RE: Scout Guard SG 550. Next Best Camera?
 

You can view straight from the cam or have a second sd card to swap out . Might as well leave the cam working for you in the bush and view from a digital camera or card reader. Cam will accept up to a 2 gb card and will not run without an SD card installed. Not sure how they are sold with or without an SD card. What I like about the cam is when yoiu go home leave it to guard the camp to intruders. It is so small and easy to conseal.

RE: Scout Guard SG 550. Next Best Camera?
 

Everything rasorbackq said is correct. As for the SD card, the sg550 doesn't come with it. You have to purchase that seperately. Unit also comes with a remote that is needed to set the cam and change settings, format card etc....

Joe
BBO

RE: Scout Guard SG 550. Next Best Camera?
 

550s what is the pics size 3 mg or 5mg correct. Why are it the all my pics are around 1mg on low res and 2 on high res?? How I check them is
1) right click on pic
2) properities

RE: Scout Guard SG 550. Next Best Camera?
 

http://www.chasingame.com/cameratestimages/2008_scoutguard/watertest/IMG_0272.JPG

Check this link as far as weatherproof goes.

RE: Scout Guard SG 550. Next Best Camera?
 

what is the battery life like on these. i have been thinking about getting a couple. i read through here but could not see anything about battery life unless i read over it

RE: Scout Guard SG 550. Next Best Camera?
 

buckeater, You can expect to get several thousand pictures on one set of batteries. i'm not really sure how long they last. I've had my first camera out since mid june and have around 3000 pics and 1 hour of video and yesterday it still showed 2/3 battery life. At this rate I should get 5000 pics!

RE: Scout Guard SG 550. Next Best Camera?
 

Wanted to let you guys know I have had my website up for a few weeks to sell these cams online. I've been getting quite a few pm's, phone callsand emailsfrom huntingnet members about them so Ifigured I oughtto post up the address. That doesn't mean you can't call, but the site might make it easier on you. www.scoutguard550.comThanks for all the support.

RE: Scout Guard SG 550. Next Best Camera?
 

Here is a quote from chasingame on one of their tests:

03-25-2008 update: This short update will just say that this cam has just done everything very good. Since 3-12-08 this camera has taken nearly 5000 pictures and 175 movies. The low battery LED is still off and the camera is still going strong. We are still holding and fortunately we have a couple other SG-550’s so we can parallel some of the tests, or otherwise we would be here all summer.

03-28-2008 update: Well as of yesterday this cam finally died from lack of battery. The total 5120 pictures and 175 movies were recorded during this period. This is far past what we expected. Should this cam be deployed to a trail situation with 20 to 30 pictures a day it might last an extreme length of time. This will have to be one of our next tests. So far we are very happy with the performance of this camera.

Here are some quotes from scout guard users:

"I get about 4,500 pics before I even start to think about the batteries."

"I got over 400 pics and 60 vids in 10 days! Batt still says 100%
Pretty good in my book!"

"My buddy got 3400 pics and 180-15 second videos in 3 months on 8 energizers. 80+ % were at night."

Hope this helps,
Joe
BBO

RE: Scout Guard SG 550. Next Best Camera?
 

thanks alot for putting that up. i might just have to go ahead and get some. i think trigger speed and battery life (well mainly battery life) are the biggest reasons i look for. i leave my cams aloan during the summer and try to only check them once a month. and then when im hunting i only check them when i am by them and even then it seems like i leave the new batteries in the truck

RE: Scout Guard SG 550. Next Best Camera?
 

The more I use mine, the more I like it. I pulled it today after 5 days in the heavy rain. It had 833 great pics on it. This is a great camera for a great price.

RE: Scout Guard SG 550. Next Best Camera?
 

The features packed in this cam is incredible in my book. I think this is the cam for 2008 and from the info I have heard about the manufacturer, its just only going to get better :) More features in the horizon............

Joe
BBO

RE: Scout Guard SG 550. Next Best Camera?
 

I did plenty of researching on the net and decided on the Scout Guard. It arrived yesterday. The programming was straightforward and simple. It's all ready for the field. I plan to get it set out this weekend.

Can't wait to see the results!

RE: Scout Guard SG 550. Next Best Camera?
 

Im sure youll really like this cam. Let us know how it goes for you......

