which trail camera?

[pj4]

i need to buy a trail camera for christmas. was looking at the stealth 2.1 pix digital. it is in my price range. looking for reports of good or bad for this unit or what you would recomend. Is 2.1 pixles enought clearity for a trail camera?

[WB make the CUT]

PJ

You need board memeber BiglakeBa$$ to give you direction on this he's our board expert on this subject, check his "Let's Start seeing them" post....

[pj4]

the site you mentioned has lots of really nice shots, but little info on cameras.my choice is the stealth cam with out the tft screen. would like to know if this brand or that camera is reliable and clear, if not what would a person recommend in the digital cameras?

[MN Mike]

How many megapixle on the stealthcam your looking at? I have a couple 1.3's and have been happy with them so far. If that is the one your looking at, I can send you some pics.

Mike

[pj4]

im not sure how many pixal are required for a decent piture.not looking for studio quality, just able to reconize the images. after looking deeper in to the archives, ive noticed the time it takes for the camera to activate and snap the picture is an issue. i geuss im asking is, has any one had any problems with the stealth cams brand, as far as speed, quality of pitures, battery

life, ability to fasten to trees and stay on, or customer service? thanks for any help i get

[Nova]

My brother got a stealth for Christmas last year, never used it so I took it out set it up and after one week the batteries(6 double A) were dead, then I realized you have to buy a monitor to see the pics or use the computer...talk. I put new batteries in again and they were dead in less than a week again. I am seriously thinking of putting it in the trap thrower. I am going back to using the 35mm trail cams. I haven't seen a pic from that camera yet, but after 3 weeks being out there and $30 worth of batteries I'll buy the film.

[FL SNIPER]

I heard the same from a guy at work. He prefers his film camera over his digitel camera for those reasons. With that said...can anyone suggest a decent film type trail camera that is lockable? Look to purchase one for next seasons scouting. Thanks.

[Mark Christianson]

I have heard the Stealth Digitals are awful on batteries.

I have Leaf Rivers. I have yet to change batteries in them in over 3 months or so.

The Leaf Rivers are a bit clumsy for setting up, but if you have any questions, you call their 800 number and they will walk you through everything you need to get it set up right.

One thing to note on the Leaf Rivers. Sad to say...

Their service has something to be considered.

I have had really good luck when I call them and get phone help. But I know of 2 guys that have had to send in their cameras for various service things. Both of them have had to send their cameras in multiple times, and even now they are still having problems. They are both FM members, so if they would like to give details, they can chime in...

Personally, I have not had any problems with Leaf River.

[Gissert]

I'll chime in on the Leaf River.

Mine was taking fuzzy/out of focus pictures right out of the box. Leaf River customer service was very good about helping me try and resolve the issue over the phone. Nothing worked, so they gave me a return authorization. The lens needed to be refocused, and was more than likely caused by rough shipping.

I had the camera back in short order, and it took great pictures after that. I noticed that I was not getting any night photos after a few weeks, and I called them again. They had me try a few more things, and still no night pictures. The set up was correct, but it just would not flash.

After the first zone 4 firearms season passed, I took the camera home and sat down with the instructional DVD. (The DVD is very good, containing MUCH more information than the paper manual) It was at that point I noticed that I could see a circuit board behind the flash window. When they fixed the focus problem, they had neglected to put the flash unit back in the camera.

A call to Leaf River had them issuing another return authorization. They were very apolgetic and helpful. I am expecting the camera back this week sometime. I was sad that I missed all the night time rut activity, but it is not the end of the world either.

After all that - I still am very happy with the camera. They are very helpful and professional on the phone, and that counts for a ton in my book. People make mistakes, and they stood behind their product 100% and made things right.

[MN Mike]

The 2 Stealthcam digitals I have ( 1.3 megapixel ), I run both on ext. power sources, they have a hookup for a battery like a vexilar or marcum would use. I put the first one out at the end of July, run Aug and Sep. without changing batteries, close to 200 pictures on each camera. I pulled the last one out of the woods last week and it still showed full charge but I didn't have many pictures on it but it was getting pretty cool out.

