What trail camera to get??

Greetings... I'm the new guy... Decided that I am going to get a trail camera or to, maybe a 3rd eventually... I have been looking over a few, and man, the choices. Wow! The one thing that I really want to have is a viewer to connect to the camera. I have looked at leupold, viewer and camera. However, difficult to hear anything good about the camera itself. Anyone try this camera? the viewer, is supposed to work good. I seen that there are a few others that carry viewers, also. would like to get some input on the viewers. Now as far as the camera it self, I do not want the best out there, and certainly do not want junk... Going by what I have looked at, this is what I may possibly go with. Moultrie, Covert or Cabela's. I just want some basic quality pics, not really worried about video. Reliable and user friendly (one that us dummies can use, lol.) Now as for the viewer, are they universal? If not how do I know which one to get, or what is recommended? (I know that the covert has a built in viewer) Thanks for any info. and all opinions are welcome... J.

Welcome to the site! I have the cheaper Moultrie viewer and it reads the cards from all my cams. It only zooms to the center of the pics and will not pan up/down or side to side. Moultries have always worked well for me since the 35mm days, so I tend to favor them. Since my cams are mainly ran on food plots, Moultries give me the flash and detection range I need. I'm not that happy with the pics from the D-444 and would not get another for that reason only. The motion blur is very bad with this cam and the night pics become pixelated as you move farther away from the cam. The 880 has been a popular cam that takes nice pics and has motion freeze, which dramaticly cuts down on blur. The Pano 150 is by far my favorite cam with it's field of view and flash range. Trailcampro.com is a great place to see reviews and sample pics of most the cams out there.

Welcome to the forum !! sodbuster covered allot !  You are correct there are tons and tons of options out there !! And nowadays most of the cameras out there that are from a respectable company are great cameras for scouting !! But some of us guys get way to picky and have to have a better camera while the cheaper priced ones will do all we need them to!! But for the most part you do get what you pay for!! And I do not have the leupold trail camera that your talking about and  I don't know a whole lot about them!!  I do have a covert red 40 that has a built in viewer and I also have a moultrie d555i that also has a built in viewer!! I like the moultries viewer better just because of the fact that you can see what the pictures are going to look like before you take the picture!! The coverts viewer is mainly for checking your pictures while your out in the field!! Have you ever considered using a regular hand held camera as a viewer ?? That is what I do with all of my cameras that do not have a built in viewer!! I just pop the SD card out and put it into my little handheld camera and check my pictures that way!! It is the same thing as a hand held viewer that you can buy from dealers plus if you happen to see some deer or anything else you can take a picture with the camera!!

And again welcome to the forum!

ray12 wrote:Welcome to the forum !! sodbuster covered allot !  You are correct there are tons and tons of options out there !! And nowadays most of the cameras out there that are from a respectable company are great cameras for scouting !! But some of us guys get way to picky and have to have a better camera while the cheaper priced ones will do all we need them to!! But for the most part you do get what you pay for!! And I do not have the leupold trail camera that your talking about and  I don't know a whole lot about them!!  I do have a covert red 40 that has a built in viewer and I also have a moultrie d555i that also has a built in viewer!! I like the moultries viewer better just because of the fact that you can see what the pictures are going to look like before you take the picture!! The coverts viewer is mainly for checking your pictures while your out in the field!! Have you ever considered using a regular hand held camera as a viewer ?? That is what I do with all of my cameras that do not have a built in viewer!! I just pop the SD card out and put it into my little handheld camera and check my pictures that way!! It is the same thing as a hand held viewer that you can buy from dealers plus if you happen to see some deer or anything else you can take a picture with the camera!!

And again welcome to the forum!

Wow. Great idea! I took your advice and went and got a cheap camera, to use as a viewer... I went with the Moultrie M-550 (new one for 2014) $130, so I got two of them! Was going to go with the M-990i. However, Cablea's catalogue price was $190, went to store, in Hamburg, PA. there price was $200! What the... Cannot wait to try them out. next thing is to get cards and was thinking about getting a box also... Thanks again for your help, J.

Sodbuster wrote:Welcome to the site! I have the cheaper Moultrie viewer and it reads the cards from all my cams. It only zooms to the center of the pics and will not pan up/down or side to side. Moultries have always worked well for me since the 35mm days, so I tend to favor them. Since my cams are mainly ran on food plots, Moultries give me the flash and detection range I need. I'm not that happy with the pics from the D-444 and would not get another for that reason only. The motion blur is very bad with this cam and the night pics become pixelated as you move farther away from the cam. The 880 has been a popular cam that takes nice pics and has motion freeze, which dramaticly cuts down on blur. The Pano 150 is by far my favorite cam with it's field of view and flash range. Trailcampro.com is a great place to see reviews and sample pics of most the cams out there.

Thanks for the input. I went with the Moultrie cams, got the new model for 2014, M-550. $130 good deal so I got two of them. decided to get a cheap digital camera, to use as a viewer.

Please let us know how that cam works out. The 550 and the 880c are the two I have my eye on for 2014. Word of warning on using a digital cam to view pics. It can mess up your sd cards, so if you ever have any issues it may be the card and not the cam. It would be a good idea to delete the card using your trailcam. Doing this will format the card to the cam. Moultrie recommends not using a handheld to view pics, but they also want you to buy their viewers. Alot of guys use a handheld to view pics with no issue, but some have had problems from it.

