Cellular Trail Camera Opinions

[c-rig king]

Looking to purchase a couple cellular trail cameras to enhance my hunting experience. Would love recommendations from real world experience from those that have used them. Just starting to do some research myself but past experience lends me to trust what I hear from this site. I am with Verizon with cell service if that helps. Thanks for any info!!!

 

[XIronheadX]

I'm a Spartan user. Verizon unlimited, added as a device for $5.14. 3 dollars a month for credits thru Spartan. Unlimited HD, video, and happiness. 0 headaches in 16 months.

 

[nmurph]

Here is the current Spartan plan pricing-

500MB Data for 1 Month $15.99
1GB Data for 1 Month $22.99
2GB Data for 1 Month $32.99
1GB Data for 3 Months $35.99
3GB Data for 3 Months $64.99
6GB Data for 6 Months $109.99
12GB Data for 1 Year $199.99

 

[sghoghunter]

I have 4 covert Blackhawks,3 tactacam reveals and 1 spypoint. First off DO NOT fall for spyjunk. I have been happy with these coverts and I’ve had one for 6 yrs and it’s still working perfect even though it’s a 3G camera. You can do updates on the camera in the woods without a laptop unlike some of the other brands. Tactacam is a good camera for the price but you have to take the card out and update it with a laptop. Covert and Tactacam is real simple with their price per month. You get a price for a certain number of pictures instead of so many GB’s for a certain dollar amount.

 

[dusty200001]

I'm a Spartan user. Verizon unlimited, added as a device for $5.14. 3 dollars a month for credits thru Spartan. Unlimited HD, video, and happiness. 0 headaches in 16 months.

Did you have to call Verizon to set up plan?

 

[snooker1]

I have 5 spypoint. 3 stopped working a month out of warranty, the other 2 have both been sent back to be replaced. My son had Muddy, they were junk. He has spartan now and they seem to work okay. I have gone back to browning non cellular cameras.
I had the same issues with all my Spypoint cameras, they all stopped transmitting photos. They continued to take photos just not transmit them. I did firmware updates and even had their (Spypoint Techs) try and do in remotely and it did not work. Changed all the cameras batteries and SD cards with new updated cards and nothing. So I gave up.

 

[XIronheadX]

Did you have to call Verizon to set up plan?

Yes. *611 or whatever it is. You can probably do it over the chat option on the web, but I do it on the phone. That way I can weasel my way out of the activation fee. I'm batting a thousand on that. $98 a year unlimited use, HD, videos and large thumbnails per camera. 12 months x5.14 to Verizon. 12x$3 to Spartan.

Otherwise you buy a plan from Spartan where the credit for app/web control is included, but you may have to limit yourself according to how you use the camera.

 

[MattLemmon]

Check out the exodus render. $305 shipped w the thp code. 5yr warranty. I’ve had mine a few months and use it for hogs over bait piles with real-time send. Works great. About to buy another one.

 

[Addicted to Antlers]

Spartan Go-Live Verizon!

 

[Son]

I have one spypoint, does good daylight, but night photo's are not as clear as I would like.
Basically using it to monitor who comes and goes in the property. It does good enough for that.

 

[whitter]

I have hunting property and also some areas (building sites) that require security. Not every corner of Georgia has great cell service. I have found that maybe ATT will be on the weak side and when I try Verison It comes in strong or visa versa. The Ridgetec cameras (Georgia based) can accept either or service suppliers. They come with the sim cards for both providers and depending on the service area, you can choose which to select. I am very happy with the function and the support is first class. I have cameras that have been deployed for over a year with battery packs and solar panels and have never failed. The grapevine news on these cams say that soon there will be a third provider (T mobile). When that happens each camera will have the choice of three service providers to select depending on cell service strength. My suggestion to this thread is go Ridgetec.

 

[brunofishing]

Spartan Go-Live Verizon!

Im a Spartan Go-live man!!

 

[Addicted to Antlers]

Im a Spartan Go-live man!!

Got my third Go-Live this week! Love the ability to stream. App and web UI work great. Very happy. No complaints.

 

[whitter]

This new feature of streaming sounds like a very nice feature. A bit of research that I have recently done has maybe cooled my desire to have that feature. Some of my cameras are a good distance from me and continuous operation is a must. I have the good battery setups and solar panels that support my systems great, but the very high drain on the battery system and also the data plan when a camera goes into the streaming mode would eat up a good portion of your battery life and data plan. I do not need these very long trips to my camera sites to renew the battery's plus the added expense of an enlarged data plan. My security systems that are on job sites are mostly hooked to the building electrical when available but the data plan budget would remain the same as when it is on battery. I know that just because that feature is available on a camera system I do not have to use it but snoopy old me would be into it all the time, so I am going to pass on getting it. The expense of my current systems is quite enough.

 

[Addicted to Antlers]

This new feature of streaming sounds like a very nice feature. A bit of research that I have recently done has maybe cooled my desire to have that feature. Some of my cameras are a good distance from me and continuous operation is a must. I have the good battery setups and solar panels that support my systems great, but the very high drain on the battery system and also the data plan when a camera goes into the streaming mode would eat up a good portion of your battery life and data plan. I do not need these very long trips to my camera sites to renew the battery's plus the added expense of an enlarged data plan. My security systems that are on job sites are mostly hooked to the building electrical when available but the data plan budget would remain the same as when it is on battery. I know that just because that feature is available on a camera system I do not have to use it but snoopy old me would be into it all the time, so I am going to pass on getting it. The expense of my current systems is quite enough.

Buy lithium batteries. Last much longer. Sounds like you are on budget. Streaming HD video is not cheap. Excellent battery ratings on the link.

https://www.trailcampro.com/collections/trail-camera-reviews/products/spartan-golive-verizon

 

[XIronheadX]

The GoLive streams at 800x480. Probably more data efficient than longer hi res video requests. Added to your Unlimited Verizon account it wouldn't matter how much you streamed. As good as my 10w solar panel on a Ghost is, I'd imagine the 20w would be even better. Especially with a 12v being charged between the panel and camera. I'm Live enough by flipping on the trigger settings after an Event setting and requesting videos on the other Spartan models for now.

 

[sghoghunter]

Buy lithium batteries. Last much longer. Sounds like you are on budget. Streaming HD video is not cheap. Excellent battery ratings on the link.

https://www.trailcampro.com/collections/trail-camera-reviews/products/spartan-golive-verizon

Them lithium batteries will go from 100% to dead in one night if you didn’t already know that.

 

[Addicted to Antlers]

Them lithium batteries will go from 100% to dead in one night if you didn’t already know that.

What crack are you smoking? Must had bad luck. Mine work great.

 

[Addicted to Antlers]

The GoLive streams at 800x480. Probably more data efficient than longer hi res video requests. Added to your Unlimited Verizon account it wouldn't matter how much you streamed. As good as my 10w solar panel on a Ghost is, I'd imagine the 20w would be even better. Especially with a 12v being charged between the panel and camera. I'm Live enough by flipping on the trigger settings after an Event setting and requesting videos on the other Spartan models for now.

Where did you find the stream resolution? I have video set to 1920x1080 and stream looks the same. I will take another look but it was nice and crisp video.

 

[XIronheadX]

Where did you find the stream resolution? I have video set to 1920x1080 and stream looks the same. I will take another look but it was nice and crisp video.

I saw one of the camera testers say it. I think the photo+video is auto 1080 on requests. You can choose the resolution for requests with video mode only. There would probably be lots of buffering attempting minutes of live stream 1080.