Cell trail cam recommendations

[SuperDUECE22]

Not trying to ruffle any feathers here but the tactacam reveals are overrated. Yeah they are fairly cheap and take a half a$$ photo but that's about it. They miss a $hit load of pictures, trigger time is trash & recovery time is even worse oh & battery life sucks. Have put the reveals on the same camera post as other brands listed below and the results are quite alarming.
Having tested a bunch of these together the best IMO are:
Reconyx
Spartan
Exodus
Covert
StealthCam
Browning

New lithium's in all my cell cameras July 4th weekend and the only ones still sending photos daily are Stealthcam Fusion & Stealthcam Reactor & i live up north in the frozen tundra.

 

[kcruz]

I only have experience with Covert as far as cell cameras. I bought them a few years ago and they have been great. Plan on adding about 4 or 5 more to the property this year.

 

[Honyock]

Another vote for the Moultrie Edge. You can run it off of 8 or 16 batteries and it's pretty easy on the batteries. I think the pictures are better than Skypoint and their app is very nice. We put out 8 Skylink cellular cameras in 5/2022 and three have crapped out already. The Moultrie is definitely easier on the batteries than the Skylink and we've had zero issues with them so far.

 

[Gbrecka]

We’ve used SPYPOINT, stealthcam and Cuddeback. The cuddelink system is awesome if you want to link close properties together. They also are a cheaper option for cell plan with multiple cams. They have external battery packs that can be added. I got a full season on my cameras with the external packs.

The stealthcam fusion x have been good for us too. The app works well, and you can change all the settings remotely. Also reasonable pricing on plans.

SPYPOINT gave us issues, and for our needs, the data plan was more expensive

 

[pirogue]

This is a nice thread, I appreciate it, too.
Are there any significant differences between the Reveal 2.0 and the XB?

They don’t make the XB anymore. I’m running 2 of them and pleased with them. They get better cell reception than my IPhone, on the properties I have them. If you see them for sale anywhere, PM and let me know where. Thanks

 

[RussDXT]

Silly question, but if your not using the cell function will they operate as a trail cam where you can store images on the card?

 

[Texasbuckeye]

Silly question, but if your not using the cell function will they operate as a trail cam where you can store images on the card?

Yes they still act as a normal camera. You just pull the cRd and look as normal.

Many of these cams will only send a low rez thumnail of the actual picture sent, so if you want a high rez pic you can either pay more for it or pull the card.

 

[Millwood21]

I really like my ridgetec cameras. I've used a lot of others and settled on liking these about the best. I had a couple exodus and sold them as it cost me a lot of money to run them. Even in low activity areas. I run mine on video and I spend 7 bucks a month on each camera. Vs the few tactacams I have left at 5 a month for just 250 photos. The ridgetecs also send a thumbnail vs the actual video. Then you make a request if you see something you like in the thumbnail. Which saves a lot of money on data charges. And they have the ability to use att or Verizon depending which SIM card you need to activate for the area.

 

[Texasbuckeye]

My expereince with cell cams goes back a way, but have been using multiple brands over the years. Started with bushnell, then went to covert, then to spypoint, then to cudde.

I still have two coverts that have lasted a couple years, tho one stopped sending pics toward the end of deer season this year. I let the subscription run out on that, so dont get pics anymore from the other. I have had the best luck with covert, but i have had issues with them over the years, and had to replace each at least once (tho one replacement was for the 3G to 4G upgrade which is understandable).

I had gotten a bunch of cuddes to link my low signal areas on my property and all but one has just stopped working. They are not reliable for more than 2 seasons. I had solar and all that set up so they were maintenance free, just don’t last long. I also do not get all the pics via email. I get max of 16 per batch and the best way i found to send was 2 batches one at noon, and one at midnight. So it was good for a general idea of what was out there but by no means a reliable scouting method. I am going away from those for sure this year.

Spypoint was terrible from the get go. And their tech service being in french canada was not helpful.

Bushnell worked well while i had it, and they may be better now, but at the time (this was early in the cell cam realm) you couldn’t link multiple cams to one account and the two i had didn’t last much linger than the cuddes i have now, max 2 seasons.

I am currently looking at spartan as a full replacement.

