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More new cameras for 2011

So far, on a personal level, the only commercial cams I've been fairly happy with have been the Leaf Rivers.

Granted, I haven't tried them all. Just tried enough to quickly determine most were junk compared to my homebrews.

Last year's biggest disappointment for me was the Bushnell Trophy cam. I put off trying one until October 2010, knew many people had major problems with them, but just because of the Bushnell name, guess I "wanted" to believe they would have gotten all the bugs worked out. I mean, how long had they been on the market by October 2010?

Biggest among the problems I've had with my Bushnell include:

1. Runaway triggering (can fill up a 4GB card in a couple days). Doesn't happen all the time, just that you may put it out, come back in a month, and find out it filled the card during a 48-hour period a week after you put it out. Seems to be no rhyme or reason as to what makes it periodically do this.

2. Extremely poor nighttime images --- blurry and very short red-glow flash range.

3. Extremely poor color on daytime images --- the color is just way off ---- mostly what should be a brown or green color is mostly of a "purple" hue. I will say the clarity of the daytime images isn't bad, if you can get past the purple deer.

4. The case is not waterproof. So far, it's still working, despite having water standing inside twice.

5. And this "issue" may be just a very personal one, but I don't like the way the Bushnell Trophy Cam "points down". Instead of pointing straight out from the tree you attach it, it points down at a considerable angle. For those accustomed to mounting their cams relatively high on a tree, maybe this is a good feature.

But far as I'm concerned, Bushnell has ruined their good name with those POS "trophy" cams.
 
The biggest problem with so many of the newer cameras is the way they are being designed/produced. Instead of a new model being perfected over several production years (working out all the glitches), a completely new camera is designed every year. Now this does advance technology very quickly, but it never allows for any camera model to have the bugs worked out. Each year you have a complete set of new, untested camer designs hitting the market that have amazing new possibilities, but glitches often prevent these cameras from providing the capabilities they were designed to provide.
 
BSK said:
Each year you have a complete set of new, [size]untested[/size] camera designs hitting the market that have amazing new possibilities, [size]but glitches often prevent these cameras from providing the capabilities they were designed to provide.
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. . . . . and are typically advertised as having.[/size]

We who buy them become the guinea pigs.

When you're going thru the learning curve of a new make and model, it can take you weeks or months to figure out whether you're doing something wrong, or whether there's simply a problem with the camera.

I recently had a new make/model that is advertised to have 6 to 12-month battery life. This particular unit would "eat" fresh batteries in about 2 or 3 days. Problem was, I had the cam out for 2 weeks before discovering it had only worked for the first couple days. Thinking the problem was my "old" many times recharged "rechargeable" batteries, I put in a new set of rechargeables. Wasn't able to check the cam for nearly another 2 weeks. The new rechargeables had died in less than 3 days. Finally loaded it up with some new regular alkaline batteries. A few weeks later discovered they had also died in about 3 days. Took me over 6 weeks to determine the problem was totally with the cam, not the batteries.

Sent this one back under it's warranty for "repair or replacement". That was an additional $12 charge for "shipping and handling", although I had to do the "handling" of packaging it up, and pay my own "shipping" to them. This one is back now, and I'm field testing it again.

But how do you put a "price" on a cam not working when you think it is? How do you put a "price" on frustration?

Lastly, what's you're "time" worth?

CHEAP, especially CHEAP from CHINA, can be very costly.
 
For those of us who value our time, due to the high failure rates "right out of the box" (poor quality control), it seems it's now become mostly a waste of time to buy anything that's been out on the market less than a year.

I could care less about the new cams debuted at the 2011 Shot Show. After being burned by some "big names" and "big endorsements" on new models from the likes of Bushnell and Cuddeback, no, I will not be eager to by a new cam made in China, even if it has "Browning" stamped on it, even less interested if it's endorsed by some celebrity hunter.
 
Wes Parrish said:
For those of us who value our time, due to the high failure rates "right out of the box" (poor quality control), it seems it's now become mostly a waste of time to buy anything that's been out on the market less than a year.
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This has been my opinion and position for several years now. It has proven to be a good rule to live by year after year after year. :)

Wes Parrish said:
I could care less about the new cams debuted at the 2011 Shot Show.
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X2

Wes Parrish said:
.......I will not be eager to by a new cam made in China, even if it has "Browning" stamped on it, even less interested if it's endorsed by some celebrity hunter.
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Ditto
 
Wes Parrish said:
We who buy them become the guinea pigs.
Click to expand...

If we were actually being guinea pigs TO FIND WHAT NEEDED TO BE FIXED, I could live with that. But the manufacturers have no intention of perfecting the camera design by going back and fixing the problems. They will just build a whole new camera next year (with all new problems).
 
BSK said:
The biggest problem with so many of the newer cameras is the way they are being designed/produced. Instead of a new model being perfected over several production years (working out all the glitches), a completely new camera is designed every year. Now this does advance technology very quickly, but it never allows for any camera model to have the bugs worked out. Each year you have a complete set of new, untested camer designs hitting the market that have amazing new possibilities, but glitches often prevent these cameras from providing the capabilities they were designed to provide.
Click to expand...

I've been thinking the same thing. Some of the companies get so close to making a great camera, and then the next year the come out with something completely different, when really they would have had a better camera if they would have just improved last years model.
 
Bsk, for around 100 bucks what do you thinks is the best production camera? I have had good luck with the moultries but have to admit you are correct about issues. What do you find to be the best in that price range.....i am too cheap to spend more than 100 on any game cam. I have one moultrie that is 4 or 5 years old now.
 
camoman270 said:
Bsk, for around 100 bucks what do you thinks is the best production camera? I have had good luck with the moultries but have to admit you are correct about issues. What do you find to be the best in that price range.....i am too cheap to spend more than 100 on any game cam. I have one moultrie that is 4 or 5 years old now.
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The problem is, many camera companies produce good technology in that price range, but production quality control in the Chinese factories is so bad that a scary-high percentage of units produced have flaws.
 
Some Good Stuff here!! i hope Companies are listening.
camoman270 i believe and experience with these cheap cams is that the 50-75 dollar cams will consistantly outperform the 100-200 dollar cams, especially factoring in the fact of buying more cheapies than higher priced ones with the same amount of cash; and Somehow over the last two years my $50 cheapie has gotten the bigger bucks on it, maybe a coincidence though.
 
I have came to hate every camera I have owned for some reason or another. Bought a Moultrie Game spy I40 (i think) several years ago and loved it. Bought two more just like it the next year and niether one of them ever worked as good as the first one.

To me, buying a camera is luck of the draw. If you find one that works great all the time, you got lucky. Take care of it like it is gold, because you can replace it with an identical camera and not be happy.
 
mr.hicks said:
Some Good Stuff here!! i hope Companies are listening.
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They will not listen. One company rep was even posting on a camera forum and telling everybody they was wrong about what people needed in a camera. They tried to tell people the noise from their camera didn't scare deer as much as the flash and no need to fix it. On top of that it was a white flash camera that didn't need the filter arm anyway. Finally the administrator told him he was his own worse enemy and probably shouldn't be posting comments.
 

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