You can power these with C sized batteries too, a friend of mine does and he has been happy with the amount of pictures he get with a set of batteries.

They are a little slow to activate, that is one complaint I would have but it is easily defeated putting something like a salt block or mineral lick of somekind on the ground, usually gets thier attention long enough to get a few pictures.

This summer I put the camera in a tree that must have been a local marking tree for all buck to use, had one extremly photogenic 6 pointer out there, he couldn't get enough of the camera flash, if that would have been a 35mm he would have used alot of film.

I will never go back to a 35mm. I've still got mine and it will be the last one in the woods if it ever goes back out there.

Mike

[Blake H]

I run a Cuddeback, if you got some extra cash its worth it. It helped me hold out for a larger deer. I use a 256 MB card and get 400 pics a week on my bait pile set at 5 minute intervals, check this one out.

[BLACKJACK]

I have three digital cameras, two Leaf Rivers and one Moultrie. The Moultrie is the cheapest one but its also a battery hog, it will go thru one of those 6 volts in two weeks. I'm going to look into the solar charger option that Moultrie has, but at this point it won't go back out until next spring. I have two Leaf Rivers. The one keeps on running and running, I've had it on a tree overlooking a clover food plot all summer long. The second one has been back four times with different problems - fuzzy pictures, bad upper display, no camera flash. I will say that Leaf River is very good with their service, call the 800 number and they either help you or have you send it in. To me thats important. The Leaf Rivers are very good on batteries, I ran them both all summer long on the original batteries. They also take nice enough pictures, I'd never go to a film camera, this summer I'd get over a 100 pictures in 10 day span - I sure wouldn't want to pay the film processing on that, plus you'd start missing pictures after 36. It will be interesting to see how the Leaf Rivers perform in the cold, once hunting season is over I plan on setting up a feeding station with a camera over it. The Leaf Rivers also have nice, solid brackets that you can attach a bike cable and locks on to.

Overall I'm happy with the Leaf Rivers. Its like hunting, only with a camera, you have a few fubars like setting the camera too far away for the flash to reach, but its fun, and always exciting when you're going thru that flash card, you never know what you'll see (the neighbors dog!!!!, a fawn suckling, a nice buck).

Anybody have any other types of cameras? We've had a report on the Cuddleback, anybody have a Penn Woods or the big bad expensive one, the Camtrakker? I've been lusting after a Camtrakker but hanging $650 in a tree is too rich for my blood.

[BLACKJACK]

Nice buck Blake!!

Looks like the grain truck tipped over!!!

[bobbersgone]

i have 4 stealth digitals one leaf river.now im going to be building my own trail cameras. basiclly they will be like the penns woods 4.1 cameras. i can do it alot cheaper than 700 dollars. one thing with the stealth cameras is that you can convert them yourself into IR cameras. i have 3 of them that way. battery life sux on the stealth but like said earlier external battery doing it yourself instead of buying there external battery is a lot cheaper.

[Bagley]

Last September I bought the Leaf River IR3BU (Infrared flash). I used it all fall last year and this year I have had it out on two different occasions. So far I have come with this set of pros and cons.

Pros:

1. The Infrared flash. For those of us that aren't sure if a regular flash spooks deer we can rest assured knowing this camera won't. Maybe flash cameras don't spook deer and I know many of you including myself have had multiple pictures of the same deer on different occasions. For young bucks, does, and fawns the the regular flash doesn't seem to bother them. Its the older, smarter, dominant buck that I am worried about spooking. I like to put my camera right next to my stand and I just don't wan't to take a chance.