RE: Scout Guard SG 550. Next Best Camera?
 

can someone right click a pic from their sg 550 , go to properties and tell me what the size of photo is. Also what setting the cam was set to. Thanks.

RE: Scout Guard SG 550. Next Best Camera?
 

On 5 MP IR I average 1 - 1.09 MB

5MP Day Color about 1.3 MB

The more objects you get in the pic, the slightly higher MB it will take.

On a non busy color pic, mainly sky and some bushes it will be as low as 834kb.

Hope this helps.

Joe
BBO

RE: Scout Guard SG 550. Next Best Camera?
 

Why is that, that the 3 and 5 mg pics are only around 1 mg

RE: Scout Guard SG 550. Next Best Camera?
 

A jpeg image file achieves a 10 to 1 comperssion. Some details are lost during compression with little perceivable loss in image quality. The smaller file size allows the image to load faster versus other formats like, .tif, .bmp etc. This is the most common file format used in digital cameras today.

Bottom line is, in general a 5MP color pic can average about 15 MB. Jpeg compresses it to about 1.5MB so that you can have more pics on your SD card.

Hope this helps.

Joe
BBO

RE: Scout Guard SG 550. Next Best Camera?
 

Hey Guys,
Having the same problem as rasorbacq.
HCO told me it was my SD card so I bought another. Samething-- Split pictures and Red, Green, Blue , Yellow digitalize blocks for the pictures.
What SD card do you guys use? I have been using SanDisk.
The first 43 pictures and 3 weeks or so, were good then all of a sudden the issues. Michael from HCO is the one I've been going through.

RE: Scout Guard SG 550. Next Best Camera?
 

Got the replacement 550 Last week . This camera IR works like it is supposed to . The last the IR would come on at 1800 all I would see was white pics for 3-4 hours then it would be dark and all OK.
Like my last 550 cam I have been running this one on ext battery. All ws good for a few days then the cam stopped working . Plug in the remote just a blank lite screen . Unplug the ext battery cam fires right up 3/3 for power. plug in the remote again and blank lite screen again. Tested the battery.4.5 volts. Maybe low but the low power blue LED didn't come on and the unit didn't switch to internal batteries.
Any ideas???

RE: Scout Guard SG 550. Next Best Camera?
 

bee busy ,if i order the new version of the scoutguard sg555, does it come
upgraded with the v.2, or do i have to unload it after i received my camera.

RE: Scout Guard SG 550. Next Best Camera?
 

Yes it comes loaded with the new firmware 2.0. All cams since 07/21 have the firmware. For other folks that have had the cam for awhile and are in doubt, here is a simple test. On 5MP 3 picture burst, it should be around 3-4 seconds between pictures on the new version and 6-7 seconds on the old version........................

Joe
BBO

RE: Scout Guard SG 550. Next Best Camera?
 

thank you ,do you have the stem camo in stock

RE: Scout Guard SG 550. Next Best Camera?
 

I will as of 09/10 or 09/11. Big shipment coming in. Im currently taking orders to ship out when they arrive.........

RE: Scout Guard SG 550. Next Best Camera?
 

There was a question earlier in this thread about some blurring in the picture during movement. My pictures from this weekend have the same thing. My camera was on the 5 mp setting. Has anyone experienced more or less blurring when using the 3 mp setting?

Other than that, the pictures were great! I'll post a few when I have more time.

RE: Scout Guard SG 550. Next Best Camera?
 

If it was an IR pic at night and the subject is moving fast enough, you will get some blurring as the process needs to slow down at night to get the pic. I get that from time to time on these as well as other IR brands.......

I would leave it at 5MP for better quality in zooming and clarity......

Joe
BBO

RE: Scout Guard SG 550. Next Best Camera?
 

If you enlarge the pictures fully, you'll get some blurring, also you'll get blurring if the animal is moving. I recomend you stick to the 5mp setting for the best pictures. It isn't going to effect the quality in a negative way.

RE: Scout Guard SG 550. Next Best Camera?
 

Just geting back from the start of the fall bear hunt. I hate these camera because they show the bears arriving just after we leave and just before we get there. One even came out in at 1000 am to eat fish 3 minutes after I left . I was only gone for 1 hr . Last video shows it leaving about 2 minute before I GOT TO THE STAND. About 100 50 sec videos in 3 days batteries on 3/3 still

Question , Why are the sd cards format from this camera only viewable on some digital cams??

