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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.
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