Spoonman
Well-Known Member
I run 6 Tactacams and they are all on the $5 a month plan. That gets you 250 pics each for the month. I also have 1 SPYPOINT Flex and it's pretty nice. Free cell plan but pics are not as good as the Tactacam in my opinion.
best cell trail camera 2023
- Thread starter SSG Graybush
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VLD Pilot
Well-Known Member
So, do you set the times for pics within certain times to maintain that 250 per month ? Kinda thought of doing the same but only having pics taken in daytime hours.
Spoonman
Well-Known Member
No. I don't get 250 pics a month on my cams. That's an average of 8 a day each. I'm sure some guys get a bunch of pics and need the higher plan but I haven't needed that yet. I also run my setting on "timely" because I like to get notifications throughout the day. You can set them up to send 2 times a day or 4 times a day as well. That's for the tactacams. The SPYPOINT has a free plan and it's only good for a 100 pics. After the 100 pics it just stops taking pics till the next month starts. The next plan up is $5 with them as well.
Run three tactacams. $15 a month. They work well. I've slowly added solar and think on sale for $45 that's a solid upgrade. I haven't changed batteries since I've added solar. It does take a bit of placement/sensitivity setting to prevent a picture every-time the wind blows. May be user error.
VLD Pilot
Well-Known Member
Where is the location that your finding the solar panel for $45 ?
Good discounts that stack. Military, with AJ, and another random 10%
VLD Pilot
Well-Known Member
Perfect. Reveal does offer a 40% LE discount on the accs. I'll get right on it. Thanks.
We have several Tactacam's and generally like them. They are pretty particular about setup and the type of SD cards they use. It's all in the manual but they are by far the most finicky trail camera I have used in the past 10 plus years. As mentioned for some reason you can walk in front of them and not trigger a picture…why I don't know but it's worrisome because who knows if you missed the biggest buck in the woods. I just assume we haven't and live with that. The plans from when I researched are one of the best out there for unlimited in terms of pricing. I'd continue buying and using the. But just know there are quirks
Same here, i generally like them but i do. Get a fair amount of pictures / video of deer butts walking out of the frame.
Like i know for sure that deer just slowly walked thru the frame and it missed half of it. Most of the time i get good shots tho. It is annoying when it happens
Spoonman
Well-Known Member
There are definitely faster cams out there but I feel like my Tactacams generally take pics of everything that walks in front of them. I test them by walking in front wherever I set them up. I also try to set them up so that the cam catches animals coming or going instead of walking 90 deg to the cam. That helps with getting pics that only have a butt or a head in the frame. Maybe try adjusting sensitivity?
I have used Spypoint Cell Link with regular Cabelas cameras, Spypoint Flex G36 and Spypoint Flex S. I also ran two Moultrie Edge Pros this fall because I thought the Edge Pro had some unique features. After almost 2 months in the field and 70+ AA batteries I returned the Edge Pro cameras and purchased two additional Flex G36 cameras. I don't have any experience with other cellular cameras.
Some more details .....
The Spypoint Cell Link is a great low cost option especially if you already have a nice non-cellular trail camera. You can buy a Cell Link for $30 and get 100 free pictures every month or 250 free pictures if you sign up to be a Spypoint club member. The Cell Link works with any camera with a full size SD card slot. You can deploy your camera with and without cellular component and the cell component runs off a seperate set of 8 AA batteries. The downside is that you deal with a fragile cable and you can't remotely change the camera ssettings. Additionally, you also have to pick a cellular service which is something that seems to be on the way out with dual SIMM cameras. This is a great setup if you don't know if you will have cellular service. Generally, cellular cameras don't work as a regular cameras.
