20 Best Hunting Camera For Filming (2023 Updated)

I’m writing this review to pass along some technical observations about the SD card and recording modes on the Stealth Cam STC-G42NG that I think many other purchasers would be interested to know. I bought this at Canadian Tire in June 2018.

The camera takes good infra-red photos and videos in pitch black darkness, and in video mode it will also record audio, which is an uncommon feature on trail cameras. You can choose between video clips of 10-180 seconds (with audio included) or still photos.

There’s no way to do both, or to alternate between video and photo. The case is rugged and nothing about it feels cheap. It has a standard tripod screw hole which is great if you want to use it with clamps you can get for photography.

The PIR (passive infra-red) sensor works exactly as expected, but it has to be pointed exactly at the target. The camera has a good field of view, but the PIR has to be aligned to where you expect motion.

It has a test mode where it blinks when there’s motion, so you can do a “walk test”. Even when properly aligned, blowing leaves and waving tree branches easily trigger it; however, I think the same could be said about any trail camera so I’m not faulting this model.

The box says that it can record onto an SD card of up to 64GB; the manual says nothing about the maximum SD card size; and the company’s website says 32GB is the maximum. I found that I could use up to 32GB.

When I tried two different 64GB cards, the camera said “card error” on its display. On other review sites, I read people saying that using a micro-SD with a full-size SD adapter won’t work. I can’t really see any technical reason why that shouldn’t work, and in fact a 32GB micro-SD with adapter works just fine for me.

The camera records video as MJPEG, which means that it’ll create very big video files (unlike an encoding format like H. 264 which would be 10 times smaller for the same quality). MJPEG is pretty typical for things like home security cameras, and it’s probably the norm for trail cameras, so I wouldn’t call this a fault.

A 10-second high-motion clip was 23. 4 MB (24550512 bytes) in a typical capture for me. A 10-second low-motion clip–meaning that nothing was moving in the scene–was 17. 2 MB (18128000 bytes), so it’s only slightly smaller.

The following is what Media Player Classic reports about the encoding format: Video: MJPG 1280×720 29. 898fps 18713kbps [V: mjpeg, yuvj420p, 1280×720, 18713 kb/s]; Audio: PCM 11025Hz mono 176kbps [A: pcm_s16le, 11025 Hz, 1 channels, s16, 176 kb/s].

By the way, you can switch the video from 1280×720 to 720×480. Switching the video frame size in the custom setting affects the “quick modes” as well, which is something the manual doesn’t make clear.

All in all, I’m happy with it.

This is an update to the review I wrote 2 years ago. These cameras have been phenomenal! First of all, you may have to tweak your settings to your own liking, to obtain the best results. once you’ve done this, just set it and leave.

Cams have been left out 24/7 for past 2+ years and still going strong. We have -40C and colder temperatures here in January and February, and they still fire. Daytime pics and videos are very good, and nightime pics are good enough that my cameras have already helped me catch a thief at our cabin! I will be replacing my other cheaper cameras with these as time goes on.

Through trial and error, the best batteries for this camera is the Energizer Lithium Advanced, which depending on amount of pics/videos captured will last easily 6+ months and not fail you in the winter months.

Videos are great quality day and good quality night – and seems the microphone is very sensitive to capturing sound when the video is recording, definately a bonus. The PIR have a good range, and I’ve captured animals as small as a rabbit at 80 feet out.

By no means are these images professional quality compared to a dedicated camera, but for capturing cute furry animals and people poking around your property, can’t go wrong with this camera.

Bought this camera in October and wanted to wait to see how it performed in the winter months before providing a review. Really happy with this purchase. So it is January now- since about end of November till this day we have had consistently cold temperatures below -8 degrees celsius.

For almost 10 days now we have had temps below -25 consistently. I am pretty impressed with this camera- even though the manual says it is only good to -10 degrees celsius, it has continued to work even through 3 days last week of below -35 degree celsius weather.

It takes very clear and high quality still pictures – day and night- no concerns. It takes really clear video however although the video is clear, there is always intermittent static lines occurring throughout the videos- in above 0 degree celsius temps and in the below -30 degree temps.

