Well guys, I have finally decided that I am going to give game cameras one more shot and if it doesn't work out, I am done. Back when I first started using them, things were so much more simple. I picked up several 35mm Stealth Cams, put batteries and film in, flipped a switch and walked away. I didn't worry about trigger times, battery life, picture quality, downloadable software updates, ect.. From the 35mm Stealth cams I moved up to the newest, latest, and greatest. I picked up at 3.1 megapixel digital Stealth Cam, along with two memory cards, rechargeable batteries, and a solar panel. The problems started rolling in, slow trigger speeds, poor picture quality, terrible battery life, ect.. The camera didn't last in my arsenal for very long and I moved on to the TrailMac digital. This camera seemed to be one of the better choices at the time and was more of a homebrew style. The camera worked great for awhile, the only real complaint I had was the night pictures were very fuzzy and battery life wasn't great. After several months the camera acted up on me. I sent the unit back to the company and they returned it (with a $65.00 bill) and told me that I had a switch that wasn't in the correct position. They were also "gracious" enough to replace the "glass" lens covering for me (at a cost of $25.00) I got the camera back and it worked properly for a few days and then quit working like before. This time I checked the switches and they were in the correct positions. I decided it wasn't worth it to return it and have to pay again to get a camera that was never going to work properly. I finally decided to give the Cuddeback C3000 and the 1.3 megapixel Moultrie digitals a try. The Moultries were cheap which was nice, but the picture quality was terrible along with horrible battery life and a insanely slow trigger speed. I quickly got rid of them, gave them to a few buddies who didn't have scouting cameras, and I focused all my time on the Cuddebacks. They worked awsome, great battery life, great trigger speed, great pictures, ect... what was their to not like about these cameras? Well, after around 8 months the camera started taking pictures non-stop as soon as it was trigger until the batteries died or the memory card filled up. I returned the camera and got another one. It worked great again....for around 8 months and did the exact same thing. I returned the Cuddeback and just picked up the Moultrie I60 a few weeks ago. The camera had a very good trigger speed and great battery life. It was simple to set-up, and the price wasn't bad for the features. After using it for awhile I realized that even in the middle of the day the camera was still taking black and white photos instead of the color photos that it should be taking. I figured that I could live with that as it wasn't a huge deal. Well, less than two weeks after purchasing the camera it went nuts on me. It still takes photos, but the color photos are all very grainy with neon green and blue colors. The night photos are so grainy that you can barely make out a deer that is standing 10 feet from the camera. I have now decided that I am giving it one last shot and I am manning up and spening the extra money and purchasing a Recoynx R55. At $550.00 it is the most expensive camera that I will have bought, but I haven't seen a single bad review on the cameras and my research has shown this to be the absolute best camera on the market. Insanely fast trigger speeds, over 25,000 photos on one set of batteries, simple set-up, good photo quality, great theft deterant system, ect... I will be picking one up within the next 4 weeks along with a Python lock and 2-4GB cards. I really hope this works as I hope as I have become more frustrated with game cameras lately and actually lost the enjoyment of using them. As far as what cameras I have used.... 35mm Stealth Cam, 35mm Moultrie, 35mm DeerCam, 35mm Buckshot, 35mm Camtrakker.... digital Stealth Cam (2 models), digital Moultries (3 models), digital Cuddeback (2 models), digital TrailM
For your sanity and the sake of your wallet, I really hope this camera works out for you. I know a few people on this site alone have been shelling out the money for these cameras. A good honest review will be great after some good hard testing. I hope this camera gives you the service you expect and want and NOTHING like you have experienced in the past. That just would be a shame. Let us know about your endeavors.
Todd wony stop raving about his Reconyx cameras after a few weeks of use. Like you he has tied just about everything out there and so far this is the best yet. Good luck with it and keep us posted!
Thanks guys, and I really hope it works out well. I will definetly be doing a full review of this unit with pictures of everything, along with pictures of its set-up, and photo totals that go along with battery life. I know that alot of people view it is a very expensive camera, but if it does perform like it says, I would like to let others know about it.
I picked one up also Buck, mines the RC60 model. I checked it today and found out I had the sensitivity set to high. I had it set on High sensitivity and then lowered it to medium sensitivity. Mine was taking pictures of the grass moving! The only thing I wish it had was a video mode on it. I'm going to miss that on this one. The price sucked as well. Oh well, I guess if It works properly and doesn't spook everything that looks at it when its taking infrared pictures I can live with the price then.
I look forward to hear your input about the unit. I was thinking about getting the R60 but was unsure how the night photos would compare to the R55. I would love to see some night photos with the Covert IR flash to see if it damages the IR photo quality. I have heard others say that they wish it had a video mode, but I hardly ever used video mode. I know that the RapidFire isn't the same as video, but it should be pretty close if it works as they say.
I don't think I saved any of the pics from today. Most of them were grass pics. Damn wind!! If I have some I'll post a few for ya. They were all day pics.
