STEALTH CAM DIGRC-XTR UPDATE
 

Well, the first day with the new Stealth Cam DIGRC-XTR camera was good, but, since then, it seems to keep going down hill.

I checked the camera today and noticed that there were no pictures. I walked over to the feeder and there were fresh deer tracks. This made me curious, so I did was ILL-Cornfed did and I walked past the camera. I walked past at about 5 yards and the camera snapped a picture, too bad I was entirely out of the way! I tried it again, and yet again, the camera didn't snap a picture until I was out of the picture.

Another thing I noticed is that the camera was taking forever to load. Whenever I turned the unit on, it would take about 30-45 seconds for the unit to load up (and the owners manual says that it should load in 5 seconds). This is after just two days, so this thing is sucking up batteries terribly bad!

I just checked my feeder about 30 minutes ago. I shinned a flash-light down and there are 5 raccoons down there. 2 are standing on the feed plate (the camera is aimed directly at the feed plate) and 3 were on the ground. I turned the flashlight off quick and just waited to see if I could see the camera flash. I waited 5 minutes and no flash, 10 minutes, no flash, and after 15 minutes with no flash, I shinned the flashlight down to see if the raccoons were still there and sure enough they were.


I e-mailed Stealth Cam about this and let them know what I was experiencing! I asked what they were willing to do about this problem and I am awaiting their response! If they aren't willing to do anything, I will be cancleing the solar panel I have on order (thankfully it is on back-order), and I will be selling the camera on E-Bay as a package, along with the 256 MB memory card I got today.


One other thing that I noticed is that the camera quality isn't exactly what I expected it to be. I figured that I would get better quality and better color from a 3 megapixel camera, but it just doesn't seem to be that great.

Building a home-brew is seeming much more appealing right now![:-]

RE: STEALTH CAM DIGRC-XTR UPDATE
 

Jason!

Sorry to hear this about your new cam,I've been reading your post's on the cam and read what Ill Cornfed had said about it .I was hoping that he had just run into a bad cam and was hoping to hear and see some good shot's from you .Keep us informed about what Stealth is going to do to help you out ,if Stealth isn't going to stand up to the plate then I'll be looking elsewhere for a digital cam next season. There's no better place to post your finding's than here and maybe something good will come out of this. KEEP US INFORMED

John

RE: STEALTH CAM DIGRC-XTR UPDATE
 

Those were my concerns, I guess I'm going to buy the H.S. Tracker, all the reviews on the tracker are positive. This forum is a great place to research info on a product.

RE: STEALTH CAM DIGRC-XTR UPDATE
 

After my experience with the MCG2 or whatever they call it, I wouldn't buy another product from Stealth Cam if it was the only one on the market.

Cam Trakker all the way.

RE: STEALTH CAM DIGRC-XTR UPDATE
 

Jason, Are you and Murphy friends? You've had the worst time since you decided to order a cam. I can't believe this is going to continue to play out for you. I've had great luck with the 1.3mp stealth. How high off the ground is the camera and at what angle is it pointed. I'm sure you know how to use the cam bit I'm wondering if the sensor is missing the game because of it's angle. As for the batteries I'm a little suprised. If it were taking pics I'd think the the better resolution camera were the culprit but with no pics that dosn't seem likely. I don't know why it should use more battery power than the 1.3 cam. I'm not all that suprised about the load time. My book also says 5 seconds but is in more in the 10-20 second range.

I hope stealth cam takes care of the situation. With the 3.0mp being new I hope it's a faulty unit but with the lanundry list of issues I'd sooner think it is the design.

Oh, About pic quality. Did you have it set on the highest resolution setting?

RE: STEALTH CAM DIGRC-XTR UPDATE
 

Jason,

Email me, let me build you a digital camera. You will be very happy with it. If you have an concerns I have references from other people who have a camera from me.

RE: STEALTH CAM DIGRC-XTR UPDATE
 

Get a Cuddeback.

RE: STEALTH CAM DIGRC-XTR UPDATE
 

I'm still waiting for my Stealth MC2G to come and hope I have better luck with it ,but I've also heard some negative remark's about them as well .I've seen some pretty good pic's from them but I hope it o.k. for this season . I know it's only $70.00 but this is just another reason why I went with the MC2.Hopefully it comes soon so I can give her a try.

nubo

RE: STEALTH CAM DIGRC-XTR UPDATE
 

YEP, the same experiences that I had. As I mentioned, I returned mine and I'm awaiting a Cuddeback. If this Cam isn't what I'm expecting then I'm trying the Trail Spy!!! Sorry about your bad luck. [&:]

RE: STEALTH CAM DIGRC-XTR UPDATE
 

Sorry you're having problems with your camera. Trail Spy, Trail Spy, Trail Spy! C'mon you need to test it out for us since you're ready to spend the money! :D

Or take up T_in_PA2 on making you one.

Dang NUBO! You're still waiting on your regular Stealth? How long have you had that thing on order? I guess I take it for granted that I can run to our local Bass Pro & pick one up.

RE: STEALTH CAM DIGRC-XTR UPDATE
 

Mike! I sent him a money order about 3 week's Monday ,so it should be here any time ,I thought I would have had it now though.

nubo

RE: STEALTH CAM DIGRC-XTR UPDATE
 

Hey guys,

Well, I still havn't heard anything from Stealth Cam. I e-mailed them Tuesday and it says that they will get back to you the following day.

