Jackson Bowner

There are probably going to be as many opinons on these questions as there are guys reading it. My personal opinion having tried quite a few trail cams is that they all have not met what my expectations have been. At least for a piece of equipment I have paid up to $400 for in the past. To me, resolution is not a real important consideration. The difference between a 4 MP and a 6 MP is not going to be all that dramatic in a trail cam. I have had higher resolution trail cams only to be disappointed at how they are not able to handle daylight (such as a morning angle through the leaves) and how it washes out the picture. Some of these more expensive trail cams have not even been able to handle motion very well. And this from a deer walking though the field of view....gofigure. That's what they're supposed to be able to take a picture of!That's not to say that a cheap trail cam is going to be any better...or worse though. The biggest disappointment, however, is that many times, the trigger time is just lagging way beyond a second (which is often times touted in the specification and advertisement claims). This is why you often get pictures of just trees....or just as bad, the infrared doesn't pick up the motion at all. I know this is a big problem...particularly in the summer when ambient air temperature is high and is closer to the temperature of the deer's body than it is in the fall. Finally, battery lifeshould be an important consideration but not as much as trigger lag and infrared pick up. My current Cuddeback uses 4 D batteries a month. To me, that is tolerable, but considering the camera only took 13 pictures (half of which were non-flash pictures)it seems to be a battery hog. I put this particular camera over a mineral deposit that was hammered hard and refreshed 3 times since spring. I know it is frequently visited and yet I only get 9-15 pics in a 2 week period.I am sure that the camera missed many more shots for whatever reason because the settings are set to take a picture every 5 seconds and only 2 of the 13 pictures last time I checked were shots close together.

One of your questions was about the 1.5" screen on the I-60. I suppose if you just can't wait to get back home to look at your pictures it might be worth it. I chose the Cuddeback for this particular trail cam because it uses a compact flash card. I can take it out of the trail cam and slip it into my Sony digital Power Shot and view it in the field. Or I just replace it with another 512 MB compact flash card and bring it home and slip it into my computer and download them directly off the card. So my personal thought would be that the 6 MP and the 1.5" screen would be unnecessary for me. A 512 MB card is not expensive at all.

Now, having said all of this, I will tell you where I am headed in the winter months after hunting season is over. I am going to start to build my own trail cameras because I think I can buy the parts not only cheaper, but also I believe the quality of the sensors that you can buy will be much better and I should be able to reduce some of the lag time and improvemotion sensors while at the same time make a much better battery system that will last much, much longer (some guys are using solar to supplement battery power). I am bookmarking sites that give step by step intructions and forums for backup help. If you have an interest PM me and I will forward what I have so far. If not, have fun in Dundee. Maybe I'll seee ya down there. Planning a musky fishing trip and need some equipment. Good luck!