This fall I decided to try a Spypoint Flex G36 cellular trail camera because I was frustrated with damaged Cell Link cables. Cables are damaged by critters (mostly bears) and by getting pinched by the camera door (hunting partners "helping"). I deployed with the Spypoint internal lithium battery because the camera and cellular communications share the same battery and I wanted 2-3 months between battery swaps. The Flex G36 was great! I found having remote access to the camera settings in addition to the cellular link settings was great especially when trying to manage the number of pictures. I also found the camera to be significantly lighter than the Cabelas + Cell Link option. I could easily get multiple Flex G36 cameras with lithium batteries and lock cables in my pack without adding substantial weight. The Cabelas cameras with Cell Links are definitely more bulky and heavy. The Flex G36 will easily run in an instantaneous upload configuration with 2-6 pictures a day for months on a single internal lithium battery. The daytime and nighttime performance seemed on par with my Cabelas Gen 4 30MP cameras. The Flex cameras are dual SIM and connect to the strongest cellular network. The Flex series is not limited to 32GB SD cards which might be relevant if you do video. The Flex cameras also upload video, however I didn't get that fancy.
I also deployed a Spypoint Flex S. The Flex S appears to be a G36 with an integrated solar panel. There is a lithium battery built into the solar panel and room for 8 AA or internal lithium battery. The Flex S has been running for 3 months on the solar panel and rarely falls off of 100% charge. I did decide that an integrated solar panel added another constraint to locating and aiming the camera. It seems like it needs some solar during the day to charge the battery in the panel. Installation in the deep dark timber is probably a bad choice, but I think it works faced north without direct solar. After using it, I wondered if a small external panel/battery could be a better choice so that the panel direction (faced south) could be different from the camera (faced north) on the same tree.
I also added two Moultrie Edge Pro cameras because of the feature to block areas from triggering pictures. It is a bummer to deploy a camera only to find a tree branch or a shadow triggers 100s of pictures. The Edge Pro allows you to disable specific areas from triggering a picture. There is no SD card for someone to borrow and access to the pictures is only through the website so someone cant view or delete the pictures from the camera. Also the Edge Pro holds 16 AA batteries which sounded like a great alternative to lithium batteries. I thought 16 AA batteries might get me through an entire season! Wrong. Something about my cameras or my use resulted in the batteries going from 100% to 0% inside of 24hrs without any pictures being uploaded. Sometimes the camera would work as expected for 3 weeks and sometimes for 3 days. Then, without any warning, the camera would die. After flushing 70+ batteries through 3 different Edge Pro cameras inside of 60 days I returned the cameras. I was spending too much time changing batteries and Moultrie tech support had no suggestions. I also felt like the Edge Pro cameras were slow based on some of the pictures. I was getting a single picture of an animal butt that had walked all of the way through the picture frame that covered 80 yds. I didnt get to the point of posting a Cabelas Gen 4 and Edge Pro on the same tree to check camera performance because the battery problem became a deal breaker. This might become a great camera but I wasn't interested in betting 2 x $180.
In the end, I picked up two more Spypoint Flex G36 on sale for $80 ($120 MSRP) at Cabelas to replace the returned Edge Pros. I now have four of the Flex G36 and a Flex S in addition to several Cell Links. I also picked up two HME solar panels with internal lithium batteries that should work great with the Flex G36 when deployed to a far far away points for months of scouting. It is hard to beat the 250 pictures per camera per month when signed up for Spypoint Club ($99 per year). It is almost cheaper to deploy two cameras to the same spot and then remotely tweak the camera settings to manage the number of pictures. I can easily add a month to month unlimited plan if I happen to drop a camera on an active bait or wallow.
Some more details .....
The Spypoint Cell Link is a great low cost option especially if you already have a nice non-cellular trail camera. You can buy a Cell Link for $30 and get 100 free pictures every month or 250 free pictures if you sign up to be a Spypoint club member. The Cell Link works with any camera with a full size SD card slot. You can deploy your camera with and without cellular component and the cell component runs off a seperate set of 8 AA batteries. The downside is that you deal with a fragile cable and you can't remotely change the camera ssettings. Additionally, you also have to pick a cellular service which is something that seems to be on the way out with dual SIMM cameras. This is a great setup if you don't know if you will have cellular service. Generally, cellular cameras don't work as a regular cameras.
