What's your opinions on the best cameras on the market? One thing....it has to be one that can be used with a solar panel. I need to be able to leave it unattended for a month or two at a time. Would also like to stay under $250-275.
Input Please

Cuddeback !!!!

X2

Cuddeback Capture for me!

I will warn you that they have a habit of growing legs and walking away though!

I have an inexpensive Remington. I set it up with a solar panel and 6 volt feeder battery and it's done great.


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It's working on 3 years now.

Spypoint

Use to use Wildviews Extreme 2 but they eat batteries. Now I use "Primos 35". 3 Mega Pixel pix and batteries last 6 weeks for about the same cost of Wildviews.

i leave mine for alot of months and I use the bushnell trophy with an 8 gig chip and the good energizer batteries... it last 3 - 4 months and also takes over 4000 images and still has good batteries cost about 225

has anyone tried the new moultrie ir models. If so have they fixed alot of the screen issues.

To the original question, there is no such thing. It is a total crap shoot when buying cameras. There are good and bad cameras from each manufactures in the same model. You either lucky and get a good one or you are not. Money doesnt seem to matter. I have cameras ranging from the $100 Wildviews to the $350 Uways and they have all had issues. The best camera I have had is the Cuddeback Capture, but I know many people who have had the same camera and had plenty of problems with theirs. Like I said it is just a crap shoot.

Passthru - that's a great shot from your Remington! Do you know what the megipixels are on that particular camera?

I'd never spend more than $100 for a camera. They are not built to last & your leaving them in the woods!!!! There are dozens of great cameras with 5 mega pixels that time, date & moon phase stamp. That's all you need IMO.

Why not buy 3 reasonably priced cameras for 1 fancy one??? I don't need HD pics to determine a set to sit or trophy to target......

Still wondering about solar panel application. I'm not going to waste money putting C or D batteries in a camera over and over. I have a Moutre that is probably 5-6 years old and it's still running off the same 6 volt rechargeable battery with a solar panel connected. I can leave it for months at a time. I'm looking to get another one, and it seems like all the manufacturers are worried about these days is megapixels or card capacity. Neither of those are of any use if the stinking batteries are worn down.
Does any one know if the Cuddybacks will take a solar panel?

Why don't you get another Moultrie if you have had good luck with them? Moultrie is what I use, and no problems in 3 years.

X3 if you want great photos and detail to see what there deer really look like this is the one!

Go to www.chasingame.com

There are some better options than Cuddeback.

Check the X6C (great cheap feeder cam) and the Little acorn( this one has two year guarantee and it's performing very well).

There are some nice affordable black flashes coming in 2011 models, you might want to wait.

I agree I read www.chasingame.com reviews and forums daily. Cuddy has not made one improvement to their cameras in 2 years. They are getting hosed in latest posts and reviews because there are cheaper better cmaeras coming out and Cuddy is not even trying to catch up. But then again when you have a name and people just assume your cameras are the best because of that name, you don't have to improve your product.

If you buy a Cuddy this year you are wasting money for a name and two year old technology. There are better alternatives, the XC6 is getting rave reviews and is $100 cheaper and has more features. Spypoint is getting the same reviews and depending on the model is $100 to $150 cheaper.

I just bought 3 Spypoint FL-A with the IR option to replace my two old Stealth WD-3, which have performed flawlessly and still do. I just wanted to upgrade and I spent alot of time researching.

This.^^^^
But fwiw I have had great luck with hco's. No solar needed, takes thousands of pics.

Fyi, the black flash cameras produce quite a few blury pics at night. It is just a fact with that technology. Any movement at all by the deer and the photo is blury.

I tried the Leaf River cameras and did not have very good luck with them plus they took 7 batteries each to operate the photo quality was not as good as my cuddeback.
Having said that I will tell you my cuddeback capture 1125 (I use seven of them) have all kinds of diffiucltites and malfunction often. I have returned them to cuddeback many times and they always tell me the same thing...that they have never had these problems before...imagine that.
I will also tell you all their advertising about senstivity and triger speed is crap.
I personally sat at four different stands this year where I watched seveal good bucks come into feed for 20-30 minutes and when I went down to pull my cards so I could show my hunting buddies the bucks I saw...NOTHING! The cameras never even took one picture during those sessions but they sure flashed as I opened the camea so I knew they were working and the batteries were good.
I called cuddeback and they again said they had never heard of that.
I have come to the conclusion none of these cameas work for sh%t

I've been using a Bushnell Trophy camera for 17 months with the same lithum batteries, maybe 3 to 4 thousand pic and still going. It has twenty bucks of batteries in it but worth the $$$. It is not the best pics for nighttime but its ok for me.

I have a Moultrie I-40. I had to send it back once to have the display replaced. The camera is 5 or 6 years old. The battery life is amazing (without a solar panel). The camera takes good pictures night or day if it is set at the right angle. I have the best luck facing it north to keep the sun behind it (winter). I covered the inside window on the display door with reflective aluminum tape and have not had another problem. I think the sun is what kills the displays.

Pretty much spot on.

http://www.trailcampro.com/2010trailcamerashootout.aspx

This is the best website I have found for trail camera information.

I am currently using Bushnell Trophy Cams and am getting 10-12 months of life per set of batteries, 8 AAs, while taking a picture every 45 seconds at my feeders.

How does a predator trail cam score that high with that crappy of a picture? i purchased a predator trail cam a couple years ago (almost 500.00) worst money i ever spent. this camera is absolutely worse than my 50.00 wild view