I have 6 DLC Covert Reveals and am very happy with them. Good pics, long battery life, and for $130 you can't go wrong
A lot of my trail cameras are hand me down from friends that have a lot more money than I do, lol. But I also like the Reveals and Cuddebacks. If price is a huge issue Walmart carries Wildgame Inovations (I think that's what they are) they are pretty cheap and I have heard good things about them. Just because the TV shows and magazines say the 4-6 hundred ones are the best doesn't mean they are.
I exclusively use Wildview cameras because I believe that they are the most bang for the buck. See, Wildview doesn't waste copious sums of money on advertising, so you're not paying for commercials and magazine ads with every purchase. We've got 16 in the fleet, and have only ever had one camera break (flash bulb burned out). Many of our oldest cams have taken over 10K pictures. Cabela's sometimes puts the two-packs on sale for $100-120. With Wildview's $20 rebate (not sure if that's still going on), that works out to be $40-50 per cam. Battery life is average, picture quality is average. The low pricepoint, however, will let you spread more cams out for your dollar, increasing your chances of finding that big buck you're after. They're pretty easy to use, too. Regular SD cards are a plus. Wildview should probably start giving me free cameras for all of the exposure they get from my trailcam pictures. LOL Here are some sample pics (from the el-cheapo 1.6 mp flasher) - this current version of this camera is called the EZ cam, I believe. Whatev. Here's the horn porn: And here are a few from their new generation of 3.0 MP IR's:
For cheap price and GREAT quality I would personally reccommend the Bushnell Trophy Cams.... Ive got 9 of them and they are bada$$ little cameras, they are small so they dont draw a bunch of attention to themselves, and no click or noise when waking from sleep mode. Plus 1 year battery life and great picture quality!
I would recommend a 2011 Bushnell Trophy Cam 119466c because everyone that I know that has one loves it so far. It has a very low glow that doesn't bother the deer at all, I can barely see it myself. It takes awesome HD videos with audio! It's a little pricey, but I think it's worth it. For a cheaper cam, I would suggest DLC Covert....
I have 2 wildview, 1 leaf river, 1 stealth cam, 1 home brew and 5 MK-10 camtrakker cams. The camtrakker by far is my favorite, The wildview took some good day shots and poor night shots, now neither one works and while they did I was constantly buying batteries. You can not zoom in on them to get a better look for breaking down the picture. the leaf River just works some of the time. the stealth cam is my second best. It is pretty good but I have put it and a camtrakker on the same tree and the camtrakker is much faster and catches more shots. the home brew is a 600 with a yeti bd. battery life is great but I still do not get the quaility shots I expected. With the Camtrakker Mk-10 I use the white flash and Ir Probably Ir more. It can take a picture every second there is movement if you want. Or time shots like one every 15 min or what ever you want to set it on. You get a battery charger and 2 rechargeable batteries. I change batteries every 2 or three weeks and have left them for a couple months. I just take a charged battery and change it when I pick up sds cards which come with it also. I did break down last week and bought more batteries for my stealth cam, but when I was spending about 40.00 a month on batteries I decided to do something else. Camtrakker is a advertiser here, check them out. Sometimes you get what you pay for. They are made in Ga, USA and I like that too. Now with all this everyone has an opinion and you did ask. I gave you mine. Good luck on your choice. It all depends on what you are looking for and how addictive you get to cams. I like still shots and not video. I do not even watch video post any more. But again it is what you like. If you want to know more I can let you know. I have been using them for over a year.
I am run 2 wildviews, a Stealth Rogue IR and a Wildgame Innovations x6c. The Wildviews don't take great pictures but they do work. They are cheap. The stealth is a battery eating SOB. 8 C batteries that don't last very long. It scares deer . It has a fairly loud click when the IR fires up and clicks again when it is done taking pictures. Horrible camera and I am going to throw it away. It was a gift otherwise it would have went back. The x6c is still under review but I am not real happy with it so far. Very slow trigger speed which equals blurry pictures if the deer are moving. No burst mode so only one picture at a time. Definitely not a camera to set on a trail. I will check it again tomorrow. I have a feeling I will be disappointed. I bought a bushnell low glow 466c and sent it back. Took horrid night pictures. I had to set it on 3 mp to get good day time pictures. Not worth the $250 they want for it. This could be a great camera if they get it working right at night. If I had to do it all over again... I would go with DLC Covert Reveals. This will be my next trail cam. Tim
I just returned a Stealth "Unit", because it stopped working after about 3-4 months in the field. I decided to try out the Moultrie M-80. This little camera is about the same size as the "Unit" or the Bushnell trophy cam. It takes 5mp pictures, has video w. audio, and also has a build in "Plot Stalker" time lapse option that will help scout large food plots and open fields. The IR flash is supposed to be top notch with 90 plus feet of illumination. I payed $139.99. I have taken some pics around the house and am very pleased. I'd put it out in the field tonight, but it is too damn hot.
Reconyx. Check for used ones. I just bought another yesterday. I have no more than $800 rapped up in 3 Reconyxs The HC500, HC600 and RM45. If you find a good deal - you won't be sorry!
Horn Porn! hahahahah I've never heard that before! LOVE IT. Thanks for the tips everyone. I'll let you what I get.
I no longer have much faith in the trail cam market as a whole, The failure rates of my cams is so high i am about done with the whole deal,You can buy a smart phone that streams video and will tell me how fast my boat is going and even tell me my 1/4 mile et's but cant make a trail cam that works either new out of the box or after little use,makes you wonder if there is any product testing at the manufacturing end at all?? But the cam market as a whole is a crap shoot at best maybe you will get something that works or not and i see the same horror storys all over the web Some retailers have gone to testing and setting up the product in the stores before it walks out the door because of product failure rates. Out of the 13 cams i have bought over the last five years 8 have failed some of them did not work right out of the box other failed within a week to a few month's of use. I went to looking at web sites that test cams for more info as to what to buy next but the more i look the less i like.Maybe there is a market for field tested cams that really work.
I have 3 Primos Truth Cam 46s, 1 WGI 2mp flash, and 1 Bushnell Trophy Cam. I may end up buying another Trophy Cam in the future, but so far I've been more impressed with the Truth Cams, especially being much cheaper than the Trophy Cams.
I bought two Moultrie M80s and I love them. I'd suggest reading the reviews for all cameras on trailcampro.com I pay 129.99 for my moultries and they double as plot watchers for me.
