well before Itook those batteries out of the camera it probably took 900 pics in about 2 or 3 weeks, and only about 6 videos from the testing I did and the video was set at 30 secs, I did put brand new genaric batteries in the camera tuesday night ( the same kind as the reading Igot of 1.66) and I have the solar panel plugged in also, so when I get back out there I will probably pull those genaric batteries and put in some top name brand batteries and see if that is not the problem, and if its not I think I will just bang my head against the tree and see if that fixes me or the camera LOL
thanks for all your help I sure do appreciate it

fasterem: In my area, that would be an awful lot of pictures, especially in two to three weeks. I don't have many animals moving around, due to lots of food and water. In other words, they don't have to travel far. For me to get any amount, I have to have vegetation, tree movement to trigger any amount. For that number of pictures, I would think the batteries are standing up fairly well. With you using the solar panel, this would help out. Have you been having much cloudy weather? Up here in southern Manitoba, Canada, we haven't had much sun, lots and lots of rain, so this would have a great effect on a solar panel. I had one 2009 Bushnell set up for security. In 8-10 days, I had 108 each 30 second videos with a 10 second delay. Some of the videos showed wildlife movement: deer, birds, gophers etc. It also caught me at various times working around the yard and mowing grass. There was also quite a bit of vegetation movement due to wind. The batteries are standing up well in these cameras, but apparently from reviews they are easier on batteries. A couple other 2009 Bushnell cameras captured around 65 videos in 8-10 day period with the same settings. What I did find if there was a lot of videos taken in one or two days, the batteries needed a bit more time to recover. Instead of taking 30 second videos, some had dropped to 10 or 11 second and I even had a couple of 6 second ones, later recovering back to 30 second.
This however isn't a fair comparison due to two different camera brands.
Hopefully some of the members that are using the same make of camera as yours, will chime in, giving examples of the amount of pictures or videos they have been getting and approximate battery life.

littlearrow, my problem wasnt batteries going dead on me, my problem is the camera is takin black and white pics all thetime not color, ;-( now it may be that the batteries I was using are junk LOL, so Ithink today I am going to go buy a real set of batteries and see if that makes a difference, I am havent had a chance to get out in the woods to check my pics tosee if the changes I made a diffence, i sure hope it does. I get a bunch of pictures because I have a feeder out there and the fact that I have a TON OF COOOONNNSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS ;-( I don't like them at all LOL

fasterem: Seeing as you are only getting black and white pictures, could you set the camera up in the open, but not facing into the rising or setting sun. If this is possible, then walk toward it or whatever to cause it to trigger. After a few tests like this you could then return it to where you had it set up. Then just swap out the test card to see what is happening. You wouldn't have to move the solar panel, just test using batteries. If the camera still just takes black and white pictures, then you will know whether its a faulty camera. Also see if its a sunny or cloudy day when you do the tests.
If you have to send the camera back, include a note of what the camera was doing, how and where it was set up, type and strength of batteries and maybe include a few pictures. This would be a great help to the technician that services your camera. Hope this helps.

ya I have done all that, when I took the camera into a field in the DIRECT sunlight, it works fine, but when I put it in the WOOOODDDDDDDDDDDSSSSSSSSSSSSS where TRAIL cameras are used it takes black and white, the days are clear not a cloud in the sky, the trees are of course blocking most of the suns direct rays for some of the day and I get black and white, I just got back from the woods figuring I would have my one test done, having been there since tuesday with new batteries, I get there and well dumby me somehow forgot to put the memory card back it LOLOLOLOLL dumby me, but I bought energizer max batteries put them in and as soon as I did I put it back in its spot, the only pics it looked like it was takin was black and white, now this was at 10:00AM in PA with not a cloud in the sky as bright as it will ever get with out the suns rays directly on the camera, personally that sounds faulty to me, but when I called they said it sounds like its working properly, so I am back to my frustrations, the camera has to be in direct sunlight like in a fields to take color pics"????????????????? LOL
sorry I am not yelling at you I am yelling at moultie or my camera, this is really frustrating, and I dont want to send it back and have them send it back to me and say all is working fine, I wish I had someone around me that I knew had a IR camera I could borrow and try it but I don't know anybody ;-(

fasterem: I did a search for the manual for your camera. Reading it over, I could not find where one could make a mistake on the settings. There is also a mention of software upgrades as follows: Update level 1SW No L1_xxxxxx and also Update level 2SW No L2_xxxxx. I brought up the website: www.moultriefeeders.com which they refer to for this software update. I was not able to locate these updates. I don't know what you paid for the camera, but one place lists it for over $200.00 not counting tax, so it definitely is not a cheap camera.
If you did plan on returning it, you would have to contact Moultrie to obtain a "Return Authorization Number." There is still a couple months before hunting season, but one wants to have a working camera before then. The checking and testing you have been doing and with the communication between us, I am at a loss as to what else we could try. If the camera was mine, I would be inclined to send it back for them to check it out. In my opinion, the camera definitely has something wrong with it. You would have to pay shipping to them, plus any insurance you put on it. If they were to find it faulty, they would 1) repair it or 2) replace it. I would think they would pay the return shipping, unless they cannot find anything wrong with it, then I would think you would have to pay for return shipping back to you. You may also have to send in a copy of your purchase receipt. If there is a serial number on the camera, record it, then you will have proof of a repaired or replaced camera. Good luck.

Ya littlearrow I am of the same thought, there is still a little time before hunting season and I don't want to miss out on the pics so I know what is going on in the woods ;-( I am half tempted to buy at cheep walmart camera (that will probalby outlast these expesive cameras LOL) and then send this one back, but I think that if I go check this one in a couple days and there is no difference I am going to just send it back and yes I plan on sending sample pictures and I am also going to take pictures of the camera in the woods and the surroundings to prove that it is not in a dark place and that there is sunlight out when I am having the problems LOL. not that they will really look at at the pictures or anything, and I am sure the note I send will be about 6 pages, again probalby wont read the whole thing LOL, but the saying "the squiky wheel gets oiled" might just work here LOL, and the funny part about the repair order number is when I called the last time and talked to the lady Tech that told me that " a flash camera probably would be better for you" LOL and made no mention of asking how the batteries were LOL. I asked her if I needed a repair number or anything like that she said no just send it to us Att repair department LOL. I am guessing I am the only one having these problems cause nobody else is chimming in saying they have the same problem ;-( so that is another tell that its the camera
thanks again for your patience and time Littlearrow ;-)

Ok well I just got back from the woods, and I did atleast get some more color pictures, not all the ones that should have been color but I think about 1/2 of the daytime photos are in color, but I was going to just leave it in the woods and turn it to video mode to see how that does, so I put it in the box on video mode and it took about 3 seconds of video then in the read out it said memory full, and that was with a 1 gig mem card 2 gig mem card and internal mem? so I think I am just going to send this blasted thing back, I did take batteries out of it and am going to let it sit for a while and see if thats all it needs but I am guessing its going to be more

Ok as you can tell the first pic is when I walked into the woods, look at time stamp, its not dark, and the second pic is from my cell phone at the same time frame as the camera pic ;-(

fasterem: I just viewed your pictures. The location you have your camera set up and the times shown, there is no way you should be receiving black and white pictures. That camera definitely isn't working properly.