Cellular Game Camera suggestions

[Complete Turf Care]

Here is a screen shot from a few minutes ago.

Just before I took this shot I got a motion detection alert. There were 5 or 6 raccoons stealing my corn, so I activated the “talk” feature and yelled at them and they all ran off.

Kind of neat to run off the coons from 100 miles away.

 

[Jchonline]

I just bought, deployed, and returned a Cuddeback Cuddelink dual flash. I wanted it for security at a remote location. It was easy to setup and deploy. The problem I had was the way it uploads photos to save on battery life. You can either configure how often it uploads them (ie every hour, every 12 hours, etc) or how many photos it has taken (ie transmit after 30 pictures). For security neither of these work well. I wanted a picture as soon as it detected movement. Well it was a windy few days, and even though the field of view was narrowed I still got a ton of photos. I had it set to upload every 15 minutes. So every 15 minutes I got a hundred photos. Anyway, batteries were gone in a few days. It just was not a good use case for the camera.

However, it worked just fine, took clear pictures, and held up in 50mph winds and blowing snow. Not bad at all. For a game camera it would be great.

 

[STx]

The Spartan Go Camera and Covert Black Ops are both good options for security. You have to make some adjustments to the sensitivity and trigger interval to get your batteries to last a reasonable amount of time, set incorrectly and the batteries will go in a week, set correctly and you can get a couple of months out of them without sacrificing security.

 

[Complete Turf Care]

So far, I am enjoying my ReoLink Go camera. I have added an SD card for storage, and now, it automatically records for about 6-12 seconds every time it detects motion. And I can go back and view any of these clips anytime from my phone.

I still have not received my Bushnell Impulse camera.

Here is a video from my ReoLink Go. I call this video 'Boss Hog", watch it and you will see why. The flash you see at the beginning is from another game camera.

 

[Complete Turf Care]

UPDATE....

I am really enjoying the ReoLink Go. I'm glad I got the solar panel to charge the battery. I suspect that without the solar charger the battery would last about 2 weeks.

Dealing with AT&T for the sim card has been a real PITA. My first card was a prepaid card for $50 for 8 gb of data. Well, it expired after 30 days and I had used 1.4 gb of data. I tried to renew it online but could not. So I called them to see why I could not, and they said they could send a code to the camera so that I could use that code to renew it online. I said "IT'S A CAMERA!!! IT CAN NOT RECEIVE A CODE!!!" So, she said I could put the sim card in a phone, receive the code, then put it back in the camera. From then on, I could renew it online. Or I could renew it on the phone. I renewed it for $25 for 3 gb of data for this month. UGH....

I still have not received my new Bushnell camera yet, so I called them today too. After 25 minutes on hold waiting for someone, a guy came on and told me my new camera should ship mid February.......UGH......

 

[Complete Turf Care]

I still have not received my new Bushnell camera yet, so I called them today too. After 25 minutes on hold waiting for someone, a guy came on and told me my new camera should ship mid February.......UGH......

Well....it is now late February and I still have not received my camera. So I called Bushnell to check on it and was told possibly May or June. The person I spoke to was obviously frustrated that they have been getting lots of calls asking when folks will get their cameras and not being able to give a good answer. I think Bushnell jumped the gun on this new camera and tried to get it to market before it was ready.

 

[Complete Turf Care]

Well....it's been 8 months since I sent my Bushnell camera for repairs and I received my new Bushnell Impulse replacement camera yesterday. I have not set it up yet.

I did look at some recent reviews of the Impulse and they are not very good. I will post updates when I get it set up.

 

[audsp98]

Well....it's been 8 months since I sent my Bushnell camera for repairs and I received my new Bushnell Impulse replacement camera yesterday. I have not set it up yet.

I did look at some recent reviews of the Impulse and they are not very good. I will post updates when I get it set up.

I've got the Impulse camera as well. It was a 6+ month process but it's finally working and, so far, it's been a good camera. The only issue I'm having right now is the camera will go "dark" for a couple days every now and then. I've got the Verizon version and it's got 4 bars of service where it's mounted but I'll stop getting messages from the camera when I know it should be getting notifications. Then the next day it'll send the "camera hasn't checked in since X date" message. Then a day or so later I'll start getting pictures again. Because of this, I can't rely on this camera as the security solution I'd hoped for. I'm going to go with another solution in the long term for our gate security at our farm.

 

[Complete Turf Care]

When I first set up the Bushnell Impulse, it would not stay on. I could hear a 'crackling' noise when I put the batteries in, and discovered there was moisture inside the camera.

I put it in an area so that it could dry out overnight. After I got it dried out, I turned it on and it seems to work pretty well. I had it on 'tracking mode' which makes it take a picture every 5 minutes. That's not what I wanted and it took me a couple of days to figure out why it was taking so many pics.

I've had it set up in my garage facing my main entrance to my home for about a week now. I have it set on 'low' motion sensitivity, and it does not capture a picture every time someone goes in the door, which is about 15' from the camera.

One nice feature is that I can send it a message to take a picture any time I want to, from my phone.

Also, when I set up my data plan with Bushnell, they give you 30 days for free, but it automatically signs you up to charge your credit card every month after that. And the only 'free' plan available was the $14.99 a month plan. There is a $9.99 a month plan, and I can go back and change the plan if I want to, and I almost certainly will change it.

On a scale of 1 to 10, right now I would rate this at a 6 or 7. I'm just not real impressed with it yet, but I've only had it at my front door. Hopefully, when I get it out in the woods looking at some deer, it will be better.

 

[Complete Turf Care]

Another update on the Bushnell Impulse camera. DO NOT BUY ONE!!

I set it out in the woods about 6 weeks ago, and the batteries lasted about 10 days. So I got back to the camera about 2 weeks ago and replaced the batteries again and they lasted 2 days.

I went back to the camera yesterday and put new batteries in it again, but decided to bring it home and I put a different camera in that spot. It's about 100 miles from home to the camera.

Today, I opened up the camera and noticed a strong smell of burnt wire, and the plastic around the batteries is melted. I removed the batteries and set the camera outside, because the smell is too strong for inside the house.

I have sent an email to Bushnell support and will see what happens, but I'm not happy at all.