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Moultrie Game Spy D40-digital

I recently purchased the D-40 and i'll have it out under my stand for another week or so before i post pics. I also own the Gamespy 200 and used it all last year, so I am familiar with and praise their products.

I got mine for $80 at mike's archery online plus $12 shipping. For someone who doesn't want to spend $300+ on ONE camera, I can't say enough good things about this one. Personally, I don't have the money and if I did I'd rather spend it on a whole bunch of these than one cuddeback or whatever. The faster trigger in the new models really sold it for me since owning the GS200 of last year.
 
I told you I was impatient.
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I pulled the card tonight so that I could put the 2Gb in. Roughly 20% of the images had nothing in them that I could see would have triggered the camera. I had the camera set on high resolution. Here are some images from the D40 (without any brightness and contrast adjustment).

I heard reports of "whiteout" and maybe this is what they were referring to:
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Another thing that I read in reviews was twilight issues (frost/snow issues):
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The camera does have RANGE though! There were lots of deer bedded in the images so I guess they are getting used to the flash.
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Do you think the 20% is due to the camera not waking up in time to get the pic? I think it has a sleep mode that it takes 3 or 4 seconds to get out of for the first pic. Then it is a 1 second trigger after that. I have an IR3BU Leaf River, but I don't feel like laying out another $250 plus for another cam. Keep us up dated and thanks for posting the pics.
 
From the chasingame review:[ QUOTE ]
Setting side by side with a Stealth I-450, this camera matched pictures one for one as far as sensing so us knowing that the WD series stealth cameras have always had very good sensing this $ 100 camera seems to function very well.

[/ QUOTE ] So I don't think it is a sleep issue. It might be birds. I deleted all the blank pics but thinking back they were mostly (all?) during the day. If it wasn't birds, heat waves coming off the ground?

The user manual does have a paragraph on the dreaded "sleep" function. [ QUOTE ]
To maximize battery life the camera "sleeps" when no activity occurs for 2 minutes when you enter the delay mode. It takes a couple of seconds (flash will be slightly longer) to "wake" the camera when activity occurs. ONLY AFTER THE CAMERA WAKES will game movement result in a picture.

[/ QUOTE ]

That paragraph is followed by another that deals with battery life and temperature. The last sentence states "This camera will not operate consonantly in below freezing temperatures". I think they have a typo and meant consistently.

So with the sleep mode, I'm guessing it will be best as a lick/scrape cam and then pull it when the weather gets really cold. The pictures were all at one minute intervals when the deer were at the lick for a period of time.
 
I got several whiteout pics but I have the i40. And when I say white, I mean completely white. That D40 seems a little better maybe. I don't like the way it sleeps because I missed several animals or just got the tail end of them. The sensor distance and flash infra red flash range are excellent. I just don't see whey they can't quite get it right.
 
Well, it appears that this cam is a true battery hog! 100 pics and the batteries were dead. The manual says:"Battery life is different for every user! It is determined by the quality of the battery, amount of charge, temperature, number and type of pictures taken. You should expect an average of 60 days run time above freezing weather, taking an average amount of photos daily. However, if you take a large mumber of photos it will shorten your running time in the field".

Okay, I got 100 "high resolution" pics out of the batteries. Not what I would expect from 6 D cell NiMH batteries. I have the batteries recharging and will check to see if this is normal. This time I'll leave it alone (I swapped memory cards during this test period). I'm guessing to flash to 40+ feet takes a lot of juice.

On a similar note, I sent an email to Moultrie asking about the appropriate cable to connect a 12V SLA battery to the camera. The response was that they are in the process of manufacturing one and it will be available late summer or fall.
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I'm currently looking to build some trail cams. If anybody bought a bunch of stuff to build their own, only to give up on the project, I might be interested in buying the components (especially Sony cams).
 
I recharged the batteries overnight. This morning, I noticed that one of the batteries "rattled" when shook. Loading them in the cam, they read out 85% charged. I think I have a bad battery which might have caused the very short camera life. At almost $5/each, ouch!
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Time to buy more batteries (and stock in the company that produces them
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).
 
I just picked up this camera and love it, I posted some photos of bucks coming by my stand, I labeled the Subject "New Moultrie 4.0 pics". Check them out.
 
USE "NORMAL" batteries, NOT rechargables!! I put in some heavy duty alkalines and battery life is MUCH better than the NiMHs. The camera took 234 shots (low res 640X480) over 3 days and the batteries are still 90%.

Now camera operation is tolerable. The picture quality is still average, but what's a guy expect for $100.00?
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[ QUOTE ]
USE "NORMAL" batteries, NOT rechargables!! I put in some heavy duty alkalines and battery life is MUCH better than the NiMHs. The camera took 234 shots (low res 640X480) over 3 days and the batteries are still 90%.

Now camera operation is tolerable. The picture quality is still average, but what's a guy expect for $100.00?
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[/ QUOTE ]

Glad to hear things worked out, I might have to look into one of those things, especially for the money.
 
its easy to rig up an external battery. drill a hole in the bottom of the camera case and get a plastic ammo box for $6. Put a 6V high aH batter (preferebly more than 20aH) in the box and run wire to your cam. Sit the battery box at the base of the tree and you'll get several weeks of life out of one battery charge.
 
Okay, might as well keep this thread alive as I learn with the D40. It "loses" about an hour a week. Today, I pulled the card at noon and the camera said it was 10 am, I put it out two weeks ago. I noticed this before, I had it out for three weeks and it lost 3 hours. I think I read over on Archerytalk that some one had the same experience. It was easy enough to reset, just an annoyance.
 
Might as well post a couple of pics as the ones I posted earlier were ones I was not happy with. These pics are more typical. Remember the time is off.
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We're using a D40 and I've also noticed the quality difference between pics. It seems that the flash is real crappy once in awhile. Also some daytime pics are real grainy and then some will be fine. Overall it's not to bad for $100 but I think for $80 the M40 is a much better camera. D40 is a good mineral site cam though.

Here's a couple D40 pics. They are devastating the corner of this cornfield. We broadcast turnips into it last week. I'm interested to see how it works out.

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