Be sure and let us know how those cameras work for you !! Hopefully you have some pictures before long !! And I have always used my handheld camera for around 2 1/2 yrs without a problem !! And if a card would happen to go bad there only about 8 dollars each! I have seen a company or two that did recommend not using a handheld camera but I always figured they just wanted people to buy there viewers ! I have about 25-30 sd cards for all of my cameras lol I'm constantly loosing some do to the washing machine and not emptying my pockets of the sd cards !! Cards are relatively cheap and you can always buy more at Walmart ! I seem to like the 2gb PNY cards they come in a pack of 2 for 10.00 at our local walmart and that is what I usually buy!! I do have a few larger cards it just depends on how long I will be leaving the camera out before I check on it!! Anyways good luck with your new cameras ! It is always fun checking them and seeing what you have running around on your property's !!

ray12 wrote:Be sure and let us know how those cameras work for you !!   Hopefully you have some pictures before long !! And I have always used my handheld camera for around 2 1/2 yrs without a problem !! And if a card would happen to go bad there only about 8 dollars each!  I have seen a company or two that did recommend not using a handheld camera but I always figured they just wanted people to buy there viewers !    I have about 25-30 sd cards for all of my cameras lol I'm constantly loosing some do to the washing machine and not emptying my pockets of the sd cards !!   Cards are relatively cheap and you can always buy more at Walmart ! I seem to like the 2gb PNY cards they come in a pack of 2 for 10.00 at our local walmart and that is what I usually buy!!  I do have a few larger cards it just depends on how long I will be leaving the camera out before I check on it!!   Anyways good luck with your new cameras !  It is always fun checking them and seeing what you have running around on your property's !!

Wow, thanks for reminding me... Regarding cards. I see that Moultrie recommends using sandsc (not sure how that is to be spelled  ) what is the difference? I was looking at the cards and seen where you get over 1500 pics with a 6gb.?? that is alot of pics! sounds like it would be best to use lower, gb. Heard that the higher the gb the slower the trail cam works. Is that true? Will the camera/viewer use the same card? Or can I just download pics from trail cam, to viewer/camera? I bought a Nikon, cool pix camera, $50 at walmart. Hope that works...

I use 2gb and 4gb Sandisk and PNY cards in all my cams with no issues. The higher the gb the more pics the card can store, it does not effect the speed of the cam. Don't know anything about the handheld cam, Galen will have to answer that one.

I never really noticed a differance in speed between a large SD card and a smaller SD card ! But what you dont want to do is put in a SD card that is bigger then what the Trail camera is capable of holding! That might mess something up on the Trail cameras board! I am not sure I understand you 100% on the question that you asked about using the handheld camera but here is what I think you were asking and just let me know if this was not even what you were wondering !

On my camera I am not able to upload the SD card that I just got from the trail camera onto my handheld camera , I use my handheld camera to check the pictures out in the woods (its really awesome to pull a card and then climb up in your stand and then view your pictures out in the woods!! and it also helps me set up any of my cameras that do not have a built in veiwer) ! I always swap the Trail camera with a fresh SD card and then when I get home I upload the pictures onto my computer where I can then post them and share them with everyone! But I do have a extra SD card at home where I put all my *Favorite* Pictures on and I have that card in my cameras carrying case and I can show everyone my favorite pictures anywhere I go just by popping in that SD card into my camera !


I hope this answered your question but if not let me know ..  I know I can make something so easy sound hard!

ray12 wrote:I never really noticed a differance in speed between a large SD card and a smaller SD card ! But what you dont want to do is put in a SD card that is bigger then what the Trail camera is capable of holding! That might mess something up on the Trail cameras board! I am not sure I understand you 100% on the question that you asked about using the handheld camera but here is what I think you were asking and just let me know if this was not even what you were wondering !

On my camera I am not able to upload the SD card that I just got from the trail camera onto my handheld camera , I use my handheld camera to check the pictures out in the woods (its really awesome to pull a card and then climb up in your stand and then view your pictures out in the woods!! and it also helps me set up any of my cameras that do not have a built in veiwer) ! I always swap the Trail camera with a fresh SD card and then when I get home I upload the pictures onto my computer where I can then post them and share them with everyone! But I do have a extra SD card at home where I put all my *Favorite* Pictures on and I have that card in my cameras carrying case and I can show everyone my favorite pictures anywhere I go just by popping in that SD card into my camera !


I hope this answered your question but if not let me know ..  I know I can make something so easy sound hard!

Thanks, I am completely clueless when come to cameras, SD cards. I was not sure if that is what you had to do (download) to see the pics off of the SD card. I'm learning...

Im sure you will be able to figure things out once you get the trail cameras! Hopefully you have some pictures soon then!

Sodbuster wrote:Please let us know how that cam works out. The 550 and the 880c are the two I have my eye on for 2014. Word of warning on using a digital cam to view pics. It can mess up your sd cards, so if you ever have any issues it may be the card and not the cam. It would be a good idea to delete the card using your trailcam. Doing this will format the card to the cam. Moultrie recommends not using a handheld to view pics, but they also want you to buy their viewers. Alot of guys use a handheld to view pics with no issue, but some have had problems from it.

          Greetings. While I was in wal-mart, I just so happened to see another guy looking at card readers and cards. the conversation eventually lead to trail cameras! Heck, I know we stood there and talked for over a half hour, worse than a couple of old women...       He had mentioned that he had tried to use a handheld cam for viewing his pics and said that he had trouble viewing his cards also. He said that he was going to get a card reader and a USB cable, to plug into reader and into his TV. Wow. That sounds cool also! Hopefully, I won't have any trouble with my handheld...

haha time can fly when your talking ! And I have never had trouble with my handheld camera but sounds like a few guys have had some issues! Hopefully you wont have any problems eaither !