Bushnell Trophy Cam Trail Cam Review

Title: Bushnell Trophy Cam

Editor: Tyson

Basic Description:

The bushnell Trophy Cam is one of the the smallest cams on the market today.

Just the Facts:

• 5 or 8 MP high-quality full color resolution-depending on model
• 24 or 32 LEDs with 45′ range-depending on model
• Temperature and moon phase stamp-depending on model
• Uses 4 to 8 AA batteries
• Runs up to one year on one set of batteries
• Day/night autosensor External power compatible
• Adjustable PIR (Lo/Med/High) 1-second trigger speed
• Programmable trigger interval: 1 sec. to 60 min.
• Multi-image mode: 1-3 or 1-9 images per trigger-depending on model
• Video length: 1 second to 60 seconds, programmable

Story:

Over the last couple of years I have bought Three Bushnell Trophy Cam’s. Two of them 5mp, with 24 LEDs and one that was 8mp and 32 LEDs. The first two were 2009 models and I was very excited with the way they had preformed. They had a respectable trigger speed and picture quality.  The only problem I had was related to only having 24 LEDs which created an issue with night time distance. Bushnell claims a 45’ range, but I could only get 30-35’.  Which I guess isn’t too bad if you are on a trail or a small water hole. The range however could become a deal breaker when you are in a meadow or a more open area.

I decided to try the 2010 model, since the 09 model seemed to work for me, and I have really liked the size and weight. They had also improved the Trophy Cam to an 8mp and 32 LEDs. I was hopeful the 32 LEDs would take care of the night distance picture issue.

It did improve to really close to the 45’ claim, but the other problems with this camera have been enough for me to honestly say it will be a long time before I ever use another Bushnell trail camera.

My concerns are:

– I was only able to use SanDisk cards. Any other card would lock up my display and not take any pictures.

-Batteries, as odd as this one is, every time I used regular energizer batteries it would do the same thing lock up and not take any pictures, Duracell’s seemed to work just fine.

-When the camera was working, unless the animal was moving really slow or at a standstill it would be so blurry that it was hard to even count points on buck.

– O yeah I cannot forget the runaway issue. That was a fun one. The camera would start out working fine. But after a few hours, maybe a day, maybe even a few days, it would start taking picture after picture and would not stop until the card was full or the batteries were dead. That’s just what I wanted to do is hike an hour in to check my camera and find out that my card was full 2 days after I left it and the brand new batteries I put in two weeks ago are dead.

I would have thought that just maybe I had purchased a lemon. However

I exchanged it three times for new cameras and when every one of those did the exact same thing I sent it back to Bushnell for a replacement right from the factory The camera from Bushnell had the same issues.

I have read and heard that Bushnell has made some changes to their new models. I recommend proceeding with caution; make sure you do your research before buying a Bushnell trophy camera.

 What they could do better:

Were do I begin

Customer service first

Fix the runaway issue

Fix or state certain SD cards that will work.

Fix or state Brand of batteries that work the best.