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Cheap cams- best

gundog870

Premium Platinum Member
What do you all prefer for cheap cameras. I'm looking to add 5-6 cameras without breaking the bank.

Currently I really like the mogul true A-5's. they take a lot of sun pictures but don't seem to miss anything.
 
Well I just spent like 5 minutes trying to research these mogul, trues. N then it clicked that auto correct must have got you. Anyway when Scheels ran their special on Huntens for 50 dollars we snagged a few. Take good pics but battery life is horrible and I hate disturbing my area too frequently about as much as I hate having a camera that is dead sitting in a spot for a few weeks time. I've picked up a few used online for pretty cheap. Most brands are great about replacing cameras that break so buying used doesn't bother me.
 
Part of the reason I sold all my cheap cams and bought Covert cams is battery life. I had an older stealth cam that used 8c batteries and lasted about six weeks in the summer. I figure I'm saving $100/year on batteries. Definitely look into the recurring costs before you decide what is a cheap camera.
 
love my simmons real cheap, pretty good battery, (had them since may 10 still 2/3 batterie) a few false triggers but nothing major. good camera great buy.
 


I just got this in an email. Today only price. Probably a leftover model, but a great camera for $100.
 
Part of the reason I sold all my cheap cams and bought Covert cams is battery life. I had an older stealth cam that used 8c batteries and lasted about six weeks in the summer. I figure I'm saving $100/year on batteries. Definitely look into the recurring costs before you decide what is a cheap camera.

Good points. ^^^ I have had Bushnell's and Scoutcam's in the past and while they took good pictures for awhile, they didn't really stand up long term.

I have a couple of Covert's now and have been using them for about 18 months and they take great pictures AND they are really miserly on the batteries too.

If these Covert's are still working reliably in another year or so then they will be far and away the best deal I have had on cams.
 
Covert!!!!!!!!!!!
Still trying to convince my buddies to burn their cuddebacks

Oh- from above- I've run many for 3 yrs now with no trouble. U will have cams go bad with any brand (or all of ur cuddebacks in my experience until I euthanized them) but coverts have very low fail rate.

One thing to watch- some of my mp6's have very sensitive triggers. U may need to put sens to low & make sure not a lot of moving grass/brush.

The bushnells & batteries coming out & resetting date does drive me insane!!!
 
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Don't get Bushnell Trophy Cams.. I've got 5 of them (3 were brand new last yr and 2 will be my 3rd season with them and here are the problems I have run into with them.. Batteries won't stay in some of them, sometimes screen doesn't come on when trying to adjust picture rates and times, they all keep re-setting themselves back to January 1st every couple weeks or more, sometimes they randomly just start taking pics by themselves every couple of seconds for days straight (nothing blowing in the wind infront of them either) and then when I check them there are thousands of pics and 8 dead expensive lithium batteries.... THEY SUCK.. I've literally had better luck with the cheap Primos Truth Cam from Wal-Mart for like $70.
 
I run 16 cams, all are now bushnells. I have had a few cuddies and 1 moultrie, cuddies were junk and lasted less than a year and customer service was worst in the hunting industry possibly. I have switched exclusively to bushnells. There are a few models that had problems, 2012 models were pretty poor quality. Anything from 2010 and 2011 is great and the 2013s have been good to date. I am still running 5 of the original 119405 models and nEver had an issue. I had issues with 2 2012 models and bushnell replaced both of them free of charge with 2013s

Have bought them from various places but can generally get them for 100-125 and batteries run for about 25,000 pics when warm and about half that during January and February when real cold temps set in
 
I run an older model bushnell...model 119466. These cams have been awesome for 3-4 years now (can't remember how long I've had them). Never had an issue and have been running 8 of them over that period. Also run a bunch of Covert mp6 cams, not as impressed with these as the bushnell. Still a good camera for the price. Problem with these is that they are trigger happy on edges or open areas where grasses may blow or sun may hit them. I have designated these cams for wooded areas where this problem won't happen. They work great for these areas.
 
Covert!!!!!!!!!!! Still trying to convince my buddies to burn their cuddebacks Oh- from above- I've run many for 3 yrs now with no trouble. U will have cams go bad with any brand (or all of ur cuddebacks in my experience until I euthanized them) but coverts have very low fail rate. One thing to watch- some of my mp6's have very sensitive triggers. U may need to put sens to low & make sure not a lot of moving grass/brush. The bushnells & batteries coming out & resetting date does drive me insane!!!

I'll take all of the cuddebacks anyone wants to rid themselves of
 
Covert!!!!!!!!!!!
Still trying to convince my buddies to burn their cuddebacks

Oh- from above- I've run many for 3 yrs now with no trouble. U will have cams go bad with any brand (or all of ur cuddebacks in my experience until I euthanized them) but coverts have very low fail rate.

One thing to watch- some of my mp6's have very sensitive triggers. U may need to put sens to low & make sure not a lot of moving grass/brush.

The bushnells & batteries coming out & resetting date does drive me insane!!!

Second that! Covert all the way. Last year put out August... Still taking photos in March. Good quality as well
 
covert image capacity

How many images will the covert MP6 hold on a 8g card? Looking at getting a couple and like to time lapse some times. To the original post I have truth cams 46 ultras that run fine for $100, but are fuzzy at night on fast movers. If you want a flash camera the old wildview 2 for $50 has been running for 6 years now behind grandpa's.
 
Running a mix of mostly Bushnell and Covert. Guess I got lucky on the Bushnell models, as they are my go to cams.

The old SG550 has been a trooper though, still in the field as my oldest cam and plugging away!
 
After reading some of the comments I can relate to one year of cams being better than another. Too bad you can't trust a brand from one year to the next anymore.

Do you guys use regular batteries or re-chargeable? I hate dropping the coin on regular batteries, but the re-chargeables don't hold a charge after a year or two and I hate missing out on weeks of pics because of dead batteries.
 
I just use regular old Energizers. I have a covert red40 that has been outside since June of 2012 and it's on its second set of batteries. I'm guessing it has taken at least 40,000 pictures.
 
I run Bushnell's and have good luck with them. As stated above I think there was one bad year. Excellent battery life. I run the infrared cams, not the best quality photos also have a blackout one. Overall, reasonably priced and reliable for me.
 
I'll take all of the cuddebacks anyone wants to rid themselves of

no!!!, **caution/warning**, do not keep them going, you must resist unloading them on others. They breed and infect other hunters & disease land - they MUST be put down, euthanized. Either by fire or mechanical means (substitutes could be acid, explosive devices, dropping from extreme elevations).

My bushnells or Coverts all take something like 3k-4k pics maybe on a 8mp card? double that with 16gb which I always run becasue 90% of my cams take them. I have some cams that take a 32gb card. Difference in price between a 8gb & 16gb is small. I stick with Sandisk, Class 4 or 6 I think 16GB cards and they are not much $. had good luck with Transcend & Sony as well.

Side note from above, I've run cam comparison, one after another on Energizer VS coppertop (regular batteries) - no comparison, Coppertops get almost double the longevity and Energizer do not just keep going and going and going. On the other hand, I will not use coppertops during hunting season on, especially into cold weather - I will only use Energizer Ultimate Lithiums for many reasons.
 
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