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2012 Primos Super II red flash (56 count) 7 MP
digital camera review
We had concluded our list of 2012 cameras that we had entered into the
system for review this year but yet another
camera showed up. This is a well used opened
camera that we received and we would not
normally review but there is a bit of interest
showing up on the outdoor forums about this
camera so we are going to go ahead and do a real
fast review on this unit.
Setting on the shelf the price tag is $249 which puts this camera up in
class well above much of the competition. The
claim of 1/3 second trigger time and best in
class picture quality will be a necessity to
justify the ticket. Documentation and package
was not very free with the specifications so I
searched the internet and that also was
limited.
I will have to pull that data out of the camera as I use it.
This is a back pack (two piece) style camera that has two plastic clips
on the bottom that must be pressed to slide the
main unit away from the back pack. This exposes
the back of the camera where the view screen and
programming buttons are located. The back pack
has two strap loops and three cable/lock loops
to secure the camera to the tree. If you use the
side cable loops and not the one on the bottom
then the camera can still be removed from the
back pack even though the cable is installed.
You must also put a lock or something through
the bottom hole to secure this camera. There is
also no seal on the bottom (SDcard)/battery
door. These means this camera probably should be
used without a security box or insure that the
security box has good drainage so water cannot
pool inside the box and reach the batteries and
SD card. Our old Scoutguard cameras are still
out there working with this same setup but they
are not in a box.
The array contains 56 emitters (cabelas says 50) and has a plastic cover
with a slight camouflage effect over the top to
help hide the bright emitters. This is a very
nice touch but should never be cleaned with any
solvent or lens cleaner because it will remove
this. A damp cloth is all that is needed. Below
center is the main lens and PIR (wide angle)
this year instead of the old side sensor setup
on the previous model.
My next adventure was to install the AA batteries. You better have
skinny long fingernails or some kind of tool to
do this. The doors are tight and will not just
drop open. You have to coach them out with a
needle or knife blade. The positive and negative
symbols on the doors indicate the proper
installation polarity of the cells. Once
installed care must be taken because a slight
bump while changing the card will dislodge a
door and your batteries hit the forest floor.
There is an external battery port that is marked
12 and 9 volts ????? and is not explained
and only mentioned on page 19 in the booklet. I
assume that either could be used to power the
camera for extra life. When I pulled the rubber
plug to inspect the external battery port the
plug was wet and had moisture on it. I went
ahead and programmed the camera and headed to
the dark room for a test and then outside for
some bright sun pictures. This is a wide view 90
degree lens so things look distant and small. My
first captures were foggy and I believe that
once I dry out the camera a little that will go
away so I will hold on that determination as of
now. Trigger was fast and the delay seemed to be
also in line. I had no problem with the sensing
either. I have cleaned the lens on the outside
and inspected the inside with my magnification
viewer and there is still a bit of haze on the
inside. There is a noticeable filter clunk at
transition. Once heated up and dried out I again
proceeded out into the bright sun to re evaluate
the day pictures. The view screen cannot be read
in the daylight, I had to move to the shadows in
order to view my settings for this test. I
pulled the card and there was a very noticeable
change to the better once the moisture had dried
a bit. The color was good and not over driven
and the pictures were fairly sharp and clear.
Night with flash pictures still had a bit of
fuzziness to them.
The two indicators below the view screen are for PIR movement and write
time. These being behind the camera and inside
the back pack when deployed will not aid in
aiming the camera. The write indicator can tell
you when it is clear to go ahead and turn off
the camera. I tried to move to normal daylight
conditions under the canopy and I still had a
problem reading the screen in that light. The
owner’s manual came in handy as light shield to
view the screen under those conditions. This
camera also has sound with the video which I did
not test but will be done during the sample
capture period. Everything that is done to this
camera must be done off the tree and out of the
back pack. The bottom access door will only open
partially while the camera is installed into the
back pack.
