Cellular Trail Cams

[Dean2]

Spypoint.

 

[Dean2]

Tactacam Reveal. Not even a question at all. I've used crazy expensive ones in the past and they don't compare. I think I have 12 of the reveals now. Super simple, great pictures, and the HD pictures are absolutely legit

Have you left any of yours out for a full year? Do you find any water in them when you open them up? Also, since they don't have a solar option, how long will they run on the batteries.

With the Spypoints I am going to try putting a bead of grease on the Battery door to see if that will keep it dry inside. May have to even try a bead of silicone.

 

[fnlights]

Another vote for the Tactacam Reveals - I believe that I am running 8 of them now.

 

[Huntnful]

Have you left any of yours out for a full year? Do you find any water in them when you open them up? Also, since they don't have a solar option, how long will they run on the batteries.

With the Spypoints I am going to try putting a bead of grease on the Battery door to see if that will keep it dry inside. May have to even try a bead of silicone.

Yes sir. I left two of them out all year up in the mountains covered in 6' of snow. They were fine when I retrieved them this year.

Battery life totally depends on how often you want photos and how many photos you're getting. But I was normally getting anywhere from 20-50 photos, sent to me 1 time per day. Battery life was excellent. Lasts at least 4-6 Months.

 

[Dozer83]

Most of my experiences is with spypoint. Did get a browning last year and the pics were good but it didnt work this year. Ive had several spypoints and had the best luck out of their cheaper models the micro and really liking the flex so far. Had one of their more expensive models and when i updated it, it got all screwed up and the menu on the screen appears to be in Arabic. The mid grade models i had got infested with ants quit working. One of the micros i have is in its 3rd year of use and it stays out all year. A buddy of mine really likes the tacticams.

 

[HSmithTX]

I have Tactacam Reveal also, I have two in the field right now. No complaints at all. Battery life using lithium is good, battery life on alkaline is bad, good being 3000+ pics and many hundreds of videos and bad being less than 1500 pics with no video. Mine so far have been weather proof, don't fog at all either. Buy good memory cards, use lithium batteries and you won't have a problem.

 

[slowshot18]

I have 4 Spypoint Micro S (the ones with solar panels) and a flex that have been out at my place since July. They are located 10 hours away from where I live so its not easy to correct an issue when one arises.
My experience so far: Of the 4 Micro S's, 2 of them have worked great since being installed. The other 2 stopped working a week or so after being installed. Had someone restart the cameras, 1 has been working fine since and then the other still does not work.
The flex worked great for one day, then after that did not work at all.
I brought the Flex and the one micro S home a few weeks ago. The flex needed an update and has been working fine at my house. The one micro will simply not work at all. Spypoint is sending me a new one under warranty.

I'm not completely sold on Spypoint products yet but I'm not completely disappointed at them either. Time will tell. I am however, considering trying another brand such as Tactacam for next season if I keep having problems. Then again, it is electronics that are exposed to the elements.

 

[Dean2]

I have 4 Spypoint Micro S (the ones with solar panels) and a flex that have been out at my place since July. They are located 10 hours away from where I live so its not easy to correct an issue when one arises.
My experience so far: Of the 4 Micro S's, 2 of them have worked great since being installed. The other 2 stopped working a week or so after being installed. Had someone restart the cameras, 1 has been working fine since and then the other still does not work.
The flex worked great for one day, then after that did not work at all.
I brought the Flex and the one micro S home a few weeks ago. The flex needed an update and has been working fine at my house. The one micro will simply not work at all. Spypoint is sending me a new one under warranty.

I'm not completely sold on Spypoint products yet but I'm not completely disappointed at them either. Time will tell. I am however, considering trying another brand such as Tactacam for next season if I keep having problems. Then again, it is electronics that are exposed to the elements.

Very similar to our experience with them. After reading a bunch on Tatacam I am going to get at least one and put it in the rotation with the Spypoint and our non-cellular cams we use year round close by. The fact that Spypoint support always wants you to have the camera in hand to do any support is a major pain, though I have usually been successful at getting them to help me using their remote tools.

Here is a review I recently wrote on Spypoint that I have not yet posted anywhere else.

Bought a Spypoint Micro LT Solar charged Lithium battery, cellular game camera in November 2021. Set it up Nov 4th, 2021 and let it run over the winter. It worked fine, even in 35 below. Battery stayed charged and it transmitted once daily per the settings. Few glitches with it sending multiple pictures of nothing, needed a couple of firmware upgrades to resolve, but generally pretty good.

