New to the forum...which cam to purchase?

[LONGBEARD]

Love my Cuddeback captures have 4 and 1 bushnell sentry its junk
Check out some of my pics on the outdoor channel.co go to community
and type BOB from PA.

[Bart]

Under $200, get Cuddeback Capture or Moultrie i40.  Have Leaf River flash and Leaf River ir, both are good, now.  The Leaf River ir didn't work out of the box but Leaf River fixed after warranty ran for nothing. Too many buttons on the Leaf Rivers though. Have a Cuddeback No Flash that is in its third year and great. No complaints.  Cuddeback Excites that I have had have not been great.  One is OK and the other got my money back from Bass Pro.  The Moultrie I40 is in its first season and so far so good. Don't like the design and access to sd card but battery life is great. Tried the Wildgame Innovations S1.3 from Walmart for $50.  Battery life is the worst I have ever experienced.  I hacked one up and hooked up a 6v rechargeable and solar panel.  Still awaiting the outcome.  Here's the important part - There is no perfect game camera, that I have found, and every manufacturer has their lemons.  Plan on spending some money and trying a few.  Consider this - Why are all the major camera manufacturers able to produce a 12 megapixel do everything dslr with vibration reduction, hd glass, video, etc. for approx. $600, but we can't get a decent game camera for the same?  Where are the major camera manufactures?  To my knowledge neither Canon, Nikon, Leica, Fuji, Sony, Kodak, etc. have anything to do with game cameras.  No wonder they all suck in some way.

[SHKYBoonie]

I have about 20 cameras now, so I can tell you a little about the ones that work and the ones that don't. I started out with the Bushnell Trail cams. They worked over bait and only took about 250 pics before the batteries went flat. Got tired of spending all my money on batteries, so I purchased a few StealthCam 540IR's. These have been very good cameras. They take very good pics, seem to have a fairly fast trigger but the batteries still didn't last as long as I thought they should. I would get about 1000 pics before having to replace the batteries. I figured, if they were that good then the StealthCam Prowler (there most expensive model) should be better. I was wrong! They are junk! I've had them for 2 years and they have spent more time getting shipped back and forth for repairs than in the woods. The 540IR cams on the other hand are still in the woods and I leave them out year round. Then I thought, well I'll give the CuddieBack cams a try. To be honest, they are good cams but for the price, they aren't any better than the 540IR cams. You will still only get about 1000 to 1500 pics, depending on if they are day or night pics. I was at a trade show this Summer and got a chance to see the new Bushnell Trophy cam. I liked the features it had and the compact size. I talked to one of the reps at the show and asked alot of questions. He made several promises and said that if I bought one and didn't think it was the best camera I have ever used they would take it back and refund my money. Now that's a bold statement. So I bought one right there. This was the model with no card and no viewing screen. I got it for a little under $200. That's a little more than what I paid for the 540IR cams but alot less than what I paid for all the others. I have had it out for 6 months now. It takes the most amazing pics, great video too I might add. I have replaced the batteries once and that was just a few weeks ago. It was still showing that they had some life left but I wasn't going to be back for awhile, so I replaced the batteries in all my cams. The 540IR cams are getting old now and starting to show some signs of moisture inside the case, I still use the Cuddieback cams and they still work well, the Prowler cams are still being worked on and the old Bushnell cams, I gave away. I will be replacing other cameras with the new Bushnell Trophy Cams from now on. I hope my trials and tribulations have helped you.

[SHKYBoonie]

These are a few pics to use as a reference. The first 2 are Bushnell pics and one is placed on a trail. You can see that the trigger speed is GREAT! The last pic is one of the 540IR cams. All the pics were at night to compare. I have found that most cams take good pics during the day but they don't at night. Both of these take great night pics with the Bushnell being a little better.

[GTOHunter]

I have a Moultrie I-60 Trail Camera and it is a very good camera with several nice options and the InfaRed pictures are very good at night and you can also set it on 5,15 or 30 second videos too.I paid over $300.00 for mine and they are are sale at BassProShops for around $200.00,you can also get them at Wal-Mart for around $209.00 and at www.walnutcreekarchery.com You can also buy a solar powered battery pack for the higher quality trail camera's at their site or even at Wal-Mart which is the lowest priced so far that I have found!
 
 
The more IR LED's on a camera the better/further a trail camera will take a picture at night and the more megapixels the better the quality of a picture it will take also.So if you see a camera advertised at 1.3 megapixels it not going to take a very good picture compared to say a 5.0,a 6.0 or even some that take a 8.0 megapixel picture and some take different amount of megapixels pictures at night compare to the day time pictures!So take your time shopping for trail camera's,ask plenty of questions and look at the quality of pictures they take!  

[gunther89]

I would say go with a cuddeback capture.  The flash version is 200 bucks and even though mine is going in for repairs I would still say its the best camera on the market for the price.  The picture quality is great and battery life is great as well.  Also the trigger speed is the best I have ever seen.  If something walks in front of the camera it will take a picture for sure.  This is a camera that you can leave out in the woods for a month and not worry about the batteries being dead.  I'll attach 2 pictures 1 daytime and 1 nightime.