Tascos

[stubborn1VT]

Just curious what everyone's experience with the Tasco trail cameras that Walmart sells.  I bought 3 a couple years back ans was impressed at first.  Since then they have all failed.  

I know you get what you pay for, but I see folks on here that swear by them.  I told my buddy about them.  He bought 2 and was mightily pizzed when neither one would take pictures.  Mine seems to have issues with the battery container/tray making contact.  I've checked them all for corrosion and found none.  I have blamed it on cheap batteries, but this year they won't work consistently with better batteries.  Any insight?  When they worked I was thrilled with them.  It is an awful feeling to check a camera that has been "soaking" for a month only to find out it isn't functioning.  

I can afford better cameras and do own a handful of Brownings and Bushnells that have been mostly flawless.  There are certain situations and areas where a cheapo camera comes in handy though.  

I guess I'm thinking about stuff like this since my season has been over for a couple weeks.  With two deer in the freezer and no buck tag I'm not motivated to hunt.  My brain has moved on to next year's plots, stands, brush blinds, mock scrapes and cameras.  

Any input is appreciated.  Sorry for the long post.

[mlammerhirt]

@doebuck runs these I am pretty sure with great success...he will chime in shortly I am guessing

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[Cabin Fever]

My son bought 3 or 4 of the $30 Tasco cams at Walmart last year to use in "riskier" areas. I don't think he's had any issues. Pics certainly aren't as high quality as the more expensive cams, but so what.

8 hours ago, stubborn1VT said:

He bought 2 and was mightily pizzed when neither one would take pictures.

I'm just going to throw something out there, that I have no explanation for. So I checked my son's Tascos a couple of times. I used the same SD card reader that I always do. It said there were no pics on a couple of the cards! OK, maybe just maybe I forgot to turn the cams on the last time or didn't have the switched completely on.?.? Checked the cams a few days later, but again, NO pics!! I told him the cams were junk and not taking pics. He didn't understand it, as he never had problems with them. He took the cards home and popped them in his SD card reader and PC and whalla!! All the pics showed up!! It was weird that I could see pics from a couple of his Tasco cams with my SD card reader, but others said there were no pics on the cards.? But he could see all of them with his SD card reader and PC.? I know this makes no sense! I guess what I'm wondering is if your friend's cams might have been taking pics, but they might not have been showing up with his SD card reader or PC.? Just something to consider or try...

[Robhuntandfish]

I have a couple and they work pretty well. Not the best night pics but have had them for a couple of years now.  

[stubborn1VT]

Thanks guys.  Cabin could be right about my buddy's cams.  He may have gotten mad and not tried to figure things out.  

The issue with mine is that they stop taking pictures, even with full battery.  It has something to do with the battery tray not making contact I think.  I had 3 and now none are working.  No big deal.  Maybe got some bad units.  Maybe they reached their life expectancy/expiration date.  I was pleased with them when they worked, but now I'm not sure I would buy any more.

[phade]

The problem with cheap cams is sometimes you don't know you have a problem until after, and sometimes you NEVER realize you have a problem because of the "you don't know what you don't know." 

I sell alot of cams and the general consensus is that the get what you pay for piece does have sound science. My least returned and warranted cam is also the most expensive, so is the second, and third, etc. Only two outlier cell models, one going up, one going down in a stack rank, but by in large, the more a cam costs the more reliable it is.

Performance in cams is also more consistent with how much a cam costs. Lower cost cams have more likelihood for performance variation and reliability of that performance. Sensing and recording the image properly seems to be the one that most people really don't grasp.

Do I use cheap cams - rarely, because I've learned through experience. Do I use good cams bought on a discount or clearance - heck yes. There is a difference. 

Cams do something that we cannot - be out there 24 hours a day, collecting info. Having trust in the data you do get from them is important. Cheaping out on that, short of necessary situations, may give you incomplete info to use or not take advantage of.

 

[stubborn1VT]

On 12/11/2021 at 7:26 PM, Cabin Fever said:

My son bought 3 or 4 of the $30 Tasco cams at Walmart last year to use in "riskier" areas. I don't think he's had any issues. Pics certainly aren't as high quality as the more expensive cams, but so what.

I'm just going to throw something out there, that I have no explanation for. So I checked my son's Tascos a couple of times. I used the same SD card reader that I always do. It said there were no pics on a couple of the cards! OK, maybe just maybe I forgot to turn the cams on the last time or didn't have the switched completely on.?.? Checked the cams a few days later, but again, NO pics!! I told him the cams were junk and not taking pics. He didn't understand it, as he never had problems with them. He took the cards home and popped them in his SD card reader and PC and whalla!! All the pics showed up!! It was weird that I could see pics from a couple of his Tasco cams with my SD card reader, but others said there were no pics on the cards.? But he could see all of them with his SD card reader and PC.? I know this makes no sense! I guess what I'm wondering is if your friend's cams might have been taking pics, but they might not have been showing up with his SD card reader or PC.? Just something to consider or try...

