I am thinking about buying another trail camera this year. I had a cuddeback but it died after a couple of seasons. Thinking about a Bushnell. I would like to stay under $300. So which one do you use and why? Thanks for the advice.
Bushnell 8mp trophy cam, i have had it out since may, batteries are at 90% and have pulled over 5000 pictures off them with very few false pics or tail end shots. For the money you cant beat these cams, especially running on AA batteries.
Just to throw this out there (not saying they are the end all be all), but have you considered going with a homebrew? Picture quality of these units are hard to beat, battery life is fully customizable based on your needs (AA powered for smaller unit size, or C/D cell for massive year long runs), parts are easy to come by if they need fixed, and when applied with a 3D camo (i.e. liquid nails), they REALLY blend in. Just something to consider.
Matt---have you made many homebrews? m22: I have the Bushnell trophy cam and Im very pleased with it. The batteries have been in it since early March and its still going strong. Picture quality isn't as good as the cuddys I've seen but its good enough for anyone's needs.
Yeah, my first one this year (just put it out today actually). It's a micro build, so it's just running off AA in the cam, and two AA externals for backup. It's an S40 Fast Hack. The test pictures I have of me walking in front (mainly to adjust the sensitivity) are great. I'm excited to see how it fares in the field.
I use Coverts....the original Bushnell Trophy Cams. The new HR8 camera is pretty awesome...camo, 8 mp, built in remote/view finder, and months and months of battery life on 8 AA batteries. No big company headaches with warranty issues as well, top notch customer support. The newest video size they added is phenomenal for trail cams, if it wasn't for night usage of IR bulbs, I'd run strictly video with these dudes. I still run Covert IIs but may switch over to HR8s soon for the crisper pictures.
I knew you would ask for pictures I actually just deleted them off the cam and the comp after viewing. I just wanted to make sure everything was working and there weren't any issues around the lens fresnel. I got all of the information and help (I asked a lot of questions) from the game camera section on AT. There's a few build tutorials stickied there, but ask a question, and you WILL get answers. Buckshot and X-Ringer really helped a lot, especially with this specific build (S40/Yeti Fast hack). I had a few bumps along the way while building mine, so if you have questions, feel free to shoot me a PM as well.
Thanks for the info! Here's the important question(s). How much does it cost to build and are they comparable to some of the ones on the market as far as ease of use, features, etc?
The cost varies depending on what features you want, and what components you use. A relatively simple build like I did, costs about $110 for the materials (including the camera). Granted mine is just a flash camera, with simple DIP switches for controls. Trigger speed is decent, but nothing out of this world, but I don't really care since I don't plan on placing this cam anywhere other than mineral sites. I don't have IR or video with this unit, but you can homebrew either of those as well (for an additional cost of course). If you look at Janesburgs pics, that's a very common build setup on the inside to give you an idea, and it's especially nice because that particular board manufacturer (Snapshotsniper) has an LCD built in for easy setting changes. If you go over on AT, you will see guys building units with IR and video with regularity, and many of those units can be built for low to mid $200's I believe.
Yep. This time of year, there seems to be less demand on ebay than once it becomes trail cam building "season.":D
