Can someone recommend a good black flash cam

[double browtine]

Well, went to go swap cards yesterday on my camera. Some you no what stole it. I suspect my nephew that was home from juvi lockup over the weekend. I found tire track evidence but of course he denied it when his mom confronted him. I need to buy 3 new black flash or no flash cams. Any suggestions? I am considering the cuddleback e3 or the stealthcam no glo. Gonna hang them high up in a tree on an angle mount over my cleared logging roads.

 

[Mr. Hawk]

Any covert

 

[Shed Hunter]

I have been told by several people to avoid both Cuddeback and stealthcam.

I would strongly suggest the Covert Extreme Black 60.. Never used their MP8 black, but I hear it is good. The Moultrie M990i is also a good camera. They now have a cheaper 880i that is probably about the same.

 

[Boll Weevil]

Yep...I've got several of the Moultrie 990i, have had zero issues, good trigger speed, and good picture quality.

 

[double browtine]

The moultrie m60 that got stolen was a good camera. I bought it at Cabelas. It was the hybrid model, trail cam/ plot cam/ video with sound. I will take a look at the new moultries and the coverts. Any others?

 

[muddyboots]

I have covert black 60. I like it.

 

[Southern Sportsman]

If you decide on the covert, which I recommend, you wont beat this price. I ordered a couple of these a few weeks ago.

http://m.ebay.com/itm?itemId=301293993069

 

[W.Seay]

Covert black at wingsupply for $115

 

[conwaylale]

I've been using the E3 black flash this year and it works great. No problems or complaints

 

[Mr.Bro]

If you decide on the covert, which I recommend, you wont beat this price. I ordered a couple of these a few weeks ago.

http://m.ebay.com/itm?itemId=301293993069

Really interesting .Covert doesn't show a Extream Black 60 Infared. Is it infared or black flash?
Tell me more please.

 

[Shed Hunter]

If you decide on the covert, which I recommend, you wont beat this price. I ordered a couple of these a few weeks ago.

http://m.ebay.com/itm?itemId=301293993069

Really interesting .Covert doesn't show a Extream Black 60 Infared. Is it infared or black flash?
Tell me more please.

Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but black flash is infrared. In fact, what we call infrared (the red-glow cameras) are not IR.

I think there are two types of "black" flash cameras. Those that are true IR and those that produce a VERY faint glow.

 

[TheLBLman]

True "black" flash is invisible light.

There are 3 types of flashes widely available:

1) Traditional white flash
2) Red-Glow Infrared (what most people have been buying)
3) Invisible Black Flash (more expensive, but invisible light)

Unless the description uses the word "black", the cam is typically "red-glow" infrared which is visible, and sometimes spooks game worse than bright white traditional flash. I believe natural lightning has conditioned animals to not be so afraid of a white light flash, while "red" light may look more like faint light reflecting off a predator's eyes.

Most of the earlier cams advertising "invisible" and "infrared" were falsely advertising, since the light was just "low & red" compared to the bright white traditional flashes.

Personally, I have no use for the so-called "infrared" red-glow cams. Either use a traditional white flash (for vivid color nighttime pics, or go to invisible "black" flash when concerns are more about stealth than pic quality).

 

[TheLBLman]

FOR THE MONEY, that Covert Extreme Black 60 is probably the best value available now.
Covert EB60
http://covertscoutingcameras.com/produc ... -black-60/

While some other brands may be offering similar at a comparable price, no other brand has earned as good a reputation (among the Chinese-made cams) for after-the-sale service as Covert ---- and you should expect some problems with any cams made in China.

By comparison, some brands seem to be spending most of their budgets on advertising and celebrity endorsements, and can be hard to find when you have a problem with their cams.

If you want the best in reliability and nighttime images, Reconyx is better than Covert, and is priced accordingly. However, the Covert Extreme Black 60 will provide better daytime imagery than the best Reconyx. You can typically purchase 2 or 3 Black 60's for the price of one Reconyx.