So I had similar experiences to this Cabin Fever.  I did some online research and some say this is caused by swapping the card between different brands of camera.  Has something to do with the way the different brands read the info I guess.  The upside is that it's as easy as formatting the disks, or just using certain cards with certain cams. I formatted some SDs and put some batteries in one of my Tascos today and it seemed to be working ok.  

I know I shouldn't expect much from a $28 camera, but I like have something I can put in "riskier" areas like you said.  If I can get them to work I will be psyched. 

My other issue seems to be that I use Amazon batteries during the warmer months and forgot to swap them to better  batteries when it got cold.  The Tascos have no battery indicator.  This is an issue when you can power the camera up and the display works, but it doesn't have enough power to take pictures.  

Just some things I ran into.  Thought they might possibly help somebody else.  As of now I'm glad I didn't throw my two remaining Tascos out.  We'll see if that's true in a month or two.

[doebuck1234]

Never saw this topic till now.as uve "liked" images on my Tasco topic u know I'm trying one aswell.deff not the greatest pic quality but for the $ the only issue I've had is at one point during this bow season it was taking pics,ALOT.id check it after a few days and have 1,800 pics of nothing(a deer here and there).swapped batteries and that did the trick.obviously as the saying goes and what Phade stated,you get what you pay for.for $30 I'm surprised and wouldn't mind a couple more honestly!

[stubborn1VT]

5 minutes ago, doebuck1234 said:

Never saw this topic till now.as uve "liked" images on my Tasco topic u know I'm trying one aswell.deff not the greatest pic quality but for the $ the only issue I've had is at one point during this bow season it was taking pics,ALOT.id check it after a few days and have 1,800 pics of nothing(a deer here and there).swapped batteries and that did the trick.obviously as the saying goes and what Phade stated,you get what you pay for.for $30 I'm surprised and wouldn't mind a couple more honestly!

I feel like I got my money's worth.  I have some good cams, but I have places I don't want to leave them.  These seem to fit the bill and I like them a bit more than the Wildgame cameras I tried years ago. 

Best camera for the money IMO is the old Bushnell Trophy cams.  I bought 3 of them on sale at different times and they have been awesome for under $100.  Since the Covid/microchip issues started they jumped from about $80 to $130.  Still probably worth the higher price.  

I guess Tasco has a newer 12MP model, but I don't know anyone who has tried one.  

Also, I'm not very serious when it comes to trailcam data.  I do look for patterns and it's nice to know what's around, but I'm not scouting new properties or hunting giant bucks.  It's mostly for fun.

[doebuck1234]

1 minute ago, stubborn1VT said:

I feel like I got my money's worth.  I have some good cams, but I have places I don't want to leave them.  These seem to fit the bill and I like them a bit more than the Wildgame cameras I tried years ago. 

Best camera for the money IMO is the old Bushnell Trophy cams.  I bought 3 of them on sale at different times and they have been awesome for under $100.  Since the Covid/microchip issues started they jumped from about $80 to $130.  Still probably worth the higher price.  

I guess Tasco has a newer 12MP model, but I don't know anyone who has tried one.  

Also, I'm not very serious when it comes to trailcam data.  I do look for patterns and it's nice to know what's around, but I'm not scouting new properties or hunting giant bucks.  It's mostly for fun.

I run one cam.had a wild game innovations cam given to me that did well for the 2-3 years i had it.then purchased the tasco

would like a few more on some higher travel area's.only hunting 36 acres with the majority of it being field.neighbor runs some muddy cell cams and said they do well for an inexpensive cell cam.

[Cabin Fever]

Incase anyone would be interested, I was in a local Walmart today and thought I'd do a drive by in the hunting section. According to the sticker on the shelf, the Tasco trail cams were on clearance for $20 (Regular price of $30). They've been that price for a few weeks now, so out of curiosity, I scanned the barcode with the Walmart app and they were only $8.66! For that price, I picked up the last 3! 

Edited February 22, 2022 by Cabin Fever

[GreeneHunter]

29 minutes ago, Cabin Fever said:

Incase anyone would be interested, I was in a local Walmart today and thought I'd do a drive by in the hunting section. According to the sticker on the shelf, the Tasco trail cams were on clearance for $20 (Regular price of $30). They've been that price for a few weeks now, so out of curiosity, I scanned the barcode with the Walmart app and they were only $8.66! For that price, I picked up the last 3! 

I own 4 of these , best camera on the market for $ 30 or cheaper . If they're on sale for cheaper I might have to rum to Walmart and stock up !

[Kmartinson]

I have pounded my tascos for multiple years still working great.

[Cabin Fever]

First pics from the Tasco's that I got on clearance for $8 at Walmart. Pretty satisfied with the pic quality, especially for the price! 

[Kmartinson]

Looks like some potential sheds on one guy!