Trail camera question

[Everyday Hunter]

What's the best trail camera under $150?

Steve

[metrx]

I borrowed one from a buddy before I invested in my own just to see if it was something worthwhile.  I'm not sure what type he had, but he told me he got it from Gander Mt and paid about $50.00 for it. 
I ended up buying a Moultrie I40.  It set me back about $189 (Cabelas), but you can probably get it cheaper on Ebay.  I loved the Moultrie I had (until someone stole it).  It took good quality color day pictures, and used infrared for great black and white night shots.  Easy set up with date, time, moon phase and temperature stamp on each photo... and I got about 6 months of battery life (I think it used 6 Ds)...4 megapixels.  Get yourself a big SD card (that stores the pics while in the camera) and set it on the highest quality.  They literally hold 100s of photos.  I used to check the camera once every or every other week, pull the photos off the card and put the card back in the camera empty. 
The one my buddy had was ok, but I think was a 2 megapixel (less picture quality) and had a regular flash for night pictures.  I used to look out my back window toward where I had the camera and it looked like the 4th of July sometimes with all the flashing...it definately spooks the deer.  The infrared never did.  
There are alot of cameras and I guess like anything, you get what you pay for.  They have some that you dont even have to retrieve the pics from the camera...you can download them from your computer...off the camera...right to your computer.  Get one thats simple, easy to operate and takes good quality photos.   
Good luck

[NC Deer Hunter]

Battery life, Battery life, Battery life,
Be carefull or you will go broke.
I'm not trying to push anything down your throat but I'm on 6 months of ussage with my Bushnell Trophy Cam loaded with 8 Lithium Batteries and still show full Battery life after aprox 2000+ pictures(amazing)
The first Camera I bought was a Bushnell Century & it ate the D bateries up in 1 to 2 weeks.
Of course the Trophy Cam cost $199.
Again, not trying to push anything. Just wanted to let you know my experence.
 
Good Luck

[Everyday Hunter]

I appreciate the responses. I'm using a camera now that I'm not quite satisfied with. It shall remain nameless.

Pictures: OK, but should be better.
Battery life: OK.
Reliability: Not good enough. It seems that cold temps shut off the camera, and it doesn't turn on when the temps warm up.
Price: + or - $100.

I want a camera that's in that price range because I don't want to invest in a $400 camera and then have to buy more stuff to lock it in place. I'd much rather lose a $100 camera than a $400 camera, and at $400 a pop, I can't afford more than one camera.

Keep the replies coming.

Steve

[2tonyb]

Moultrie D-40s can be found for less than $90. I've had two out for the past few months. Decent pics. I'm not real sure on battery life. Both of them are running on external rechargeable 12 volts batteries. However, one of them did temporarily die one time when the temp hit 2 F. For the price, I am very satisfied.

[reeper0697]

Steve,

As a fellow Moultrie D40 user, I would recommend a Bushnell Trophy cam. On the net you can find them under 200 (On ebay I saw a few buy now for 150 but they went like hot cakes) but from all the D batteries you buy for the Moultrie in a short amount of time the Bushnell will pay for itself. They battery life is just amazing. I have had cheap AA's in it for a few months and its still running (2 out of 3 batetry life) and we have had below 0 temps.

[BlueDuck]

I have a Moultrie 5.0.   Got it from Cablea's on sale for #149.   Reg $200. Takes good pics, and has excellent battrey life.  Only problem seems to be a slow trigger.  That can be overcome in most situations as long as you know how it works.  Its goes to sleep to save battrey life and it take about 2 seconds to wake up and take a pic.  At 90 degrees to a trail it probably wouldn't be good.  Set up at a feeder, lick or covering a trail at an angle so the animal is in the pic longer takes care of the problem. 

[shadow]

My  thoughts... D-40's are very reliable camera's. And you can get them for under 100 dollars most anywhere. I found that using HIGH QUALITY D batteries will last in cold weather 3-4 weeks, and 2 months or so in the summer. Trigger speed is slow, as mentioned by BlueDuck, (by the way..welcome to the forum  BlueDuck!) and if you set up the camera to get the trail as the deer walk down it or at a feeder etc.. a slow trigger speed won't be a problem.
I recently also bought the Bushnell trophy cam, 200 dollars.  INCREDIBLE daytime photo's, AA battery life..well, I have had it in the woods now for about 5-6 weeks and its been real cold and the batteries still have a full chrarge. It also took about 200 photos during this period. So I do like it for that reason. However the night pictures are black and white and I feel are terrible. You also can't program anything into the camera identifying the picture location, and the time on the pictures is only in military hours. Oh well you can't have everything in a rather inexpensive trail cam.

[GTOHunter]

Personally I like the IR camera's that are on the market,I bought a nice Moultrie I-60 at BassProShop for $200.00 and since I bought items from there before I got a $20.00-off coupon so it ended up costing me $180.00 + tax so I was back up to $200.00 total which is a very good price for a 6 Megapixel trail camera.It takes some really nice night pictures and great color day pictures and you can set on video also,the 72 LED's carry out very far and the 6-D cell batteries last a long time and it has a fast trigger speed.I also use rechargable batteries so I save money in the long run and you can buy a solar powered charger that runs the camera with its own internal battery.I have found them for around $79.99 to $69.00 or for the lowest price at www.walmart.com for around $49.00.


Right now in Southeast Missouri we have the Moultrie 4.0 IR camera on sale at a local Lumber and Feed Store for $169.00,model MFH-I-40 #9498 which is a good price for the 4 megapixel Infared camera.
Internet Link:
www.buchheitonline.com

I have also seen the Moultrie I-60 camera,which is a camera with 2 more megapixels and a built-in viewer of the animals on the camera that you can view out in the field on sale for around $214.00 on-line at www.walmart.com

I've heard great reviews about the Cuddeback Capture which is going to be a "Flash" Camera,and the *New up-graded 2010 Bushnell Trail Camera is suppose to be better than the older Bushnell Trail Camera's.

You can also view reviews and prices to Judge for yourself what camera and prices best fit your budget and needs on the following links:

www.chasinggame.com

www.trailcampros.com

www.bassproshops.com

www.cabelas.com

www.woods-n-waters.com


www.natchezss.com

[SHKYBoonie]

Steve, I am going to tell you this because I have been down the looooong road of trail cameras. There are many who like the Moultrie cams, but I am here to tell you they have never experienced anything close to the new Bushnell Trophy Cams. I have owned them all from the cheap Wildview to the most expensive CuddieBack's and none have even come close to the Trophy Cam. It has paid for itself in the money I have saved this year in batteries. I have bought 4 sets of 8 AA batteries to run 2 Trophy Cams for almost an entire year. They are still out there working for me as we speak. I still use a few of my other cams during the season, but I just can't afford to keep these cams running all year long. Not even to mention that it keeps me from having to go to my camera site as often. I have gotten 5000+ pics from one set of 8 AA batteries. No other camera manufacture can make that claim and with a trigger speed at less than 1 second to boot. I paid $200 for mine each but have seen them for around $160 at other places. Go to the Bushnell Trophy Cam thread and read a bit about them. There are pics there to compare as well. I don't think you could do any better. These little cams out do any other camera on the market, by a long shot. Even the cams that cost $400 - $600!