Many people are also happy with the Covert MP8 Black unit. It differs from the Extreme Black 60 mainly by not having as much flash range and by shooting up to 8mp images (vs. the 12mp of the EB60). This MP8 costs a little less than the EB60, and operates on 8 AA's (vs. the 12 AA's of the EB60). I believe the MP8 would be fine for use over scrapes and salt licks, but would not have the extended flash range preferred over food plots/fields.

Covert MP8 Black
http://covertscoutingcameras.com/produc ... mp8-black/

 

[double browtine]

Wes- Thanks for the great information.

 

[BSK]

Stay away from the Cuddebacks. A client recently purchased 18 of the Cuddeback Ambush black-flash cameras, and although initially I was very impressed with the trigger speed and quality of the images, a month into using them I'll bet 1/3 of the cameras have already failed.

Stick with the Covert Black 60 or the Moultrie i990 or i880 series.

Personally, I use the Uway VH200B cameras, but that is the ONLY Uway model I recommend.

 

[double browtine]

I finally ordered a new camera. I found the covert mp8 on ebay for $115 with free shipping. It is from wing supply aka uncle lees in Greenville KY. Should have it by Wed next week.

 

[W.Seay]

You will love it, I have 4 of them and absolutely love them!!

 

[ttf909]

bummer man, i went to get my cams a few weeks back and my black flash and 2 i.r. were all gone along with the card from another cam. the landowner caught a trespassing p.o.s neighbor right where the cam was missing the card. thanks to mr ellis my crap is gone.

 

[TheLBLman]

Stay away from the Cuddebacks. . . . . . . .

Sage advise.

Perhaps the only good black flash cam may be one not made in China.

Running trail cams is supposed to be worthwhile and enjoyable, right?

I still believe the Covert brand may be "better, for the money" than the other brands, but am questioning the value of ANY cam "made in China", including Covert.

When you go to a lot of time, money, and trouble to run trail cams, then find out most haven't been working properly (if at all), at some point you realize it's crazy to keep trying to get different results with the same efforts (which may be using ANY cam of ANY brand manufactured in China).

My conclusion is the real cost of trail cams is not the money you pay for the initial purchase, but rather all the time and money you spend trying to use them. And when they don't work or only work half the time, or they're setting on the kitchen table waiting to be shipped back for repair or replacement, you're paying a very high price for even the cheapest of the Chinese cams.

If you want to really "price" the experience, the pricing equation should include cost per hour the cam is not working. And if it is working, how long before it fails, and how soon must you purchase a new one?

 

[BSK]

Wes,

A few years ago, I completely agreed with your position. However, progress has been made in the Chinese cam market (at least with some brands). Although hard numbers are virtually impossible to obtain, of the better Chinese-made cams, it appears first-year unit failure rates are down from their outrageously bad 30+% a few years ago to only around 10% now. That's still not up to American manufacturing standards, but it's much better than it used to be. In addition, the cost of the better Chinese-made cams is down from $300-400 from a few years ago to only $125-175. Considering the cost of American-made cams is holding extremely high (around $600), with the greatly reduced failure rate and much cheaper initial investment, I now buy only the Chinese cams.

In addition, the most popular American-made cam--Reconyx--has failed to upgrade the quality of their imagers. The pictures these cams take and their night-time illumination distances aren't even in the same league with the better Chinese cams.

If longevity of service was a person's ONLY concern, I would still recommend Reconyx. To date I have NEVER had a Reconyx unit totally fail. But considering I need clear images day and night from my trail-cams, I no longer recommend or personally use Reconyx cams. Especially considering that I can get much better images from far cheaper cameras that have greatly improved their durability of late.

 

[Vermin93]

I agree with BSK. I am getting very good performance out of my Chinese-made Covert, Spypoint and Plotwatcher Pro cams. I am running a new Chinese-made Browning Dark Ops cam that is doing well and I even have two Stealth Cam Unit Ops cams that are taking excellent video and performing real well so far. I just picked up a new 2014 Stealth Cam G42 black flash for $119 shipped. The small size of this micro cam is impressive and the reviews have been very good. I'm looking forward to trying it and comparing it to the Covert MP8 black and Browning Dark Ops cams that I'm running. They are all black flash and are all about the same size and price.