This fall I decided to try a Spypoint Flex G36 cellular trail camera because I was frustrated with damaged Cell Link cables. Cables are damaged by critters (mostly bears) and by getting pinched by the camera door (hunting partners "helping"). I deployed with the Spypoint internal lithium battery because the camera and cellular communications share the same battery and I wanted 2-3 months between battery swaps. The Flex G36 was great! I found having remote access to the camera settings in addition to the cellular link settings was great especially when trying to manage the number of pictures. I also found the camera to be significantly lighter than the Cabelas + Cell Link option. I could easily get multiple Flex G36 cameras with lithium batteries and lock cables in my pack without adding substantial weight. The Cabelas cameras with Cell Links are definitely more bulky and heavy. The Flex G36 will easily run in an instantaneous upload configuration with 2-6 pictures a day for months on a single internal lithium battery. The daytime and nighttime performance seemed on par with my Cabelas Gen 4 30MP cameras. The Flex cameras are dual SIM and connect to the strongest cellular network. The Flex series is not limited to 32GB SD cards which might be relevant if you do video. The Flex cameras also upload video, however I didn't get that fancy.
I also deployed a Spypoint Flex S. The Flex S appears to be a G36 with an integrated solar panel. There is a lithium battery built into the solar panel and room for 8 AA or internal lithium battery. The Flex S has been running for 3 months on the solar panel and rarely falls off of 100% charge. I did decide that an integrated solar panel added another constraint to locating and aiming the camera. It seems like it needs some solar during the day to charge the battery in the panel. Installation in the deep dark timber is probably a bad choice, but I think it works faced north without direct solar. After using it, I wondered if a small external panel/battery could be a better choice so that the panel direction (faced south) could be different from the camera (faced north) on the same tree.
I also added two Moultrie Edge Pro cameras because of the feature to block areas from triggering pictures. It is a bummer to deploy a camera only to find a tree branch or a shadow triggers 100s of pictures. The Edge Pro allows you to disable specific areas from triggering a picture. There is no SD card for someone to borrow and access to the pictures is only through the website so someone cant view or delete the pictures from the camera. Also the Edge Pro holds 16 AA batteries which sounded like a great alternative to lithium batteries. I thought 16 AA batteries might get me through an entire season! Wrong. Something about my cameras or my use resulted in the batteries going from 100% to 0% inside of 24hrs without any pictures being uploaded. Sometimes the camera would work as expected for 3 weeks and sometimes for 3 days. Then, without any warning, the camera would die. After flushing 70+ batteries through 3 different Edge Pro cameras inside of 60 days I returned the cameras. I was spending too much time changing batteries and Moultrie tech support had no suggestions. I also felt like the Edge Pro cameras were slow based on some of the pictures. I was getting a single picture of an animal butt that had walked all of the way through the picture frame that covered 80 yds. I didnt get to the point of posting a Cabelas Gen 4 and Edge Pro on the same tree to check camera performance because the battery problem became a deal breaker. This might become a great camera but I wasn't interested in betting 2 x $180.
In the end, I picked up two more Spypoint Flex G36 on sale for $80 ($120 MSRP) at Cabelas to replace the returned Edge Pros. I now have four of the Flex G36 and a Flex S in addition to several Cell Links. I also picked up two HME solar panels with internal lithium batteries that should work great with the Flex G36 when deployed to a far far away points for months of scouting. It is hard to beat the 250 pictures per camera per month when signed up for Spypoint Club ($99 per year). It is almost cheaper to deploy two cameras to the same spot and then remotely tweak the camera settings to manage the number of pictures. I can easily add a month to month unlimited plan if I happen to drop a camera on an active bait or wallow.
airborneescouter
Member
Bought 5 Moultrie Edge cameras this year on sale at about $50 each. Heck of a deal, hilarious thing is a month of service and 8 lithium AA batteries cost about as much as the camera. Photo/video quality is ok if you download the high res or full videos but the standard preview is like a 2006 facebook profile pic taken with a Motorola razor, super pixilated. For what they are they work. Would rather buy the reveal but the price was right and I worry about thieves
