I have been using Wildgame and Cuddeback cameras for years and neither of them like to take pictures when it gets lower than mid 20s. Granted my cams are about 3-4 years old. Are the newer ones better in the cold?
I have two Cuddeback attacks. I forgot them out in the woods last season, if you remember how cold last winter was, one had 50% battery life with 900 pictures. The other one had 10% with 3000+ pictures. I didn't get them till May and the snow was still knee high. I was impressed. Beefie
Do you use lithium batts? I've changed over and they seem to perform soooo much better than alkalines. Cold doesn't seem to do anything to them. I had cams out here still over the last two weeks when we were getting lows in the single digits and they snapped off as good as ever. Moultries, Coverts and Stealths...all worked fine...well the Coverts takes some crappy night pics but not due to cold.
Oh boohoo, gutone4me dislikes it when someone says anything bad about a Covert camera...sorry bud but truth is they take a good portion of awful night time pics. They are always grainy but image motion blur is pretty bad too. They take okay daytime pics and have been reliable but the fact is there are cameras out there that are far more well rounded, performance wise, than these MP8 black flash that I own. When I have a big buck happen into view, I don't want to be getting images like this:
Which has nothing to do with cold weather and cams ... Keep on trolling and looking for an argument. Thats all you bring to this forum by derailing every thread off topic. You live on the KS/MO state line your probably the last one anyone would ask for advice on cold weather cams in fact from what ive seen of your work trail cams in general ...... I could post 100 great night pics for every bad you you get in your awful set ups...... Maybe someone from the midwest will chime in with some good information for the original poster ... #rantover Congrats though your the only one on my "ignore" list as your worthless on this forum.
My first post before you had to show your butt was exactly on topic as per the OP. I'm on your ignore list yet you sure were quick to jump on me for saying something that ticked you off. I guess highs in the teens and lows and wind chills in single digits isn't "cold weather". I asked if he was using lithium batteries because I feel they work better in cold...sorry..."our cold" weather. No, maybe my setups aren't professional which contributes to most of my Covert pics being poor but that's kind of the point...the other cams don't care. People should not have to triggletwoggle around with getting a setup perfect to expect good picture quality. That was my other point that was pertinent to the OP, he mentioned newer cameras working better in the cold, my point specifically is that some just have poor performance no matter what the temps. I'm not sure what your problem is, I wasn't trolling and most of the time I don't but I'll darn sure not take a flagrant slap to the face without saying something about it. I've never said a crossword of any kind to you and have never had anything but praise and likes for your pics and posts until now. I had no idea you were so nasty over something so benign.
Well now....... I have had bad luck with Moultries in the cold weather here in MI. I could never get them to last very long once it got below 15°. Now my Stealth cam I got recently has held up so far but the most impressive cam I've seen in the cold, I dont even own. My buddys Wildgame Innovations camera has had same batteries for the last 2 1/2 seasons with the longest sit being about a month and a half. Big thing in my cams is using lithium batteries, last longer IMO
I have tried a lot of different cameras, you always get some good pictures and some bad pictures. I buy the cheapest batteries I can get and put a fresh set in about this time of year and I no problem getting pictures through out the winter here in Wisconsin. This is a night time picture at 22 degrees, I have gotten pictures a lot colder then that.
2 1/2 Seasons being the months of Aug to Dec from 2012 to present. Its an older Wildgame camera so its very impressive that it has lasted this long without replacing batteries. I also have to mention that its set perfect for long duration, No video or 3-burst every 30 sec etc.
On lithium batteries? I don't doubt it a bit. I hear and see good things from those cams. All three of the brands I use seem pretty comparable as far as battery life but there's no comparison between alkalines and lithiums in them. I installed lithiums in part of my cams a couple months ago and alkalines in others and the alkalines are getting changed out again right now while the lithiums are still showing 100% even after the two weeks we had of snow and single digit lows.
Cameras don't read lithium batteries right keep in mind. Checking in last year with coverts and -40 temps not including windchill and on rayovacs.
I've had luck with just regular batteries. Last year when it was real cold most of the winter changed them about halfway through the season and had the same ones up until about a month ago when changed them all out again. Out of 5 cams only one really needed new batteries but I always just do them all. Cams are 4 Mp6 and one Mpe5 all covert cams.
No problems here with regular rayovacs. I am in VA so we dont get the extreme cold weather but it the worst parts of winter we will be stretchs of highs in the mid 20's and with lows in the teens. We run mainly coverts with a bushnell and moultrie mixed and the battery life on all have been good, but im sure lithium batteries would only improve it.
WHat do you mean they don't "read them right"? You mean the charge status? I never thought about that and I have no way to check it other than the way I have reported here. Whenever I have changed batts in the same models of cameras, one with lithiums and one with alks and the alks go flat and the others are still going strong....I have to think that no matter what the reading the lithium batteries are lasting longer. Now, what I don't know yet is how many changes of alkalines the lithium powered cams will outlast. So far the lithiums have outlasted the alkalines through one cycle and still going strong as far as I can tell. I have three different cams, Moultrie M-880's, Stealth Cam G42NG's and the Covert MP8 Blackflash and have at least one each with alkalines and at least one each one each with lithiums. The lithiums are so expensive that they need to outlast at least five sets of alkalines to be cost effective, at least at the prices I pay on Amazon. Lithiums are $1.76 ea. and the duracell pro are like .30 ea. *edit, rechecked this and had to edit the price comparison rather than working off memory.* I'll add that in the coldest of our recent weather, the alkalines charge status dropped on the cameras relatively fast in comparison and then came back a little bit when it warmed up. The Duracell procells that I also use do pretty well most of the time and I've never tried rayovacs. I assumed rayovac batteries were not top brand quality so never tried them for comparison. After rechecking the numbers, don't know if lithiums will ever be cost effective or not, outlasting five sets of alkalines is a ridiculous thing to expect but we'll see. I like not having to change batteries as often or having piles and piles of old batteries to deal with but lithiums are stupid high. Test continues...they do seem to perform better in the cold and a lot of people and sites report that...being pertinent to the thread.
Last year temps dipped well below 0 over an extended amount of time. All my coverts kept right on tickin' on the cheapo walmart or meijer generic brand crap batteries. Now in the winter I'll buy better (not lithium...although I have) batteries but over the years haven't found them necessary and like mentioned the cams (not just coverts) don't always read the batter life correctly on lithium ones in my experience. As for picture quality, never noticed any kind of suffering except in our Primos and Bushnell cams we no longer use. Our coverts keep right on ticking and picture quality day or night hasn't suffered one bit.
A CS Rep for Moultrie once told me opposite I had 4 Moultrie cameras, none that work now, and I ran regular old Duracell alkaline batteries in them. One of the cameras Moultrie sent me as a replacement wouldnt even turn on until I put lithium batteries in it. Now I just run my Stealth Cam with whatever battery I may have and it runs great.
