Was looking at purchasing some stealth cams, was just wondering which models you guys use and recommend?
I personally think they run better than any $100 camera I've ever owned. I've had a few of them going to 4 or 5 years now and they're still running strong. Great photos and battery life. When it comes to trail cameras there's definitely a direct correlation between the amount of money you spend and the quality/features you get. In a perfect world I'd have nothing but DS4Ks, but the budget doesn't allow for that. However if you can afford one or two they are great cameras. Amazing photo quality, awesome videos, good trigger speed, good battery life and tons of options. That camera is hands down my favorite Stealth Cam to date. Outside of that I really don't think you can go wrong with anything in the G/G Pro series of cameras. They're all rock solid performers that won't break the bank. Depending on whether or not you want "No Glo" or "Low Glo" IR flash will dictate which model to get. The G30 is a "Low Glo" camera where any camera with the "NG" designation in the name is "No Glo". I've been having really good luck with the new G45NGX that was just released this year. Getting below the G Series you start looking at the P/PX or Z/ZX series. My experience with these cameras is relatively limited, but I do have a couple of each. I've been pretty happy with the performance of my PXP36NG so far this summer. Battery life seems pretty good as it's holding strong after about 3 months of use and the image and video quality is about what you'd expect for a budget-level camera. You lose the nice backlit LED controls and go to a simple "dial" interface but it still works fine and is easy to set up. Nice thing with the PXP36NG is that it comes with an 8 GB SD card and a set of batteries in the package. Hard to beat that for around $120. I think they're phasing the ZX series cameras out, but I have a ZX36NG that's a little workhorse. I can get close to a year out of a single set of lithium batteries in it. And while the photo quality isn't as good as some of the higher end models it most certainly gets the job done. And it's a nice, small compact camera that's easy to keep in your pack if you ever run into a spot where you want to put one out quickly. Last but not least they did just release the XV4 line of cameras that are supposed to have much improved IR and low light image quality. I saw some demo photos at the ATA show and they looked amazing, but I haven't seen any real world results yet. I have two of them in the field right now so I'll know more soon about how the image quality looks. I'll be checking one of them this weekend that's been out for about a month now. This camera also does full 1080P HD video where some of the other models are only 720P. If I had to list my Top 3 it would currently be: DS4K G30 G45NGX Waiting to see if the XV4 is going to crack into that list soon.
Hey Kyle, I have the 4k and several of the 45 series, this years and previous years. I'm really impressed with the pic's from them both. I don't have anything on this computer from the 4k.
If you have a local Field and Stream store near you, they have the G45NGX on sale for $99.99 if you trade in an "any condition" older trail camera. I picked mine up yesterday on my lunch break after trading in an old Wildgame 6.0 MP camera that I bought about 6-7 years ago for ~$70 back then. Those suckers still gave me the $50 trade in for it and I'm sure they are wondering where the pine sap on their hands came from as we speak.
I'm not knocking stealth cams, but the absolute best trail cams I've ever used were $35 Tasco cams. They lasted all year on the AAA batteries and took beautiful pictures and videos, both day and night. The only issue was with trigger time. 1.5 second trigger got a few empty photos. I've never tried a Stealth cam, but I'm looking. Someone stole all nine of my Tascos last year. Sent from my Moto G (5) Plus using Bowhunting.com Forums mobile app
Friends have Stealth Cams and I hear a 50/50 complaints some good some bad. I have Moultrie anywhere from 8 -14 mp all the A series but one. Take great pics not your top notch but good enough to see the detail you need to see. Think my oldest one will be 6yrs now. Didn't pay more than $80 a piece for them as low as $50. look for sales and snatch them up.
So... how did it do? Sure wouldn't mind to see some sample pics of daytime and night from it. Looks to be a pretty promising camera. How do the daytime pic compare to the DS4Ks?
Overall it did fine - picture quality is certainly on par with my G45's and close to the DS4K's. It does this strange color thing during the transition periods where most cameras have a hard time deciding whether to use the flash or not. The photos have a yellowish tint to them, but they're still very sharp and high quality. Here's a few samples from this recent pull. Of course this camera had the least amount of activity on it of all the cameras I checked. Go figure. This is what a lot of photos look like during transition. Not full IR but somewhere in between it looks like. The flash is obviously going off b/c you can see the reflection in the deer's eyes. Mid-day mix of sun and shade did pretty well. Evening all shade Pretty typical IR night time image.
Don't get me wrong, its a nice camera. My favorite thing is that they are very sturdy, built like a tank. My complaint would be the night time pictures, it almost looks like the deer are standing in a field of fog. Triggers good, Batteries good, and I would buy another.
Thanks. Could be a firmware will fix all that. I think there were some issues they had with it. Trailcampro is also waiting for a firmware update before they post their review of this camera.
All I use is stealth cams. I’ve had them work all the way through winter here in Wisconsin, this includes negative degree temps. Sent from my iPhone using Bowhunting.com Forums
Turns out there's nothing wrong with the camera - that's the way the photos are designed to look. Here's what the SC folks told me. "That is the advantage to the Smart Illumination technology on the XV4. As an example a standard G Series at that time would have been virtually dark and really hard to see. This photo used supplemental light to make sure you can see the subject just fine during transition." Makes sense to me, and is certainly better than the alternative of a photo that's either blown out or way underexposed and too dark.
My budget don't allow for expensive cameras. Have 1 Moultrie and 3 Wildgame Innovation. Have had good luck with all of them. Picture quality is good for what I need to see, wildlife activity. Not after display quality photos or a bunch of bells and whistles. These are good basic cameras and all are well under $100 each. Battery life it close to a year, 9 months easy. Transition photos look like frost covered surrounds but that is to be expected. The critters still show up plenty plain.
Watch camofire for sales on stealth cam. They have them quite often my favorite is the G26Pro for 89.99 with a 8GB memory card and 8 Duracells. I have 5 of them and they compare right on par with the G34 Pros and G30s I have for about 1/3 to 1/2 the cost.
FYI - You can get G30’s on Amazon at any point for about $79. The G26’s are nice but I def feel the G30 is a better camera.
Found them for 69 https://www.valleyseek.com/stealth-...bthy0E6SCPKlXQ324ycdFNuS_wMGDTrRoCRC0QAvD_BwE