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Cheap Muddy cams

The door on the muddy isn't waterproof. In fact, when it rains, water runs down the camera and actually collects inside the door, ruining the camera, batteries, and SD card. I bought 3 from academy on sale for $15 each with a rebate last year. 2/3 leaked. I lost more in the cost of the batteries and SD card than the camera itself. Won't buy again.
 
I never buy expensive cameras. I have one moultrie 880i that is at least 12 years old and still works perfectly. The only problem with it is it does not Jive with my newer laptop and newer software. Pictures display perfectly on an older computer. Because of that experience this summer I bought two Moultrie 900 or something like that one has worked wonderfully has been on the same tree since May taking pictures of great quality. Batteries are still at 65% when I pulled a card a few days ago. The other one I bought at the same time crapped out the first time it got rained on totally ruined no help from Moultrie water issues are not covered under warranty. So as a backlash to that I started buying cheap no name obviously Chinese cameras from Amazon. Take good pictures easy to format and work with the settings. One major complaint though is they are very sensitive they take pictures of Shadows changing on bright days I guess. I get many pictures of nothing. Pictures taken 3 minutes apart with a glare on the lens even though I have them facing north. Not sure what's up with that but they do take good pictures of game and all other animals. One of them has leaked and seems to be fogged up but it still takes great pictures, go figure.
 
rifle02 said:
I never buy expensive cameras.
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Depends on what you consider expensive. back when trail-cameras were just starting out, a TrailMaster 1500 cost about $1,200 and that was in early 1990 dollars! By the early 2000s a good camera ran $600. Now, the best cameras I've worked with cost around $180, and I've seen them cheaper. And you get what you pay for. Of the newest models, I've had no failures in 3 years of running them 8 months out of the year. Picture/video quality is Discovery Channel good.
 
rifle02 said:
I never buy expensive cameras. I have one moultrie 880i that is at least 12 years old and still works perfectly. The only problem with it is it does not Jive with my newer laptop and newer software. Pictures display perfectly on an older computer. Because of that experience this summer I bought two Moultrie 900 or something like that one has worked wonderfully has been on the same tree since May taking pictures of great quality. Batteries are still at 65% when I pulled a card a few days ago. The other one I bought at the same time crapped out the first time it got rained on totally ruined no help from Moultrie water issues are not covered under warranty. So as a backlash to that I started buying cheap no name obviously Chinese cameras from Amazon. Take good pictures easy to format and work with the settings. One major complaint though is they are very sensitive they take pictures of Shadows changing on bright days I guess. I get many pictures of nothing. Pictures taken 3 minutes apart with a glare on the lens even though I have them facing north. Not sure what's up with that but they do take good pictures of game and all other animals. One of them has leaked and seems to be fogged up but it still takes great pictures, go figure.
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I've been able to do firmare updates on some of my older Moultrie cams to make them compatible with newer computers. Just depends on the model.

I also tried a whole bunch of those cheap Amazon cams. Most turned out to work fairly well but I've noticed I only get a season or so out of most before they zonk out. What usually happens is they start losing time then eventually rest themselves over & over. It's especially annoying when I leave some cams out for months at a time without checking, only to find great pics but no reliable reference for time & date. Now I'm back to store bought cams, specifically Browning (thanks BSK for posting all those incredible videos 🤬). It's worth it to me to have reliability. I run cams year round. They got to have staying power.
 
Ski said:
I've been able to do firmare updates on some of my older Moultrie cams to make them compatible with newer computers. Just depends on the model.

I also tried a whole bunch of those cheap Amazon cams. Most turned out to work fairly well but I've noticed I only get a season or so out of most before they zonk out. What usually happens is they start losing time then eventually rest themselves over & over. It's especially annoying when I leave some cams out for months at a time without checking, only to find great pics but no reliable reference for time & date. Now I'm back to store bought cams, specifically Browning (thanks BSK for posting all those incredible videos 🤬). It's worth it to me to have reliability. I run cams year round. They got to have staying power.
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Tried the firmware update with no luck several times in fact.
I can still view the pictures but it's a lot of messing around with rotating Etc
 
I chose the stealth cameras after reading elsewhere the same thing Megalomaniac mentioned. Apparently they leak easily. Not a big deal for the burnt $30, but Id rather get something that is more likely not to burn out due to simple design error. I hope the stealth cams keep treating me well. I hated them at first, but when I learned certain cams like certain cards I was able to have good luck with them
 
I've got a couple of the $30 Muddys I picked up from Academy this year. I haven't had any issues with water and have to admit, they far surpass the Tascos in picture quality
 
Shed Hunter said:
I chose the stealth cameras after reading elsewhere the same thing Megalomaniac mentioned. Apparently they leak easily. Not a big deal for the burnt $30, but Id rather get something that is more likely not to burn out due to simple design error. I hope the stealth cams keep treating me well. I hated them at first, but when I learned certain cams like certain cards I was able to have good luck with them
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I run class 10 cards with 85mbps speeds or faster. Amazon has 10 packs of the 16gb cards for like $25.
 
I like the cheap <$30 Muddy Hunter 14s. I run several. I do not agree that their pics are better than the cheap Tasco cams at Walmart. Tasco beats muddy for pics…..The reason I prefer the Muddy is the battery meter. I HATE that the cheap Tasco lacks any way to tell status of batteries.

All in all nowadays I prefer the Tactacam Reveal to ANY non-cell cams. I only utilize the Tascos and Muddys in areas I'm concerned with theft or on properties that I can get to quite easily.

Good luck
 

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