What trail cam is everyone using these days

[Mossing]

I’m getting back into whitetail and wanna add some trail cams. What’s the reliable go to cell and non-cell brand of choice. Looking to add 10-20 based on price

 

[Rjsand70]

I just bought a muddy and a spy cam that both send photos to your phone, both decently easy to set up. The muddy only works with Verizon the spycam works with any. Both were 100 bucks but I think the muddy takes better pictures I’ve deleted them all so far I’ll post some when the next batch come in.

 

[menhaden_man]

The wild game innovations cheapo is great for about $40. The Walmart Tasso is $28, also surprisingly reliable for the money.

 

[Mossing]

Not sure which route to take yet. In the process of looking for some land to lease. If it’s further than I wanna drive often I’ll probably go the cell route. If it’s less than an hour I’ll go cheaper. Just really wanna find good images and a good trigger response. Thanks again for helping

 

[journeyman713]

I have a pair of Browning Defenders. Would Not recommend these. They miss A Lot!
I’ve put in a mock scrape in front of one, expected my phone to blow up. Nada.
I have watched herds of deer parade right in front. Very few shots taken.
last night I passed up on an eight point, right in front of camera, would be nice to see the one I let walk by. Zilch.
For all I know, Bigfoot lives on my property. No way to tell with these cameras.

 

[Rjsand70]

The pickup is the spy cam the doe is the muddy I like the muddy better myself

 

[Mossing]

I own a couple stealth cams that do ok but the tech is 6-7 years old. I would figure trigger times would improve a lot

 

[wind gypsy]

I have a pair of Browning Defenders. Would Not recommend these. They miss A Lot!
I’ve put in a mock scrape in front of one, expected my phone to blow up. Nada.
I have watched herds of deer parade right in front. Very few shots taken.
last night I passed up on an eight point, right in front of camera, would be nice to see the one I let walk by. Zilch.
For all I know, Bigfoot lives on my property. No way to tell with these cameras.

Which model defender? They have the original (no glow), Defender pro-scout (last years model, low glow), and defender ridgeline (this years model, no glow).

We have all of the above and unfortunately added 6 defender ridgelines this year. The OG and pro-scout have been good for us, the ridgeline have been terrible. They had a firmware issue that resulted in sporadic near immediate battery drain and poor conversion to SD so the pictures were very pixilated. The firmware issue got solved but the baby antenna gets very poor reception and you cant unscrew it and put on a better booster antenna like the previous versions. That and Browning's data plans are about the most expensive out there.

 

[wind gypsy]

OP - cheapo wildgame innovations have been good for us. Going on the 3rd season with a few and they have all worked reliably. You get mediocre pictures but they are good just for cheaply covering ground.

Browning non-cell cams are a go to for lots of folks. I have mostly dark-ops models to avoid detectable flash. They take mediocre night pictures though. The alternative is the low-glow strike force model that takes a little better night pics. They have a great detection circuit and take good day time pics and videos. Can sometimes be too sensitive to grass/branches and odd sun angles and have excessive false triggers. I have heard a pretty notable IR filter clunk on mine lately but that seems common with most cams.

tactacam is all the rage for budget cell cams these days. I don't fully trust their long term reliability yet but lots of folks love em.

I'm pretty set on ridgetec for cell cams. They have a good detection circuit, solid battery life, no glow with good night pictures, great video - up to 30 second 1080 video can be transmitted to your phone, and have the most adjustable settings i've found in a camera that is controllable from the app. I spend a whopping $6/month per camera with them vs over $10/camera with browning. I've been able to get most of these for $250-300, MRSP is $400. There is primary negative - they have lousy day time picture resolution which is kind of odd.

Spartan has a pretty solid reputation for reliability as far as cell cams go. I've never tried them. Reports of less than stellar detection circuits have kept me away.

All in all - cameras have become very cheap IMO for what they are asked to do. They are all made in china (unless you pay for reconyx) and have a decent failure rate. I wouldn't go into it expecting flawless performance from any of them.

