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2010WGI IR4/Remington
R4a 4MP 19 count red flash Camera Review
I am going to suspend all the lead into these cameras because they are
exactly the same as the IR5 camera that has already been
reviewed except for the resolution. The reason is that
this camera gained popularity last year and many still
are using and enjoying that old model. This year it is
the same look but manufactured by another company with
much better QC than last years cameras. If it was not
for the popularity of this camera we would have gone on
to the next one in line to catch up on a little of our
backlog. On the market for around a hundred dollars
these little cameras have been real work horses for
many. This year we have been asked several times to go
ahead re do another IR-4 review by this new manufacture.
The same size as the IR-5 camera which is around six by eight inches it
hides pretty well on a tree. This camera is satin black
with a couple rounded bark grabbers on the back to help
it fit on a tree. Small bungee loops are on the corners
to take the supplied hooks on the small bungee cords.
Any additional information about programming and such is
all in the IR-5 review if that information is needed. I
ran the usual pre testing and all looks well and the
pictures appear to be satisfactory. The initial trigger
looked to be in the two second timeframe, but I was
hoping for a little faster. The delay can be turned down
to 30 seconds which is alright but not that desired 15
second thing that Moultrie just did to a couple of their
cams. We were pleased with there 5 MP camera, so we feel
this camera will do well also. We are headed for the
testing lab to do an in depth look, to see if our
guesses about this camera are correct. So far this they
have put a hurt on the Moultrie and Stealth sales with
their hard working sub $100 cameras. The main short fall
when it comes to the competition is battery life. These
cameras have been going just over a month on 4 C cells
and the competition lasts longer with 6 C cells,
depending on the picture count. Those cameras with the
minimum one minute delay will be getting far less
pictures than these cameras with a 30 second delay when
placed in the same circumstances.
08-29-2010 update:
Managed to get lined up for some trigger testing and
they came out somewhat on the positive side. Day was
2.18 and night with flash came in about 2.25 seconds
which is just over that magic two second mark but anyway
it would be acceptable by most for the price. The day
range and sensing was good and the day color a bit
grainy still was good enough to get a decent 200% zoom
on the 8 plate. The night range showed the flash
somewhat weak but still good past 40 feet. This last
year favorite will still probably hold a high degree of
favoritism this year with new users. We will
repeat the night flash range tests tonight as
thunderstorms prevented it last night.
09-03-2010 update:
Looks like a page out of the BTC play book when we
viewed the day pictures. Most appeared to be somewhat
dark and this cam did not want to give us a single white
out because it would hold to taking color pictures way
into the transition time. Most of the pictures both day
and night were pretty good but dark. Our area is a tough
area so many cameras show with pictures that are darker
than normal but this camera seemed to take it a little
further. The night IR pictures showed a small degree of
blur but for the most part they had very good blacks and
solid whites which is marker of better IR pictures. The
small flash showed the need for additional light in some
areas. This camera needs to be mounted a little closer
than most because of the flash range. We will shift to
video and see how well that gos.
10-27-2010 update:
This cam is still going and showing having plenty of
battery left. We are in hunting season now so out
picture count is way down so battery life estimations
will be much longer due to the lower picture count.
12-27-2010 update: We have about 1092 pictures
so far and the camera has not died yet but the support
of the flash is very weak so it should not be very long
before we have to pull the plug on this camera.
01-23-2010 update:
We pulled this camera nad found that its batteries are
finally dead. In total the camera took 1154 photos
and 49 video clips over a period from 08-29-2010 to
12-24-2010. This camera has performed faithfully
and we are now closing this review.
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