TecBean trail cam review

[BuckNasty83]

Like a lot of you, I'm always in search of good trail cam deals. I have tried so many brands, at varying price ranges. Over the past 3 years, I've decided to go strictly no glow. I don't want to take any chances of spooking off that special buck. I've seen it happen (through the eyes of the trail cams), that it's all I'll run anymore. Now I know, a lot of you have deer that don't mind flash, but my deer are pretty skittish and as mentioned, I've seen them freak from flash and never return.


Now on to the review. I've never done a review, I'm not a professional, I'm not affiliated with this company. This forum is full of people looking for deals and advice. So from one average Joe to another, this is just one man's opinion.


Tec.Bean 12MPHD NO GLOW trail camera $80

The camera itself is built well, has a beautiful camo paint job, and feels really durable. It claims to be Waterproof IP66, industrial grade dustproof, shockproof, and anti-corrosive property. Operating Environment: -33 to 122 deg F(-30 to 60deg C). 20-85% relative humidity, non condensing.

Very user friendly interface with a 2" LCD screen
It has a ton of features and capabilities such as: Motion-Freeze/night blur reduction
Password protection
A trigger time rated at 0.6-0.8s
A detection range of 75'
5 shooting modes
Photo@ 1-9 burst
Time lapse- 10sec-24hr
Video- records from 5-90s with sound
Motion detection which they say is good for cold blooded/reptiles and amphibians
Hybrid mode
It has the time stamp, temp, moon phase and GPS coordinates , which are all optional
A zoom mode
It takes 8AA batteries and claims to get 9,500 photos on a set. (So far, I'm getting good battery life)
Has a setting that allows you to choose between battery life% or estimated number of days.


I decided to get this cam because of the high number of positive reviews. So far after about 3 months of use, I've been completely satisfied with this purchase. Especially at the $80 price point. I've tried the cam in 3 different locations. On a feeder, on a mineral site, and now I have it on video at a newly installed, small watering hole with a mineral block.
Pros and cons
The LCD is a bit dim imo. Don't bother me though, as I use an adapter for my phone to view photos and videos.
Pics are not of the best quality, but what I noticed on each location was that it performs differently in each setting.
For example: with the camera about 7ft up pointing down On the mineral site, at about 10 yards, in a small wooded opening, the pics are darker and grainier.
But on the feeder, with the cam at about waist high, the pics are much better. The lighting is decent and less fuzz, but overall typical noglow night pic.
On video mode it does a decent job as well. It's a little fuzzy, but you can definitely tell what your looking at without doubt. There seems to a bit of white noise, but I'm thinking that may be the stream in the background. Then again, audio is not that important for me.

Battery life has been very friendly in the 3 months I've had it deployed. I'm at 67% from the same set, from 3 months ago. And that's with 100s-1000s of pics a week, plus 21 sec videos.

Detection has been great, both day and night, range , etc.

Overall, I'd recommend this camera if your looking for a budget no glow. I'll upload some pics and videos from each location. You'll see it performed better at deer height. Then again, the mineral site didn't have much in the range for light to reflect/bounce off of. Other than that , the dim LCD while viewing pics during the day, have no complaints.

From the warranty card, they seem to be driven towards customer satisfaction and no hassle returns/replacements.

 

[shdw633]

Thanks for the review!! I'd take those pics all day long and twice on Sunday from an $80 price point no glow camera!! Guess I'm going to be adding one or two to the stable soon.

 

[Jim Boyd]

Excellently written and presented.

Very well done!!!!!!

 

[BuckNasty83]

Jim, your too nice, but thanks

 

[BuckNasty83]

Shdw, I don't think you'll regret it