School me on the way to go here. I own but don't live on my ranch and would like to put up a couple on my place. I don't have a lot of use for lots of pictures and my place is pretty small (100 acres) but I'd like to keep tabs on what comes and goes. Saves me a 200 mile drive both ways. I don't keep a lot of pictures but will keep pics of interesting bucks that need to be harvested/watched/allowed to walk.

What kind of plan? Camera brand recommendations? How many pics do you guys download every month? Etc...

Any help is appreciated.

The most important thing above all else.... which carrier has the best reception where you need them? Once you know which carrier, then look for cameras.

I have the Cudde system as well. 2 cameras and 1 cell receiver, so 1 plan. $20 for 2000 pics a month I think it is. I’ve only hit my limit once.

Charlie

My brother has a Bushnell, I believe. With verizon it's like $19 dollars a month with unlimited cameras and photos. It works great. Just need to remember not to spank z monkey while filling feeders.

https://spartancamera.com/

I use this but have zero experience with others. I rate them at an 8 based on pic quality but have been reliable

If you some good existing trail cams you might try this. I bought one to try here but I am waiting on the micro SD card to come in the mail..it was shipped 3 weeks...lost in shipment...reshipped last Friday...supposed to get it by tomorrow. They have good plan rates....unlimited plans are $10/month(annual plan) with a 33% discount right now. No activation fees. You get 100 free pics per month with the buy. IIRC there is no contract so you can do month to month at a bit higher rate. The have several plans. Will hopefully put mine out next week or so to test it for archery season blind.
https://www.spypoint.com/en/products/universal-cellular-adapter/product-cell-link.html

I’m on a lease with a bunch of cell camera Nazi’s!!!

Straight excommunicado if you disagree with the head cellular tech of the group. Big over grown gorilla at that.


Their holiness's have went through all of them. Spypoint, cuddy, stealth, spartan etc


They all swear by ridgetec. I will say pictures are impressive, and if you leave your camera out for a cow to eat it you can text the owner for replacement parts.

https://www.ridgetecoutdoors.com/products/accessories


You can also put multiple cameras on same portal

I'm running three stealth cam fusions. They're not very expensive, and work reasonably well. I'm happy with them, notwithstanding a few minor hiccoughs. If you're running cell cams, you will want additional power of some kind. I use a solar/battery combo.

This is hilarious

I'm running Cuddeback's Cuddelink system as well for a couple of reasons. With a dozen cameras out, I'm not paying a dozen camera plans. It all comes into one cell home and transmits from there. The second reason is that I don't have good cell coverage on a lot of feeders, so I need to move images to the few spots where there is cell coverage.

This system is definitely not without it's faults -- it's been a royal PITA at times. All of that said, they have done a good job on warranty (one camera) and there is one of their engineers/sales reps that answers any and all questions on habitat talk. Pictures are good enough for what I need.

They are pretty serious about their cameras, as in Top Secret TSI poly just to view the portal...no guff. For sure a secret society, maybe even skulls and cross bones.



Any way in all honesty..... these guys(engineers and IT dudes) have failed at everything cellular until they got ridgetec.

It use to be fun watching them “Wallow” in thier self-petty over camera failures. Now they are glued to their phones for two hours a day, seeing if their purple unicorn showed up.

I use the SpyPoint Link Micro's. I've had very good luck with them and am very satisfied with their performance.

This thread makes me feel ancient; I only have a few regular trail cameras. I'm not tech savvy at all, so it would just be an exercise in frustration to try wireless/cell. 'Took me 20 minutes to get a movie to load on the TV this evening (Hughesnet), then, right when it's starting, I look out the window and see the biggest buck I've yet to see on this place, out about 350 yards. 'Grab the binoculars and see him doing the old buck walk right at the house for a few yards before turning, like he's saying "You see me and I see you, but you ain't gonna find me during deer season. "

There has been a lot of great discussions and information shared around Cellular Trail cameras on THF forums over the past year.
It would be good for you to do a search and read a lot of those to help you. As other stated find the best provider for your area
and in some places you need to find the best signal strength. IMO finding a good camera that has great customer service and a
very reliable product is the better choice than a few extra dollars for a cellular picture plan. I think Bobo's group are probably on to
something because I had a Spypoint and even though the cellular camera worked when in a good area the detection circuits were so
bad that I would have deer and turkey at my backyard feeder and it would not detect them and send a picture. Every time you called them
you got a different person who told you to do the standard reset, software upgrades etc. and still it would miss so much wildlife. Being an
engineer I asked to meet with their engineers and discuss their QA/QC for the detection circuit testing but it was a waste of time. I traded out
those cameras 3 times. Now I put another trail camera right next to that one so that even if we get pictures I can look at the other trail camera
to see everything that came by. Just try and get your money back on those items. I read where people get their's to work and that is fine but I bet they
are missing a lot of wildlife that does come by and never takes a picture. We have very limited cell coverage in our area (almost 0) so we are looking into
the Covert unit that can be on top of a hill and have cameras out to 1100 yards from that main unit. That would help us out a lot but I am have no experience yet with
those cameras. Sorry this is long but hopefully my experiences will help others when buying a cellular trail camera.

Recently purchased the Tacticam and as referenced on posts elsewhere - I could not be more pleased. $108 tax title and 2 day shipping from bass Pro. Set up monthly unlimited photos for thirteen dollars a month which can be stopped and started back up at any time. The photos are outstanding. I chose to download at 5 AM and 5 PM. Got 63 just last this morning, with deer movement causing only one to be blurry and am not getting any of those infamous nothing there photos. Detection range is 90 plus feet and up to 24 mega pixels.

This will be my second season using a Covert Code Black. It does very good. I pay $29 a quarter for 20,000 pics. I can adjust all the settings from my phone.

How much does that Covert cost?

Definitely not your 1st born value but more of your 3rd born. But Covert does have a great warranty and they are built to last a long time.

Don’t feel bad, I refuse to even buy another game camera. I hate them. Great until oct. After that everything changes, plus i already feel like I’m surrounded by Fort Knox’s surveillance system in my pasture and the three surrounding.

Next step for my CIA trained lease amigos is probably drones. I just know one day I’m going to see a fleet of them stationed at a run way. No nature poop will ever be sacred event again

I think around $400. The best thing about is that I can adjust any and every setting from my phone. You can also use ATT or Verizon.

Going to look at drone options....

Tacticam - the best thing about is that I can adjust any and every setting from my phone. You can also use ATT or Verizon.

Thanks for all the input. This will give me a good starting point. I appreciate everybody's comments.