What's decent cheap trail camera?

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<DK>
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Re: What's decent cheap trail camera?

Unread postby <DK> » Wed Jun 23, 2021 9:23 am

austin1990 wrote:
<DK> wrote:I really enjoy the $40 wildgame cams on video mode.

Same here, I actually need to add a few more for this fallhttps://youtube.com/shorts/xfrpgq7K_LI?feature=share


Very nice! If were sharing, heres a few of my favorites so far

https://youtu.be/0ysEos5MYxI

https://youtu.be/hSkE_KIg4Fc

https://youtu.be/A9w0RLq9RXE


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Re: What's decent cheap trail camera?

Unread postby <DK> » Wed Jun 23, 2021 9:25 am

These are funny!

Watch this buck have a fun time destroying this bush :lol:

https://youtu.be/dsa-wh9whVw

This Doe circles around behind the buck and gets away

https://youtu.be/JKW-e-1ddWA
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Re: What's decent cheap trail camera?

Unread postby Horizontal Hunter » Wed Jun 23, 2021 10:24 am

Lockdown wrote:I hung 3 tascos this spring but so far have only pulled one card. For right now, I’m not real impressed. Apparently the sensor field of view is bigger than that of the picture itself. Tons (thousands) of blowing leaf triggers but most weren’t in the pic :think:

I’m not a huge fan of not having a battery meter either. I feel like that’s going to bite me in the rear at some point.


I always set my cameras, all cameras not just the Tasco, to take 3 pictures when triggered to make sure I don’t just get a blank from an early trigger.

I agree about the battery meter for sure. I swap out the batteries when the pictures start to get noticeably darker on the 2nd and 3rd picture of the series.

This has been a great thread.

Bob
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Re: What's decent cheap trail camera?

Unread postby <DK> » Wed Jun 23, 2021 10:34 am

Horizontal Hunter wrote:
Lockdown wrote:I hung 3 tascos this spring but so far have only pulled one card. For right now, I’m not real impressed. Apparently the sensor field of view is bigger than that of the picture itself. Tons (thousands) of blowing leaf triggers but most weren’t in the pic :think:

I’m not a huge fan of not having a battery meter either. I feel like that’s going to bite me in the rear at some point.


I always set my cameras, all cameras not just the Tasco, to take 3 pictures when triggered to make sure I don’t just get a blank from an early trigger.

I agree about the battery meter for sure. I swap out the batteries when the pictures start to get noticeably darker on the 2nd and 3rd picture of the series.

This has been a great thread.

Bob


I agree w that. Also iv noticed on cheaper cams, when setting the delay/timeout below 30 secs they can be flakey or mess up.
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Re: What's decent cheap trail camera?

Unread postby Edcyclopedia » Thu Jun 24, 2021 3:00 am

westwind wrote:The Tasco cameras do miss a lot, in my experience. A decent number of photos of tails/butts of passing deer. But for $29, it's hard to complain.

My favorite public land camera is the Wildgame Innovations Terra Extreme 14. They're about $45, usually, and a lil cheaper if you can find them on sale. The extra $15 gets you way better picture quality and functionality. https://www.amazon.com/Terra-Extreme-Wi ... YP5C&psc=1

Last, if you use spypoint's cell link (cheap way to turn a $40 cam into a cell cam), the quality of the Tasco pictures is too low. The pictures are very hard to view on the app. I would recommend avoiding the Tasco if you want to hook it up to a cell link.


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Re: What's decent cheap trail camera?

Unread postby CattailCommander » Sat Jun 26, 2021 1:40 am

Watch on camofire.com, sometimes they have "Trail cam Tuesday" where they have many different options of trail cams for cheap, i think they're all refurbished but this winter I got 4 or 5 refurbished Stealth Cam's for like $30-40 each. So far I haven't had any problems with the cameras themselves and they're about half the price as a new one would have been of that model.
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Re: What's decent cheap trail camera?

Unread postby DEERSLAYER » Sat Jun 26, 2021 8:46 am

Thanks for all the suggestions. They want something now so I gave them a couple of options they can easily get local or on Amazon.
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Re: What's decent cheap trail camera?

Unread postby AndreSaavedra » Sat Jun 26, 2021 11:15 pm

The biggest bucks I have found, I found with my cheapest and only Tasco cam, go figure.
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Re: What's decent cheap trail camera?

Unread postby Missionshooter » Thu Jul 01, 2021 7:46 am

I bought a couple tasco 28$ cams thanks to you guys. Beast mode is ON this year.
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Re: What's decent cheap trail camera?

Unread postby PApublic1187 » Sat Jul 29, 2023 10:07 am

AndreSaavedra wrote:The biggest bucks I have found, I found with my cheapest and only Tasco cam, go figure.




