Anyone else disappointed in RevealCams? (It could be me at fault)

[hawkman71]

I have two Reveal Cam 2.0. I'm going to say that I love getting photos sent to me, but I'm disappointed in the quality of the images and how poorly it captures pictures of animals.

Sure, it's possible that not a lot of animals came by the one place I had it set, but that area has been used by deer for a long time and I've been getting great shots of deer there year after year after year. A 2nd spot nearby usually gets all the same deer. I had a cheap camera there this year ($30 Walmart) and it was loaded with bucks. I tried changing the sensitivity setting to no avail.

What's worse is when I checked the video (I let it sit on the card and did not pay to have those sent), I found glimpses of deer and bucks going past but they were never in the photos sent. I think the camera takes the photo after the video. Not sure.

I guess I'd rather have a good camera than one that sends me some photos but doesn't do a good job.

MAYBE IT'S SETTINGS AND ME! Willing to learn as always.

 

[WI in the west]

I had the same thoughts until someone told me you can convert them to HD. Brands have different deals but i think tactacam was like $10 allows you to convert 50 pictures of your choice to HD. I havent gotten to try it yet cause that was after the season i learned about that.

 

[Dioni A]

The pictures it texts you are low resolution. This is as much for battery saving as anything I would imagine. You can requests hi resolution images to be sent and it will send them on it's daily update connection. $5 gets you 50 full resolution images of your choosing. The low resolution is enough for me 99% of the time and those 50 images last me a long time.

 

[pirogue]

The recommendation on their instructions/website to be sure the center (as in parallel) of the view is key to cameras firing when motion is detected. Getting the cameras aimed to high seems to be a common mistake.

 

[hawkman71]

I'm more worried about it not catching animals! Like I said, one camera is full of them, and in normal years, the same deer pass both locations. I can't prove they walked by the Reveal, though. And the photo after video thing is irksome. (I edited the line in that paragraph above to make that more clear. It was worded wrong.

 

[silasbowhunter]

I had two Reveal XBs and was constantly disappointed. I had a 160” buck amble by and even stop and look at my camera and didn’t get a single picture of him. I was in my treestand 40 yards away and eventually shot (and not kill) the buck.

Picture perfect scenario for the camera. That’s one instance out of many where I watched animals stop in front of my camera and not get a picture. I was extremely disappointed with em. Always seemed like something with em. I had them on external power so I wouldn’t havent to check them every week but they were always having issues. Went through numerous claims with Tactacam and they’d always say it was fine or I needed to reformat my card. I understand there is always bugs, but having to mess with em once every 5-8 days seems excessive for $150/cameras that I was paying $40/month for.

Eventually sold the two cameras and will be going to Stealth Cam DS4Ks this year if I decide to go with cell cameras again.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[tg54634]

Make sure you have the correct type of SD card. This solved some of my issues: https://tactacam.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/5306258119579-Reveal-SD-Card-Information

 

[pirogue]

Yep, plenty of notice in their instructions, as to what SD card to use, and it ain’t the cheapest thing you find at Walmart.

 

[hawkman71]

I'm not looking at it now but I'm certain I have the correct cards in them. They were expensive, yes.
I believe the first time I ran one, I didn't have the correct one purchased yet and got a warning that the card was not ideal.

 

[Buffalo0922]

Personally I have been much happier with my reveal cams than the spypoints I used to run. I pay the $5 for 50 HD and get a HD pic or video sent whenever I see anything interesting.

 

[Watrdawg]

I have 2 of the 2.0's and a Pro running and haven't had any issues at all so far. Having the right SD cards definitely makes a difference.

 

[CMS829]

ive got 5 of them. 4 of them out all year. Its frustrating in the winter when i get a picture in the morning with tracks right across the front of it and no pics of anything overnight. Though I imagine there is no perfect solution or camera out there.

 

[SteveAndTheCrigBoys]

Weird, I turned the sensitivity down on my Reveal cameras because they were picking up too much grass moving in the wind. I don't think I've ever put out a camera that caught the exact part of the animal I wanted to see every time. Moultrie, Stealth Cam, Muddy, Reveal...they all take pics of butts leaving the frame. If they're missing animals completely I'm unaware of it.

