What cameras do you recommend? Subscription cost?
I have Tactacam Reveal X cameras. We have had good luck with them. I’m sure there are better but they have always worked good. No matter what camera you get I would add the solar panel. Otherwise you will spend more in a season on batteries than you paid for the camera. I have the unlimited plan so cost is like $13 for the first camera and then you get a buck or two off for the additional cameras.
Following. I need some.
Another Tactacam user here.
The first rule however is to find out which cellular company has the best service, or at least acceptable service in the area you’re planting on using these. Then choose the camera that uses that particular company cell signal.
We use multiple brands of cams. Tacticam spypoint and cuddle bak. For 99$ a year i can run unlimited amount of cameras from spypoint up to 250 pics each. We run 10 cams, so less than 1.00 a month. That said they replace under warranty about 3 cameras a year. They do however pick up deer movement at least 75yds away consistently.
I’d never buy another cuddle bak. completely trash cams. tacticam is just ok. and kinda pricey.
My two cents
Tactacam is definitely the best I have ever used just make sure that you get the 3.0’s they are the new ones and are even easier to use I run about 30 a season and have never had an issue. Also if you are willing to spend a little more you can get the pro version and it has no glow built in and it also drops a pin of where your camera is at in the app.
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I have been using Moultrie Mobile Edge Cameras for the past two years. I run about 25 trail cams at any given time. Our climate and conditions in Kauai are brutal on any electronics left outside. Moultrie support has been very helpful. The Cellular Service connects to all 3 cellular carriers and I am able to connect to the cameras in even very remote places. Most importantly, they have a great warranty. They have replaced many cameras for me with their two year warranty. They even replaced a camera that was smashed by a pig running into it. Cost for the cameras fluctuates a lot, from $50-150 per camera. The subscription depends if you want to pay monthly or yearly and if you have over 4 cameras going they reduce the price and it comes out to about $10 per month, per camera. The IR and picture/video quality at night is great. Highly recommend.
Thanks for the insight everyone.
I have 2 Muddy 2.0’s and a Stealthcam 360 pro. Ive had good luck with all of them. The muddys have been in use for 3 years now. The 360 pro ive only had for about 2 weeks. Hunstand app was doing a special, get their premium app for 1 year at $69.99 and get the camera for free. I secind using some type of solar panel to power the cameras. I was going through 8 energizer lithium AA batteries a month per camera before i went to solar. The panel pays for itself in less than 6 months.
I will 2nd Hunters recommendation about Tactacam. The picture quality is amazing and they just keep running. I have property in Texas where I run cameras 24/7/365 using solar charging. I have probably used about every trail camera available at one time or another. I currently run a BlackGate since 2022 with no problems, 3 Covert BlackHawk the oldest of which was setup in 2019, and a Tactacam ( not sure the model but older unit in the field for 3 years solid but purchased a year prior). If I were to review the cameras I own currently, Tactacam gives the best picture with BlackGate a close second. Both units are 12V which I like because I run my own solar panel/battery setup as I need maintenance free because I may not be there for 6 months or so at a stretch. The Covert Cameras are 6V so they need Coverts in-line converter cable using 12V batteries. Picture quality is nice maybe 8/10 vs 10/10 for Tactacam. I started with these cameras so I have a couple left as backup stock but once these die or get destroyed by wildlife/mother nature I plan to buy more Tactacam.
If you are in an area with spotty or weak cell service consider Cuddelink cameras. I have another property in Ohio which has horrible cell service and the only place reliable is the top of the hill. So, I use the Cuddelink system here with 10-12 remote cameras that link back to the home camera. Their solar/battery panels work well with good sunlight and will keep me running most of the year 6-9 months any way. I stopped putting D cell batteries in the cameras mostly. I may throw a unit out with D cells for the time I am there hunting and take it down when I am gone rather than setup the solar system. The downside to these is that you can’t get immediate gratification when images are taken as they have to travel thru the daisy chain system of cameras to make it back to the home cellular camera that will send it to you.
Probably more than you wanted to know but that is my take. I have used Spartan, Browning, Spypoint, Muddy and probably others I forgot about for short times but they didn’t perform well enough for me.
OOHHH, I really like the 360 cellular camera from StealthCam. I have a couple of the non-cellular Wildgame 360 cameras for food plot use and when these were discontinued I was sad. The StealthCam came to my rescue with an even better option and its 12V so my battery system is usable with it!
With that I am going back to work…