That is the only reason I gave it a 4 star rating- the video static. Great buy for sure – the original batteries I put in it 3 months ago are still working. It does truly catch motion at about 80 yards – day or night- I have tested it.

Two thumbs up on this purchase. also, important to note , it also includes a tree-strap so you don’t have to buy one. It is so good I have left it up full time now and operating to use as a security camera on the property.

I bought two of these units (Core DS Low Glow) in January 2021 and I have been using them for about nine months so far to survey the wildlife in woodland near my home in Wiltshire (South-West UK). I bought them on the basis of several favourable comparative reviews.

However, I have now reached the conclusion that the reviewers must have been simply recommending the devices with the best specifications on paper rather than using them in the field themselves. The main selling point of this comparatively expensive model is that it has separate sensors for daytime and nighttime recording, allowing each to be optimised for a single function, supposedly giving improved image quality.

The high pixel count is presumably also a selling point because I can’t see any other reason to want 30 megapixels in a device of this type. Good quality high-resolution images require a low-noise sensor and an optical system with high resolving power, such as a professional SLR, and even those don’t usually have more than 20 megapixel sensors.

Realistically the Core DS cameras can’t make use of any more than about 2 – 4 megapixels, and having a high-resolution sensor simply means smaller pixels with worse light-gathering power, and therefore increased noise.

I suspect that the sensor is actually lower resolution than advertised and the extra pixels come from upscaling the images, which don’t improve quality but simply make the files larger. My experience is that the image quality is quite poor, and while on the whole it is good enough to identify which species are visiting the site and (in video mode) to show their behaviour, it certainly isn’t adequate to make a decent print.

The manufacturer’s quality control really seems to be very poor. With one of the two cameras, the right-hand half of all of the daylight images was blurred, suggesting that the sensor was not quite aligned with the optical system.

I returned it, and the infrared images of the replacement are blurred in the centre, again suggesting an alignment problem. This sort of problem should be picked up before the units are shipped, and at the retail price I would expect much better.

Another problem is that the camera doesn’t seem to be very good at sensing the ambient light level when switching between daylight and infrared modes, with the result that at dawn and dusk I get very badly underexposed daylight images where infrared would have been appropriate.

These are times of day when many species are at their most active but the images here are unusable. The camera takes 6 AA batteries but it is quite fussy about them. I started off using Duracell alkaline batteries but had very inconsistent results, with many of the video files being corrupted and unreadable on my computer.

I now use Energizer lithium ion non-rechargeable batteries and the problem has gone away except when the batteries are starting to run down. I get about three months’ use out of them. I don’t know any batteries on the market with higher capacity, and this falls a long way short of the one year claimed by the manufacturer, but three months’ use is fine for my purposes.

The cameras come with a strap to attach them to trees. With young, upright trees with straight trunks and no branches then this works well. However, in my local woodland none of the trees grow like this and if you follow the instructions you end up with the camera looking at the sky or the ground.

However, there are third-party brackets with ballheads (such as those made by Camtraptions) which overcome this problem. Another problem is that of positioning the camera so that it shows what you want.

There is a tiny LCD screen at the front with a fairly narrow viewing angle which shows a live image, but it is very difficult to use it to line up the camera, particularly as you can only see it clearly if you are standing in front and blocking the view.

This is poor design in my opinion, and could be greatly improved by adding a hinge, or even by having the option of reversing the image (like a smartphone in selfie mode) which would at least make alignment more intuitive and wouldn’t cost anything to program.

I am mainly using these trail cameras to see what the wildlife is doing, and to scout out sites for an SLR camera trap (and also overlooking the SLR as a troubleshooting aid). For these purposes they do the job, but they are at the top end of the market with regard to price, and I don’t feel that either the image quality or the manufacturing quality control justifies the high price.

purchased a 119977C because my first one has been flawless, new one failed right out of the box. Had to wait seven months for a warranty replacement. Received a 119977M to replace it. This one came with no manual and found new program option with no explanation, Pro settings, so I selected it and put camera into action.

Changed card after one week. Only had 20 videos and found all night videos were limited to 15 seconds. Turned off Pro settings and had 58 videos second week but still only 15 seconds at night. went to web set to read manual for camera and it had not information on settings either.