 

[journeyman713]

Which model defender? They have the original (no glow), Defender pro-scout (last years model, low glow), and defender ridgeline (this years model, no glow).

We have all of the above and unfortunately added 6 defender ridgelines this year. The OG and pro-scout have been good for us, the ridgeline have been terrible. They had a firmware issue that resulted in sporadic near immediate battery drain and poor conversion to SD so the pictures were very pixilated. The firmware issue got solved but the baby antenna gets very poor reception and you cant unscrew it and put on a better booster antenna like the previous versions. That and Browning's data plans are about the most expensive out there.

This one - Browning Defender.
It's their most costly cam of the group. Hate to think the cheaper ones are worse.

 

[wind gypsy]

This one - Browning Defender.
It's their most costly cam of the group. Hate to think the cheaper ones are worse.

Huh. Yep, the one we have has worked well. Do you have it sending immediately or batched photos?

 

[journeyman713]

Huh. Yep, the one we have has worked well. Do you have it sending immediately or batched photos?

It's set to 'Immediately'. Which may be short for 'Immediate Disappointment'.
As I walk in to my tree stand, I walk right past one of these cameras.
Get settled in, look at my phone - it missed me again, the disappointment follows immediately.

 

[wind gypsy]

It's set to 'Immediately'. Which may be short for 'Immediate Disappointment'.
As I walk in to my tree stand, I walk right past one of these cameras.
Get settled in, look at my phone - it missed me again, the disappointment follows immediately.

Try setting it to send in batches if you haven't. A lot of these things dont function worth a crap if they are trying to trigger, convert to thumbnail, and transmit immediately. Sounds like yours has deeper issues though.

Have you noticed if the images are getting saved on SD card but not transmitting?

 

[Crusader]

The wild game innovations cheapo is great for about $40. The Walmart Tasso is $28, also surprisingly reliable for the money.

Which WGI cheapo are you referring to and what's the best place to buy? I need to buy some this week, I guess I'll see if something is available via Amazon Prime.

 

[menhaden_man]

Which WGI cheapo are you referring to and what's the best place to buy? I need to buy some this week, I guess I'll see if something is available via Amazon Prime.

This one here. I also have a Browning that I like the most but it’s $100ish. This one is not far behind for a fraction of the cost.

Wildgame Innovations TX10i1-8... https://www.amazon.com/dp/B078H74BVG?ref=ppx_pop_mob_ap_share

Edit: holy shit, they must have container ships off CA with the rest. I paid like $38 for this just a couple months ago. Looks like price is double today! Good luck.

 

[menhaden_man]

Check out Walmart - they have WGI similar model for the right price.

Robot or human?

 

[Crusader]

Thanks, m man!

 

[SuperDUECE22]

I own a couple stealth cams that do ok but the tech is 6-7 years old. I would figure trigger times would improve a lot

i run about 12-15 stealth cams & a couple older cuddebacks. The stealth cams have been bulletproof for me (maybe i've just been lucky). Have 4 stealth cam cell cams (2 fusion & 2 reactor) and they've been great. The fusions lasted 12 full months in MN winters on a set of lithium AA's and took about 10K photos with the cams set to upload images once per day. Reactors have been out since august with no problems at all & they do take better photos than the fusions. Can use code hush @ https://www.stealthcam.com/ for 30% off. If price isn't an issue i'd go with spartan cell cams @ https://go.spartancamera.com/. , hands down the BEST IMO

 

[journeyman713]

Try setting it to send in batches if you haven't. A lot of these things dont function worth a crap if they are trying to trigger, convert to thumbnail, and transmit immediately. Sounds like yours has deeper issues though.

Have you noticed if the images are getting saved on SD card but not transmitting?

SD card reflects the same as, what was sent to the App.
The issue seems to be, it doesn't detect motion all the time.
Tried reorientating the aim, no improvement.
The Browning customer service is no help, you get a young person that doesn't even know what a trail camera is, but will read the manual to you, if you want.

I'll try the batch send option. Not holding my breath.

 

[Mossing]

I appreciate everyone’s help with this. Everything in the hunting world is an investment these days. Still a fun investment.