I moved my feeder tonight, I put it further back into the woods closer to a bedding area, and I set the camera up with new batteries. I took my time to make sure that the unit was set-up perfectly. I am gonna leave it go till Monday and see what happens. If I am not satisfied Monday, I am getting rid of it and building my own. I have found some plans for a unit using a Sony P41 Camera that supposidly has a awsome flash and a very fast load time! Plus, it will cost less than $300 to put together this unit.

I'll let you guys know how this all plays out. I am really ticked off right now as I have been seeing alot of bucks on my property. Tuesday night I went and sat on the roof of my house to watch our field and I saw 5 bucks, 1 doe, 2 fawn, and a skunk. Out of the 5 bucks I saw, 1 was a small 4 point, 1 was a small 6 point, 2 were small 8 points about 15" wide, and I saw a BIG 8 point come out. He is probablly close to 20" wide already, his brow-tines looked to be close to 6 or 7 inches, his G-2's looked to be in the 10-11" range, and his G-3's appeared to be in the 8-9 inch range with a really heavy rack and long main beams. He has a nice high rack that all curves in. Hopefully this Stealth Cam can redeem itself and I get a pic of that big boy.

RE: STEALTH CAM DIGRC-XTR UPDATE
 

I read your post. Do you have a laundry list and directions so that I can build my own?

Thanks

RE: STEALTH CAM DIGRC-XTR UPDATE
 

Jason,

We have unfortunately not been able to locate any e-mails from the name Jason Lowmaster with such concerns. We value our customers and would like to rectify this situation. Please re-direct your e-mail to [email protected] or [email protected]. You may also feel free to contact our customer service at 877-269-8490 and we will make sure that this issue is taken care of.


Customer Service

RE: STEALTH CAM DIGRC-XTR UPDATE
 

Bowman49,

Try Here


Hey BM,

Maybe T_in_PA2 would let you try one of his out for a week or two. i'm betting if you did you would be sold on the homebrew's. What do you say T_in_PA2?

RE: STEALTH CAM DIGRC-XTR UPDATE
 

bowman, goto hagshouse.com. A newbie just asked the same question and has had a bunch of responses. I will be glad to help but please read that post as a lot of the questions you may have are probably already answered on the other board. It is under homemade trailcams. happy camming. you can also see my new homebrew on this site if you look over the last few days. ABH.

RE: STEALTH CAM DIGRC-XTR UPDATE
 

If I had one available but I have a few orders to fill right now.

RE: STEALTH CAM DIGRC-XTR UPDATE
 

Well, I just sent my third e-mail to Stealth Cam. I will let you all know what happens.

Nubo, I wouldn't worry about the MC2-G. I had two of them and I loved them. The picture quality was great, the camera was reliable, and the camera is tough.

RE: STEALTH CAM DIGRC-XTR UPDATE
 

boman49,

I was at Hags House and the list of parts for the camera that I may build is as follows.......

Sony P41 4.1megapixel digital camera...... $179.99
HH1 Board............................................. . $ 50.00
2 -- 1" glass circles.................................. $4.00
Shutter Assembly..................................... $5.00
Servo............................................. ........ $5.00
Pelican 1060 Case.................................... $34.00

This is what I have seen as a list of parts. I am not entirely sure if anything else is really needed or not.

RE: STEALTH CAM DIGRC-XTR UPDATE
 

BM,

You only need one 1" circle glass. Get a Flash Enhancing lense for in front of the camera flash.

You probably want to get a Python lock and some U bolts to secure the camera to a tree. Go to OfficeMax this week and get a P41. They are on sale for $150. There is also a thread on Hag's that I started, "You heard it here first", telling you how you can get the camera cheaper yet with Internet coupons.

RE: STEALTH CAM DIGRC-XTR UPDATE
 

I also had similar problems with a camera we bought from Cabela's. The most expensive one they had to offer was me and my dad's combined Christmas present in 2003. $600.00 later, we had a camera that took crappy pictues...sometimes. It worked well for about 1 day, then it would no longer sense.

After that, we decided that homebrew is the way to go!

We were able to build one for around $200.00 that takes excellent pictures. Anytime we've had trouble with our control board (the brains of the setup), the guy who builds them was more than happy to fix the problem for $5.00 - the cost of return shipping!

Here is a link to some detailed photo's of our home built trailcam: http://frontpage.auburn.edu/henrynr/
Here is a link to some of the pictures our trailcam has taken: http://community.webshots.com/user/nehilow

We liked our first one so much that we have since built two more for ourselves and two for our impressed friends!

If any of you have questions, please feel free to e-mail me ([email protected]) as I don't check the forum often.

RE: STEALTH CAM DIGRC-XTR UPDATE
 

I am really beginning to think it is time to give up on digital Stealth Cams (it seems the reg camera models work pretty well). I had problems with (2) 1.3 mp. I was sent a new 3.0 mp as a replacement and have not used it yet. I hope I have beeter results (I have a feeling I won't). One thing I can say is that I had good success with the service at Stealth. They were very agreeable and sent me a new cam with no questions asked.
If the 3.0 is no better than 1.3 (i though pics were good quality, but the amount of pics and timing was off and the battery life was terrible) I will be returning it for a refund (I assume) and will go out and get a Cuddeback (I have seen little or no negative feedback on them).