Hidden deals that need to be known?

[Kirk]

I bought this camera on Amazon back in January for $59

GardePro A3 Trail Camera (2020), 20MP, 1080P H.264 HD Video, Clear 100ft No Glow Infrared Night Vision, 0.1s Trigger Speed, 82ft Motion Detection.

Takes decent pictures but it eats batteries.

 

[BSK]

Truth is, most brands are now offering fairly reliable trail cams now at reasonable prices. One in particular I once shunned was Moultrie. But having experimented with some of theirs over the past couple years, they seem comparable to most others, i.e. overall good value for their price points.

Agreed. Moultrie has really stepped up their game over the last couple of years. I would have no problem buying one of their units now.

 

[BSK]

Takes decent pictures but it eats batteries.

That's a "hidden" aspect of trail-camera cost most users don't think about. Years ago, I was running 8 Uway black-flash cameras on my property and would run them for 6 months each year (Aug-Jan). Each camera took 12 lithium AAs. Generally, I would put new batteries in just before deploying them, and then have to replace those batteries mid-November. So that's two sets of 12 lithium AAs per camera per year. That comes out to 192 lithium AAs per year. If you're lucky, you can get a deal on lithium AAs from Wally World at around $30/24 batteries. That all comes out to $240 in batteries each year. That's the cost of another high-end camera or several cheaper cameras every year.

 

[TheLBLman]

I bought this camera on . . . . .

Takes decent pictures but it eats batteries.

And THIS is one of the common over-looked ongoing costs of many lower-priced cams.

Last year I bought a couple cams that each cost $99.
Bought some others that each cost $199.

However, those $199 ones had more features, quicker trigger times, quicker recovery times between events, and more. In short, the $199 cams were providing me a lot of pics the $99 ones were failing to get. I know this because at times had both on the same tree, identically positioned & programmed.

How do you put a price tag on missed pictures?

But here's something easier to figure.
The $99 cams used 12 AA batteries;
The $199 cams used 8 AA batteries.

The $199 cams' 8 batteries appeared to last about twice as long as the other cam using 50% more batteries. Actually, if apples to apples, perhaps 3 or 4 times as long, considering the $199 cams were getting a lot more pics.

At any rate, just looking at the total costs, I figured I was spending about the same in the first 12 to 18 months for a $199 cam as for a $99 cam. All should be lasting longer than 18 months, after which the up-front more expensive cam becomes the LESS costly one to use.

The above is not even all the issues to consider,
such as frequency of needing to re-visit the cams,
which can mean spending a lot of money on gasoline.

 

[buckaroo]

I used to love Moultrie till 4 died within a year, I have had pretty good service, fair pics, but great battery life out of believe it or not Stealth