Who can fully explain a cellular plan for ridgetec vs spartan cameras

[Stickers]

I saw this but would like for someone that has a ridgetec to fully explain their plans available for ATT. Do I have to pay ATT ? If so how much? Is that on top of a ridgetec cost ?
Please explain the tier point system just to make sure I’m clear.


Same Answers needed for spartan!!!



I’m looking at either ridgetec or spartan

Thanks

 

[Anthony61]

No, all you pay is the ridgetec data plan cost. the portal and app are free.

The Ridgetec Dual ships with both a Verizon and an AT&T sim. you can connect to either network with the same camera. the costs are the same for both networks.

the pricing page:
https://portal.ridgetec.com/help/plans

Lists the amount of data you are purchasing at what price.

the plan is a pool or shared plan like your cell phone family plan. Your first camera is included in the price of the plan.

So, if you select the $6.95/mo plan all you pay is 6.95 for one camera.

***IMPORTANT***

All camera vendors estimate the number of photos on each plan using "low" res to do the math. In actuality you are purchasing ##### megabytes.

So, Ridgetec in order to provide an Apples to Apples comparison with other vendors, shows the number of "low" res photos and the number of megabytes each plan provides.

Also to provide the customer an accurate percentage of data used throughout the month by all cameras on the plan, it uses a points system which is simply the data used by one low res photo.

So, if you are on the 5000 photos (points) plan, and you have currently used 2500 points (low res photos worth of data) then you have burned 50% through your data.

Rather than just be surprised when you run out or your account renews early like most vendors, the Ridgetec software (billing) gives you an ongoing way to monitor data usage and adjust your cameras settings to reduce data usage should want to conserve it rather than find out 2 weeks into a month you have used an entire month's data.

If you compare data for data with other comparable systems ridgetec is close (Covert/Spartan) but compared to Spypoint, Bushnell, Moultrie, etc.. Ridgetec is MUCH cheaper. You must do an apples to apples comparison though. some systems only offer low res (and poor quality ones at that) whereas ridgetec Lookout allows uploads in Photo mode up to 12MP and in video Mode up to 1080p video with audio at 30 frames per second and a duration of up to 30 seconds long.

when you compare data plan cost or "what you get" for the $$ make sure you are fair to all vendors by doing an apples to apples comparison.

finally, like all camera vendors that provide upload sizes greater than 640 pixels wide (low res), Ridgetec provides a cost per point chart.

 

[Anthony61]

what this chart actually shows is simple.

if a 640 pixel wide photo (low res) is 60kb and a 720p (1280 pixel wide HD) is 7 times larger or 7 * 60kb = 420kb (or 0.42 Megabytes), then its cost is 7 points rather than 1 point.

Points is a simpler way than using kilobytes and megabytes. If you use medium resolution and the fles are 2.5 times larger than low res then its cost in points is 2.5 (data wise is 60kb*2.5 = 150kb (.15MB).

So, I think looking at points and being able to see a progress bar showing percentage of data used up to the minute is easier than doing all this math and discusisng kilbytes and megabytes. I think you would agree.

Let me know if this helps.

One way to understand it is this. Just pretend you have never heard of points and just use it. then when you run out or you get charged another whole month.... this is the experience you get with other vendors.

If you prefer to run blind then ignore points. If you prefer to know exactly how much data you are using down to each photo upload for the month, then look at the points.

everyone in america uses a points system daily. we call them dollars. Points on ridgetec are a currency that represents a certain tiny bit of data in kilobytes.

 

[Stickers]

what this chart actually shows is simple.

if a 640 pixel wide photo (low res) is 60kb and a 720p (1280 pixel wide HD) is 7 times larger or 7 * 60kb = 420kb (or 0.42 Megabytes), then its cost is 7 points rather than 1 point.

Points is a simpler way than using kilobytes and megabytes. If you use medium resolution and the fles are 2.5 times larger than low res then its cost in points is 2.5 (data wise is 60kb*2.5 = 150kb (.15MB).

So, I think looking at points and being able to see a progress bar showing percentage of data used up to the minute is easier than doing all this math and discusisng kilbytes and megabytes. I think you would agree.

Let me know if this helps.

One way to understand it is this. Just pretend you have never heard of points and just use it. then when you run out or you get charged another whole month.... this is the experience you get with other vendors.

If you prefer to run blind then ignore points. If you prefer to know exactly how much data you are using down to each photo upload for the month, then look at the points.

everyone in america uses a points system daily. we call them dollars. Points on ridgetec are a currency that represents a certain tiny bit of data in kilobytes.

So if I normally get an average of 40 to 50
pics / videos a day per camera for 2 cameras the 5,000 per month plan would be more than enough??

Let’s say downloading it in highest quality!!! I hate crappy videos or pics.

 

[Anthony61]

So, if you want to upload 70 HD (720p) photos per day. Each day you will use 70*7 points.

490 points. in 10 days that 4900 points. in 30 days that 14,700 points.

My question to you is this... why do you want every photo to be high res?

My feeder and salt block gets birds and squirrels all day long and tons of coons all night long.

Why do I want to use my $$ for high res photos of those critters? which comprise 80% of the uploads?

With Ridgetec, you can run in a lower res. then if a small res photo has a big buck in it, for just that single photo, you can request a high res max at 1600x900 pixels for 13 points.

why squander all your data on a bunch of junk you don't care about?

Now I do apologize if you are a squirrel scientist studying squirrel habits.

 

[Stickers]

So, if you want to upload 70 HD (720p) photos per day. Each day you will use 70*7 points.

490 points. in 10 days that 4900 points. in 30 days that 14,700 points.

My question to you is this... why do you want every photo to be high res?

My feeder and salt block gets birds and squirrels all day long and tons of coons all night long.

