After my last experience with Cuddie customer service, I can honestly say I would not use one if it was givien to me.
Just for kicks I did some testing with 3 cameras, 2013 trophycam, 2014 cuddyback E2 and a 2014 G42 stealthcam all on one tree lined up side to side. Slow and fast walk by at 5-15-25-35-45 feet give or take a bit. Results were the opposite than I had thought they would be. At 5 feet all cameras triggered At 15 feet all cameras triggered At 25 only stealthcam and cuddyback triggered every pass At 35 only stealthcam still triggered every pass At 45 only stealthcam still triggered every pass Was interesting with the Stealthcam at 10 and 15 feet I usually barely made it into the picture and then past that I was somewhat in the center the stealthcam seemed get better the farther away I got. So stealthcam wins by quite a large margin
I had a bad experience with Wildgame Innovations cameras too. I will definitely won't be buying cheap game cameras anymore.
I bought a Cuddeback Attack IR about 6 months ago. I picked it up new for under $100 bucks, so I took a chance on it. It is nowhere NEAR the camera that my Moultrie M880's are. Granted, I have had one problem with the flash that stopped working in one M880, and the customer service sucked about as bad as it could when trying to resolve the issue. My biggest gripe with the Cuddeback is the cheap azz plastic bracket that holds the camera to the tree. Seriously Cuddeback, that's the best your design people can do? That, and the fact there is no where to secure a cable or lock to the camera without purchasing a seperate lockable bracket assembly. The camera takes OK pictures, but the trigger speed and cycle time isn't in the same class as the Moultrie M880's. You would think that for the normal retail price of this camera, which is quite a bit more than a M880, it would stand above the M880 in performance. But, that's not been my experience. The camera menu has nice programming options, but I would have rather seen the designers put that effort into better performance, and a way to secure the camera in the field. I won't be spending any more money with Cuddeback. Next time I go to purchase cameras, I will give Moultrie and Covert a good look. Covert appears to have good customer service, so I give them the edge in getting my hard earned green in the future.
Fact: older cuddyback trail camera are no good, no point in beating a dead horse. However from my experience running 5 different makes of cameras, I think the new E series from 2014 are pretty decent cameras and improved from the older models. From cameras that I've seen available in 2015 would I buy another cuddyback? To that I would have to say no. Fact: the general consensus seems to be cuddyback CS is really bad, with maybe just some slight improvement since the E series cameras. Geez sure hope Davec9 learned something from this thread. Lol
