Game Cameras?

[DoubleTake]

I'm trying to find a good camera, and ive narrowed it down to these four. I need to figure out which one is better, any reviews would be appreciated.

Moultree 4.1,
Wildview Xtreme 3,
Digital Ranger 6.0,
Recon Talon Extreme.

[bowhunter56]

well here is my opinion, having worked at basspro and selling them,i have 4 cameras, first buy the best one you can afford, get one with 6v. rechargable battery, try and stay away from using c's or d's unless you get a cutieback. i have a moultire 3.1, good camera, good battery life, good flash. of the 4 you have posted, i would either go with moultrie or recon,,again get the best one you can afford, and get digital not film..you should have a spare battery, spare sd=card, if you plan to leave the camera out, swap batteries and sd card, hope this has helped...Andy

[wtnhunt]

Welcome to the forums.

Honestly would skip all those and go with a leaf river if you are going to buy a commercial cam.

Digital is the only way to go as mentioned above. Cudde is not mentioned on your list, and with their poor customer service, I would not consider them. Moultrie has a reputation of having some issues too, and dont think I would waste my time on them, although the new 5.0 they have out now is supposed to be as good or better than homebrews with the claimed under one second trigger and 5 mp camera. I would be curious to see how they really perform.

[TxBowHunter]

I have the moultrie and i like it! I havent put it out yet but have used it around the house to mess around with, good flash and nice quality. good luck in your search!

[Mathews XT Man]

The Moultree 3.1 has been really good. Stay away from the 2.1 gamespy!!!! It EATS batteries
the new Moultree 3.1 without camo is only $89 shipped at Bass Pro .com I tested it and it seems to be ok, and I get great Battery life with them and quality photos. I would stick with digital, and get extra cards and a card reader, which you plug into your tower and download right to a folder.

[Buckslayer]

Welcome to the forums.

Honestly would skip all those and go with a leaf river if you are going to buy a commercial cam.

Digital is the only way to go as mentioned above. Cudde is not mentioned on your list, and with their poor customer service, I would not consider them. Moultrie has a reputation of having some issues too, and dont think I would waste my time on them, although the new 5.0 they have out now is supposed to be as good or better than homebrews with the claimed under one second trigger and 5 mp camera. I would be curious to see how they really perform.

I'm with William on this one....Cuddeback is not the way to go due to all their new model problems last year, and poor customer service. I went through it and will never again. I ended up doing the homebrew thing, and haven't been more pleased since day one. I get quality 4MP photos, 1 month battery life, great trigger speed, totally sealed case... Either way you go, good luck and I recommend buying from a store with 100% money back satisfaction guarantee like Cabelas. That way if it ever breaks (like my $400 cuddeback did) and the company won't deal with helping you, you can return it or exchange it at the store. Finally there are tons of camera review websites out there to aid you in your research so make sure you use those resources before you buy. Good luck!!

[wtnhunt]

That way if it ever breaks (like my $400 cuddeback did) and the company won't deal with helping you, you can return it or exchange it at the store.

This is exactly why I suggested leaf river. Vibrashine(leaf river) will not leave you high and dry. They are based in Mississippi, and you talk to good old southern boys when if you need customer service. Have a model dc2 bu from leaf river that has been in the field since I got the camera about 3 years ago with the exception of being pulled twice. Once for wires baring through the doors and once for the flash here back just this winter. The wires was a issue leaf river fixed free of charge and they changed the wiring through the doors and had my camera back to me in under a week. The flash fix cost me a total of $6 for shipping and $20 for the flash module making the fix $26, had my cam back in about 2 weeks from the time I dropped it off at the post office. That in my opinion is great customer service. Nice knowing a company will stand behind what they sell you and leaf river will.

Cudde on the other hand had issues with leaks, and they were charging their customer $50 for the fix, on NEW cameras.

