK but I’m pretty sure all reveals only have 3 choices, instant send, scheduled once a day, or scheduled twice a day.

Leaving a cell cam on instant transmittal eats batteries quicker and *typically makes the camera more likely to miss triggering on deer as it recovers (to trigger again) slower as it’s transmitting a pic or it just doesn’t trigger at all if transmitting. Thus I find leaving any cell cam on instant transmittal to be a lousy choice if you care about minimizing missed deer.

Ok well that’s your opinion or perhaps assumption regarding missing pictures. I ran on instant send all year, pulled the SD card to later compare to what I had saved, and missed nothing of interest. Sure there are exceptions, especially in high traffic areas, but that wasn’t my experience. Why not try it on instant send and see what happens?


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[Wind Gypsy]

Ok well that’s your opinion or perhaps assumption regarding missing pictures. I ran on instant send all year, pulled the SD card to later compare to what I had saved, and missed nothing of interest. Sure there are exceptions, especially in high traffic areas, but that wasn’t my experience. Why not try it on instant send and see what happens?


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[edit to clarify, I’m not talking about pics on SD not getting sent (also a bummer) but “recovery time” - the PIR sensor not being armed again until a while after a pic is taken]

It’s not an assumption, it’s cell cam function 101. The don higgins podcast went on a rant about how cell cams miss pictures after they ran their test. In reality, they just take a long time to recover and much more so when set to instant or “timely” as Tactacam calls it. All it takes is one missed buck to make it not worth the risk to me.

The below is from tactacams website where they mention the “timely” setting causing the pir sensor to not function for up to 2 minutes when transmitting pics.

 

[Wind Gypsy]

I could live with 2x daily photo uploads but have a hard time not being able to upload bursts. It just doesn’t recover fast enough on single photo mode to go without burst. It’s roughly 20 seconds when in daily upload settings which is actually pretty good for a cell cam as far as recovery speed goes.

 

[Peeps]

I did a little non scientific test on my gen 1 camera last year on pic delay and send times. With it set on No Delay and timely it would take on average around 50 seconds from pic taken, pic sent, and then next pic taken. Now cell signal strength is a big variable with how fast each pic sends. Now when I switched it to sending pics twice per day with it still on no delay it took a pic about every 5 seconds and those were all sent at the scheduled times.

 

[Wind Gypsy]

I did a little non scientific test on my gen 1 camera last year on pic delay and send times. With it set on No Delay and timely it would take on average around 50 seconds from pic taken, pic sent, and then next pic taken. Now cell signal strength is a big variable with how fast each pic sends. Now when I switched it to sending pics twice per day with it still on no delay it took a pic about every 5 seconds and those were all sent at the scheduled times.

5 Seconds is pretty dang good. I wonder if the limited service in my location impacts it's ability to recover quickly even if set to daily uploads.

 

[PrairieShadow]

I did a little non scientific test on my gen 1 camera last year on pic delay and send times. With it set on No Delay and timely it would take on average around 50 seconds from pic taken, pic sent, and then next pic taken. Now cell signal strength is a big variable with how fast each pic sends. Now when I switched it to sending pics twice per day with it still on no delay it took a pic about every 5 seconds and those were all sent at the scheduled times.

Why did I not think of this. I was wondering why it was taking almost a full minute between pictures.

 

[Peeps]

The drawback to having the delay time set to no delay and send time to twice a day is that you can end up with a lot of pics sent when you get a curious deer that wants to hang out rt in front of the camera.

 

[Knehrke]

My pics are sent quickly enough to my phone, and the PIR sensor is rearmed quickly as well. My biggest issue is the PIR itself. I set up the Reveal X next to several other trail cams that all advertised being able to detect motion/heat out to 90+ feet. My other cameras were triggered well prior to either of the two Reveal X - which didn't register motion until I was within 60 feet or closer (even at 60 feet, they missed at least 50% of the time). This was with the camera positioned optimally, aimed at mid-body height for that range. These measurements reflected my experiences in the field this year, when I myself or deer I was watching walked past the cameras without triggering them. I put one on a food plot, and it was darn near useless unless a curious deer happened to pass near the edge.

I love the image quality and speed of these cameras, but the sensor IMHO leaves something to be desired.

 

[Tamarack]

I'm still waiting for them to add the option to have the pics sent each hour or two. Even 4 hours would be nice.

 

[Peplin Creek]

I’m surprised by the times mentioned. I tested an xb on Verizon network. And no joke the recovery time on instant was 26 seconds. Had it on a food plot. Burned through my $8 of data pretty quick. I actually turned on the delay to make it roughly a minute between pictures.

Like what was mentioned before maybe cell reception comes into play here.

 

[Robert86]

Has anyone tried the solar panel from tactacam?

 

[omicron1792]

Has anyone tried the solar panel from tactacam?