I have two WGI cams and one Hunten cam that I am not very happy with. Those are brands I will not consider in the near future.

 

[TheLBLman]

BSK,

While I can't disagree with most of what you said, like you said, it's hard to get good numbers, much less evaluate the true cost of those failures. If ANY cam only works half the time, and only works at all for a year or two . . . . . .

And it's a rare cam (made in China) that truly works "as advertised".

In addition, the most popular American-made cam--Reconyx--has failed to upgrade the quality of their imagers. The pictures these cams take and their night-time illumination distances aren't even in the same league with the better Chinese cams.

Reconyx has now FINALLY recently made an upgrade:

http://www.reconyx.com/shop/XR6_UltraFi ... /d/338/253

This one has my attention, and may be replacing all the "junk" cams I've accumulated. Even though one of these may cost twice as much as a "top end" Chinese cam, I expect Reconyx to last AT LEAST twice as long, and be AT LEAST twice as reliable. Are those expectations reasonable? If so, the Reconyx cost less, over time, even without consider the cost of the greater failures and frustrations many of us have been experiencing with multiple brands of Chinese-made junk.

And speaking more about pic quality, even though Reconyx has been a little behind on the megapixals (3.1 vs 5.0 to 8.0 with most other makes), Reconyx has been ahead of the others on a lack of blurriness (with nighttime images).

I'll take a 3.1 mp clear image anytime, over an 8.0 mp blur.

 

[BSK]

And it's a rare cam (made in China) that truly works "as advertised".

That used to be true, but I've not purchased a Chinese cam in several years that didn't function as advertised. They are all working just as advertised.

Reconyx has now FINALLY recently made an upgrade:

http://www.reconyx.com/shop/XR6_UltraFi ... /d/338/253

This one has my attention, and may be replacing all the "junk" cams I've accumulated. Even though one of these may cost twice as much as a "top end" Chinese cam...

Actually, it costs 4 to 5 times as much as some of the decent Chinese cams. Some good Chinese cams are available for $125. A big difference exists between twice as much and 4+ times as much.

I expect Reconyx to last AT LEAST twice as long, and be AT LEAST twice as reliable. Are those expectations reasonable? If so, the Reconyx cost less, over time, even without consider the cost of the greater failures and frustrations many of us have been experiencing with multiple brands of Chinese-made junk.

Again, I too accumulated a bunch of Chinese junk over the years. But that hasn't been the case over the last three years. Every Chinese cam I've purchased over the last three years worked perfectly right out-of-the-box and is still working today. Of the modern varieties of Chinese cams, the only failures I've had are on units 4 or more years old.

And speaking more about pic quality, even though Reconyx has been a little behind on the megapixals (3.1 vs 5.0 to 8.0 with most other makes), Reconyx has been ahead of the others on a lack of blurriness (with nighttime images).

Reconyx has always been way ahead of the curve when it comes to reducing motion blur. However, their pictures--both night and day--have always suffered from extreme fuzziness. For what I use trail-cams for, I need crisp, sharp-edged images. The Chinese cams excel at this, although do suffer the problems of motion blur.

At this time (and I haven't seen images from the new Reconyx), the Chinese cams have it over the Reconyx for my uses.

And for me, the critical features are:

Night illumination distance
Crispness of images day and night
Average of $50/year lifetime cost
Battery life (will run for a year on a single set of lithium AAs)


Currently, a Reconyx would need to last 12+ years to equal the lifetime cost I'm getting from the newer generation of Chinese cams. That may be possible, but I don't know. My oldest Reconyx is going on its 7th year.

 

[HUNTTNKY]

From my experience and witnessing roughly 50 late model China cams being used on the farms I hunt, predominantly Moultrie, Covert, and Browning...and, my fingers almost don't want to type the following, also Stealth, SpyPoint, and Cuddeback. I still find to be a 20-30% failure rate within the first 3 months of operation of the first three. The second three, I would say 30-50% failure rate. As for Cuddeback, that might actually be right out of the box.

Back to the original post: I pick Covert as the BEST china made camera due to their excellent customer service, if it breaks, they replace it in a short turnaround most times, with a new cam. I think it's a crap shoot with the rest on how they will handle CS, some days good, some bad.

