Cellular trail Cameras

[builtfordtough]

I'm running the Bushnell with Verizon.  I have 3 bars where the cameras sit.  Been up for 6 weeks with 2500 pictures and still have 100% battery life.  This was just a test to see how long the batteries will last.  My hunting grounds where I'll put them has 4 and even 5 bars. So super impressed with these

[jrebel]

I have a spypoint micro with the solar panel on top of it.  It has been up now for 1 year and the rechargeable battery is still 95-100%.  I personally wouldn't do it any other way based on batteries alone.  I did run the rechargeable battery down to 70% prior to learning how to use it.  If you have it send pics every time it takes one, it will kill the battery.  I have my pics sent twice a day now and the batteries are not effected.  After I made that change, the solar charger charged the battery back to 100% over the course of about a month.  I primarily use it for surveillance on the property....with the added benefit of seeing what walks by. 

[highcountry_hunter]

I have a spypoint micro with the solar panel on top of it.  It has been up now for 1 year and the rechargeable battery is still 95-100%.  I personally wouldn't do it any other way based on batteries alone.  I did run the rechargeable battery down to 70% prior to learning how to use it.  If you have it send pics every time it takes one, it will kill the battery.  I have my pics sent twice a day now and the batteries are not effected.  After I made that change, the solar charger charged the battery back to 100% over the course of about a month.  I primarily use it for surveillance on the property....with the added benefit of seeing what walks by.

Is everything pretty user friendly? Easy to find a solar panel that pairs up, easy to get it outfitted with your wireless provider and easy to program how often it takes and sends pictures?

[jrebel]

I have a spypoint micro with the solar panel on top of it.  It has been up now for 1 year and the rechargeable battery is still 95-100%.  I personally wouldn't do it any other way based on batteries alone.  I did run the rechargeable battery down to 70% prior to learning how to use it.  If you have it send pics every time it takes one, it will kill the battery.  I have my pics sent twice a day now and the batteries are not effected.  After I made that change, the solar charger charged the battery back to 100% over the course of about a month.  I primarily use it for surveillance on the property....with the added benefit of seeing what walks by.

Is everything pretty user friendly? Easy to find a solar panel that pairs up, easy to get it outfitted with your wireless provider and easy to program how often it takes and sends pictures?

The cam comes with the camera already attached as well as with the lithium ion battery.  It's literally a plug and play system.  I bought the bear box to protect it the best I can.  I also hung it 15 feet up in a tree to keep the bears off it.  It would suck to have bears eat your cell camera. 

You can set it up to take pics in 1, 2, 3 shot burst in different time intervals.  You can send after every picture...but if your in a target rich environment, the battery and solar panel cannot keep up.  You can have pics sent at different intervals as well.  I do twice a day and it keeps the battery fully charged. 

You can change the settings from your phone and request photos to be taken / sent at the communication time to confirm it is working for the times it is not getting a lot of pics. 

Overall.....I would rate it an 8/10. 

Cons being:
1.  Picture quality is not the greatest.  When you subscribe to the service you get X numbers of high quality pics on request.  I had 50 per year and it has been plenty.  If I get a big deer, elk, moose,   I just request a high def pic and I get it pretty quickly.  The average pics come in 10 mp which is sufficient but not great. 

2.  I have marginal cell service so I have had times when the camera has gone offline.  Only once in a year did I have to manually reset it. 

https://www.spypoint.com/en/products/solar-cellular-trail-camera/product-link-micro-s.html

You can find better deals.....140 ish dollars if I remember correctly. 

[Scruffy]

Are any of the cams out there passcode protected anymore?  I have a Moultrie that is about 15 yrs old and just started using about 3 yrs ago.  It is passcode protected.  The wife bought me some Cuddieback cams but they are not passcode protected.  I think it would cut down on the thieving of these if they needed a passcode to operate them. 

I just purchased some property and it had 5 cams that were supposed to be left.  All 5 cams are gone but they left the bear boxes that are only strapped to the trees.  Why would they not take those also???  I just bought 6 of the new Moultrie Micro cams with boxes and locking cables.  But nothing was mentioned about being passcode protected.  Since there is no cell service these are not cell cams. 

[Jingles]

Wishing you the best of luck at not getting them stolen even with lock boxes and cables, friend had his bolted to s tree and some lowlife cut the bolts with a saw , took camera and lock box. Have found only real deterent is to have them high enough a thief also needs a ladder of some kind to get to them.

[Cougartail]

How much does the cellular plans cost for spypoint?

[hunter399]

How much does the cellular plans cost for spypoint?

ALOT
For any brand if you want unlimited pics.

[carpsniperg2]

How much does the cellular plans cost for spypoint?

It's not bad at all, 15.00 unlimited month to month plan or 10.00 a month for a year plan.

[hunter399]

How much does the cellular plans cost for spypoint?

It's not bad at all, 15.00 unlimited month to month plan or 10.00 a month for a year plan.

120 for the year isn't too bad.
Last year I paid 160 to moultrie for 1 year unlimited pics.

[BeerBugler]

I’ve been running the Muddy (rebranded stealth cams) cell cams off of Camofire $79, I have 4 now. I have had NO issues at all, great cams, great battery life, you use the stealth cam command app that is very user friendly. I had to pull all of my cams for a firmware update but the update itself was very easy. I don’t think you can beat them for the price. I pay $10 a month for each camera, I believe there is a 600 picture limit under the $10 plan which can be a issue if you get a animal that hangs out for long periods of time. They take AA batteries, 8 I believe. Rule number one with cell cams is test them at home before you leave and test them after you set them up. Don’t walk away until you receive a picture on your phone from that camera.

[carpsniperg2]

How much does the cellular plans cost for spypoint?

It's not bad at all, 15.00 unlimited month to month plan or 10.00 a month for a year plan.

120 for the year isn't too bad.
Last year I paid 160 to moultrie for 1 year unlimited pics.

Yeah I look at it this way. How much gas am I going to burn switching out cards once a week? So 4 trips? Heck of a lot more then 10/15 a month. With todays gas prices even my close cams at the ranch would run 30/40 a month in fuel.

[NOCK NOCK]

I'm running the Bushnell with Verizon.  I have 3 bars where the cameras sit.  Been up for 6 weeks with 2500 pictures and still have 100% battery life.  This was just a test to see how long the batteries will last.  My hunting grounds where I'll put them has 4 and even 5 bars. So super impressed with these

Which Model?

[Skyvalhunter]

One thing you will find with bushnell models and their battery life indicator is it will go from 100% to 0% really fast so don't bank on it.

[actionshooter]

I have been thinking about a couple of these for security cameras at a cabin... We have verizon and get 1-2 bars of service, do you guys think that would be enough? When we were there last week you couldn't make a call, but a text would go through.