 

[Erict]

I have 1 and a friend has 4. Overall, pleased. He has his in some high traffic areas and two of them have over 10,000 pictures in a year. I think alot depends on fine tuning the settings. Once you get the cam working as good as it will you may need to adjust it to avoid missed pictures - maybe you need to consider pointing it more down a trail than perpendicular to a trail.

Detection - I like to use the WiFi connection in Setup so I can position the cam on the tree and see on my phone how it looks and if it's level. Once all is good, I do several "walk-bys" in front of the camera to test detection. I have not had any problem with detection but have found that adjusting the sensitivy kept me from getting too many false triggers from swaying branches/weeds.

Battery - My friend uses the cheapy alkaline, but I use lithium. Amazing how long those lithiums work compared to alkaline.

Image quality - low res pics are sent from the cam to their "server", which you can view using the phone app or by logging on to your account on a PC. They are acceptable quality. If using multi-shot burst, or photo/video mode, only the first picture is sent to the app and the rest are stored on the card. This may be where some feel they are missing things. (I don't pay for the extra to get HD or video uploaded). I am having a problem with my cam white balance - daytime pictures vary wildly from greenish to bluish to yellowish to true color tints. Likely going to have to RMS it back.

Flash - I think that the "no flash" is significantly better compared to the "low glow". I use mine a lot for deer but also coyotes over bait, and rarely do I see any evidence that they are alerted to the no flash.

Customer service - I have had to call the several times to fix some glitchy things on my friends cams (two had Verizon sim cards in but showed ATT in the app), and some other little things. They have always been very helpful, knowledgeable and friendly.

Photo storage - Images sent to their server are available for you to view. You can then "save" them into folders that you set up. I am unaware of any easy way to download complete "folders". So, say you have 10,000 pictures in your account, but only 100 "keepers". You put them in a folder where you can view only the "keepers". Eventually, you may want to discontinue your service - now what? (If you have the cam set to take multi-burst, this would mean about 20,000 on the card which you will have to manage manually).

 

[Waggy]

I have two Reveal Cam 2.0. I'm going to say that I love getting photos sent to me, but I'm disappointed in the quality of the images and how poorly it captures pictures of animals.

Sure, it's possible that not a lot of animals came by the one place I had it set, but that area has been used by deer for a long time and I've been getting great shots of deer there year after year after year. A 2nd spot nearby usually gets all the same deer. I had a cheap camera there this year ($30 Walmart) and it was loaded with bucks. I tried changing the sensitivity setting to no avail.

What's worse is when I checked the video (I let it sit on the card and did not pay to have those sent), I found glimpses of deer and bucks going past but they were never in the photos sent. I think the camera takes the photo after the video. Not sure.

I guess I'd rather have a good camera than one that sends me some photos but doesn't do a good job.

MAYBE IT'S SETTINGS AND ME! Willing to learn as always.

I got two of the X - Pros this last season and love them, though it took a while to get it dial in. A few things I learned are…
1) run the recommended SD card size and type. They don’t work well or at all with out them.
2) make sure they are pointed where you want them to take photos. The x pro has a screen to help with that, but more than once I had the angle too high or too low compared to where the deer were walking and missed photos.
3) the single image you get sent to your phone will be Low resolution (unless you pay for the upgraded HD which I do not) however, the images stored on the SD card will be the full resolution. If you want the high resolution images, go pull the card!

Hope this helps!


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[wind gypsy]

Cell cams are a compromise and have shortcomings. Capabilities and shortcomings vary a lot by camera. The vast majority of users don't take the time to undertstand how they work and what their limitations are.

Some main points for reveal cams and cell cams in general:
1. The detection area on reveals is very short vertically I.E. it wont trigger on things in bottom and top of frame only. Using wifi to setup is helpful for this but it's a significant shortcoming for the
2. Cell cams usually have a long recovery time after triggering before they can trigger again and it is usually impacted by whether you have instant photo delivery or scheduled photo delivery. If you must have instant photo delivery, you're more likely to miss stuff due to a extended recovery time. Depending on service, it could take over a minute for your camera to trigger again if set to instant transmit!
3. SD cards matter. Use what the manufacturer requires and format them every time.

Reveals are a price point camera. I have one that has performed well but i don't expect a cell camera that costs less than mid grade SD cameras of 6 years ago to be consistently reliable and perform flawlessly.