need a good trail camera

[mille lacs muskie bum]

I am looking for a decent trail camera around $100. Any advice would help.

[BLACKJACK]

Spend a little more money and get a digital. I recently bought a Leaf River, with the 512 mb memory card, it will hold over 300 pictures. I can leave it sit for several weeks and know that I'm not missing anything. With 24 or 36 exposures, in a good active spot, you could blow thru that in 2 days. Plus there is the cost of developing.

[fishermn]

I agree, go digital if you can afford it. If not, go with the $65 stealth cam, I have the stealth cam right now, and I am upgrading to the Leaf River digital this summer. its well worth the money...

[Mark Christianson]

Ditto....

Digital is my new endeavor. I recently bought 2 Leaf Rivers.

I want MORE!!!

I do have the Stealthcam MC2-G's and they are around the $70 area. A good camera for the money. But they need 8 AA batteries, and you can get about 3 rolls of film on average and then need to replace them. It can add up, but I look for the deals on AA batteries at Menards and other stores to keep the investment down.

The Leaf River digital is pretty gentle on the batteries from what I am seeing so far.

[fishermn]

BLB, just curious, what are the Leaf River camera's running as far as price? I havent checked lately, and am looking to buy a couple in the next few weeks...

[bobbersgone]

go to this web page they have the cheapest price around.http://www.jesseshunting.com if you dont get the page before it gets axed e-mail me then i'll send it to you. [email protected] i have had a leaf river for almost a year i love it. real good battery life also. i have a few stealth digitals also they are REAL bad on batteries, but i have mine hooked up to external power. i also turned my stealth's into IR cameras. good luck this is the time of year you want your cameras out to be able to watch them critters grow.

[BLACKJACK]

Its kind of fun, 'hunting with a camera'. I've only had my camera for about a month and I'm on my third spot, learning as I go. Gotten a few deer, lots pictures with nothing in it, accidently deleted some pictures before I could download them - now I have it set up by a late nesting wood duck. She's only got 6 eggs, but shes going up one a day, so looks like shes serious. Will be interesting to see if she sits at the hole long enough for me to 'shoot' her on film. Already thinking about other spots to put it, going to dig in some posts by my food plots, I might even have to splurge on another camera

[Jigging Bob]

I am in the market also. I don't want to spend a lot of money then end up with a piece of garbage. The leaf river pics these guys took, look really nice to me for $265.95 Doesn't seem to bad of a price especially when you see all the prices of the other units. Another option I have been looking at is hsolist. But you never know what one is a good camera. I am still up in the air.

[Gissert]

BLB turned me onto a Leaf River Digital, and so far I have been very impressed. It has been running three weeks on the same set of batteries.

Seems like an excellent buy. The nice thing about them is the compact flash card if you have a card reader. I just take the card out of the camera, slip in another one and bring the used card home and plug it into the reader slot on my printer.

[BLACKJACK]

I'll second the Leaf River digital, nice pics, easy to use, good attachment points for a locking cable, good battery life, I've had it out for a month and the batteries are still strong. It will be interesting to see how it works in cold weather. I do the same with the compact flash cards, I have two cameras and three cards, just pull one out, put the spare card in, go home and use my reader. The one downside to the Leaf River is slow 'wake-up/response time' on taking the pictures, it has a 4-5 second delay. Thats no problem on a feeder or food plot, but you can't set it at a 90 degree angle to a trail, you need to set it looking down the trail. But the cameras with a faster response time are considerable more expensive. I'm still learning how to use it, one of my projects this weekend is to go dig in some wooden posts that I can mount the camera on, in spots that don't have trees around. I had been lusting after a trail camera the last couple of years, and I'm very happy with this one, I might even have to get another one! I'm also glad I held out for digital, my sister who works in a photo store kept telling me digital, that she was seeing guys with trail cams coming in all the time to get there film processed.

Warning! They are addicting! Once you get one you'll want more!!

[Jigging Bob]

I am going to buy a leaf river model but Which one do I want to purchase? Leaf River DC-1 or DC-2?

