2010Field Tuff 5MP 36
count IR red flash Camera Review
I got the heads up a while back to look for this camera slipping in
through one of the catalog vendors. A few days ago it
appeared in the Sportsmans Guide so I knew that I
should see one falling out of the truck at my door soon.
I was deep into a problem area on the new Moultrie D-50
case latch system when it arrived so I stopped and
looked for the package. The name did not ring any bells
and when it came out of the box I was still wondering
just who makes this camera. The box was a plain Jane
brown box with a sticker on it with that said game
camera with a picture. I popped it open and inspected
the camera and it was a typical low end plastic case but
solid. The color was satin black and the hinges were
much more heavy duty than seen on most game cameras. The
back of the camera had strap loops along with a pretty
severe set of bark grabbers in a nice curve. The front
of the camera had the lens at the top front and the
array (36 count) just below. Inside the array block is
also the single test LED that is green that is used for
walk tests. The PIR sensor lens is the wrap around wide
angle type. There is a rubber covered external battery
port (12 volt) at the bottom center of the lid. There is
a large loop at the door edge for a lock or cable. Two
small swing back latches open the door and it is a cam
in the door design which is hard to handle when it is
full of batteries and on a tree. Inside there is a LCD
and a set of programming buttons with the on/off which.
Battery compartment holds four C cells. I failed to
mention there is a microphone on the front of the camera
so I believe this camera may have video with sound.
There is also a small solar/12 v switch which deals with
the use of a panel and rechargeable batteries.
Different from most cameras this camera comes with a couple sheets of
paper stapled together which includes the spec sheet and
the programming instructions. I opened up a set of
batteries (4 C cells) and ran them through the test and
installed them inside the covered battery compartment. I
inserted a clean SD card and hit the on switch. It took
about 5 seconds and the bell went off that said (Stealth
Cam) because of what I began to see during the
programming. It acts just like all the WD series Stealth
cameras and programs the same. The programmable
resolutions are 1.3, 3, and 5 MP and the video is VGA
(with sound) 20 fps only at 5 to 300 seconds. It will
take up to 4 Gigs of SD card for memory. Just like
Stealth it has the 1-9 burst setting along with that
terrible Stealth 1 minute delay period. I wish they had
not followed stealth in that department. Videos are
stamped on the first frame with the Date/time stamp.
There is 32 MB internal memory and it can be accessed
through the USB port or TV out. The Solar/12v switch is
to allow the use of a 12 volt adapter to charge internal
Ni-Mh batteries and power the cam from an external 12
supply without internal batteries. Move the switch to
the solar position the panel would charge the internal
Ni-Mh batteries when used. With standard batteries you
would need to leave the switch in the solar position but
without solar panel. This is not spelled out very well
in the instructions. There is a strap and USB cable
contained in the package.
I
spent way to much time on the trigger bench for the
results that I finally got. The un official time looks
to be 2+ seconds. A quick check of picture quality was
good but not great. We will be able to tell more once we
get it on the hill and do the day range tests. So far I
would say if you selected any of the low delay WGI or
Primos cameras of equal cost you would be happier mainly
because of the delay and maybe a little better picture
quality.
07-26-2010 update: The temperature is running
in the nineties way into the evening now so our sensing
range testing is of little value. The trigger times came
out at two seconds for both day and night. Day range and
8 plate tests showed a degree of fuzziness and a bit of
haze to the pictures. Night pictures showed the flash
was good out past 50 feet and the pictures were pretty
good and the normal IR fuzzy edges were still there.
This camera did sense but for the high temperatures
during testing it was just over ten feet.
08-05-2010 update:
We have another $100 camera with a two second trigger
time that seems to be doing pretty good both day and
night. This camera is like many and is having trouble
during the transition times with whiteout photos. Our
area is a tough area and many cameras have this same
problem. Stick it in a better lighted surrounding and it
should do much better.
08-06-2010 update:
You can check the sample pictures and videos and listen
to the sound that are on the videos. This all shows that
this camera does have potential especially when compared
to some of the other cameras in the same price range. I
want to get this camera in the deep woods down on the
swamp and see how it does in video with sound. We did
get some white out pictures at transition but not as
much as some of the other cameras we have recently
tested. Put it in a better location and it should do
much better.
10-24-2010 update:
We just cannot get things right with this camera. No
matter where we put it we just cannot seem to get the
animals in front of it. In the past two weeks we managed
to capture one short video of a buck and that is about
all. Either it just is not sensing very well or they are
avoiding this camera. We still have it out and if it
doesnt do a little better we are going to pull it and
replace it with a camera that is known good to test to
see if we just have a sensing problem.
11-14-2010 update:
We force fed this camera by putting it in a very good
place with new batteries and it managed to give us some
pretty good videos with sound finally. The problem is,
even though it did work and accomplish taking and
recording videos with very good sound, it only took
nineteen 10 second (fixed) videos on one set of
batteries. That just plain sucks. This review is
closed.
Trigger Tests
(without flash 2 seconds)

(with flash
2 seconds)
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Flash Range |

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Movie Samples
(pardon the road noise)
Sample1
Sample2
Sample3
Sample4
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