WildView X35 Camera review

2010 WildView X35 Camera Review - August 29, 2010

2010 Wildview X35

2010 Wildview STC-TGLX35IR 5mp 35 count red flash Camera Review

Sorting through our 2010 list of cameras to test we had not listed any of the cameras from wild view. The past few years they have had this camera and just played with the strobe and red flash setups plus nudging the interpolation up and down to serve as being something different. These cameras have been about the same except there were some years where the trigger times had changed somewhat, depending on the version.

This is a un announced late comer for 2010 and they have made yet another change to the better. This is the increase in the emitter count in the IR array. The case is a little different in appearance also. Stacked on top of the new Moultrie L-20 they are about the same size. One of the big differences is this camera has video and the burst goes up to 6 where the Moultrie only has burst 2. This camera in the 09 IR-5 was a great performer with the UWAY ExtendIR-B black flash converter so that will be an area that we will test also with this camera. The arrival of this camera was seen mostly on EBAY and they were pushing this new arrival with a price of around $130 up to $149. The local Sams store had them for about a hundred dollars. It comes with four C cells and a 1 gig card for that price which beats the on line bid outfit by the cost of a sack full of 1 gig cards in price.

The six inch by seven inch flat black case got a new look with some horizontal lines and a little different look to the corners and edges. The new look with the larger array makes for a more business like look over the previous plain Jane look. At the top is the wide angle wrap around PIR sensor and below is the LCD window and camera lens. The Array is centered on the camera front. The camera is in the back so the small door is easy to open and service the camera and still maintain aim. The door has a full gasket and it is held closed by two heavy latches. With the door open the switch setup is in view. All are self explanatory (to include that dreaded minimum 1 minute delay) switch that everyone wished that it would go down to 15 seconds. To the right of the array is the programming buttons and the set button must be held to enter and exit the time/date entries. That operation is very simple and easy to do. The bottom inside is taken up by the four C cell battery holder that is under a plastic keeper. The SD card slot is under the door lip on the camera and it will take up to a 16 gig card. The right edge has the USB out for connecting to the computer. There is no TV out on this camera and that seems to be a trend in many new cameras.

I set up and did some walk tests (observed the green indicator in the test position and this camera appeared to do a good job sensing. The quick IR test showed a degree of IR burn on close targets, so we know this camera will pump some light down range. The trigger looked to be around two seconds un official. The day color looked to be above average and the zoom was sharp and clear. Our day range and 8 plate will tell us more when we get to that test. Here is saying that we hope the best for this cameras because the entries that are in this same price range have shown a lot of value for the amount spent so each camera needs to show its best to compete.

09-03-2010 update: We performed the trigger times and this camera did a very good job both with and without flash it came in around a second and a half. We preceded the day range where the color was a little weak but very natural. Further tests on the night range and 8 plate passed pretty good and the flash got good illumination out past the 50 ft marker. Our sensing tests showed that this camera has a mild case of the blur problem during the IR operations. The sensing distance was 30 feet at a temperature of 75 degrees. We then deployed the camera to catch the animals at the feeder and all went well except for the problem when the camera tried to shift from night to day. Wow, we have a serious whiteout problem with this camera. The first couple of pictures had a little detail then it just went to a total white set of pictures that lasted about 1.5 hours ( 80 pictures) when it did finally switch to color. This is severe enough to cause us to have to close the review on this camera.

10-02-2010 update: We have had this cam out and then back in which also included a trip back to Stealth where it received some doctoring. The original cells were in the cam all this time and there was there has been a lot of testing and evaluating going on. It also took 730 pictures and the set of cells lasted about a month. It has new cells in it now and has been put back out in the video mode to capture a few sample videos before we conclude this review. We will be reporting some more about a firmware update once all that data is released by the factory for consumer use.

10-13-2010 update: The firmware that was loaded on our unit which is the same as the now released firmware did a lot to dampen the white pictures but did about the same thing as what happened to the ill fated XLT Bushnell, which resulted very dark pictures in the day time. View the Press release here on the firmware update.

This review is closed.

Trigger Tests
(without flash 1.53 seconds)