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2010
WGI IR5D 5mp 19 count IR red flash Camera Review
Early on into the year we had been in contact with the good people down
at BA products and it seems now they have just left town
and failed to let us know. We have no new information
about their cameras but the sales people at Dicks and
Academy was wondering if we were going to be getting the
word out on these cameras. They have some 2010 cams on
the shelf and no one knows about them. Today I got
handed a 5 MP to test so this will be the second not
announced cam that we are testing and still no word from
them.
If we had not liked the little IR 4 last year so much and the way people
took to it I would have probably just handed this one
back and went on with my business. I just had seen on
one of the forums where the IR-4 camera thread is going
on its 5th page and still going strong. I
immediately began to read this cameras package and the
way it looks is that this is just an interpolated IR-4
with a pretty camo case and probably some internal
upgrades. The little ir3 sure surprised us with its
function and this cam has one up on that cam because the
delay can be turned down to 30 seconds which is much
better but not exactly the 10 to 15 second delay
everyone raves about.
The size is 7 X 7 ½ X 3 with a nice fall color camouflage frond door.
Two small plastic latches are used to close the door.
There is a full weather proof gasket between the door
and the case. There are no strap slots on the back, just
the tree gripper protrusions. Each corner has a bungee
loop for mounting. They supply the bungee cords,
batteries, SD 2 gig card, and USB cable. The price is
just under a hundred dollars and you will not even to
have to buy batteries and card. The door has only one
window for the array and there is two gasket sealed
holes for the PIR and Main lens to stick through. Below
that is the two LED status indicators. Inside the door
is the two battery compartment which holds two C cells +
side down and the main LCD and switches for programming
the time date and also the on/off switch. There is a USB
port and SD card slot near the LCD also.
This is a very simple to operate and program camera and the manual is
well written and easy to follow. I would like to see the
specification sheet included in the manual like it is
displayed on the package. After the package is thrown
out you loose the spec sheet. There is the external
battery port on the back of the camera. This location is
just not cool because when the plug is in the camera it
holds the bottom of the camera off the tree and then you
have to shim the top of the camera to gain proper aim.
Well at least it does have the facility to use external
battery. The optional WGI external battery setup is one
of the best we have seen. Later if I can talk them out
of one I will test it rather than fiddle with it on the
store shelf. This company does offer accessory security
brackets and boxes for their cameras. These security
brackets seemed to me to be well designed and adequate
for most cases, if the bad guy is well enough equipped a
heavy chain and lock will not even be enough.
Made
it to the shop to do the first trigger tests and that
went well and without a hitch. My readings on that were
just around the two second time frame. The process of
opening and closing the door on this camera is a royal
pain in the butt. The latch design allows them to flop
every which way and to close the door either the top
latch would go in the crack or the bottom latch would
manage to slip in the crack. To hold the camera steady
on the tree and hold both latches out of the way and
close the door was a madding experience. I know this is
a small issue but it ranks up there at the top as far as
aggravation when you are trying to get as much doe in
the time you have left. Shut the lights off and measured
the flash duration and it was a little longer than what
we like to see but faster than some we have tested this
month. The first pictures with flash and a couple with
good sun to my back looked a little fuzzier than the
recent tests on the ir3c but we can judge that better on
the 8 plate range later. So far this cam has not blew my
skirt up like the IR-4 did but maybe it will grow on us
as we get further into the review. Keeping everything in
line and doing our testing of cameras one after the
other is hard especially when I look back down the line
at what is waiting and I want very much to see the
results on those cameras. So I just still go ahead and
give each and everyone the time needed but another day
of the “latches” might accelerate things a little.
07-03-2010 update: Trigger times were just
over the two second mark for both with and without
flash. We then spent some time on the flash range and it
would only pump light out to about 40 feet but the
pictures in that range were above average. The day
range/8plate showed decent contrast and the 8 plate was
clear which is not too bad for the camera price range.
The latches were still a pain but once learned they can
be managed.
07-04-2010 update: The sensing distance
came out to be 55 feet at 78 degrees and is now on video
duty on the hill for sample video information
07-11-2010 update:
Just found out that those video tests turned out to be
pictures instead. The day color pictures are just pretty
good and show very good detail. The color match for the
area is very good and no saturation. I like what I see
here in the day pictures. The 30 second delay gets a big
bump over
Moultrie’s one minute and the
picture quality is also better except for what we seen
from the new IR-50. The night pictures show great
contrast where the black is black and the white is white
with no mixing in of the typical grey haze. The flash is
weak though but our camera had the misfortune of being
aimed a little low during these tests. We are seeing a
lot of camera being offered this year for under a
hundred dollars.
08-14-2010 update:
Ton of more pictures and for some reason I cant get
Anthony to hit the video switch on this camera. We got a
few dark pictures during the transition but that could
have something to do with the battery life. Maybe we
will get videos next week. Anthony responded that
he has too many cameras on the hill right now and in
order to ensure quality on sample photos, this camera
will have to wait until tomorrow.
08-22-2010 update:
The batteries finally gave it up and it took 730
pictures and lasted 52 days. This is not too bad for a 4
cell camera. We still have to do the video samples and
we can close this review.
10-04-2010 update:
This poor camera died an untimely death and we did not
get the video samples. We have concluded that we have
had it too long to return to the vendor and it is to
late in the year to send it back for repair due to the
new cams (2011) coming in so we are just going to have
to close this review. Looks like we have another decoy
cam to put on the shelf along with the camtrackker.
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Trigger Tests
(without flash 2.06 seconds)
(with flash
2.09 seconds)
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Flash Range |
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