My original camera has also stopped working after 2 years. The last three cameras I have purchased from bushnell have all been a big disappointment.

One of my 8 game cameras went bad after many years. Purchased 3 of these cameras since the price was so great. When the box arrived from rogers, one of the cameras had been opened and used. How do I know, a chip was still in it.

Should have been my first clue. If you want a camera that takes great day time pictures this is a good one for the price. If your looking for night pictures. This is not the one for you. If your moving the picture is blurry.

If your standing 15 yards and not moving, still a little blurry on humans. My dog was ok when standing and blurry when moving.

I purchased two of these cameras and doing lots of in house testing, both day and night, a couple days later I bought 4 more. A well built camera, very easy to set up with many functions. Using the custom settings gives a lot more choices as the others are preset.

Various brands of SD cards were used in the test including the micro with the SD adapter. All performed flawlessly. I used 8GB and 32GB cards. The cards must be Class 10. I tested both brand new cards and ones previously used in other cameras, formatting in my computer, then in the camera.

They all worked with no problem. Battery power can go quite a bit lower than some other camera brands but when this happens it will not work at night due to being a NO Glow (black flash) camera. Walking up to the camera at night there was absolutely no visible glow as seen by the human eye (totally black).

Being in house testing: 1)colors were very bright and clear with no blur. 2)a detection zone test was not done. Here is what did not work: 1)cards can only be viewed on the computer (not sure about a laptop as I do not have one), this is do to the firmware that the camera uses.

I have a Moultrie 4. 3 viewer which is limited to 16GB SD card. This would not work with cards used in this camera. 2)searching for the serial number, information from the internet said to look under the gasket near the mounting bolt socket.

3)checking with a temperature heat gun aimed in the same direction the camera faced, the camera read 10 to 12 degrees higher Fahrenheit. 4)these cameras will not power up using Lithium Ultimate batteries, but switch to alkaline they powered up.

All batteries single and in the battery tray were tested with a digital volt meter, both before and randomly during the tests. I sent an email to Stealth in forming them to pass this information onto their supplier (China) so future corrections could be made.

I’ve been running two of these cameras for about 4 months now and have mixed feelings. It does take very nice pictures, when it triggers. I noticed about a month after use that they didn’t seem to be firing all the time.

I put one of my 5 year old moultries beside one and sure enough the moultrie had 6X the pictures that this stealth cam did on the exact same settings. I’ve noticed that it mostly misses night images but it did miss a big buck that stood in front of the cameras for 8 minutes- moultrie took 4 pictures and the stealth took none.

I had bad luck years ago with stealth and hoped that maybe they have improved the last couple years but it’s all basically the same issues that I’ve had in the past with stealth. The temperature hasn’t even gotten below 0 degrees yet and I’m sure the issues will just worsen once it does.

I imagine I’ll be moving on to a different brand again.

Im having problems with it. The camera stops recording and says the card is full, when it is still mostly empty. It doesnt play nicely with rechargeable batteries. The manual does caution against them.

But my other 3 trail cams are happy with them. If the battery level indicator is accurate, this cam uses up batteries faster like my older ones did, not slowly like my newer ones do. On the plus side, the night images are better than my other trail cams.

And its case colors blend well in our forest.

I bought two of these as the combo set. I received them the proceeded to try these cameras out. They did not take pictures, I read the manual over and tried reformatting the SD cards the cameras came with but no success.

I figured I would try some cards that work well in other cameras, SD cards would not read or be wrote on. In all I got two defective cameras and sent them back. Bushnell received my returns on 6/30/22, it is 7/25/22 and I’ve not received my refund.

Eight emails and five calls in. Save your self some time and money these cameras are not even worth what you pay for them.

I’ve been using reconyx since 2011 and the reliability is unmatched. The app is easy and intuitive to use. Sorting and filtering pictures is very easy along with managment of settings. Batteries do burn up quicker in the cell cams, but that’s the trade off you get when you add cell service.

You can expect roughly 2-5k pics with every detection transmission and closer to 10k+ with once daily transmission. The cell cameras work in areas where my cell phone will not. These cameras do not miss anything when set up correctly.

