Best Game Camera under $200

[Magnarson]

Impressed with Moultrie M80XT Gamecam borrowed from buddy. Put out last night at -3F. 96% Battery. Went through the night to -13F. Retrieved cam due to concern batt life after cold night. 24 hours. Batt 90%. Nuff said. I need two cams for myself, and am very impressed with cold weather longevity. Question...Is this typical. What Cameras do you guys use?

Best Game Camera for $200 or less? What features are most useful and which ones are just fluff. I new at this cam business , what should I pay attention too?

[E_2_hunt]

my 1st 2 cameras were bushnell bought in 2010 sent one in for lenze repair i had bent in my fault they would not cover and could not fix they sent it back. it needed a $2 lenze.now my 2nd bushnell went out,screen did not want to stay on, sent in they will not fix 2 months out of warrenty.i told them to send it back, there dicount to replace is $150 so what i have left is my 2 moultree 2011 m80xt and one of my m80 went down with that program lock, i sent it in with no purchase reciet and they sent me a new one i will be sticking with moultree.

[skee0025]

Browning has trail cams now. I have seen videos and Pics taken from the Recon series and they came out very nice. I will be getting one this spring to augment my bushnell cams. I've seen them priced from 159 to 179. The trigger speed was impressive as was the clarity of both day and night photos/vids. There was also a lack of noticable blurring in the photos and videos.

[fish'n'hunt]

Do you hunt on private land or public land? I hunt on public land so the smaller the cam the harder it is to spot. Is theft an issue? Two of my cams were hit last year but the thieves were not successful, so a quality security box should be something to consider also. I have two 2011 moultrie m80 cams and one 2012 moultrie m80xd. They all do there jobs, but I wish they had faster trigger speeds since I set my up on trails. I set them out from September to the end of the gun season in video mode and had to change batteries once using the cheap kinds last year. Just make sure that the SDHC card works before you put them out since some SDHC cards didn't work for me. Even from the same company. The good part is that moultrie is coming out with new cameras this year that are suppose to have a faster trigger speed along with some other goodies for around the same price. I'm looking foward to the reviews of these new cams. Look around and you can pickup the m80's for around $125 or so.

[CaptainMusky]

I dont have much experience with trail cameras, but I just purchased a Moultrie M80XT and so far its been pretty good. The temp reading is way off on super cold temps. We were -23 the other day and it read something like 65511 degrees Fahrenheit. I guess its a known issue with them, supposedly they bottom out around -6.

I wish I had the camera a week earlier. I was borrowing a Bushnell one with a regular flash and while the pics turn out decent, the range of the flash was like 25' tops. The Moultrie with the Infrared had amazing range (probably close to 60 feet), but now my deer havent been coming consistently to get a lot of photos.

The trigger speed and time for the camera to get ready for next photo seems slower than some (I have read some reviews that say the same), but honestly, I dont even know if I am setting it up right.

When you turn it on, it starts counting down from 30 seconds. In the settings there is a setting for time between photos. I had mine set to 1 minute. I guess I dont know what this initial countdown thing is for, never saw anything in the manual about it. I just have the camera in my yard snapping photos of the deer when they come in. Hopefully we get more cold weather so they come back.

[Boar]

I hav 4 moultries, 6.0 5.0 flash D55 ana m80 blackflash never a prob an range from 100-200, have a truth cam primos 46 like that a lot too

[sportfish]

I have 2 m80 and 1 m80xt they are great for the money , best night pics you can get . I only wish the batterie life was better and a the trigger speed very some times they seem fast and other times not . but over all good cams ..

[CrewJones]

i have also had the best luck with moultries

I have had bad luck with primos, but like anything if the one you by breaks thats what you remember Im sure there are people that have had bad luck with every brand.

my wildgame broke 4 months after I purchased it they sent a new one so customer service was good.

[MNpurple]

Under $200, you just can't go wrong with the covert line of cameras. I've owned bushnell, stealth, moultrie, wildgame and scoutguard and although I never thought I'd like anything more than the scoutguard, the covert is the fastest most consistent camera I have owned. I have had the same 8 batteries working in the camera over a year, unreal.

[sticknstring]

For black flash cams, the new 2013 Moultrie 990i is shaping up pretty nice. I'll agree with the Covert's too. 2013 models won't be availabel until March, but will be worth the wait. Bushnell is very good as well, especially in the video department. They have a new model that takes full 1080p video, first of its kind. Not within your $200 budget though. Browning is new on the scene this year as well and could be a contender with what I've seen so far.

[AntlerHandler]

I have been using trail cameras for years now and in that time I've owned stealth cam, cuddeback, and bushnell cameras. The Bushnell trophy cam HD that I just bought last year beats every other camera I've ever owned hands down. Unbelievable battery life (1 year), lightning fast trigger speed, and excellent field of detection. The Bushnell has an extremely wide detection zone which I love so I can catch a cruising buck on a ridge top- we all know that during the rut bucks don't always stick to major deer trails. I hunted wolves in MN this past fall and ran my cuddeback attack IR and my Bushnell HD over my bait sites all winter and the bushnell had three times the number of pictures and never froze up when the cuddeback did. The Bushnell trophy cam HD retails for 160$ brand new on walmart.com or hsolist.com. I probably sound like a sales rep but I am not haha I have just been so frustrated with junk trail cameras over the years that now that I have finally found a good one I want everyone to know!

[AntlerHandler]

FYI I didn't say "HSOList" in my last post, the forum posted that... I typed in eebbaayy (I believe they switched it to try to get more business so thats why I misspelled it this time).

[Hoey]

I received a Primos for Christmas 4 years ago or so. It is very unpredicable whether or not I will get the photos off of it, especially during cold temps, <10F or so, and timing to shut the unit off to retreive the chip. Range is less than 20 feet or so. I will be getting something else next time.

[rbs]

I will tell you one NOT to get and that is the Primos Blackout....absolute junk, pics are dump and the range is closeups or no pic. Wish I would have returned it!

[McGurk]

I have a moultrie m80x black that has been OK so far, but the bushnell's are the talk of the town. I'd like to see them strapped side by side on a post and view the results from the same trigger animals (deer, squirrels, rabbits, raccoons, sasquatch, etc...).