2012 Moultrie LX-50IR 5 MP 18 count red flash digital camera review

Soon after the ATA show we made up our list of cameras to potentially be included in this years review calendar. When I began to see some indication of this camera becoming available, I went to work trying to locate a source to purchase one. I could not find a single internet company that sold this camera that had any potential of even qualifying as a reliable dealer. Only one had a physical address and two had phone numbers. The rest were a tablet and computer drop ship type of outlet. I even tried to go through Moultrie customer service and that was also a total loss of time. I had given up and had scratched out this camera from the list and put a week’s vacation possibility in its place. 

This morning my good contact person from Academy Sports told me he had one in his hand and it had my name on it. There went my vacation. I made the trip and it is now on the bench getting ready for what looks to be a very short process. I unpacked the camera and scanned through the booklet and then proceeded to fill the tank with six C cells. The on/off switch was in the on position when I slid tray into the camera there was a filter clunk from hell. I could actually feel the camera move when that happened. Without going ahead with entering a program, I headed for the dark room and did a quick test. That did not go well either because the delay was set for about a week. I brought it back out and went ahead and went through the programming and then back to the room for a couple of tests. I believe that this was a copy of one of the old Stealth cameras design. It does a double clunk each time that the array fired. I then headed outside and put the sun to my back and did a normal setup. I could hear the clunk with these triggers also. 

I pulled the card and looked at those pictures and they were a bit fuzzy and my first thought was that because the camera vibrates during the filter shift was the reason but the picture is shuttered long after the filter moves. 

The price of this camera ranges from 70 to 90 dollars but it is feature rich. I just finished the Eyecon camera review and this camera far exceeds that camera in features. It had black flash and a fast trigger but that was about it. This camera has time lapse, video, photo, and a filter clunk from hell and still caries the under $100 price tag. 

I am trying to make myself like this camera because all the pre acquisition study I felt that this feature rich little camera would have some value. The S to C time (sensing to clunk) is instantaneous. This is followed by the firing of the array which is on about a second. The picture is shuttered sometime during the firing of the array. My initial feeling is that the trigger time should be somewhere just over one second. 

The case is a dark tan color and is about five and a half inches square. It sticks out off the tree about three inches. A small eighteen count array is at the top front and the main lens and PIR sensor are just below. The bottom front has a window to the inside LCD screen. There is some sensors and aim indicators just to the right of the main lens. The back has strap loops with no bark grabbers. There is a tri-pod insert on the bottom next to the external battery port. Inside the camera and battery area are in the back of the camera. The battery compartment is a slide out tray that holds 6 C cells and slips up into the camera from the bottom. The tray release button is just under the LCD screen. The programming buttons are inside just to the right of the PIR sensor lens. There is no security built into this camera. Documentation is somewhat weak but adequate for programming. 

Further evaluation on into the time lapse mode showed that being this mode is normally used where the PIR cannot reach; this brings up an additional issue. Target animals out past the normal PIR range (the 100 foot + range) are pretty small and because of the lack of picture quality they are of little use. The bad clunk takes this camera out of the trail camera use and the time lapse is of little value so we just do not have much of an area except maybe some close in security applications where noise from the camera might not matter. Thinking back about the anticipation of finally finding a source for this camera I asked questions to Moultrie. I wonder if that same individual that just avoided that request is the same person that is supposed to ensure that new products are evaluated in house prior to sticking them out on the market. The idea and specifications built into this camera are definitely good enough that it should be taken back and reworked into a usable product. Let’s hope that they do exactly that and I will redo the review when ever that happens. As is, I would not recommend this camera. 

The trigger times were very impressive and well under one second, but the range pictures are very bad. The night quality was so fuzzy we could hardly read the trigger time on the monitor. This review is closed until Moultrie does a fix on this model. 

• 5.0 Megapixels

• Infrared flash

• 40 foot nighttime range

• Time & Date on Every Photo

• Color Day Pictures & Video

• Uses 6 C-Cell batteries (Not Included)

• 90 Day Average Battery Life

• 3 picture resolutions

• 32GB expandable memory

• Adjustable delay of :10/:30 & 1-30 min

• Offers video clips

• Offers an external power port