Same for me lol, might be more so because I only run the cheapos….picture quality just isn’t a huge concern for me. Use it more for intel purposes than enjoyment purposes, but I can see why people would like good quality photos.
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Re: What's decent cheap trail camera?

Unread postby Woodsy211 » Sat Jul 29, 2023 12:56 pm

PApublic1187 wrote:
AndreSaavedra wrote:The biggest bucks I have found, I found with my cheapest and only Tasco cam, go figure.




Same for me lol, might be more so because I only run the cheapos….picture quality just isn’t a huge concern for me. Use it more for intel purposes than enjoyment purposes, but I can see why people would like good quality photos.


Biggest thing with the cheaper cams, like someone else mentioned is 3 shot burst. Cheaper cams have a tendency to have a slower trigger speed, so most generally it’ll only be the first pic when it triggers that gets anything. With that being said, placement is key. Always set em, whether cheap or expensive, so that the predicted route of travel is head on or directly away. Even some of the higher end cams miss a lot if they are positioned on cross traffic. The best spots to set cams are places where they are moving towards or away from the cam for a considerable distance, or if there is something there to hold their interest. Whether it’s a distinct food source(apple tree) mock scrape, natural scrape, etc
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Re: What's decent cheap trail camera?

Unread postby PApublic1187 » Sat Jul 29, 2023 2:47 pm

Woodsy211 wrote:
PApublic1187 wrote:
AndreSaavedra wrote:The biggest bucks I have found, I found with my cheapest and only Tasco cam, go figure.




Same for me lol, might be more so because I only run the cheapos….picture quality just isn’t a huge concern for me. Use it more for intel purposes than enjoyment purposes, but I can see why people would like good quality photos.


Biggest thing with the cheaper cams, like someone else mentioned is 3 shot burst. Cheaper cams have a tendency to have a slower trigger speed, so most generally it’ll only be the first pic when it triggers that gets anything. With that being said, placement is key. Always set em, whether cheap or expensive, so that the predicted route of travel is head on or directly away. Even some of the higher end cams miss a lot if they are positioned on cross traffic. The best spots to set cams are places where they are moving towards or away from the cam for a considerable distance, or if there is something there to hold their interest. Whether it’s a distinct food source(apple tree) mock scrape, natural scrape, etc



Yep, I find that is important with all my cameras like you said, even my more expensive cell cams. I generally end up putting 75% of my cameras on scrapes in the end of it all it seems like, and if they are on scrapes I like to keep them on video mode….
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Re: What's decent cheap trail camera?

Unread postby mauser06 » Sun Jul 30, 2023 8:43 am

I've tried various cheaper cams and camofire specials over the years. I've been unhappy pretty much every time.


Nothing frustrates me more than going through the effort of hanging cameras to find they didn't do what they should have.

Trigger time and reliability just isn't the same. I started testing them innthe backyard and hanging them on a tree and letting the dogs go by.


Now I just wait for Brownings to go on sale. They've been the best for me for the price. I also prefer no glows so I own a bunch of dark ops. Their customer service has been great over the years too.


Small and compact, only uses 6 batteries...great battery life...trigger time abd reliability has been great. The pics and videos are great...night time pics with no glows can be a little rough but thats nature of the beast.


I hang cameras for a specific reason. Letting it soak 2 or 3 months and coming g in to see rubs and a scrape worked heavily and having 38 pics mostly of nothing just isn't acceptable. I'll spend the extra money and have less cameras but know what I have is likely to do what I want.
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Re: What's decent cheap trail camera?

Unread postby PApublic1187 » Mon Jul 31, 2023 4:22 pm

mauser06 wrote:I've tried various cheaper cams and camofire specials over the years. I've been unhappy pretty much every time.


Nothing frustrates me more than going through the effort of hanging cameras to find they didn't do what they should have.

Trigger time and reliability just isn't the same. I started testing them innthe backyard and hanging them on a tree and letting the dogs go by.


Now I just wait for Brownings to go on sale. They've been the best for me for the price. I also prefer no glows so I own a bunch of dark ops. Their customer service has been great over the years too.


Small and compact, only uses 6 batteries...great battery life...trigger time abd reliability has been great. The pics and videos are great...night time pics with no glows can be a little rough but thats nature of the beast.


I hang cameras for a specific reason. Letting it soak 2 or 3 months and coming g in to see rubs and a scrape worked heavily and having 38 pics mostly of nothing just isn't acceptable. I'll spend the extra money and have less cameras but know what I have is likely to do what I want.




Can you mention some of the “cheaper” ones you have tried in the past? I’m curious which ones they were.
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Re: What's decent cheap trail camera?

Unread postby DaveT1963 » Tue Aug 01, 2023 6:37 am

Browning just had their dark Ops Max on sale for 70 bucks.... you won't find a better camera for that price anywhere. Not sure if it's still going on?


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