Why do I want to use my $$ for high res photos of those critters? which comprise 80% of the uploads?

With Ridgetec, you can run in a lower res. then if a small res photo has a big buck in it, for just that single photo, you can request a high res max at 1600x900 pixels for 13 points.

why squander all your data on a bunch of junk you don't care about?

Now I do apologize if you are a squirrel scientist studying squirrel habits.

Ok so I can see them before I download and then download the ones I want in hi res or not download at all??

 

[Stickers]

Hmmm. Maybe I’ll just stick to the cameras I got. I do pretty good as it is. Thanks anyway

 

[Anthony61]

I will answer your questions.

if you have one camera you pay the tier price.

if you have two cameras you pay the tier price plus $6.

if you have 3 cameras you pay the tier price + $12.

 

[Anthony61]

lets say i run my camera in low res. if i get 50 photos per day, thats 1500 in a month.

I can pay $8.95 and get 2500 photos.

after my camera uploads 1500 photos, I still have 1000 photos unused. you can use that data and upload some high res for the photos you are interested in.

so, if high res uploads are 13 points each. you can use the remaining 1000 points to get larger and better quality versions of photos you are interested in.

spartan works almost the exact same way.

 

[XIronheadX]

So, basically, if you had the 10,000 pic $15 plan, you could get about 1500 HD 720 size pics/vids?
Using the median between 7 and 6 for pics and videos, divided into 10,000?

 

[Anthony61]

you can see every single photo the camera uploads. you pay only for what the camera uploads.

So, if I am on the 2500 photos plan with 2 cameras, I will pay $8.95 + $6.

now the cameras share the data or photo uploads. if you go over it not an issue. the system charges you the same cost as before. there are no penalties to going over.

in other words, if you are on 2500 photos plan and you use 5000 in a particular month your cost is 2 x 8.95. there are no premium or penalty charges. thus no fear of going over.....

 

[Anthony61]

So, basically, if you had the 10,000 pic $15 plan, you could get about 1500 HD 720 size pics/vids?
Using the median between 7 and 6 for pics and videos, divided into 10,000?

this is correct and true of any cameras capable of uploading HD photos in 720p. You will use about the same amount of data on a Spartan or Covert if you upload 1500 720p photos.

you will need around 500mb of data.

does this make sense?

 

[XIronheadX]

this is correct and true of any cameras capable of uploading HD photos in 720p. You will use about the same amount of data on a Spartan or Covert if you upload 1500 720p photos.

does this make sense?

Yes. What size file is 720 HD in photo? I'm guessing a 1280?

Sounds a lot better than Moultrie. It's $15 for 1500 thumbs 640 size. Then 35 per hi res pic only.

 

[Anthony61]

the real confusion to people is that they really have no clue how big file sizes are per resolution and quality level. when they think the files are tiny, in actuality they are not.

2 HD Photos is nearly 1 megabyte. people want to imagine they can get 100 photos in 1 megabyte but you just can't.

720p = 1280 pixels wide. yes.

keep in mind all vendors prices are for LOW res uploads which are 640 pixels wide. always think about this and do an apples to apples comparison. I think most people just don't want to and want to believe they can get something for nothing when in fact you can't.

 

[Anthony61]

Yes. What size file is 720 HD in photo? I'm guessing a 1280?

Sounds a lot better than Moultrie. It's $15 for 1500 thumbs 640 size. Then 35 per hi res pic only.

Exactly, this is why Moultrie is EXPENSiVE !!!!!!! people don't really try and understand this properly. and i agree it can be confusing fora new comer.

 

[XIronheadX]

And no reduction for night photo file sizes which are much smaller with Moultrie and others possibly. I just checked a daylight 1280x960 file. It's about 185 kb. Or .18 mb.

A 1280 size is a pretty nice picture. Probably would get quite a few more of those on a $15 plan. My math came out to about 2700.

 

[Anthony61]

if you compare the file size of a 640 pixel low res photo on all cell cameras on the market, i guarantee you the average size will be around 60kb. there is simply no way to squeeze it smaller... unless you lower its quality and it is much grainier.

if you lower the jpg quality inside the camera and produce a 640 pixel photo then its size may be 40kb which means your marketing data may state more photos and the uneducated will think oh its a better value.

when if you compare photo quality at the same resolution you would see poor quality on one camera versus higher quality on another. higher quality means bigger file size which means fewer photos for the same size data plan.

everyone would prefer a better quality image than lower right?

 

[Anthony61]

And no reduction for night photo file sizes which are much smaller with Moultrie and others possibly. I just checked a daylight 1280x960 file. It's about 185 kb. Or .18 mb.

Ridgetec uses a constant quality algorithm and if you look at night image quality, ridgetec night images are superior. Video is also constant bitrate.

 

[XIronheadX]

Ridgetecs are nice, no doubt. I wish I had one. I hate blurry thumbnails on Moultrie, or what I've seen on Spypoint. They are good at phone size without any zooming in. That's why I calculate pic cost to approximate to a decent file size with different data plans. If I ordered all hi res on my Moultrie I'd burn up a $15 plan with 43 pictures. lol

 

[Anthony61]

Ridgetecs are nice, no doubt. I wish I had one. I hate blurry thumbnails on Moultrie, or what I've seen on Spypoint. They are good at phone size without any zooming in. That's why I calculate pic cost to approximate to a decent file size with different data plans. If I ordered all hi res on my Moultrie I'd burn up a $15 plan with 43 pictures. lol

now thats ridiculous.. lol

thats why i recommend running in low res. you may find that on your phone they are big enough. since this minimizes cost, and battery usage you can then use more data to request high res for the ones you need a better look at.

this is how i would use my camera. i dont care to even look at tree rats and coons so why pay for HD for every photo of them?