RE: Scout Guard SG 550. Next Best Camera?
 

Man, thats bad timing Now you know how to time them........

As for the formatting to view, its just the way the programming is. I have a canon and cant view the pics on my sony.

RE: Scout Guard SG 550. Next Best Camera?
 

No because we went in an hour earlier today and the bear left 3 minutes before we got there.

When does a mother send the cubs away??

RE: Scout Guard SG 550. Next Best Camera?
 

Now I know whats going on. The bear has a trail cam on you!:D

Im wondering if she can sense, hear or smell you coming?

RE: Scout Guard SG 550. Next Best Camera?
 

She was fouled on Friday evening as she came in early. She ended up with a broad head through 2 lungs. Dressed out at around 180 lbs When the bear sat at 3 yards I could see that she was blind in her left eye as well her nose bridge was deformed. After the recovery it was noticed that she has been shot in the nose bridge in the summer as this area is known for the blue berry farmers just shooting bears in the fields.
I could post a video of her at night and show the blind eye but I don't know how to add one.

RE: Scout Guard SG 550. Next Best Camera?
 

http://s246.photobucket.com/albums/gg108/rasorbackq/?action=view&current=IM000041.flv

RE: Scout Guard SG 550. Next Best Camera?
 

That is great video! You can clearly see the blind eye!

RE: Scout Guard SG 550. Next Best Camera?
 

I just purchased two of these last week and they should be here today, cant wait to try them out and then put them to use! I have heard nothing but great things about these, will keep yah updated and with pics;)

RE: Scout Guard SG 550. Next Best Camera?
 

You'll definitely like that little cam:) Send the pics when you get them. Looking forward to see what you got out there...

Joe

RE: Scout Guard SG 550. Next Best Camera?
 

I love this camera. I have had two problems though.

One time a brand new set of batteries lasted only 3 days. It was set for still pics. I had just picked up my SD card which had around 300pics after the 3 days. After putting in the SD card, turned the cam on and nothing. Took it home to discover the dead batteries. It has taken over a thousand pictures on the batteries before this and since has worked fine also. Could something have hung up on the camera to cause the battery drain?

The second is on video. I just pulled the SD card this weekend after about a week of it being out on video duty. I had over 100 videos and the night videos look great. The day videos have a color distortion that is hard to take. I am thinking the filter is either not falling across the lens or isacross the lens when it should not be. I am not sure how that works. It was taking awesome day video but not now. I pulled it to see ifI can tell what the filter is doing inside. Any opinions would be appreciated.

RE: Scout Guard SG 550. Next Best Camera?
 

On the first part, I am assuming your cam was purchased after 07/21? That symptom of the battery is 2 things. First is the cams purchased before 07/21 do not have the firmware and this was one of the major glitches, battery drain. If this is the case, you need to download the new firmware. If it has the firmware, it could be a bad battery or 2 or 3. Even though they are brand new, they can still be defective. I like to test my batteries with a volt meter before I place them in the cam and out in the field.

As for the reddish tint. It could be a few things. The IR cut off could be malfunctioning. Also it could be how the cam is placed. Facing the sun? Under a canopy of trees. Lighting could through it off. This can be reset by removing the batteries for a while, then reinstalling it. To test the IR Cut off, you have to be able to see night pics or videos. If not, then its a defective IR cut off. Pretty rare so far.

Let me know how that works for you.............

Joe

RE: Scout Guard SG 550. Next Best Camera?
 

for what we pay for these cameras,you would think they would work.

ALL from what i read are having problems.

my MOULTRIE i-40 is broke again taking awful pictures, thats 2 in 1 month new.

camera industry SHOULD warrranty the junk they are selling for 3 years,maybe that would wake them up .[:@]

RE: Scout Guard SG 550. Next Best Camera?
 

Great camera, i was a distributor for scoutguard until the trademark rights were purchased and shut me down about a month ago. i liked them so well that i am having the manufacturer make my own camera with my branding. they are due to arrive in the next 7 days.

RE: Scout Guard SG 550. Next Best Camera?
 

I understand your pain:( My I-40s have been working good but they are pre 2008 models. Are your models 2008? The 2008 models went backwards with slower trigger times of 3.5+ sec. and more whiteouts. Thats why I have backed off from it until they resolve those issues..................

Joe