2006 News and Updates - Archive
 
Announcement from Moultrie Cameras customer Service
11/08/2006:  The management of this fine company was taken by surprise when we let them know that there were some issues as to their response time with folks dealing with their customer service. They have told us that this is being dealt with and improvements should be seen immediately.

 

Update on Leaf River Products (updated 09/17/2006)

I spent over an hour on the phone in an attempt to get a working contact E mail address for Leaf River. By chance I ended up talking to the owner and was able to gather a much better understanding of their operations. Every single question was answered and I came away with a lot of product information. The method of preparing a product for placement in a catalog such as Cabelas, starts the year before and once everything is settled on things cannot be changed. Thus a year old design is coming out in a catalog yet in fact there may have been several upgrades to the product during that year waiting for the catalog to be published. These upgrades are not shown in the catalog. Other than some of the outdoor product shows the manufacture does not have a way to let folks know about improvements to their products. During our discussion I found that Leaf river has made some very good improvements to their current models like the new IRX extended external flash for their 3BU IR cam (that is equipped with the external port). This will be a hot item for most of you IR lovers (you home brew folks will also want to jump on this). Other improvements are related to trigger time and once we get our hands on the latest models we will try to confirm this. A good amount of time was spent discussing the “quick shot” feature that they use. This is a motion activated series of three pictures and it will only take the picture when motion is present. Other cameras use what they call burst mode and this is just three pictures in a row. We spoke about the sensing issues we encountered during the 6SS review and he felt that that particular camera probably was defective in some manner. We will be getting another camera to re do those tests. The old Vibrashine web site is for their other products and the new www.myleafriver.com is the new address. The contact us on this new site does actually work, and we tested it while we were on the phone. All you Leaf River fans and all those dissatisfied other brand fans should visit their new site and go to the products page and look around. The new IRX is not available in the catalogs but I think that if you asked just right and was willing to shell out the $50 dollars they would ship you one if you have a compatible 3BU. If you do not have a compatible 3BU they can also ship you one of those to go along with that IRX. They have a couple of multitasking folks that are manning the answering of E mails and this time of year they are really jumping but you will most definitely receive an answer to your questions. I can see why there is so many Leaf River fans out there. Bill

09-17-06 Update:  We have received the late 06 versions of the DC-2 BU, iR-3BU, and the new DC-6SS. All of our initial findings were that these cameras work very well, there have been upgrades that should make these cameras appear on the top of any prospective buyers shopping list. Please read the full reviews on each of these cameras. Bill

 
2006 Cuddeback Cameras (updated 09/03/2006)
We were a little put out when the promised cams did not arrive on schedule for testing. Even with a call to resolve that matter has failed to achieve any results. Because of this fact we have had to depend on trying to monitor the outdoor forums for issues related to this cam. The results so far is that the cam does have reported issues related to narrow IR flash, not wanting to write to the memory card, dropping the batteries when using the screw to attach it to the tree, locking cable not shipped with the unit, and battery holder problems. We have a dealer associated with our forum that has seemed to go the distance to support those folks that have purchased from him but we have also seen that the manufacturer is becoming a little distant to these new issues. Not having this cam in our hands to help support the buyers has really began to make the situation even greater and we do apologize for this lack of support for the frequent visitors to our site for good reliable information. As of now we are going to recommend that potential buyers hold off for a while on the purchase of this cam until the folks at Non Typical have a chance to get on top of these issues and offer the support that we have been use to in the past. This will probably be an outstanding product as the 1.3 and 3.0 are, both of those camera also had some issues which were quickly resolved. Word on the street is that Non Typical is well aware of these problems and is in the process of taking corrective action. Probably would not be a good idea to just buy one off the shelf just yet.
 
08-09-06 Update: We did eventually get our hands on all three of the new Cudde cams. The Expert, The Excite, and the No flash IR. We found a series of issues which we discussed with the folks at Non Typical plus we wrote complete reviews on all.

We are starting to see reports of users of the three new 06 Cudde models where insects like ants are moving in and setting up house inside the camera. This means that there are openings large enough for the insects to enter and do their damage. The reports also say if any of these cameras are damaged because of insects, that damage is outside warranty and Non Typical will not cover it. Ants are attracted to electronic devices. We have seen where ants can completely fill up the inside of a electrical device in just a matter of a couple of days and it will be completely damaged. If the openings are that large it is reasonable to assume that moisture could also enter the cam.

Please see our camera review section (http://www.chasingame.com/camerareviews.htm) for the results. We still would have reservations about recommending any of these cams. Non Typical is an outstanding company and we expect that they will be working hard to gain back their place in the scouting camera arena.

08-10-06 Update: We have used ortho home defense insecticide for a number of years in our homes and businesses. One of the choices for using this chemical insecticide concoction was the lack of that terrible insecticide odor and its very good effectiveness. My thoughts were to take a Cudde cam and spray the inside and let it dry and install the batteries and put it out for a test to see if the smell bothered the deer. I would assume that it would not, being that it is inside the cam. If this should work it might be an answer to the new development where the ants are setting up house inside some of the new cams. We found that this spray is very residual and will kill months after application. My plan will be to actually hang the cam on the corn feeder and put another cam to watch the reaction of the animals around the feeder. This will also be viewable on our live web cam which should be back up shortly provided all goes well. This test will begin tomorrow.

Click here for the results of this test.

 

8-19-06 Update: A continuous stream of complaints have been coming in, and a good portion of them are dealing with what is being told to folks who are calling Cudde customer service about the issues they have found on the cameras they have purchased. The pat answer seems to be "no we have not heard of that problem before". We made a special effort to inform Non Typical if these issues with the expectation that everything would be addressed in a timely manor. We

are monitoring 50+ outdoor forums looking for issues that we may have missed during our reviews in order to keep our viewers informed the best we can. Strangely enough a large portion of the threads dealing with Cudde issues
were somehow gone and no longer available. This week the forums are filled back up with Cudde Customer concerns. We have addressed two of the main issues-water leaks and ants in the cameras- The case design issues and poor battery life
along with a battery holder problems are just a few things that this company needs to pay attention to in order to re gain the respect of all those old and present customers.

The following is a link to our forum and a thread dealing with Problems/Praise for the 2006 Cuddeback cameras.  You might want to check what people are saying.  Get comfortable as there is a lot to read and digest:

09-03-06 Update: After receiving a number of complaints about what folks are reading on certain Cudde vendor websites boasting certain specifications compared to our findings, we are forced once again to defend our selves. I spent the after noon scanning the web looking at what advertisements are saying about the new Cudde cams for 06. We found that even though Non Typical has a claim to certain specifications, we found things like the No flash as having a ¾ second trigger time when it is actually 3 seconds and other things like coming with a supplied compact flash card which we have never seen. The claim to 6 month battery life, 60 ft IR flash range, being waterproof, not making noise (all digital flash cameras click when the standard flash goes off), coming with a supplied strap, Some folks may find this petty but if I ordered a cam off one of these sites and it didn’t have the advertised ¾ second trigger time and would fill up with water or insects when placed in the field and did not have the card or strap, I would be “to put it mildly” pissed. We are hoping that these claims are true, because they are problems we outlined in our reviews and just possibly Non Typical has made some changes unknown to us.

http://www.chasingame.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=803