 

[Jkramer105]

We run a lot of cuddelink cameras. They are great for keeping the cell plan bill down. They shine on a large property where you want multiple cameras sending pictures. where they lack is battery life. I had two sets of batteries to make it from October to December. I wish they would last like my old bushnells (they could make it a whole season on one set) grated they weren't cell cameras though.

 

[RainmanOK]

I bought a SPYPOINT on sale after last years season. Been happy with it. With lithium batteries, life is 4-6 months. Regular batteries, a little over a month. After using a cell camera, I can’t imagine using one that’s not.

I use these as well. I've heard several people had issues with them, but they've always operated fine. Ultimate lithiums last a long time on the Link Micro's, and the photo's do their job. 100 free photos per month, extra photo plans are cheap/cancel anytime.

 

[Nickydunzo]

Stay away from stealth cam. They work good off season but their servers must not be able to take the traffic come hunting season. Right around september mine end up getting shotty with transmitting and won’t send videos around that time at all. Having good luck transitioning to reveal

 

[Blong]

Outside of the Cuddlelink system, are there any other brands where you can link the cameras? Several of the places I run non-cell cameras now do not have cell coverage (but a hill a few hundred yards away does).

 

[Chili_Goose]

I have been using Covert for a couple years now. They seem to produce good pictures and I like the app.

 

[Chili_Goose]

Outside of the Cuddlelink system, are there any other brands where you can link the cameras? Several of the places I run non-cell cameras now do not have cell coverage (but a hill a few hundred yards away does).

Covert has cameras the can link through the LoRa system. I haven't used them though. But if they work how they are supposed to it could save a lot of money if you have a small place that all the cameras can link.

 

[wind gypsy]

I really like my ridgetec cameras. I've used a lot of others and settled on liking these about the best. I had a couple exodus and sold them as it cost me a lot of money to run them. Even in low activity areas. I run mine on video and I spend 7 bucks a month on each camera. Vs the few tactacams I have left at 5 a month for just 250 photos. The ridgetecs also send a thumbnail vs the actual video. Then you make a request if you see something you like in the thumbnail. Which saves a lot of money on data charges. And they have the ability to use att or Verizon depending which SIM card you need to activate for the area.

Ridgetecs are my current favorites too. Have or had 3 different browning defender series cams, tactacam SK, and spypoint link-dark and link-s-dark.

Ridgetecs have better detection, good reliability, good battery life, and they are cheaper on data than all my others and I run them 100% on video.

My one tactacam (SK) takes good pictures and has held up well. The one thing that tactacam has as a negative IMO is a very vertically short detection circuit. If something crosses near the bottom or top of the image frame, there's a good chance it wont trigger. That really limits your detection zone when you get cameras above deer sightline and facing down. The other thing is that traditionally they would not trasmit photo bursts which makes a big difference in missing things because they take a long time to recover and trigger again. Mine takes 16ish seconds to recover when on scheduled transmittals, longer on instant. A lot of stuff can come through the detection zone in 16 seconds.

 

[Blong]

I will take a look at the LoRa system with the Coverts. I have several non-cell Coverts and they have worked and lasted well throughout several years. Thanks!

 

[ljaq516]

I’m running Tactacam Reveal X. The price for the service plan is pretty economical. Pic quality is pretty good. I don’t do too many videos so can speak to that. I guess it depends on what kind reception you get in your area. But it’s been pretty reliable for me. Cell trail cams are a game changer for sure. But I would definitely still check your SD cards every now and again. Just in case some photos don’t get transferred. Here are some pics for reference.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Ark_18]

Spartan is my go-to for cell cams. I also have plenty of Tactacam XB's that have done me well. I can't say Tactacam in my experience is all that much worse than Spartan at missing pictures.

 

[WCB]

Tactacam is what I would recommend. My buddies use them all the time and we had 15 or so set out this past late season in ND. Shitty temps and snow and wind blowing (wide open western whitetail type hunting) Only issues we had we spotty service due to being in deep draws in remote hills or being dumb and putting the camera up directly into blowing sleet etc...but the couple cameras we did that with cleared up just fine. Due to conditions a couple cameras are still out from early Dec. and still getting pictures on it when the snow melts a little or settles enough. Camera goes radio silent for a week or so at a time then BAM pictures as soon as the camera and sensors are clear of snow.

4 months of being in and out of snow....absolute terrible cold all winter and still rocking.