Good cheap Trailcams

[phade]

Good cheap and fast. Pick 2 of 3. The saying holds true for cameras.

Running alkaline in dead of winter is not often the best option in northern climates - even if the batteries are "alive" in spring, you've likely missed triggers that should have taken place. Cams with lower voltage at the time of game walking by can result in reduced trigger speed, reduced sensing distance, and missed triggers via voltage cutoff. All the while the user thinks everything is awesome. I run alkaline Spring Summer Fall for regular pics. Lithium for winter and video, and cell. Signs of this can be found in snow times - tracks will show in following pics from the camera that didn't exist in the image prior. Browning, as good as a cam they are, are susceptible to this in the 6-battery models. Any cams I run on alkaline in winter, I have night images where game have walked by with no trigger as proven by the images before and after showing the tracks. I run lithium in winter across most of my cams for this reason, short of cams I set up for 1-2 weeks to do something specific. This phenomenon can be seen in most any brand, but fewer battery cams are more susceptible. Cams with higher battery count tend to bank their batteries, allowing for higher voltage for a longer period of use.

Same goes for cheap cams. They often have poor coding, high voltage cut-off, and inconsistent trigger capabilities. All that said, the bigger issue is QC, CS, or lack of a critical feature (IE the ability to take multi image shots in a WGI - important for hunting purposes IMO). People think cheap cams are the cat's meow but fail to realize the data that isn't there is what their missing and it would totally change their impression.

Here's an image caught by an "expensive" cam. Seated on the same tree is a WGI. I'd show you the WGI image, but there wasn't one...

The real answer to find a "cheap" camera is to shop smart and buy a good cam on a clearance price.

[Steve D]

As a rule I have found that "good" and "cheap" are two words that don't compliment each other.

 I tend to look for "effective" and "reasonable" which most times can be quite challenging. 

[suburbanfarmer]

On 1/10/2020 at 12:32 PM, crappyice said:

“Them”. ... which them?!?!
4 pack of cameras for $60???


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I believe the brand was simmons or something

[phade]

2 hours ago, suburbanfarmer said:

I believe the brand was simmons or something

Same company that makes Bushnell, Tasco, Primos, and Simmons...

[WNYBuckHunter]

On 1/13/2020 at 5:47 PM, sbuff said:

I can get from Dec 1st to April 1st on alkaline , no need to switch in my opinion 

6 months is the shortest time I have gotten so far. Both of mine are still kicking and I put the current batteries in them back in June. If you are running them through the cold months, lithiums perform way better than alkalines in low temps. I tested the theory with some of my Brownings the winter before last on carcass piles. I had two of the same model with the same settings pointing at the same place, one with alkalines and the other with lithiums. When temps were below 30 degrees or so, the camera with the alkalines would actually miss pictures that the camera with the lithiums took. The colder it got, the more it happened.

If your cams are not cellular, then its not as big of a deal unless you are running them in the dead of winter. You have to go to them to check the cards anyhow. I prefer to leave my cameras out and not go near them for as long as possible, which is why I run cellular or cuddelinks with the exception of 2 cameras.

[WNY Bowhunter]

https://www.amazon.com/Covert-Gamekeeper-Shadow-Scouting-Camera/dp/B07W6RY4XL

I'm currently running three of these. They are pretty solid little cams for the price. The night time pics are pretty grainy and the deer seem to notice the "invisible LED flash" more than other blackflash cams that I've used but they are proving to be more reliable than the Browning cams that I run that cost at least twice as much.  

 

[NFA-ADK]

One of the reason's I look for cheap is they get stolen on state land often and would hate to loose an expensive one and I would be a newbie if I ever do get one. 

[hueyjazz]

I use a multitude of cameras on my property.  I do own better quality cameras and locate them where I think the hot spots are.  But it also refine by cameras I set during winter when I'm cross country skiing my land following tracks, locating intersections, finding beds and looking at rubs.  The snow makes this all easier.  I locate camera on what I believe to be rub lines.  While I generally agree that cheap equals crap so maybe I did use the wrong terminology.  But there's value in inexpensive and adequate. 

Plus, spendng a lot of money doesn't always equate to quality.  I've work on a lot of cars. Built and restored quite a few.  English cars have fallen in this category.  I've known quite a few of them and look and drive beautiful those two days a week they run. 

Ha, Those Jags with the six carburetors.  What were they thinking.  Funny thing though, now the Chinese own them they are more reliable.

[Hock3y24]

Browning command ops pro went down to $50 last summer. I’m getting more! 

[monahmat]

On 1/9/2020 at 12:02 PM, greensider said:

I got an apeman camera last summer for 32 on eBay absolutely a great camera 

I bought an Apeman H45 and H55 over the weekend and put them out behind the house yesterday.  I'm impressed by the build of the H55.  If pictures are halfway decent I feel those should be bargain.  I'll post an update when I pull them this weekend.  

[WNY Bowhunter]

24 minutes ago, monahmat said:

I bought an Apeman H45 and H55 over the weekend and put them out behind the house yesterday.  I'm impressed by the build of the H55.  If pictures are halfway decent I feel those should be bargain.  I'll post an update when I pull them this weekend.  

Hmmm...interesting. Look forward to your review.

[greensider]

1 hour ago, monahmat said:

I bought an Apeman H45 and H55 over the weekend and put them out behind the house yesterday.  I'm impressed by the build of the H55.  If pictures are halfway decent I feel those should be bargain.  I'll post an update when I pull them this weekend.  

When I pull mine from our farm I will have a better review it’s been there a couple of months it was a great camera during the season can’t wait to go get it