Do the walk test and you have a perfect understanding of what will and won’t trigger your camera. The warranty program is unmatched. Yes it does take a month or so for your camera to be repaired, but it happens no questions asked! All 20 of my cameras are still operational going back to the HC500’s.

One argument I constantly hear is that you can afford X number of cheaper cameras versus a reconyx. That’s certainly true and what’s also true is that you WILL get less photos and those cameras WILL fail much sooner than a reconyx.

You get what you pay for.

Bought a RECONYX cell camera last year after trying a bunch of Spypoints due to reviews and price. I’m in a group of 5 hunters. Half of our 10 SPYPOINT had to be sent back for repair within a month. Batteries don’t last two months and the solar option doesn’t work at all in the woods.

Tried a RECONYX because we used the non cell versions for years and they were incredible. The cell version does not disappoint. It’s great. Batteries have been running now for two months and still at 90%.

Didn’t have to change batteries at year over 3 months. The trigger speed and number of photos that it takes is unbelievable. Had to slow it down because it takes too many pics. We can’t speed the other brands up fast enough.

They talk about fast trigger speeds but something is different. This camera will take 10-1 pics. You get the whole deer in trails also, not the rear end. These cameras cost a lot but like everything else in life, you get what you pay for.

I purchased two based on reputation of Reconyx, estimated battery life, and 5 year warranty. First set of lithium batteries lasted two months. Purchased solar panel to take care of that issue but as I went to install and turn camera back on I got “modem error”.

Had to pull it out and send in only to receive email it will take 4 to 5 weeks just to look at it. I bought Bushnell camera at same time that also had issue and had to pulled it for repair. Bushnell sent me new camera immediately.

Not so with these guys. Nice options on camera but in my opinion not worth the high cost.

I sort of took a chance on this because it had so many bad reviews, but I am very happy that I did. I installed the software update from Browning (customer service was awesome, gave me the update instructions and file the same day I requested them).

I have not gotten the camera out in the wilderness but it has been running/testing in my back yard for a week on a 5 minute all day time-lapse, at 26mp setting, and it has been working awesome. Alkaline batteries still read full.

It has only taken about 12 to 15 night photos, mostly of me dinking around in the dark seeing how it works, and bunnies, but they all look great. All the time-lapse videos are really clear and crisp.

I am really happy with this camera so far, it is easy to use, takes great pictures during the day and the night, I still have to test out the videos as I have not tried that setting yet since there is basically no movement in my back yard during the night.

The software update must have corrected the issues others have had as I am not having any of those issues.

Just purchased my second Browning Strike Force. I’ve been using my first one for just over a year so far. I’m really happy with the trigger speed and especially the fast recovery time in between photos.

The picture quality is very good and the detection range is outstanding. Also the metal clip on the strap is a far better idea than the plastic ones on most other cameras. I’ve had two break in the past.

One from the cold, the other from plastic degradation due to sunlight. I was mistakenly disappointed in the longevity of the camera at first. Stopped taking pictures at night after only four months of use.

Contacted Browning and they recommend lithium batteries, said that alkaline batteries give off a gas which in time creates the corrosion you sometimes see when batteries are left in for to long. The technician said you may not see signs of corrosion yet, but it is there.

And that although spinning the batteries in place will clean the contact surface, just attaching the camera to a tree can move them slightly out of position again. They recommended cleaning all contact surfaces with denatured alcohol every time you replace the batteries when using alkaline and yearly with lithium.

Well after cleaning every contact surface on the camera as well as the batteries, bingo works like new again. Did the same to another brand of camera which I had replaced with the Browning and it started working again as well.

I’ve tossed three cameras in the past thinking that they were possibly damaged due to lightning strikes. I feel this tip is something that should be in the owner’s manual. All in all I have been happy with the Browning Strike Force HD.

I have 3 of these on one lease and about to buy a few more for another property we hunt. When setting them up make sure you select the appropriate cell phone provider because you’ll run into issues. I had to return one and found out that it was an issue with me selecting Att vs Verizon in the set up.

HD pictures are incredible and the invisible infared doesn’t spook anything. I was initially receiving alerts not stop and had to schedule them to minimize the notifications for new pictures. Not sure why the ratings are so bad on this camera.

