School me on game cams

Not sure which ones are junk and which are good. Wanting to purchase 2 cams at reasonable price, yet still be a decent camera. Maybe $100 each or so. Could somebody steer me in the right direction, what to look for, what's junk. Also wanting something that doesn't flash, don't wanna spook game.

pin the tail on the donkey

eenie meenie minee moe

flip a coin


where she lands nobody knows


hehehehehe
serious one guy has trouble and the other loves it.
Those are the responses I forsee

If you will go to chasingame.com they review cameras and give their opinions and data on all the ones they test.

I have some of the Moultrie M80 cameras and would buy them again in a heartbeat. They are around $100 and they are IR, great pictures, videos with sound, plot watcher mode, and they work great. Good battery life too. I used to buy only Cuddeback but they have gone downhill with their cameras for the last few years and they still cost over twice what the Moultrie does.

I have two Stealthcams that have a really slow trigger speed. I bought these in 2006. Unless they have improved their design I would not buy another. They are good for feeder situation where the deer are there for awhile but useless IMO as trail cams.

I had too many blank pics where the deer had already walked through.

My Dad has a Cuddeback thats a lot faster. I think he got it around 2008 or 09.

I bought a PrimosTruth Cam 35 on sale at Cabelas about 6 weeks ago and it is working great so far. Taken over 5400 pics on first set of batteries in 31 days and they are at 60% still. IR is very strong for the price and pic quality is good. So far it was great for the price. I think it was less than $100 shipped to me.

X2 on the M80's

Walmart has the m80 on sale for $99

Wow, thanks for the replies fellas. I had a stealth cam years back and ants decided to make their home in it. Built a dang mound all the way up into the camera...Noticed alot of slow trigger speed and blank pics as well. Keep em comin

Go here and you will find all the info to help you make a good decision.
http://www.trailcampro.com/bushnellreviews.aspx

I have a Primos Truthcam 46. Great battery life and really good daytime photos and videos. Fast trigger speed (I never have any deer butts on my SD card). It is IR so there is no flash and there are a lot of variables you can manipulate (burst, # IRs, trigger sensativity, interval, etc.) There were a lot of complaints about an audible "clunk" that could be heard when the camera captured an image, but Primos has corrected it in its new versions.

I've had good results with Cuddeback, Moultrie, and Primos. Stealth Cam products tend to eat batteries.
Check Walmart website, Primos Truth Cam 46 package deal with 20/20 mount $99.00, best price I've seen
I also like the Moultrie D-55, regular flash, I have several of them and flash doesnt seem to spook game, check Gander Mountain website, $69.00, best price on that cam anywhere.
Cuddeback Cams and all others, take a look on ebay, you can find some really good deals on there.

I have 14 camereas up and running year round. No experience with the smaller units that operate on AA Batteries. Read reviews on different websites, you will see good and bad with all brands. These guys on THF know what they are talking about....just my .02 Cents.

Good Luck!!

I have this Polaroid model........

LoL

+1 on chasingame.com reviews. Lots of information there.

You basically have white flash, ir flash, and "black ir" flash. I have a Uway black flash and the night pics are crap. Leupold RCX-2 ir that is excellent. Old Moultrie D50 white flash that is reliable but is big and eats batteries.

Personally, I think you need some way to view pics in the field - either a separate card reader or viewfinder on the back of the camera. That way you can look at pics in the blind rather than having to lug a laptop out to the field or wait until you get home to see pics. Battery life, better night pics, and viewfinder are all value adds that increase cost.

Or you can get ones that have a GSM chip inside and send the pics to a website/email/mms through cell towers so that you can be really depressed sitting in the office while muy grande walks down your sendero.....

Like the Polaroid Czechaholic!!!!!

best advice I can give is no matter the cam - put it on an external 6volt or 12 volt. This will make your cam experience much less stressful (not to mention money in batteries), Ever since I put all mine on externals, life has been so much less stressful

I have had the same Stealth cam for 3 years. It continues to do me a good job. I would not buy a camera w/ Wild Game Innovations name on it!!

I bought a Primos 60 ten days ago....Theres a definite clunk upon capture.

I've been running a Truth Cam 35 for two years now and couldn't be happier even though mine is the "old" version that has the clunk on capture and a bit shorter battery life(approx. 3000 per set of D cells). Never seen that the cluck bothers deer at all and can sometimes get you a really good look at them when they look at the camera to see what the noise is. Best $79 I ever spent.
The new version only clunks one time at dusk and the batteries last a lot longer (son's has over 4000 pics on it right now and still shows 70% battery life).

I have been through countless numbers (and brands) of game cameras over the years. Although some work ok, something was always annoying - battery life, picture quality, trigger speed, flash range, etc. Best camera I have used to date is the Ltl Acorn 5210A. Great battery life, good flash, fast trigger, great pic quality (12mp), built in viewer, time lapse mode, and you can even set a time period that you only want the camera to work within. A little more expensive than what you were wanting to spend ($150 - $175 shipped), but you might want to check it out.