Moultrie W-30i (Walmart version A-30i)

Got a question. I searched and didnt find anything. I had a WGI finally bite the dust along with a couple of OLD Cuddebacks awhile back. I picked up a Moultrie W-30i a couple weeks ago and it worked flawlessly. $78 bucks for the unit SD card and even batteries. Figured if it wasnt worth a hoot Id just return it. Anyway Ive been pretty happy with it and wound up with a total of three. Ive got one watching deer and bears in the back yard and the others in the woods.
Of course now that Ive invested in three, Im starting to get a glitch. On a couple of them the flash doesnt fire for the first 2-4 pics at night. As late as 945-1045 at night so its plenty dark. Then they fire perfectly???

Ive contacted Moultrie and havent heard back yet. Other than that theyre pretty good. But I dont like it!!

I contacted them initially after the first one because when I formatted the card in the camera there is an XML Settings file outside the DCIM folder. It APPEARS that the settings are stored on the card as they advised any other card going into the camera be formatted to that specific camera. I have them marked 1,2 and 3. I hate having to tromp back in the woods to put the cards back in after downloading the pics obviously.

So Im curious if anyone else is running these cameras and are experiencing the flash issue and also offering a little info on the card format specific to camera to anyone looking at these.

When I hear back from Moultrie on the flash I'll update this.

Anyone?? and thanks in advance.

You still have your old cameras? If so, Dicks is doing a trade in event and giving a $30 credit against the Bushnell e2 and e3 camera.

GSUQUAD said:

I bought a moultrie 990i I think it was.. had the same issue.. then it stopped taking night photos all together. Moultrie told me it was the infra red filter not clicking over.

They had a self help FAQ on it if I remember correctly and after doing that, it didn't help and moultrie offered to replace it no hassle.

Click to expand...

I checked their Support page FAQ and didnt see anything specific to this model. If they give any indication its the same issue theyre going back. Probably just exchange at Wallyworld as theyre only a couple weeks old. Hope to hear from them today.
Thanks for the info.

SlowMotion said:

You still have your old cameras? If so, Dicks is doing a trade in event and giving a $30 credit against the Bushnell e2 and e3 camera.

Click to expand...

Thanks for the heads-up friend. These are new cameras so if they say its an issue like the gentleman above suggested I'll just swap em out.

On the bushnells ........ Ive got one hanging since 2013 and it aint skipped a beat!

GSUQUAD said:

I bought a moultrie 990i I think it was.. had the same issue.. then it stopped taking night photos all together. Moultrie told me it was the infra red filter not clicking over.

They had a self help FAQ on it if I remember correctly and after doing that, it didn't help and moultrie offered to replace it no hassle.

Click to expand...

I just checked again more thoroughly and found the info you mentioned. Thanks

GSUQUAD said:

You're welcome.

I would exchange it at walmart like you said if you can't get it working. I went through Moultrie because I bought mine online and didn't want to fuss with an internet return. But I will give moultrie high praises on handling my warranty.. all they cared about was that I registered the warranty and it was hassle free after that.

Click to expand...

Thanks again for the info. I said Id post an update when I talked to Moultrie. They referred me to that article you mentioned but the lady gave a simpler way of doing it. She had me take them one by one in a dark room and use the light switch to trigger 'daytime' and then 'night time' pictures. She said to do it 8-10 times.

I obliged and set them back out yesterday evening. I checked the two that were giving me problems this morning and they worked fine. No 'black' night pics.

However Im gonna moniter them pretty close for the next several days and if the problem returns I'll swap em out at Walmart. If its after their return period theyll go back to Moultrie.

The lady told me that some of them ............ the IR sensors got stuck and this was the fix.

Good support. We'll see.

**update**

Kinda felt obligated to update this in case someone was looking at this camera. Long story short I was happy enough, even after their little 'fix', that I picked up another for a total of four. Ive had them out in the woods and a one in the backyard for several days now. And its been raining almost constantly up here. Anyway, I checked all four yesterday mid morning and found two of them were 'shooting black pics' again at night for at least two - three nights. The other two worked perfect. I was kinda surprised at the number of pics with all this rain. I dont remember the exact number but quite a few.
I was almost sick to see the black picture issue come back on two of them.
I didnt waste any time and took them back to Walmart. They took them back with no problem and actually there was a gentleman there, some sort of manager I assume, that was actually familiar with the problem. Its a well documented one at that.
He was very perturbed that they havent done a recall or something on them. (W-30i are the same as the A-30i, just bundled with card and batteries for Walmart)
He said a number of them had come back for the same issue. Strange to me that theyve known of the issue for some time but still keep pumping them out. In my mind (at least) if the IR filter is sticking on tons of them just do something to allow maybe a thousanth or so inch more clearance to loosen it up a bit?? Im no electro guru but am a retired mfg engineer. And if somethings 'sticking' ........ then loosen it up a tad?? Just my uneducated opinion on the matter. I will be watching the other two closely and the first sign of them doing it again they'll go back faster than a bullet.
All that being said, and at least from my firsthand experince with them, I guess its about a 50-50 crap shoot if you get one that works perfectly or one that sticks and blocks the 'flash'. For the money I still think its a good deal IF you get a good one.
Things as they are these days, unfortunately a lot of things are like this. They just dont maintain quality as they did long ago.
BTW I replaced those two with a couple of Wildgame Innovations Vision 16.
Actually bought the first yesterday and ran it in the backyard near a feeding area through the evening, night and all morning. I checked it and all looked good so I went and got the second one and have both out now.
These were 88.00 and also came with SD card and 8 Duracells. I do NOT like the fact that they are black! But for where these are at Im not too concerned but out in the woods they truly stick out like crazy. May brush paint them later on once I (hopefully) make sure they work OK.

Anyway, thanks to those that responded and the info and I hope this may help anyone else looking at that particular Moultrie.

Ive only owned one WGI before. A Christmas gift from my wife in 2014. It worked flawlessly up until this past spring. I would have to look for the particular model name. She got it from Cabelas. It started eating batteries like crazy and the detection pretty much quit working. Strange. I gave it to my brother who runs nothing but WGI and I think hes gonna see what it might cost to get fixed. It was a higher end model back then.
The picture and video quality was actually the best of any Ive ever owned and Ive been running these things way before the digital ones were even available.
Yall probably remember the days of running to the drug store to the 1 hour photo to have a dozen rolls of squirrels and racoon pictures developed!

Hope SOME of this my be helpful and again thanks to those that responded with info!!