I am not really sure what the differences really are. Usually more expensive means better unit but I am not sure if I need all the extra stuff. I basically want to be able to go out take the picture card out then put a new one in and leave. Or maybe look through the pics and if they are all dump just delete them without having to bring the unit home. Any suggestions would be nice. I know nothing about these units and Its alot of dough. Thanks

[Mark Christianson]

DC1 does NOT having a viewing screen to look at your pics in the field.

DC2 does have a viewing screen.

I have DC2's, and I will be saving the money and getting the DC1's for future purchases.

The screen is not worth the money to me. Its so dang small its not worth it.

[Gissert]

I concur with BLB. Te screen has not been of any use to me on the DC2 so far. I just swap out CF memory cards, and look at them when I get home.

If you have two CF cards, there is no need to take the camera home at all. When a CF card is installed, the camera uses that and not the internal memory.

[bigbucks]

Where's the best & cheapest place to buy a DC1? I tried looking for their site, but couldn't find it. Do they carry those in any of the stores?

[Jigging Bob]

Is the screen the only difference? Does anyone have a DC-1?

Does the DC-1 have a CF Memory card?

[Jigging Bob]

I just went over the specs on the DC-1 & DC-2 units. They look to be exactly the same exept for the display screen option. I also see you have to by the flash thing seperatly. Do you need this, I thought it had one already? Also do you need to buy the Memory cards seperately

[Mark Christianson]

Blackjack has a DC1.

None of them come with a CF memory card. You have to buy your own.

I use 128 MB CF cards. More than adequate for leaving it out for a few weeks.

There is a flash in the unit. So I am not sure what you are referring to JB.

bigbucks,

Go to hsolist. I have bought 2 cameras on hsolist. Actually 3. I sold one to Gissert.

[BLACKJACK]

Oh, oh, BLB let the cat out of the bag.... I'm glad I have all the cameras I need - for now. hsolist is also a good spot for the compact flash cards and readers. I bought a 256 MB card with a reader on hsolist for the same price that I bought just a reader for at Best Buy. Also realize that if you're new to hsolist, you don't have to go thru the auction process, there are a lot of brand new items that they sell at a decent price, thats what I did on the memory. Just make sure you check the shipping cost!! But the auctions are cheaper, you can save money, but they are more time consuming.

I bought a DC-2, then I bought a DC-1. The reason I bought the DC-1 is that I kept thinking about all the spots that I wanted to set a camera, one just wasn't going to cut it, and I wanted to stay with the same type of memory card, Compact Flash. Other cameras have different types of removable memory. The DC1 and DC2 look exactly the same, the DC-1 actually has the same window for viewing as the DC-2, but all you see is your settings. The instructions are a little different, but thats it. I wouldn't buy another DC-2 because if you have multiple Compact Flash cards, its easier and more comfortable to sit at your computer and go thru the pics vrs sitting in the mosquitoe infested woods. I just goto the camera, open it up, pull the card, put in the new one, and go home.

Yes the camera has its own memory, its only 16 mb, about 35 pictures at high resolution. If you don't have the replaceable memory card, then you either have to take the camera home with you or stand at the tree and sort thru them. You'll also need to buy a bike lock cable and a couple of padlocks. The locking feature is actually one of the features that I like, its strong, someone would have to cut the tree down or have a big bolt cutters to get it off. Also, so far the battery life has been good, the first one has been out for 1 1/2 months and the batteries are still going strong.

Currently I am having some issues with the DC-1, its taking white pictures, but I've been in touch with their tech support, they'll walk me thru the settings and if I still have problems, they'll fix it free of charge. You can't ask for more than that.

One downside to the Leaf River is the slow response time, about 4-5 seconds. That means you can't set it up at a 90 degree angle to a trail, you kind of have to face it down the trail, or over a scrape or food plot. To get a camera with faster response you'd have to spend more.

Good luck.

[BLACKJACK]

bigbucks, I think the Leaf River home site is vibrashine dot com, but just do an internet search, you'll find it. I looked at their new price, then I looked at Cabelas price, then I went to hsolist and looked at the 'Buy it now' new prices (don't forget shipping!!), then thats how I decided how much to bid on hsolist.

[mille lacs muskie bum]

what do you guys think about the c-1? I am also looking at the moultrie digital.

[BLACKJACK]

mille lacs, I don't really know anything about either of those cameras, but the price of digital trail cams keeps going down, try one and let us know how it goes.