I run 4 of them. The small solar panel that comes with sk has no built in battery. It kind of augments the lithium rechargeable of the main camera. I get months of time, but eventually will lose its charge, but you just remove battery pack from camera and recharge then replace. Again, several months of use.

The full size separate solar panel has a built in battery that you charge up first. This kind of takes over as the power source for the camera. With a good view to sun this can run indefinitely without any battery changes. Has been as good or better than the browning solar panels I have.

I have 4 browning strike force and 4 Tactacam sk. I would choose the Tactacam in every way over the browning.

 

[swat1018]

3 of my 9 tactacams have solar. They are in full sun, and have stayed on 100% battery since last August when I put the solar on. They seem to run perpetually, as long as in full sun. A buddy has one in a location in FL on a hog feeder that gets a lot of pics, and only gets about 4-6 hours of sun a day. His draws down some at night, then catches up some in the day, but it eventually goes out.

 

[SwampCat]

I put a Browning Strikeforce on the same tree as a solar tactacam and he Browning easily took twice as many pics as the tactacam sent - but the tactacam took as many pics as the Browning - but didnt send half of them. I have a real question about durability - my only camera two years old has quit sending pics. Most of my Brownings last five plus years. Right now with the trouble I am having with my tactacams - I have a hard time believing they will last anywhere near five years.

 

[SwampCat]

I just drove up to a spot I have been hand spreading corn for hog hunting. I have a tactacam overlooking the spot. There was a doe standing there in front of the camera. I pulled up in front of the camera on my polaris ranger and got a bag of corn and spread it all around in front of the camera. I get back home and the doe, the ranger, nor me is on camera. There hadnt been a picture sent for two hours. An hour later I get two pics of deer. Two of my four running tactacams are like that. Another One is taking pictures of nothing all day long - and sending them all. One is flawless.

 

[Robert86]

I run 4 of them. The small solar panel that comes with sk has no built in battery. It kind of augments the lithium rechargeable of the main camera. I get months of time, but eventually will lose its charge, but you just remove battery pack from camera and recharge then replace. Again, several months of use.

The full size separate solar panel has a built in battery that you charge up first. This kind of takes over as the power source for the camera. With a good view to sun this can run indefinitely without any battery changes. Has been as good or better than the browning solar panels I have.

I have 4 browning strike force and 4 Tactacam sk. I would choose the Tactacam in every way over the browning.

Have you tried it in the woods where it would get sun half the time until the leaves drop?

 

[Robert86]

I just drove up to a spot I have been hand spreading corn for hog hunting. I have a tactacam overlooking the spot. There was a doe standing there in front of the camera. I pulled up in front of the camera on my polaris ranger and got a bag of corn and spread it all around in front of the camera. I get back home and the doe, the ranger, nor me is on camera. There hadnt been a picture sent for two hours. An hour later I get two pics of deer. Two of my four running tactacams are like that. Another One is taking pictures of nothing all day long - and sending them all. One is flawless.

That sucks, I know the feeling, I have 2 Spartan cameras that I could not get to send me pictures for about a whole year. Went back and forth with the tec, finally got them to work. Reason I went to Tactacam is because of the price. I could get 3 Tactacams for one Spartan. I don't know where your located but I've had very good luck with my Tactacams in Wisconsin. I put a browning SD camera up with one of mine and I had the exact same pictures in a week's span.

 

[BenA]

I just drove up to a spot I have been hand spreading corn for hog hunting. I have a tactacam overlooking the spot. There was a doe standing there in front of the camera. I pulled up in front of the camera on my polaris ranger and got a bag of corn and spread it all around in front of the camera. I get back home and the doe, the ranger, nor me is on camera. There hadnt been a picture sent for two hours. An hour later I get two pics of deer. Two of my four running tactacams are like that. Another One is taking pictures of nothing all day long - and sending them all. One is flawless.

That's not good to hear. The Reveal XB is on my shortlist this year. Is it the original model you're having problems? I would think you could walk through something like that with customer service since you can prove it with another camera.

 

[SwampCat]

One is a brand new reveal X that is sending a ton of pictures of nothing - and the other one is the solar reveal. I am not sure they arent all missing some pictures - except the one set up on my driveway. I have a feeder that runs a 15 second feed cycle. A 15 second cycle puts out a lot of corn - just before dark - and it is always gone by morning - and I might get two pictures - and maybe nothing in the pictures. I havent pulled the card to see if it is taking more pictures and not sending. But since I only use them for hog hunting - I am not too upset about it since the price is right.

 

[Peplin Creek]

I’m surprised by this. I have an xb and I thought it’s sensing abilities were actually pretty good compared to the cameras I’ve using. I didn’t have any missing transmissions either. I know they are sensitive to the type of Sd cards being used and can cause issues with transmission. I doubt it has anything to do with all the false triggers your having though