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2012 Wildview TGLX8IRNG 8 MP 35 count Black IR
digital camera review
We are tapering off towards the end of our list of reviewed cameras and
I had a little bit of a hard time getting an
early sample to review. This is the typical
Wildview camera and all the previous
specifications as far as size and switches and
battery compartment remain the same so we will
not get into that. This camera operates off four
C cells and is fully switch programmed. Delay is
down to 20 seconds and you can select the power
of the array from 25 emitters to 35 emitters.
This is an 8 mp camera that is interpolated up
from its 5 MP image sensor. There is three video
times of 15, 30, and 60 seconds. Burst is 1, 3,
and 6 pictures per trigger. The SD card size is
up to 16 gig, ( in house tests should be done
prior to deployment) and it is important to
check card compatibility prior to leaving it in
the field.
The dark room showed me that this is in the very low glow category and
not true black flash. I could view the flash
fairly easy at 5 to 6 feet but not much past
that. The night pictures are fuzzy and the day
pictures in both resolution settings are also
pretty fuzzy. They have good color but lack that
sharp definition and detail. We have not seen
much from Stealth this year that has worked as
well their Archers Choice camera.
This camera sells for around $150 and is tagged as being “no glo” and we
tagged it low glow. The trigger time has yet to
be determined because during my walk tests and
holding my BF analyzer, it seemed to be
inconsistent so we will have to wait for the
trigger table to tell us the official results.
The delay actually seemed to be shorter than the
selected 20 seconds. Sensing did seem a little
weak but today is pretty warn so my test would
not be exactly fair; we will wait for a nice
cool evening. My cruse through the documentation
was very quick. The nice complex specification
chart must have got left on the drafting table
and a Friday afternoon version ended up in its
place. Being a switch based camera it is easy to
understand so the write-up can be somewhat vague
which this booklet is.
My high hopes dwindled for this camera when I first viewed the night
with flash pictures and did not see the detail I
wanted to see. I am going to again test this
because my little hundred dollar Bushnell land
camera seemed to do a much better job.
06-05-2012 update: Our dead
pixel tests did not show any significant
problems. There is a slight filter clunk at
transition with this camera. Another thing that
I noticed was that I never picked up on before
with the many reviews of Wildview cameras that I
have tested. This is that the amount of weight
at the bottom of the camera and the very high
strap loops make it a real pain to aim and the
tendency to point up. A stick behind the top and
a bungee across the bottom is the method I ended
up with that worked. There is not tri-pod insert
so the loops on the back are all you have for
mounting. My scan through the vendor sites this
morning showed that there are several cameras in
the BF category that are priced near or a little
more than the asking price of this camera that
may be a better choice. Some are also in the
switch based programming style.
06-10-2012 update:
While some other work was being done we had this
camera deployed so it is going to appear that
everything is happening very quickly. First off
the day/night range testing did not impress us
very much. Remembering that this is a $150
camera in the lo glo category makes us want to
say that there is probably some other cameras
(even by this same mfg.) that will out perform
and still give you a few pennies back. There
seems to be a lot of noise in the flash pictures
and the color day pictures are fuzzy. The
trigger time came out to be 2.09s and avg 2.53
for without and with flash. Please view the
sample pictures which so far were in the top
setting of 8MP. Sensing was 40 feet at 79
degrees.
06-13-2012 update:
This little camera just happened to fall in line
with several other cameras that are either
cheaper or about the same price and we are
within minutes seeing the results of their
performance as well as what this camera is
doing. The main message is that even though
there are some good strong points with this
camera like the switches and programming, this
camera just does not measure up in performance
all the way from trigger times to picture
quality. Here are the sample pictures/ video to
view for yourself.
06-20-2012 update:
We have captured a bunch of sample pictures and
even though the slow trigger time our resident
herd managed to wander around and get their
pictures taken. This camera does work and all
the functions have been proven. It is just that
it’s performance is very lacking when you put it
up against other cameras that are about the same
spec’s. If the picture quality was a bit better
then I would think much better about this
camera. But to have a some what of a slow
trigger and on top of that having to deal with
the fuzzy pictures does not impress.
07-14-2012 update:
This camera has been a real disappointment and
its 13 day battery life was only part of that.
It did how ever capture 5246 pictures and 33
videos during that time. This review is closed
Trigger Tests
(without flash 2.09s)
(with flash
2.53s)
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