Budget Trail Cameras that work

[Rich M]

I bought some of the Tasco brands and have had nothing but trouble with them - they work fine but the deer around here don't like em. $100 Brownings work great.

 

[Panhandler80]

After reading this , I just purchased a GardePro E5S. It was less than half the cost of my Brownings, so i am excited to see how they compare.

Amazon has the 32MB camera right now for $39. Pretty crazy considering there are ZERO bad reviews out there, and tons of very positive ones. The ones I ordered should show up tomorrow, and I plan to get them out in the field on Monday.

 

[magtech]

Normally i buy 3-4 trail cams at a time. For a while i was only buying cheap ones. The cheaper the better, was my motto. Then I started researching game cameras and learned about trigger time, trigger distances and some other camera features. Those 2 metrics alone started my push towards better cameras. I now find myself in the $100 range, on sale, to find some good cameras. Sometimes you can find a bushnell marked 40% off, but normally those fail on the trigger distance.

If you just want a camera in hopes you get a picture, a cheap camera is great. But if you want something that will pick up over 40ft away all the time with a fast trigger speed, those just wont cut it.

Will some of the cheaper ones last a long time, heck ya. But if i were you id do some testing to make sure they can do everything you want from a camera before just buying on price.

 

[Panhandler80]

Normally i buy 3-4 trail cams at a time. For a while i was only buying cheap ones. The cheaper the better, was my motto. Then I started researching game cameras and learned about trigger time, trigger distances and some other camera features. Those 2 metrics alone started my push towards better cameras. I now find myself in the $100 range, on sale, to find some good cameras. Sometimes you can find a bushnell marked 40% off, but normally those fail on the trigger distance.

If you just want a camera in hopes you get a picture, a cheap camera is great. But if you want something that will pick up over 40ft away all the time with a fast trigger speed, those just wont cut it.

Will some of the cheaper ones last a long time, heck ya. But if i were you id do some testing to make sure they can do everything you want from a camera before just buying on price.

Well, I haven't personally tested these yet, but folks seem to love them at $39 - $49. They advertise 90-100' sensativity range, 0.1s trigger time, good sound, amazing day time pics, and good battery life. The only semi-negative thing I've read / seen is that the sound is sometimes a bit wonky in video (i don't care) and that the night time pictures aren't the best. If all of this proves to be true, then I'm ALL OVER IT for $39!

 

[magtech]

Well, I haven't personally tested these yet, but folks seem to love them at $39 - $49. They advertise 90-100' sensativity range, 0.1s trigger time, good sound, amazing day time pics, and good battery life. The only semi-negative thing I've read / seen is that the sound is sometimes a bit wonky in video (i don't care) and that the night time pictures aren't the best. If all of this proves to be true, then I'm ALL OVER IT for $39!

I bought a couple bushnell core 20 a cpl years ago. They couldnt detect a deer/person outside of 20 ft 3/4 of the time... If i slow walked and waved my arms, sure... But, it i just walked past or had my dog walk past it at 30ft it was useless. They listed the " detection" range as flash range. Not, what it would pick up a deer at. If you test an actual animal coming through and compare to something of known good quality, you can see the difference in plenty of cameras.

 

[Panhandler80]

I bought a couple bushnell core 20 a cpl years ago. They couldnt detect a deer/person outside of 20 ft 3/4 of the time... If i slow walked and waved my arms, sure... But, it i just walked past or had my dog walk past it at 30ft it was useless. They listed the " detection" range as flash range. Not, what it would pick up a deer at. If you test an actual animal coming through and compare to something of known good quality, you can see the difference in plenty of cameras.

https://trailcam.org/garde-pro-trail-cameras/garde-pro-e5s-trail-camera/

These folks claim 90' DETECTION off mfg specs, but in their test it detected movement at 40-50 only. Still a pretty good stretch. It should also be noted that all sensors have a hard time picking up movement if the subject is coming directly at, or directly away, from the sensor. The units I just bought have three sensors, which shoudl help eliminate some of that.

https://trailcam.org/garde-pro-trail-cameras/garde-pro-e5s-trail-camera/

Once I get my hands on my units I'll report back with first hand experience.

 

[ianpadron]

I've had a half dozen Stealthcam Browtine 16 MPs out all summer and they've been great. I buy them on Amazon when the 3 pack goes on sale for $89.

3 months in the backcountry and all of them still had full batteries. Great adjustability and resolution.

 

[riversidejeep]

I've had a half dozen Stealthcam Browtine 16 MPs out all summer and they've been great. I buy them on Amazon when the 3 pack goes on sale for $89.

