Wireless Trail Camera

[Machias]

When I was at the Great American Outdoor Show in Harrisburg, PA last month they had the Spartan GoCam NoGlow camera on sale for $400.  So I got one and thought I would give my initial impressions and a short review.  These folks have a good breakdown of the camera at: 

http://www.trailcampro.com/collections/trail-camera-reviews/products/hco-spartan-gocam-noglow?variant=9871264133

Set up was easy, we went with HCO's Verizon plan for $19 a month. 

http://www.hcooutdoors.com/

I can receive about 5000 photos a month for that.  What I LOVE about the camera is I can change the settings at home.  I can see my photos about 60 seconds after the camera takes them.  I get a text message and e-mail of my photos.  Very cool!!  The texted and e-mailed photos are pixilated a fair bit, because they are compressed.  The crisper photos are stored on the SD card, but at least I can tell when things are in front of the camera.  I have this camera on one of my hogs baits.  So far just coons, squirrels and deer have hit my bait, no hogs yet, but I have some corn fermenting which should fire up the bait soon.

Spartan Camera has a nice App for my phone so I can actually change the settings on my camera from my phone. 


Day time Deer



Night time Deer



Night time Coon

[Wacenturion]

Machias....I also have two of the exact same camera, blackout version.  Not out at the moment since I pulled them over winter.  However ran them last summer and fall.  I really like them a lot.  I also have like seven big Verizon towers within 4-5 miles as a crow flies line of sight.  Great reception.

Couple pictures from last year on my property.  First photo of a younger buck taken September 17.  Second photo is the same buck taken by my son opening morning of general season, almost a month to the day after catching him on the cam.

Bears played with the one cam, thus the tilt.

I lightened up the last photo of the cougar a little to see it better.

Hope I'm not hijacking your thread.  Just thought I would add to it.

[Machias]

Not Hi-jacking at all, glad to hear someone else's experience with them.  Great shots.  Can you tell a big difference in photos when you pull them off your SD card?  Have you figured out what settings you like best?  Do you use any of the trigger events?

[Coasthunterjay]

What's the service like. I have been looking into the wireless also but several of the places IDE use them at are usually 1 bar or no bars(service) areas?

[heronblu]

Man that picture of the deer in the barbed wire is nuts. Do you know if he was able to walk away from that or not?

[emac]

Man that picture of the deer in the barbed wire is nuts. Do you know if he was able to walk away from that or not?

Pretty sure he was dead from a gun shot at that point

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[Machias]

What's the service like. I have been looking into the wireless also but several of the places IDE use them at are usually 1 bar or no bars(service) areas?

According to their site that would be a problem, they say you need 3 bars....but I have gotten photos when it was showing 2 bars.  But mostly I have 3 bars in the area my camera is in.

[Wacenturion]

Man that picture of the deer in the barbed wire is nuts. Do you know if he was able to walk away from that or not?

Pretty sure he was dead from a gun shot at that point

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The deer was dead and ended up in the fence.  As I said, the second photo was the same deer on the cam picture that my son harvested one month later.

[heronblu]

Man that picture of the deer in the barbed wire is nuts. Do you know if he was able to walk away from that or not?

Pretty sure he was dead from a gun shot at that point

Sent from my XT1254 using Tapatalk

The deer was dead and ended up in the fence.  As I said, the second photo was the same deer on the cam picture that my son harvested one month later.

Got it, didn't catch that part. Nice deer!

[Wacenturion]

Not Hi-jacking at all, glad to hear someone else's experience with them.  Great shots.  Can you tell a big difference in photos when you pull them off your SD card?  Have you figured out what settings you like best?  Do you use any of the trigger events?

Unfortunately no to all of your questions.  Being as the property is 6 hours away, I felt fortunate last summer to get pictures.  First time I set one camera out and I screwed up and had to redo the next time over.  It's called old person meets technology.

Did however like the ability to change settings from home.  Getting almost instant photos was great, as well as having the same ones go to anyone else I put on the email list, i.e. my son.  On that first really nice picture of the buck, I heard my phone alert me and opened it up.  I was in a boat off Sekiu catching silvers at the time....fun.

Now that I have UTV trails in and a UTV I'll have far more time to use them as well as the different functions.  Before it was a pretty good hike to get to them.  As far as the reception question above, I have 4 bars most of the time, although my Iphone shows 5 when I'm out there.

One thing I really like is the security feeling of instant picture to my email as well as the blackout feature.  You lose a little clarity at night, but it's undetectable to anyone. If anyone is trespassing and get in range, I have a picture, although where my property is located I don't anticipate any problems.

 

[The scout]

wacenturion looks like the bear is giving you the paw after adjusting your camera for you  .

[SemperFidelis97]

I have been looking into these for job site security as well.  Can you use the data plan for multiple cameras?

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[Wacenturion]

I have been looking into these for job site security as well.  Can you use the data plan for multiple cameras?

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I don't believe you can.  Kind of a seperate type thing from your phone service.  There is a monthly fee for each camera, in addition to a nominal fee for HCO cloud storage and forwarding.  Maybe Machias can clarify somewhat.

[Wacenturion]

wacenturion looks like the bear is giving you the paw after adjusting your camera for you  .

Does look that way doesn't it.  Those darn bears just seem to know there is a cam wherever you put it.  I know of at least three maybe four different bears that I got pictures of last year.  Fun to see pictures of them, but somewhat iritating to see picture angle changes in my photos because they sit there and play with them. 

[The scout]

it can be frustrating, last year I put one up behind my house trying to get a buck I have been keeping track of for a few years on cam, its all small reprod so I didn't use one of my lock boxes, didn't check the cam for two months left it through the rut, on day three a bear tore it down and there was a rub from the big one right in front of where It was pointing