2. It takes good pictures for an infrared flash camera. It has adjustable picture resolution. (1.3MP, 2.1MP, or4.0MP)

2. It has eary detection by the motion sensor. Though it may have a slower trigger speed than other cameras, it will detect motion at 5 different angles including off to the sides. Compared to straight out in front like some other brands.

3. It has a built in viewing screen. If I don't have access to a computer I am still able to see what pictures the camera has taken.

4. Customer service. Leaf River does a good job of taking care of you. If you need help they will walk you through most problems you might have.

Cons:

1. Camera set up. The Instruction manual and DVD are almost a must for this camera. The default settings out of the box will work for basic usage but if you want to customize your settings it takes some getting used too.

2. Battery Life. Though most Leaf Rivers, I've heard, are pretty efficient when it comes to battery life, I have gone through two sets already. (4Cs and 3Ds Per set) About $9.00 per set. I don't know if it is the infrared that draws more juice or what. The trigger speed has an effect on the battery life. There is a switch for fast trigger time or battery save. I have been running my camera on fast trigger time. The difference in trigger time is about two seconds. I don't know why it would take much more battery on the fast setting.

3. The camera will show a larger amount of pictures on the LCD screen than it has actually taken. For example, The LCD screen will show that the camera has captured 32 events but when I check the card there there will only be 11 pictures. The cards that I am using are 256MB and I would think that they should be able to hold more than 11 pictures. I do have the camera set to take the highest resolution pictures (4.0) so maybe that eats up all the space but man I wouldn't think so.

Just thought I would give a short review based on my experience with this camera. Also you other Leaf River owners, I'd like to hear how you set your cameras up. How do you guys get so much life out of your batteries and what can I do to get this camera to take more pictures.

Bagley

[xedge2002]

Could you post some pics you got with the leaf river IR flash? I want to get another camera and would like to see the infared flash and how good the pics are.

[Bagley]

X edge heres a couple for ya.

Night

Another Night picture a little farther away.

[xedge2002]

Thanks!!! and Nice Buck!!!

[Gissert]

I have two Leaf Rivers. One I got in May of 2005. This one has been back to the factory three times. The first time the focus was off, and was attributed to rough handling in shipping. They restaked the lens and it took great photos. The only problem was they forgot to put the flash unit back in, so it went back again. A few weeks ago, it was snapping tons of empty pictures. They again fixed it and it is now working fine.

I bought another Leaf River back in August, and so far, that one is working fine.

As Blackjack pointed out, battery life is excellent, picture quality is very good, and I really like their chassis.

Blackjack- Cold weather seems to be no problem. I set one out on a friends feed station from late December to early February. It worked perfectly. I had to replace the batteries once, but I was getting 400-600 snaps a week on a 1 gig card. That is a lot of flashes. I got over 3000 photos in that time.

[bigyooper]

Hey Guys,

I have the Bushnell with night vision, it does an good job.

I have some of the 2.1 megapixels left in stock. I would be willing to give FM members a great deal on them. How does $250.00 sound. Normal price is $349.00!!

Give me a call I only have 3 left.

[BLACKJACK]

bigyooper, what is the response time on this camera?

[BLACKJACK]

bagley, I think the shorter battery life on your camera has to do with the early detection settings, it has to keep the camera 'warmed up' in order to take a quicker picture. My two Leaf rivers have good battery life but a long response time, their are tradeoffs.

[MNmikew]

I have a Cuddeback Expert 3.0mp that seems to really eat batts. I cant get more than a week out of it. I have delay at 4 mins in EZ mode and get about 100 pics before the batts are completly dead. Either I got a lemon or Cuddys are not worth the $$.

[Bagley]

Black Jack,

Run me through your usual camera set up. If you would please. I'm sure there is a way I can get more life out of my batteries and get my camera to take more pictures. What capacity CF card do you use. Do you think the 256 Mb is large enough?

[Bagley]

Mike,

I was thinking about getting a cuddeback but I read on another site that there is a problem with the cudde's not being totally water proof. Have you had any problems with this?