# trail cams



## mbplus4 (Jan 26, 2009)

I'm a new member of this discussion forum, and a relatively new bow hunter. I'm looking forward to my second year of the archery hunt, and am considering the purchase of a trailcam. Any advice on what type I should buy? What should I look for in a trailcam?


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## Mojo1 (Sep 8, 2007)

There are a dazzling selection of them available, depends on how much you want to spend. They run from cheapo ones to several hundred dollars for the high end ones, just depends on the features and quality of them.

Another consideration relating to price is the possibility of theft when using one. Some people have had them ripped off; the lost of a several hundred dollar camera will suck the big one.

I started out with 35mm film models, I spent a lot of $ on film development. I'd personally stay with the digital types as they eliminate the cost of film development. I have a regular flash model Moultrie camera but my next one will be the non-flash (inferred flash/night vision) model. 
The higher the megapixels the better the quality of the pictures they take. 
They have a whole slew of features available on them. Most stamp the time & date on the picture; some even put the temp on there. Some have time delay between shots and burst modes. Most have an aiming system to help you aim them where you want them to take the picture. All digital cameras allow you to upgrade picture capacity with memory cards; some allow for the use of bigger capacity cards than others

I like the ones that run off 6V batteries, but they come with different power sources. I'm getting a solar powered panel charger for my next camera.

The Cuddlebacks are nice but they are high dollar, I'm not sure I'd use one on public land due to the theft issue I have a older Moultrie digital camera that takes decent pictures that I use, it's a 1.3MP and allows you to upgrade the memory (capacity) with a 256 card. I picked it up on clearance at Wally world so it didn't cost a mint.

I've been looking at some on the online sites for a new camera, check out the following sites they have some good deals from the look of it.

http://www.natchezss.com/

http://store.rogerssportinggoods.com/servlet/StoreFront


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## hunter_orange13 (Oct 11, 2008)

http://www.chasingame.com/

that place helps alot.

i have a moultrie, and have NOTHING bad to say about it. i also have a low end ir camera that SUCKS! the price was right, but i can't even tell if theres a deer 5 feet away or not! and it has alot of blank pictures.

with my moultrie, i have very few (if any) blank pictures. sometimes you have to look very hard to find a dove or eagle etc. (thats how i found my dove hunting spot! )

cuddebacks are great, just not when (if) they get stolen. cause they are expensive.


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## rockymountainelk (Jan 18, 2009)

Hey thanks for the info. I have been looking for a new trailcam as well.


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## Nueces (Jul 22, 2008)

What you want to look at is battery life in the field and trigger speed. If you have a slow wake up time or trigger speed, then if it is on a trail or even if an animal is running, you will end up with a blank photo.

Some cameras will last 150+ days in the field taking quite a few night and day photos (20 or more). Unless you can check your camera a lot, you don't want one that goes dead in 2 or 4 weeks. Even if you can change your batteries every 3 weeks - why? Especially if you can get those with long field life.

The Moultries are great. My complaint about those are the size. 3 cameras get heavy packing around with 6 D cells in each camera, plus the box is large itself.

Cameras are improving on size and some now will fit in your hand for the same price as a Moultrie with quicker trigger times and DELAYS between images. They can be set for every 1 second so it almost looks like a video clip - but they also have a video clip capability. The media cards hold quite a bit, I just personally like the still images because you can store more where video clips do have the potential of taking up all the memory on a card.

Check out the reviews. DO NOT get any that are some "shop" modifications. I don't think any of those are out any more, but they were when cameras first started coming out. Those actually used a digital camera that was modified with wires to the circuit board - that essentially burned out the camera. They are not like that any more.


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## stillhuntin (Feb 14, 2008)

Nueces said:


> Cameras are improving on size and some now will fit in your hand for the same price as a Moultrie with quicker trigger times and DELAYS between images. .


+1 for the Moultries. 1 set of batteries in each camera last all season for me.

What/where are the smaller cameras? I backpack and size and weight are _very _important.


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## rockymountainelk (Jan 18, 2009)

The Moultrie’s are great cams but just remember you always get what you pay for. Don’t go for the cheapest thing you can find. Moultrie offers several different models of trail cams one for as low as $120 and one for as high as $320. I would recommend the (MFH-DGS-I40 Game Spy I40 Digital Trail Camera) for $216 if you can afford it. It is a great cam I have two of them and have never had a problem.


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## proutdoors (Sep 24, 2007)

http://oddiction.com/shop/product_info. ... ts_id=1033


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## hunter_orange13 (Oct 11, 2008)

my moultrie battery lasted 7 and a half months! 

my no name brand last 3 weeks


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