Best Trail Cam for $70 or Less?

[Meetchfest]

Once it gets closer to season they’ll have them back in stock.

 

[Newtosavage]

Years ago, I bought a pair of Simmons trail cams that came in a blister pack, from Cabelas for $99 for the pair. Those stupid little cameras (that only required 4 AA batteries, and not 8 by the way) lasted forever. I couldn't kill them. One even got flooded in a creek bottom I left it in for 2-3 months, and after the water receeded I went and got it, dried it out and the damn thing worked. Crazy. I am still running one of those two (I left the other one at elk camp one year... duh) little Simmons cameras as part of my regular group of trail cams. It has outlasted several other trail cams up to $100/ea. If I could find those again, I'd buy 10 of them.

They looked like this:

Simmons - Trail Cameras

Simmons Trail Cameras.

www.simmonsoptics.com

 

[BCD]

$29 Walmart Tascos or the $40 Camparks on Amazon.

I bought two of the Camparks this summer. One has already failed and the second is acting a little suspicious. I have it out in the woods behind my house now to see if I can verify if it is going to work correctly or not.....

 

[snakelk]

Browning cameras get a lot of love on here, and personally I've had good luck with them also. Hard to find for $70 or under, however.

Today Active Junky is offering 14% cash back at Cabelas, and they have a Browning Strike Force Apex for 89.97. With Active Junky that would make it $77.37. Not a bad deal.

 

[longtail]

ive had good luck with covert cameras

 

[Jimss]

I've been running both Browning Defender 940's and Campark T45A's since last June. The Browning was a pain in the rear at first because it picked up every twig that moved in a breeze. I sent the sensativity down and cut all limbs and grass that blows in the wind and it works fine.

I paid around $120 for the Browning and only around $45 for the Camparks. I'm pretty much sold on the Campark T45A's. They are super dependable....even more so than the Browning. The only thing I don't like about the Campark is it's a struggle getting the tiny mini SD card out without dropping on the ground. I've had both the Browning and Camparks out all winter and both have performed well. The Camparks take 8 x AA batteries and the Brownings take 4 of the oddball Lithium batteries. They both last a long time.

One of the big advantages with the Campark is it has a screen that you can view your photos in the field. Not possible with my Browning. I always bring my camera with me to view and zoom in on photos so it doesn't matter a whole lot but is a nice feature to have.

When I first looked at the Camparks I didn't think they would hold up very well because they aren't built near as solid as the Browning but they have. If someone steals my Campark I'm only out around $45! If I had the choice I would definitely go with Camparks. I could have twice as many out in the field because they were 1/2 the price of the Brownings....and work extremely well!

 

[Jstcynske]

Save another $30 and get a tactacam reveal.

 

[Hunt_UP]

I’ve tried many different Moultrie cameras and had great resolution and good trigger speed even in single digit or negative temps with lithium batteries, day or nite. They can usually be found at the end of the season for under $100. I picked up a Muddy 12mp camera from Menards for 38$ and it ran for 5 months, but not well. I had a squirrel play with it and the night pics went black (no flash) until I cycled the camera on and off a few times and got it to start triggering again. For the price, you get what you pay for. Picture quality of the muddy was terrible. Blurry daytime pictures and the nite pictures were even worse. Big deer are obvious but if your looking for details like stickers or identifying individual bucks, I don’t recommend the muddy for picture quality. The muddy did run like a champ and took tons of pictures in cold temps and the trigger speed seemed consistent though.

 

[pk_]

Wow that's impressive. For that price I will likely buy 2 and see how they do for me. Do you know the model name or is it just Tasco 8MP? Thank You so much for the info!!

I am running about 10 of these, first year running them. Pic quality is not great but good enough if you are just looking for ‘shooters’. Battery life is great even on video mode (unless you are getting a bunch of false triggers constantly). I can’t believe they are only $28 I hope they never stop making them. No issues with mine at all and I run a mix of sd cards, several cheapies.

Just search Tasco trail camera on Walmart.

 

[UncleTupelo]

This is an old thread, but I thought that I would share my experience on cheap game cameras. I recently purchased 2 Oudmon trail cameras from Amazon in search of a "cheaper" alternative to the name brand cameras. The price was great at under $50, the pictures were really sharp, and the cameras had very good customer reviews, but both cameras crapped out and died within 4 months and were a hassle to program. I run multiple trail cameras on our ranch and go through several each year. The best combination of affordability and dependability that I have found has been the Browning Strike Force cameras - easy to set up, good battery life, decent picture quality and trigger speed, and good reliability. I can usually find an older model on eBay or Amazon for a little over $100.

 

[Markdub54]

I'm going to try that Tasco also. Figure if it works, it works, of not didn't break me.