Once a person gets use to the quirks of this
little camera (7X5X3 inches) it does work well.
The fall brown color blends well on the tree and
the array treatment helps there also. It is
medium in size and the rounded edges aid in its
ability to not be seen when deployed on a tree
with like colored bark. We need to move to the
official side of the house for those tests and
up on the hill for all the sample
video/pictures.
08-06-2012 update:
When this camera left this lab and was moved to
our other facility it had to spend a day in a
very hot truck with all its little door open. I
did dry out perfectly and had no issues other
than the original fogging on the inside of the
lens. We have no way of knowing what exposure
this camera had previously had to the elements
to cause the bit of moisture we found. All we
can presently say is the camera works great now
and we ill keep an eye on it to make sure of no
re occurrence.
The trigger table shows the wide angle lens
along with a with out flash trigger time of 1
second and with flash of .5 second. The video
trigger time came in with a respectable 1.62
second trigger time. Dead pixel test came out
good. The day range/8plate test was good and
showed a small amount of fuzz in the zoom
evaluation.
08-08-2012 update:
Now that we have had the camera deployed fro a
while we have found a couple of things. First
off is the color saturation seems to be a bit
weak so the pictures have a bit of a washed
look. Next is we placed the camera out in the
daytime and it worked fine until the sun went
down and things cooled a bit and we had a run
away situation. We also had a few whiteout and
near whiteout pictures at transition. More
testing is needed to give full evaluation to
these areas.
08-11-2012 update:
We have pretty well concluded that the moisture
that was in the cam when we received it is the
culprit in the sensing failure. Our contact with
Primos support finally did result in an answer
but it was so far out of in left field we could
not believe it. The management at Primos has now
told us that the sensing adjustment in the
booklet is a miss print and that the camera has
automatic sensing through the firmware. We also
have a replacement camera on the way in and as
soon as we verify the basic function we will
open the review back up and continue to gather
samples and battery life data.
08-13-2012 update: The
replacement camera failed the initial testing
and also has the same issue as out original test
unit. We are in the process of conveying those
results to the company. The majority of this
last testing session was on a Sunday so we are
going to have to see what we can hear from the
company the first part of this week. The review
remains closed.
09-10-2012 update: The
wheels kept turning and we now have managed to
get a very recent vintage (brand new) camera and
it passed all the initial tests that had made
the two previous units fail. This wide field of
view takes a little getting use to because of
the acreage it covers. It would take ten
cuddebacks to cover the same area. So far things
are looking real good. We are running it back
through the trigger machine just to make sure
everything is the same and starting tonight we
will try to get started gathering sample
pictures. This unit seems to be working very
well.
09-15-2012 update:
We did manage to get sample pictures and that
showed a couple of minor issues. First off is
the transition pictures did not whit out and
remained black and white. Next, came what looks
like a fish eye effect that on the day pictures
there appears to be a green circle around the
edge of the picture with good true color in the
center. Sensing seems to be very good and we are
beginning to like the wide field of view.
Further testing is required with different
lighting conditions to truly evaluate.
09-16-2012 update:
As we continue down the review path we have
captured more stills and a few videos.
Throughout this sequence the flash has a very
strong center line and fades out on the edges.
Some call this the flashlight effect. The videos
are good during the day but still have that
issue with color. The night videos have
streaking and a steady hum in the background. So
far I would have to say that this camera likes
its picture mission much more that it does its
video mission. The wide view does cover a lot of
ground and so far we have yet to test the range
of the PIR to see if there is a deficiency there
as far is its field of view. That should come
soon.
12-19-2012 update:
This camera was pulled because it had apparently
locked up. We could not reset the camera
and only a red light indicator would light with
batteries. We reported the issue to Primos
and have not heard back. It has been 6
weeks since this lock up issue. At this
point we are going to suspend and close this
review.
Trigger Tests
(without flash 1.06s)
(with flash .53)
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