Best budget trail camera?
 

I am looking to buy a couple of trail cameras and was wondering what the best ones under $75 (ideally $50) would be. This will be my first trail camera and will be used on public land so I don't want to spend a lot. I'm not worried about super clear pictures...just trying to determine if there are any decent bucks in a given area. I know Menards has a Wildgame Innovations 6 MP Infrared Camo Digital Scouting Camera on sale for $57.88 and a Wildgame Innovations N6 Infrared 6 MP Digital Scouting Camera on clearance for $44.99 but I have no idea if these are junk or not. I can't use bait so I'm thinking that I'll have to hang them so they are facing down a trail (due to slow trigger rates). Thanks in advance for any suggestions!

The lower end, smaller, wildgame innovations cameras like the rage series and red series work pretty good and are pretty cheap. I think the N6 would probably be decent but never used one. Walmart has that Tasco trail camera for 50 bucks but It would probably be wise to stay away from that because the deer have to be within a few feet to trigger it at night. I've heard some good things about the primos truth cam also.

Thanks for all the advice. I've narrowed it down to the following 3 cameras:



Wildgame Red 6

It's the cheapest ($44) of the three and I like the fact that I can buy two almost for the price of one of the Primos Truth 35 ($79). I won't feel as bad if it's stolen (I'm assuming there is a 50/50 chance of this right now since this will be the first time I use one on public land).
Trigger speed is around a second and recovery is around 22 seconds per a review.
It's sold at Menards so it's easy for me to buy one and return if not what I want. Also, I have some credit from returns so might be able to buy one or two extra.
The detection zone is poor and limited.....40-50 ft tops.
Mixed reviews. Some people like them and others don't. Seems to me that this might be a decent camera but it gets a bad rap because of some of their other poor cameras. Some play poor construction.
Battery life seems to be okay based on reviews but it runs on C batteries so no recharables.
Pictures can be blurry but I'm not too worried about that. Night time picture are very poor. I'm just trying to determine if there are mature bucks in a given area.....not looking for high quality pics to share with friends.


Covert MP-E5

Mid-priced of the three. Have someone who is willing to sell me two new ones for $100 ($50 each).
Slow recovery.....claims 36 seconds but I've read it can be over a minute. Trigger time is just over a second.
Wide detection zone.
Generally good reviews.
Good picture quality
Compatible with a python cable lock.
Runs on AA batteries so can use rechargeables.


Primos Truth Cam 35

Most expensive of the three ($79).
1.5 sec trigger speed
6.5 recovery speed so MUCH better than the other two.
Wide detection zone. The range is consistently out to 45 ft.
Picture quality isn't the greatest but again isn't all that important to me.
Excellent battery life.
Gets best reviews.
Easily compatible with a python cable lock.
I think the best camera of the three but also the most expensive.


Right now I'm undecided between the three so any help is appreciated!

I've been using 2 wildgame innovation 2.0 IR's for a couple of years now. They've worked well, and have a great battery life.

Here's a sample pic.

http://www.amazon.com/Moultrie-Low-G.../dp/B00AP311JQ
I have been using the Moultrie A5 camera all season and it has worked awesome for me. Really good quality pictures and video and long battery life too. The picture of the buck they show on amazon is not quite what you will get but its pretty close to that. Worth checking out for sure.

We use the Bushnell Trophy Cams, they work fairly well and cost $99.99 and can even be found at Meijer and Wal-Mart. They are a little higher priced then the cameras you mentioned though. We found that Lithium batteries last 3 times as long as normal alkaline batteries.

Walmart carries a $70 Moultrie that works pretty good.

I got 4 bushnell bone collectors for 69 bucks each at Natchez shooting supply.

I really like my Primos 35. I have lots of other cameras but for the money I don't think you can beat it. I got mine for $60 on sale, but you can get the refurbished ones from Natchez Shooters Supply for $49.99 each if you buy two.

http://www.natchezss.com/product.cfm...odID=PY63010RC

There is also the Primos DPS day-only cam that takes photos every 10 seconds. Dicks Sporting goods now has them for $39 with free shipping. I have a slightly older model I have used for 3 years now - it is dependable. Mine could be set for every 20 seconds and with that setting you could go a month on a set of 8 AA batteries. So I just ordered another at Dicks. Not the best quality pics at long range, but you can see deer movement pretty well up to 75 yds away. Just used it in sub-zero temps and it even worked! (Although I think I will be lucky to get much more than a week on the batteries in this cold) And again, this cam only takes photos from sunup to sundown.

I have found that very cheap motion activated cams tend to fail - the two Wally-world cams I tried failed within days and I returned them. Natchez sounds like a great place to get a decent IR cam at a good price too - thanks bdan68 for recommending this.

Anybody have luck with the Wildgam Innovations cams? I bought one a few years ago, set it out and saw that it had captured photos. I put the SD card in my computer and I get nothing. I tried another SD card and the same thing happened, so i returned it to the store. I have avoided them ever since. Anybody have success with them? A local store had a good sale on them and thought about picking one up.

I use the wildgame innovations and I think they're quite good for the money. I had the same thing happen once with the card, the formatting got screwed up somehow but I just was able to reformat it on my laptop. I think the most expensive one I have was around $60 at Menards.

My younger brother also has a moultrie that he puts behind the house and it's not half bad either. Around 50 bucks at walmart.

Thanks Wisco,
Those look like some decent quality pictures. What models do you have or at least how many megapixels? You have some nice bucks hanging around too.

I've got a pic on page one that was taken with a 2.0 wildgame innovations.

The Moultrie is an A-5 (5MP) , One of the Wildgame Innovations is a Blade 3 (3MP), the other is an N2x Red 2 (2MP) . The one that I think takes the best pictures in the Blade 3. Only thing I don't care for with the Wildgame Innovations that I have is that they don't have a burst mode so you get one picture every 15 seconds with the Blade 3 and only 1 every 30 seconds with the N2X. The Moultrie can be a little blurry at times but does have the burst mode which can be very helpful.

Thanks guys, thats good to know. I prefer to use the 3 burst mode on our cameras, it has helped us catch more deer on camera.

I bought a Primos Truth Cam 35 in mid July, and for 2.5 months it worked AWESOME! I set it on 5 shot burst for the first month(would not recommend that in a high movement area) ended up getting almost 12000 pictures the first week!!! switched it to 3 shot and it worked perfect(got about 4000 a week). My cousin had a Wildgame innovations(not entirely sure which model) that was set up on the same area and it got 1/2 the pictures I did. However, the big difference between the two was that in mid October water somehow got inside mine and it stopped taking pictures, where his is still taking them! (we had 14+ inches of snow and -40 weather last week, just checked the cam today when we were squirrel hunting and its still snapping away) I don't fully know how water got in there, only idea is that mine you access from the side where his you access it from the bottom so its probably a lot harder for water to get in there.

I did read a few weeks ago that putting silicone moisture packs(the kind you find in your new box of shoes)inside where the batteries and SD card is, can go a long ways in helping to keep moisture out of your trail cam. I was smart enough to buy the protection plan at bass pro so they are supposed to be sending me a new one in the mail shortly.

Browning black flash did Well for me last year. Just as good as my trophy cam