Game Camera ?

Can the sun fry the sensors on these?

I had one setup INSIDE my barn to monitor coon traffic, went to check on it..... sun was just coming up.....through an opening and directly into lens of camera. Camera shot a nice video of it.

Seems like it hasn't worked right since. Missing a lot of traffic.

And while I'm on the subject, what cameras offer the best bang for the $? I'm looking to upgrade.

I can tell you two not to get. Moultrie 35i and the new one out made for Cabelas. It's a 20 mp and takes horrible night pics.

I wouldn't think so but who knows? Sometimes stuff just quits working.

I like the dark ops series from browning. Had several others over the years but settled on dark ops.

I've had several brands, both cheapo and major expensive. I've come to the conclusion that they are all junk! Seems one or two seasons is all I can get out of any of them but I'm dumb enough to keep spending money on them. Bought 5 by Stealth Cam last season and they seem decent so far. I stopped buying the really expensive ones when I learned just how much bear like to play with them.

Check out I feed eagles post. there are game cam pics from expensive and cheap cameras. My take is the higher the price generally the faster speed of the camera which is a plus for not missing pictures. I have had good luck with Moultrie cameras. I have Menards cheap cameras that are slow and they die after a few years, but I have them out year around in northern Minnesota weather. I have one Moultrie going strong for over ten years. I use "AA" lithium batteries and they last about 9 months and my oldest Moultrie uses "C" batteries which last about 9 months.
Gary

I run cameras year-round and I've owned quite a few different brands but have pretty much settled on the $100 Walmart Bushnell cameras. They take great pics/videos, battery life is good and I really enjoy the audio that comes along with the videos. A very dependable camera.

I buy cheaper ones from rural king at $49.00. I don't need the very best picture just want to see what is using the trail or crossings.

Not a good idea to point your trail cameras west or east, avoid direct sun for picture's sake. Cheat them West, SW or East NE. Never heard of direct sun ruining a camera though. Usually just needlessly trips them and leaves bad pics, video. On the subject of brands - Browning, Browning, Browning. Buy last year's model on Ebay, save some bucks. They stand by them. Print a copy of the Ebay transaction and keep it. And ABSOLUTELY quit buying alkaline AA battieries!! Buy Panasonic Eneloops AA lithiums and a $25 charger for them. They last longer and can be charged over TWO THOUSAND times! $23 an 8 pack on Amazon. I just pulled my cameras from late December 3 weeks ago and they were still capturing video on all but 2. Impressive batteries! Good luck!

Joe Goodman
www.JoeGoodmanPrints.com

I run over 30 cams at a time and have had great luck with moultrie and browning, I also have several of the wild game cams and for the money($40-70) they are very dependable just not the best pictures. Im also running spypoint micro link cell cams and having great results from them for only $100 a piece

I run wild game an have some that are 10 years old still working great an easy on batteries ,

More evidence something has gone wrong with current camera (cheap CamPak). Had foot traps set for coon coming into barn....caught a possum instead. That was around 9:30 yesterday evening. Camera fired about 3 times prior to catch, yet only 2 or 3 times after. Large catch circle formed after the catch, so camera had plenty to look at over the course of the next 6 hours. Would have expected to see dozens of shots. Did have a heavy dew last night, and camera did pick me up early this morning, with fogged up lens and blurred out picture. Fogged up lens isn't camera's fault, but failing to pick up a target would be.

While it seems this is new behavior for the camera since the bright sun event, as I think back, it started acting erratic a couple weeks ago. Would miss coon 10 feet away, but pick up a deer in the shadows 40 feet away. Guess when they go bad, they go bad and hard to know why. And what you should expect from a cheap camera?