3 months in the backcountry and all of them still had full batteries. Great adjustability and resolution.

I've set these cams out and then found out their is no way to format / delete picts, no way to determine how many picts are on the card. On top of that I swapped out the card and brought it home, I can't view picts because it says it's in the wrong format. I also have the PREVIEW model and it seems to be great.

 

[ianpadron]

I've set these cams out and then found out their is no way to format / delete picts, no way to determine how many picts are on the card. On top of that I swapped out the card and brought it home, I can't view picts because it says it's in the wrong format. I also have the PREVIEW model and it seems to be great.

Mine show right on the cam how many pics there are, I use a card reader to view/wipe files. Any laptop should also be able to change the format of a standard SD card to access files...

Kinda sounds like a tech familiarity thing, or else I just got lucky with every single one I've ever bought haha

 

[silasbowhunter]

I've had a half dozen Stealthcam Browtine 16 MPs out all summer and they've been great. I buy them on Amazon when the 3 pack goes on sale for $89.

3 months in the backcountry and all of them still had full batteries. Great adjustability and resolution.

Have any pics from them?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[riversidejeep]

Mine show right on the cam how many pics there are, I use a card reader to view/wipe files. Any laptop should also be able to change the format of a standard SD card to access files...

Kinda sounds like a tech familiarity thing, or else I just got lucky with every single one I've ever bought haha

I'm absolutely positive that its a tech familiarity thing ! I'm completely stupid about anything other than looking at my email. All my other cameras, put the sd card in a card reader on my desktop and look at the picts, simple.

 

[ianpadron]

I'm absolutely positive that its a tech familiarity thing ! I'm completely stupid about anything other than looking at my email. All my other cameras, put the sd card in a card reader on my desktop and look at the picts, simple.

I watched a couple YouTube videos when I got mine and they were super helpful on getting things setup!

 

[ianpadron]

Have any pics from them?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Only a few thousand...but I'll share my favorite day and favorite night photos so you can see pic quality.

 

[silasbowhunter]

View attachment 759109

Only a few thousand...but I'll share my favorite day and favorite night photos so you can see pic quality.
View attachment 759111

Thank you! Pretty decent images.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[subtlevibe]

Glad you got the good ones. I've had absolutely terrible luck with LM2 units and the transmissions on LMs, LM2, and Flex. I'm slowly replacing spypoints with tactacams as budget allows.

I bought 5 spypoint m cameras this season. Only two of them work

 

[Northwest Outdoors]

I've only been using trail cams for the last couple years. I thought cellular was the move, so I have several moultrie cams. While they are awesome, it sure is frustrating trying to find spots with service. I've been debating on picking up a few of the Stealthcam Browtine 16s to leave out for the winter and for the spots I actually wanted to put a few other cams up but couldn't get service lol

 

[adamm88]

iv run all kinds of cheap cams, Knock off from Amazon, Ect. The old tascos worked great, last 2-3 years and were around $30, i believe the 12 mp was goofy and the pictures wouldnt load off a card reader onto my phone.

The new tascos are ok

I have a vickeri off amazon that has worked good, i have had it out about a year

Amazon.com

This link above is the one that has worked best, They look identical to the new tascos

Amazon.com

This took great pictures for the cost but almost all of mine have been junked after a little over a year, The date/Time Glitches out

 

[Solowhunter]

Bushnell SpotOn - I own 3 and they have been reliable for me, haven't failed me yet. If I remember right they were $40 ea.

My Stealth Cam BT18's occasionally have issues with formatting SD cards, more than once I've returned to the cameras to have no activity/images and a jacked SD card.

 

[jonesn3]

Like others have said, the cheaper StealthCams have been pretty spotty and underwhelming for me. Had one straight out of the box not take any pictures when testing it at home in the yard. Pics on the ST seem okay but noticeably lesser quality compared to others I’ve tried at similar MP resolution settings. On the Says, I’ve had a cameras not capture a dang thing when setting were checked, tested, and left for 6-12 months. Pretty frustrating coming back to a camera and there’s nothing (either that or the sd card was wiped, not sure on that one, since I wasn’t using locks at the time)

Bushnell 24MP low glow cams is what I keep going back to. 0.3s trigger and 100ft range. They work really reliably, super good quality pictures and video, and they only take 6AA batteries. For whatever reason the price has went way up since I got my first one several years ago. I think they were $80 or so at the time. I try to pick up more when I see sales or used ones. They have a less expensive model now but haven’t tried it yet.