I started with one and eventually bought more and really enjoy the real time photos. Battery life is incredible as well although they use 16 AA batteries. I’m assuming the bad ratings are from folks that don’t have a good signal?.

The reveal gen 1 cell cams have been among the top cell cameras on the market at the best price/performance ratio- bang for your buck! (I own 8 Gen1 Reveal) and Tactacam was able to improve their next generation reveals by listening to what hunters want! The Reveal XB takes 24 MP pics and can record videos.

It is compatible with both ATT and Verizon and comes with both SIM cards in the box. Simply insert which carrier has the better signal in your area. The XB is very easy to set up through the Tactacam Reveal app- scan the bar code and the app will guide you step by step through the set up process.

Your phone will connect right to the camera and you will see image the camera sees on the screen if your phone, with a red line that indicates the movement detection zone of the camera, making it really easy to set up the camera in the perfect spot and at the perfect hight so you don’t miss anything! You can request videos sent to your phone and the camera is equipped with gps tracking, making it possible to track the location of the camera, should it start to wander.

For all the features the XB has, you will not find another cell trail camera remotely in the same price range that performs as well as the the Reveal XB does! Still…best bang for your buck!.

I have been using the tactacam reveal X for the past year now and love it!! I decided to get a couple of the tactacam XB cameras to try out and man I was not disappointed. First off there was a change in megapixel you jump from 16 to 24 , that 8 megapixels makes a huge difference on your image clarity, it seems to be just as durable as the reveal x and my reveal x has taken a beating from the weather the whole year it’s has been out and it’s still going strong.

The no glow IR technology on the XB is second to none, I had a concern about battery usage however to my surprise it has proved to have exceptional battery life, with a half second trigger speed, 80’+ detection range, it hides well and even in the most remote of locations will give you pictures in real-time right in the palm of your hand you just can’t beat the tactacam XB!!!.

I have been using the tactacam reveal X for the past year now and love it!! I decided to get a couple of the tactacam XB cameras to try out and man I was not disappointed. First off there was a change in megapixel you jump from 16 to 24 , that 8 megapixels makes a huge difference on your image clarity, it seems to be just as durable as the reveal x and my reveal x has taken a beating from the weather the whole year it’s has been out and it’s still going strong.

The no glow IR technology on the XB is second to none, I had a concern about battery usage however to my surprise it has proved to have exceptional battery life, with a half second trigger speed, 80’+ detection range, it hides well and even in the most remote of locations will give you pictures in real-time right in the palm of your hand you just can’t beat the tactacam XB!!!.

The first 1 was trash, but after speaking to a VERY Nice LADY at spypoint I received a RMA and was sent another one. This one takes quality picture’s and the solar panel is great! Everyone at spypoint seemed like i was the most important person they had to deal with that day.

Did purchase a battery charger and extra battery just in case. I have been using other camera’s that required AA batteries and that was costing me a fortune. The solar dark tells me the charge of both the internal battery and battery pack when i turn it on.

Saving money to purchase at least 2 more. Now if i can just figure out how to get it to take video it would be a blessing. EXTREMELY HAPPY! Camera is basically self contained. Turn it on and leave it.

I bought 4 cameras. Two with solar and 2 non solar. My advice if your going to buy the cameras get the solar. It’s usually only $49 difference and comes with battery pack. The non solar models do not have a battery pack and you get about 3-4 weeks on a set of battery’s.

The solar stay 100%. It will cost me $49 to upgrade the non solar to a battery pack which they claim will double your charge. The picture quality at night is terrible. Its fine during the day. The temperature displayed is wrong and you cannot calibrate.

I know SPYPOINT/Vosker prides itself as a Canadian company so I expected better.

I bought several SPYPOINT cameras. If you’re lucky you should get about 2 months out of one before it needs an update or it doesn’t work at all. Then you have to deal with customer service. they either don’t understand you, make promises and statements that aren’t true and do not send emails to back up their promises.

This is a terrible product and bad company to deal with. The pictures were okay when the camera did work but you could not read a licence plate from 25’ away even. I have owned a Link LTE , Link Dark , and a couple Link S cameras.

My review applies to all of these cameras and SPYPOINT itself because of the terrible customer service.