Oh and Covert is based out of KY...another good reason.

 

[HUNTTNKY]

Someone needs to do a test...buy 10 of each of the top 3 cams mentioned above, at one time...run all the same way (same batteries, SD cards, days in field, settings, etc.) for 90 days then report back the number of each set that failed.

Then, continue with the remaining fully functional cams and run a long term (6 month) test, and report back.

Maybe split the effort among 3 willing soles...I volunteer for 10 Covert Black 60 cameras...now just need a person for 10 Moultrie 990i, and a person for 10 Browning Spec Ops... Any takers?

 

[BSK]

If you're paying for the cams, sure I'm in! ;)

 

[TheLBLman]

And it's a rare cam (made in China) that truly works "as advertised".

That used to be true, but I've not purchased a Chinese cam in several years that didn't function as advertised. They are all working just as advertised.

Personally, I've only had one (1) single (Chinese) unit that has thus far "worked as advertised", and that one is a 2012 model Covert Black 60.

Working "as advertised" should mean capturing pictures and operating properly at least 90% of the time (assuming no user error)? Should it also mean a particular cam works properly for at least 6 months without failing, or how many months' use constitutes working as advertised?

I count having to get a warranty replacement on a cam (with the replacement working as advertised) as a failed cam. I typically lose at least a few weeks of prime use, as it often takes experiencing the cam not working properly for an extended time period before its problem(s) get worse or the cam totally fails.

Considering many of us only run our cams about 26 weeks a year or less, losing weeks from each failure, and a failure rate of about 1 in 3 (my experience over past couple years), I'm often finding myself using two (2) cams at a site, just to insure one of them is working properly. More reliable cams mean we need fewer cams.

My recent trail cam experiences have been in the same ballpark of HuntTNky's experiences. And if I go back to when Uways were getting rave reviews on the trail-cam forums, I had 5 consecutive units that failed, totally failed, within 3-6 months, with some arriving DOA (not even powering up with the first set of batteries). I agree, the reliability TREND is improving, but it still seems a crap-shoot to me.

 

[Vermin93]

Some of you seem to have very bad luck. I have 6 Spypoint cams from 2011 (the FL-A model) that have been in the field for over 3 years straight and I haven't had a single issue with any of them. I have several other Spypoint cams that I've been running for a year or two with no issues. They are workhorses. I've been running 3 Covert Code Black cams and 3 Covert MP6 Black cams for a little less than a year. No issues. Got 2 Stealth Cam Unit Ops that have only been running for a couple of months. They've had no issues so far. My Plotwatcher Pros are cranking out a few thousand pics a day with no issues for the past several months. I have not had a single cam completely die on me. I have had 2 WGI cams that have partially failed (one takes all white pics during day and the other takes all black pics at night), but that's it. I guess I'm lucky.

 

[TheLBLman]

I have had 2 WGI cams that have [color:#FF0000]partially failed[/color] (one takes all white pics during day and the other takes all black pics at night), but that's it.

"Partially" failed?

I guess part of the issue is in how one defines "failure". If a cam is not taking usable pics (when and as it should), it's a "failed" cam to me.

Of what value is an "all white" or "all black" image?

Other than that, maybe the manufacturers don't mess with Texas, and are sending most of their good cams to you there. :D

 

[HUNTTNKY]

Most of the issues I see seem to run in batches. If I get 6 cams on a good run, maybe only one will fail...6-12 months later I might buy another 6 cameras of the same model, and 3 or 4 of the 6 will fail...fail, like condensation/leaking, short circuit (melt down internally), all black pics at night, eat batteries within a week (likely short circuit too), run away triggers, controls not working properly. Of the ones that work properly for the first 12 months, I typically don't have one last longer than 3 years without a major degradation in performance, primarily picture quality, I think mainly due to plastic lens breakdown/yellowing, reduced LED intensity, battery consumption increase, memory card recording issues, on and on...

If I had Vermin and BSK's China luck...I'd be more content too...I'm just beat-down... I'd say my addiction will get the better of me again, hopefully I don't graduate to Reconyx to feed it...