If you were buying today, which one is the one to look at?

Assuming it hasn’t been on back order etc

I am going to buy the Stealthcam fusion. A THF member owns 15 of them and said he had no problems.

I just posted this in another cell cam thread in Open Hunting:

Go to this link if you want to check out thread on the fusion cameras I've purchased.

Make sure to go to the last post I've made (today) as you can see how to get 2 of them for $200 directly from Stealth Cam.

Was reading reviews on the Fusion they are terrible but seems like most of the THF like them.

I run the fusion and love it. They were running a sale 2 for $199

Sorry
Forgot to paste the link before

https://texashuntingforum.com/forum...-cam-fusion-w-solar-pwr-unit#Post8184684

Hum

Seems strange to me because I have 3 now that work great and several friends now running them without any issues and one guy has 7 of them going.

Very good app they offer and very simple to use.

I am thinking that some of the problems may be due to the folks not installing the latest update as you need to do that even with most of the new cameras right out of the box. And even the update installs are simple as can be and the app walks you right through it.

We'll see because I'm cursed...me and cell cameras don't get along evidently.

I bought 2 Fusions so if Stealth has made a bad one in the last 10 years, I've got it at home. I'll put them out in the next few months.

Thanks for the info on buying two of the fusions for $199.99. It was kind of odd, when I ordered them, they are actually shipped by GSM outdoors and they gave no estimated delivery date. When I called them, GSM outdoors told me that they bought out Stealthcam. They have a warehouse in Irving Tx.

I believe my two shipped from the DFW area as well.
Took 4 days to get them for me just outside of san antonio

I haven't heard of one yet that doesn't require a solar charger to sustain battery life. Unlike cameras that can operate in a sleep mode, cellular radios have to be on all the time so they can be ready to transmit data. I'm sure it's possible to design a cellular camera that can take and store pictures internally and then transmit them later to help preserve battery life. It would be the best solution if so.

As was the case in the early days of conventional game cameras, finding the cellular cameras with the longest battery life (without a constant charging source) is key. Some of the earliest game cameras were known to be very hard on batteries. Unless you have testimonials from other camera owners, I would be sure to buy the solar charger when you buy the camera. Also, because solar panels put out A LOT more current in direct sunlight, it's something to consider when placing the camera.

Not sure about others, but you can modify the RidgeTec's "heartbeat" so that it's not pinging the cell tower as often. I've doubled my battery life this way. Plus, you can also modify what hours the camera is active to save battery life even further.

All things considered, I think cell cams have pretty good battery life when you think about everything they do. That's especially true when you consider that most cell cams do not operate under the best of conditions or with high quality signal. We're usually out in the sticks with sketchy coverage. That can burn up some batteries with a quickness.

Excellent testimonial. Thanks for sharing.

Very good information kry226.
I will say that the stealth fusion cam app is the same way and very user friendly to make these same adjustments. I believe you can select either instant so that it sends you the pictures as it takes them, instant group which I'm not sure how frequently or how many it takes before it sends them, hourly, twice per day, or once per day to save battery life as well.
you can also adjust the megapixel from a low of 4 to 8 to 16 to 26, the delay between picture from 5 seconds up to an hour between pictures. There are also several more things you can do on the app that are nice as well and very simple to operate even for those not quite so technically advanced.

I currently have 3 of them going on the app and each is working flawlessly sending really good pictures set at only 8mp.

Good stuff, sir. Thanks!

I’m probably going to wait for the new moultrie

I don't have any knowledge of the above camera's in the discussion however will put the Reconyx into the mix. I had a battery operated camera running and watched a racoon chew the bottom of the face shield basically off and it kept running and taking pictures. While this was going on I was in the process of putting out two verizon cell camera's. I am not a techno wiz so I had one of their tech guys walk me through the set up. They've been in the field running now for four months without any issues set to go off every two minutes. They still have full batteries. They are not inexpensive but with a five year warranty I had to try it. In the past I've run about 15 moultrie's a year and quite honestly have become frustrated with their camera's and their tech people.......

We'll see if the investment pans out....