Considering this camera was 400 miles away, it wasn't really feasible to go get it when it acted up, and tech support always wanted me to have the camera in hand. The phone support tech line was not really helpful in quickly dealing with issues but if you spent the time we eventually got them resolved, at least until it completely quit transmitting and could not be communicated with by tech support. The bolded part is the typical response from Tech Support anytime assistance is requested:

10:51 AM
Agent
The camera has not communicated with our server since 29 May, 2022 . So, the battery reading of 100 % which you see is from an older communication. To display the updated battery level, the camera needs to communicate with the app.

If you are at home, we recommend placing the camera on a table or other flat surface while facing up. Otherwise ensure you are standing next to the camera, outside the field of view. We don`t want to trigger any photos unecessarily while troubleshooting.

These are the resources needed for a thorough troubleshoot:

Camera in-hand Charged LIT-10 battery, New or another, plus MicroSD card, Access to computer with MicroSD slot or SD card reader adapter Access to internet. We may not need all the items, but it will ensure we are ready to troubleshoot most issues.


10:55 AM
Dean
Like I said in my original post. Fully charged battery, checked with volt meter, camera will not turn on at all. The last time it was on was May 29th. I put all that in the first post

I can read the pictures on the SD card. Last picture it took was May 29th about 5:35 in the afternoon

I just went up and recovered the camera as it was located 400 miles from me.


Per the info I provided to Chat Support line, it last transmitted May 29, 2022 at its set daily transmit time of 9:05 a.m., and on May 30th, tech could not communicate with it. Status on May 29th, shows a fully charged battery and 50% cell signal strength. Recovered the camera the end of Oct 2022 and on opening it up it shows serious water intrusion into the camera body and battery area. The SIM card showed it took 6 pictures after 9:05 on May 29th, the last picture it took was May 29th at 17:35, the animal was a small coyote. There were no other pictures after that date, and no transmission of those last pictures May 30th at 9:05.

There were no outward signs of damage, handling or tooth marks etc., but the antenna had fallen off and we could not locate it in the thick grass, snow and detritus on the ground. Left a 3/8" hole in the side of the camera and may explain why there was so much water intrusion, not just in the Battery Box. Battery connections etc. were corroded, and the camera would not turn on at all, even with a fully charged battery. The good news is, Spypoint has a 2 year warranty, so at this stage I am a pretty happy camper.

Sign onto the chat line, long story short, 2 and a half hours on Chat, including having to send them a video of me turning the camera off and on and nothing happening, to get the warranty return resolved. They will send me a new camera, but have none in stock and no guess as to the ETA for when they will have a replacement. Not a workable solution in my books. So the choice they give me is a new model Flex cellular as a replacement, costs 60 bucks less than the one I have and has no Solar. If I want to add solar I have to pay for that myself, they won't throw it in. So I say, if it doesn't have solar, send me the Micro LTE 2 pack for $299 and I will pay you the $40 difference to the $259 value of mine, or I will take the Flex and you give me a $60 refund to the value of my existing camera. They say no, won't do cash back on the Flex and no the two pack special of Micro Lite LTEs won't work for them either. They will only sell me two Micro Lite LTE at the per camera price of $169.99, so I owe them 95 bucks difference. I finally got tired of the chat process and agreed to the $95, 2 Micro LTE, no solar option. Figure these cameras aren't robust enough for year round anyhow so lack of solar isn't critical. They don't seem to be well enough sealed because the other ones we had out locally showed a lot of water in the battery box when we pulled them in early Feb 2022, after being out since Dec 15th, 2021, but at least those still work fine.

The camera worked pretty well while it ran. I will leave it up to you to decide whether you think the performance meets your needs, and you can judge the quality of the tech support and what you think of the warranty service I experienced.

 

[slowshot18]

Very similar to our experience with them. After reading a bunch on Tatacam I am going to get at least one and put it in the rotation with the Spypoint and our non-cellular cams we use year round close by. The fact that Spypoint support always wants you to have the camera in hand to do any support is a major pain, though I have usually been successful at getting them to help me using their remote tools.

Here is a review I recently wrote on Spypoint that I have not yet posted anywhere else.

Yup, I can relate to their extremely frustrating customer service process and their inability/reluctance to reach out to the camera remotely to try and resolve an issue. I've been fortunate not to have moisture/corrosion issues thus far, but my cameras are located in the deserts of West Texas, but time will tell.

 

[SEGARE]

I run Ridgetec (12 total) several of which have been out year-round for three years without missing a beat. You buy a pool of points and can assign as many cameras to the pool as you want. They come with Verizon and ATT cards. You can choose image quality and length, with longer, higher quality videos using more points. Trigger speed is .5sec and is consistent with very few empty frames. Trigger range is pretty consistent at 100'. I know they are more expensive (about $300) but they quality devices, not use them one year and replace.

 

[bamban]

We're using 3 Spypoint Flex. 30 meg pictures, dual sim card system. Sample of HD picture.