Moultries like the old stealth cams, you never know, might get a good one or you might get a lemon. Guess if you dont mind being a guinea pig and returning stuff that does not work like it is supposed to and are not prone to frustration with something that might not work in the field like you expect, then those cams might be ok with you. got to say though when you set out a camera and get to it to find out that it did not work like you thought it would, it is terribly disappointing. That was my experience with my first trail cam, a 35 mm stealthcam which went back to wal mart after a couple of weeks in the field and scratching my head getting frustrated I finally figured out that it was not working right.

Like buckslayer mentions, homebrews are the way to go if you are able. Have built a few here, and do not think I would ever buy another commercial cam.

[ParrotHead2005]

Have you checked chasingame.com. They do reviews of all cameras. I was thinking of buy a cheap Wal-Mart camera to take with me in the field to check and see what was on my SD cards. I am going to try the new 99 Moultrie.

[RangerClay]

This is exactly why I suggested leaf river. Vibrashine(leaf river) will not leave you high and dry. They are based in Mississippi, and you talk to good old southern boys when if you need customer service. Have a model dc2 bu from leaf river that has been in the field since I got the camera about 3 years ago with the exception of being pulled twice. Once for wires baring through the doors and once for the flash here back just this winter. The wires was a issue leaf river fixed free of charge and they changed the wiring through the doors and had my camera back to me in under a week. The flash fix cost me a total of $6 for shipping and $20 for the flash module making the fix $26, had my cam back in about 2 weeks from the time I dropped it off at the post office. That in my opinion is great customer service. Nice knowing a company will stand behind what they sell you and leaf river will.

Cudde on the other hand had issues with leaks, and they were charging their customer $50 for the fix, on NEW cameras.

Moultries like the old stealth cams, you never know, might get a good one or you might get a lemon. Guess if you dont mind being a guinea pig and returning stuff that does not work like it is supposed to and are not prone to frustration with something that might not work in the field like you expect, then those cams might be ok with you. got to say though when you set out a camera and get to it to find out that it did not work like you thought it would, it is terribly disappointing. That was my experience with my first trail cam, a 35 mm stealthcam which went back to wal mart after a couple of weeks in the field and scratching my head getting frustrated I finally figured out that it was not working right.

Like buckslayer mentions, homebrews are the way to go if you are able. Have built a few here, and do not think I would ever buy another commercial cam.

William is absolutely right! Go with a Leaf River!!

And whoever said stay away from C & D batteries I must disagree. I have C's & D's in my Leaf River and they are the SAME batteries I put in the unit when I bought it last June. It has been on the same tree for 6 months and the batteries are still good.

Send KTMmike a PM and compare prices.

[Buckslayer]

KTMmike was great to deal with, thats were I got my first camera from... he had some good deals if I remember right.

[wtnhunt]

he had some good deals if I remember right.

Yep, KTMMIKE will hook you up on a good deal on a leaf river if you chose to go with one, he shot me some prices a good while back and his were the best I had seen at that time. Think he was also dealing with cudde, but as said before, would lean away froma cudde.

[Hoyt03]

I have a wildview 2.0 and it works great and takes very nice pics. I did not want to spend alot of monet b/c of fear of being taken and I have been nothing but pleased with the wildview. Very easy to use as well.

[Swamphunter]

Cuddebacks customer service is absolutely horrible...this is spoken from experience. I will never purchase another Cuddeback.

[thehairlessone!]

I have owned all of them. The leaf rivers are good cams but they are too slow on the trigger. The new cuddes are terrrible because of the case problems but the old cuddes were awesome.

I have owned several moultries and had problems with all of them and sent them back. The new ones are supposed to be much better though.

I recently got a wildview 3.0 and it has been great. I am very satisfied with it. The longer nite shots arent as clear as I would like due to a weak flash but that is the only complaint I have had with it. Great cam for $100.

The daytime pics are great and the battery life seems great too.

rick

[hoytguy08]

I have owned several moultries and had problems with all of them and sent them back. The new ones are supposed to be much better though.
rick

The new moultries are much better, IMO. i just got the bottom of the line cam (gamespy d40) and it's better than any of their previous models, i've went through all of them as well. I think anyone interested in a new cheaper yet quality cam should look at the new d40!, and i promise i don't work for moultrie LOL