Am I the only person that has noticed that pretty much every trail cam that's on the market can be found on Chinese websites like alibaba.com, made-in-china.com, dhgate.com, and so on and so on. I guess what gets me is that these American branded cameras market themselves as something they are not. They are basically just these Chinese cameras that have a custom boot up screen with their brand name on it. I'm not saying the cameras are bad, but I just find it a little off putting when I could buy the same basic camera for quite a bit less if I wanted to buy it direct from China. I don't believe these are reverse engineered cams either, they are just buying the China cams and re-branding it.
More than likely they have the chinese company brand the camera at the factory and then just ship them here. I've heard it said that it's impossible to build a trail camera out of purely american made parts.
Can you say Reconyx. USA made. China is making cams for American companies and stealing the knowledge to make there own offbrands. Same thing Trump has been talking about for years with other items. Sent from my SM-G950U using Tapatalk
I had read a few times that some of the parts even in their cameras are still made in China or Japan. I was talking about 100% USA. I don't know, pretty sure I rad it in a few threads here on the forum. I certainly wouldn't know as a customer, I don't buy $700 cams.
Nothing on Reconyx made in China. That's why they cost so much. They are better and last longer. I don't buy 700 dollar cams either but I have 5 600 dollar cams and 1 500 dollar cam from them. I also have Browning, Spartan GoCam's, Stealth and moultrie cams. Sent from my SM-G950U using Tapatalk
I like my Brownings but nothing compares to reconyx. I had 5 reconyx is a workhorse and if anyone is going to touch them they better be doing some fixing
I'm not even really concerned with where the cams are coming from. We all know China can produce quality electronics for a much cheaper price. I guess my gripe is that I could go online, pick a model, give them my company name and buy these cams. There's no R&D done by the branding company, their just buying in bulk and selling them to us, but that's not really how they represent their business model. Take for example USA Trail Cameras, they even named the camera USA and were nothing more than a cam that was already available through those Chinese websites. Sent from my LG-H820 using Tapatalk
For the most part they are all cheap China crap. Except Reconyx, and in that case your paying for a a significantly different product and expectations. I don't mind paying
You don't know what you are talking about. Yes the cameras are made in China but most of these company's are indeed running their own operations in China with their own R&D. The Chinese have been copying products for decades. This is not a new concept that should surprise anyone. The Chinese don't know enough to know or care what differences have been developed into the different brands of cameras so they just copy everything. The Chinese copies might be decent and they might not. They might be made next door and by the same employees but that doesn't mean they go through the same quality control or contain all the same components. Parts can be substituted. There are any number of ways that it can be happening but in the end their only goal is to make you think you are getting the same product that they copied and the answer is usually "not quite". If you saw a Chinese copy of a Reconyx would you think that Reconyx was just rebranding Chinese junk?
"If you saw a Chinese copy of a Reconyx would you think that Reconyx was just rebranding Chinese junk?" If you have more knowledge about the trail camera industry, then I'd love to hear about it. I'd like to know how US companies are designing the cameras and having them made by China, then China is replicating exactly down to the finest detail including the same camo. I'm sure some of the lager, more established companies like Bushnell, Cuddeback and a few others are designing there cameras, but I'm specifically talking about the many other companies that are much lesser known that have shown up in recent years. Companies that most likely would never have the capital to design and build and stock their own cameras. I guess I'm just searching for some honestly out of those companies. By the way, I never said the trail cams were junk, in fact I said that we know that China is capable of producing a quality electronic product.
I cannot speak for other companies, but Radix cameras are engineered in the USA and manufactured in China. The owner/ chief engineer developed the cameras from scratch. they are not copies of something already available in China. Once a design for a camera is approved, he sends the specs and blueprints to a company in China. When there have been minor issues or tweaks that need to be made (which happens with new companies) the owner works with the manufacturer to try to figure out if it was a design or manufacturing issue and how to correct it, and then they modify the specs accordingly. But I have seen what you are talking about. There are multiple camera brands that have the same case, menu options, everything...just a different color. And previous comments about Reconyx are correct. 100% made in USA. Yea they are spendy...but NICE! I have several of them.
I think it’s pretty simple, yes you can usually buy the exact same camera online from the Chinese, but it’s not sold in the store and doesn’t come with any type of warranty or customer service. If it works it works and if it doesn’t it doesn’t. I’ve been somewhat tied down to brands in the past and that’s just not for me anymore. This year I bought all different brands and still have not found a “best” camera. The Bushnell Essentials E2 is the closest. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
I know the owner and staff at Covert personally. I have met some of their Chinese employees that were here working with them doing development work. I have discussed with them things they are working on or looking into and then seen those things come to fruition in their cameras. This is from what I'm sure would be considered an average trail camera company that is headquartered out of a small brick house in Podunk KY. Therefore I'd be comfortable extrapolating at least the possibility of those capabilities and practices to some of the other medium to big players in the industry. I have also read numerous times on TrailCamPro where they have talked about sharing their test results with a manufacturer and having that manufacturer make changes related to said feedback. This isn't happening if that manufacturer is having to "shop" for existing trail camera technology in China to rebrand. Your basic premise is that the differences in features and function of the available trail cameras are a product of Chinese innovation whereby the US trail camera companies are simply going out and finding an existing product that they want to market and then branding it and slapping it into their packaging. What would drive this Chinese innovation of the cameras? The Chinese while certainly capable of innovation have absolutely nothing to draw from when it comes to this product or its market. They didn't come up with trail cameras as a concept and there is likely almost zero domestic market for them. They copy stuff. It is what they do and they are great at it. They buy or steal the products that they see being made in their country. They get employees in the factories where they are made to smuggle out components and anything that they can use to copy the product. In no time at all they are able to produce what appear to be near exact copies. If they can copy the case design and circuit boards and controls and software why do you think that they would be flummoxed by the camo? Of course the cameras look exactly the same. As far as they know that is just as important as functionality to the buyer and it is certainly important in their goal of making you think you got the same thing. I have worked in Engineering and Reasearch & Development for 20 years. I spent a lot of time in China and I have seen them copy things that make a trail camera seem like an ashtray. Trust me when I tell you that they could be handed a trail cameras and some components and could be making one that works in less than a month and mass producing them in 2 months. It isn't even a challenge for them. I do believe however that it is possible that a company like say Bushnell that has had soooo many cameras made in China by now could have reached out to some operation that they know is copying their cameras and made them a deal to start using their factory and products and indeed just branding them as Bushnell. That company is probably allowed to keep a portion of their product going into the copy market. Bushnell would do this as a cost savings because obviously this spin off company has figured out a way to make the cameras cheaper. Even in this scenario though... the original innovation and design came from Bushnell and the copycats have simply been gathered underneath the Bushnell umbrella. I actually believe that something like this happened with Bushnell because their lower end cameras went from good to hot garbage over the last 5 years. There probably are a couple of bottom of the barrel trail camera brands (like Uway) for example that may have done what you are suggesting but it is a reach to suggest that this is what is happening with most of the brands.
I suppose all that is completely possible, but there are some examples that just don't add up to me. Like two unrelated trail camera companies that have what appear to be the exact same trail camera, both marketing them as their own design. How is that possible if they are doing their own design and R&D. China will build whatever they know they can sell and the electronics and hunting industry though out the world spend a lot of money. Not every Chinese company is a knock-off company. They do design and develop some pretty amazing products. An example would be my Zhiyun Crane. They designed it and came up with the software to make it one of the best hand held gimbal made to date. All from a Chinese company that's doing the R&D because there's a market to sell them to the world. Trail cams aren't that different, it's a multi-million dollar industry.
