Howdy gentlemen. I’m looking to upgrade my trail cameras in the next couple weeks. I’m tired of fighting cheap cameras (poor quality pics, missed shots, and a couple have stopped working all together) and am looking for opinions on you favorite brands, models, etc. I’m looking to pick up 2-3 cameras for under $500. Good trigger speed, picture quality, and reliability are musts. Also would be interested in hearing personal experiences with cellular cameras. Tell me what you love and why, and what to avoid if you have any bad experiences. There are so many mixed reviews out there and it’s making it more difficult than I thought it’d be. Thanks in advance!
Waiting to hear from the members as I'm looking at the same thing but the $500 is out of the budget right now.
You can get 3 or 4 good Browning cameras for $500. The Strike Force or Dark Ops are good choices. Even though the Command Ops are cheapest I’d avoid them as they don’t have good picture quality for some strange reason. The Browning cams are small and seem well made and they work great from my experience. Avoid anything from Wildgame Innovations. Their cameras are hot garbage. Good luck.
I have had luck with any bushnell or stealth cam that is over $150. I don't believe I have spent more than $225 on a camera ever. I have 1 browning and it works well.. it was probably somewhere in that 150/225 range. I have zero experience with cell cams.. I am waiting on more reviews of the cuddelink battery life before I spend money on cell cams. You can also check out exodus cameras.. I have been messing with them some. I was sold on the 5 year warranty / theft replacement that exodus offers.
Moultrie on Ebay. I have 12 W40Is and love them. You should be able to buy them for $70 to $80 each new.
Well in full disclosure I may be a bit biased....but, Radix cameras have image quality that is untouched IMO (lots of sample pics here on the forum), the triggers are very good (they don't miss much). They even offer a bh.com forum member discount. =)
I'm sold on the Moultrie ones. Haven't had any problems with them except when you set it up in the woods and forget to put the sd card in it what a "dumb ass". The most I paid for one was $109 and the cheapest was $50 on a remanufactured one from Ollie's. Pictures come out pretty good and clear. Battery lengths are good last all season and sometimes into next. Not the top of the line put I will take them over most brands any day.
Check out Moultrie's cameras. I have one and wish I had more. Catches everything and great trigger speed.
I've had tremendous success with multiple brands over the years. I still operate many from the cheapos to expensive ones, all depends on goal of placement and likelihood of theft. If no fear of theft I've slowly switched over to only Radix for consistent sake and their quality is at the worst on par with every other well made company...IMO arguably tops for price. I personally run about 4 of their MT-100s (better for canopy spots or where minimal broad light is, washes out more than the others), at least 6 or more of the PS1or2 models (IMO the very best price for amazing video quality if that is a concern, pictures are excellent as well) and I run 3 Gen 500s presently. The 500s are wider angle and take some stunning pictures. Other brands I would look at as well if Radix went under would be Covert and Browning...for cheaper I love what Primos has to offer (their Quickshots patrol my high trespassing areas as first notice).
I really like my browning cams. Can get good ones in the 120$ range. So you could get 3-4 cams. I have no cell cams myself so cant help with any input with those
I'm on the browning train as well. Great battery life, great pictures. Don't get the low end command ops. I also run the Bushnell essential E2 cameras (4 in total)which work awesome. I just picked up the E3 to try since I've had such good luck with the E2's on Amazon yesterday for $74.
I have 1 Brand new Spypoint Link-Micro 4G trail cam that I never ended up needing that I'll part with. If you're looking for a great little camera this is it! If you're interested feel free to contact me via email & we can go from there. Thank you & Good luck with the hunt!
