What's your Favorite/Best Trail Camera?

Been wanting to buy another trail camera or two but not sure what brand to go with. Wanting to hear what your guys experiences are with your trailcams (good and bad) cause I bought a couple of the Wild Game Innovations Micro Red 8-W8e when they first came out, and both night and day pictures are excellent, but only when they function properly. I had one setup during the elk hunt 2 years ago when it snowed opening day, went and checked my camera the 2nd morning and the whole heard had bedded down and walked within 5 ft of my camera, camera showed it had 300-320 photos. Every single picture was white, with 8-10 photos showing a faint image of an elk. Someone told me that trailcam has problems with the flash in cold weather and the IR flash gets stuck open? But 2 out of the 3 cameras have done the same thing even when it's been well above freezing. Has anyone else had this problem with a different brand? Or did I just luck out with 2 bad trailcams?
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derekp1999
I don't like to spend a whole lot of money on something that I'm strapping on a tree & walking away from, especially with the theft potential. My favorite has been the Primos TruthCam 35... the old big one, not the new Ultra model. I think you can find it for $70-80 on Amazon or similar sites. I've gotten some great shots over the last 2 years with most of my use being from June to September and am very happy with the two that I own. I did have them up thru the winter a couple years ago and I don't think they functioned as well as during warmer temps. Good picture quality day & night with the only drawback I have noticed being when the ambient temperature is close to body temperature the cameras IR sensor does not pick it up. I went several weeks last year with nothing but nocturnal shots... I understand that's likely when the most movement was, but you can't tell me that one stupid critter didn't pass by the camera during the daytime that entire period. This may be an issue with a lot cameras out there, but my only experience is with this model so I can only assume. I don't have super high expectations because I know they are the bottom tier "budget" model but once I learned their limitations & could adjust for those limitations they've been great.

You should also check out the "How To" link for muleymadness' home brew camera, he seems to get some very high quality pictures with his setup & it seems to come in right around the same price point as a mid-level camera ($200 if I remember correctly).

I think too many people buy budget cameras and expect them to work like & have capabilities of the high end models. Beware of that. I also think that many "performance" issues are a result of poor camera placement. I learn a little slower than most I guess, but it took me 3 years to figure out how to place a camera to get a decent picture & I'm sure I'm not done learning either. Last year I had one location that I thought was prime only to find that false triggers had filled my memory card & drained my batteries in 2 days... I guess I could have blamed the camera, but I moved it to a slightly different area and it functioned perfectly the rest of the summer so go figure.
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JDavid
Bushnell trophy cam! I like the programming on these cameras better then any other. Great day time pictures. Night....not so much anything out further then 15 ft gets really faint. They are small. If you put the expensive LiPo batteries in they last forever. I have had the same set in for 8 months of use and it still says full.

They go from $100-160 check cabelas they always have some in the begin cave or on sale
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Default Avatar
Anyone have any experience with the Cabelas trail cams?

http://www.cabelas.com/product/Hunting/Trail-Cameras-Feeders/Trail-Cameras-Accessories%7C/pc/104791680/c/104767380/sc/103867380/Cabelas-Outfitter-Series-8MP-IR-Trail-Camera/1636303.uts?destination=%2Fcatalog%2Fbrowse%2Ftrail-cameras-accessories%2F_%2FN-1100176%2FNs-CATEGORY_SEQ_103867380%3FWTz_l%3DSBC%253BMMcat104791680%253Bcat104767380&WTz_l=SBC%3BMMcat104791680%3Bcat104767380%3Bcat103867380

http://www.cabelas.com/product/Hunting/Trail-Cameras-Feeders/Trail-Cameras-Accessories%7C/pc/104791680/c/104767380/sc/103867380/Cabelas-Outfitter-Series-8MP-Black-IR-Trail-Camera/1636301.uts?destination=%2Fcatalog%2Fbrowse%2Ftrail-cameras-accessories%2F_%2FN-1100176%2FNs-CATEGORY_SEQ_103867380%3FWTz_l%3DSBC%253BMMcat104791680%253Bcat104767380&WTz_l=SBC%3BMMcat104791680%3Bcat104767380%3Bcat103867380

http://www.cabelas.com/product/Hunting/Trail-Cameras-Feeders/Trail-Cameras-Accessories%7C/pc/104791680/c/104767380/sc/103867380/Cabelas-Outfitter-Series-10MP-Trail-Camera-with-Color-Video/1636304.uts?destination=%2Fcatalog%2Fbrowse%2Ftrail-cameras-accessories%2F_%2FN-1100176%2FNs-CATEGORY_SEQ_103867380%3FWTz_l%3DSBC%253BMMcat104791680%253Bcat104767380&WTz_l=SBC%3BMMcat104791680%3Bcat104767380%3Bcat103867380
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derekp1999
I hadn't seen the Cabela's Series before, they look sharp.
I know a lot of their optics had been made previously by Bushnell so I wonder if this is a Buchnell camera with a Cabela's stamp on it, but they also have a bit of a Reconyx look to them... anybody know who makes them?
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I'd love to try out a Reconyx but I don't feel like leaving that much money sitting out in the woods unsupervised.... haha
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Default Avatar
I had a wildgame for the last few years and really liked it for the price, but the trigger speed sucked and a bull decided to take out some frustation on it and ruined it. This year I bought a moultrie and payed for it. It takes awesome pics with great trigger speed and good sensor distance. But luckily I have it in some pretty remote areas so no one can even think about grabbing it. If it was in a high traffic area I would definetly go with a wildgame.
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