What do you use, what have you used, what do you recommend and what do you recommend to stay away from? Looking to purchase my first cellular trail camera and any advice would be much appreciated. I'll only need one camera so don't have to worry about the cost of data plans for multiple cams. I'm looking for more of the best bang for the buck camera and data plan. I would like to add a solar panel to keep it charged as well.

I started looking at Tactacam. Muddy, Stealthcam, Spypoint, Bushnell, etc and all seem decent and priced around the same. I'd like to stay under $125 for the camera is possible.

Get the tactacam and splurge on the solar panel. That $50 on the solar panel will save you lots in batteries. These cameras take good photos and are simple to set up. I believe data plan for one camera is $13 monthly.

Thanks, those were the original ones I was looking at. Which model would be best to go with between the X, XB and X GEN 2.0?

I bought my first, a spypoint, last fall. Had all kinds of trouble with it and have not been pleased with customer support. I can deal with the device being faulty, but have no patience for lousy customer service. wont be buying another...

I had a similar issue with SpyPoint. Wouldn’t attach to the network and when it did it would constantly drop off, while testing it at home.

I work for the phone company and could see it had good power and a quality signal, but it kept dropping off the network.

Tried calling customer support and usually just got a busy tone, they answered once and told me to reset the device and try again. Returned it to Cabela’s and moved on…

Hope you get a good one! That said I believe all throw a dud at times, some more often than others. I used Bushnell for years without a problem until 3G died. Went with newer Bushnell and I'm 2 for 2 going bad. Had a Tactacam Reveal that had been trouble free so I purchased a Reveal XB which is doing well so far. About the time I got the XB setup, the original quit sending. Good batts, SD card, etc. Can't find cell service where it had 4 bars until it didn't. Email in to Tactacam over the weekend and waiting for a reply. So....

Meanwhile, something was killing chickens at the house, so I tied the Reveal to a tree in the yard by the chicken pen since it still takes pictures. 6 month old pup took it down and tasted it, so now it still takes pics, but need a new antenna and the latch that keeps it closed. Grandkids loved the pictures that "Duke" took!

I don't know how others are designed to work but I like the way Moultrie designed the one I'm now using as my first cellular camera. I purchased it mostly to play around with when I noticed the price ($75) was in line with that of traditional game cameras.

While it can be configured to transmit photos immediately, it can also be set to collect photos and transmit them at 3, 6, 12, and 24-hour intervals. This helps conserve battery life because it's the cellular radio that's heavy on the batteries. When not transmitting, the unit is pulling no more battery power than a traditional game camera. If there are no photos to transmit, it simply checks in with the server once that day so you know it's still active.

The Passive Infrared (PIR) motion sensor can be set for low, medium, or high sensitivity.

Cellular service for the camera is part of a monthly plan that you pay to Moultrie which also includes photo storage on their Internet server. Being my first camera, I opted for the Basic Plan that includes 100 photos and one video per month for a $5.85. I consider that a good deal considering what the cellular providers charge to add a device to your personal cellphone plan.

All communication with the camera, including viewing and downloading photos, is done using the Moultrie app.

As you can probably tell by now, there are many questions to be answered about how a given model operates and the features it offers before you buy it.

Thanks fellas, I'll most likely got with one of the Tactacam's and see how it goes.

just my 2 cents:

Had a Spypoint and the detection circuits in them are terrible. Placed in my backyard and saw wildlife but camera did not pick them up half the time.
It would transmit ok but not seeing the animals was worthless. Customer support was also terrible like others described. I will never buy another Spypoint.

Bought a couple Reveal Tacta-Cam cameras and it has 1 bar of signal strength and it transmit pictures. Hard to believe but IMO awesome camera for the price.
Saw a guy put together a video on Youtube comparing Reveal Gen 2 to the XB unit. Said XB provided 3 better features: 24 megapixel pics, no glow and GPS unit inside.
The Reveal XB was on sale recently for the same cost as the new Gen 2 units so we purchased 2 more cameras and purchased the XB ones.

Comment above about the power drain when transmitting is so true- we set our cameras to transmit 2 times per day to capture morning and evening animals at the feeders.
Run the cameras on AA batteries for almost the whole season doing it like that. Others live close to their hunting grounds so they go with the solar panel and transmit pictures all the time
which makes perfect sense.

Good luck and have a great hunting season.

Thanks, the XB is the one I plan on going with. Just wish I knew which carrier provided the better service in the area I plan on putting the camera up at.

XB comes with sim cards for both att & verizon.

I didn't know that, thanks.

Went ahead and purchased the Tactacam XB and solar panel. Will be a couple of weeks before I head out to the ranch to set it up and see which carrier has the better signal. In the mean time can I down load the app and get it connected to the camera even though I'm not sure which provider I am going to use?

I believe those cameras are specific to the carrier. They come with with either Verizon or AT&T. Not Verizon and AT&T

Both mine came with both simm cards and are advertised for either network. That being said, I do not know if there would be a problem with switching after activated on an account.

I don't see how it will communicate with any other cellular device or the Internet without cellular service provided directly to you by a carrier, or through a plan offered by the camera manufacturer. In the later, the manufacturer partners with Verizon and AT&T to make plans available so you need not add the device to your personal account. As a mentioned earlier, I pay Moultrie $5.85 a month for cellular service for my camera and the ability to store 100 photos a month in "the cloud". My camera is on a game trail so it hasn't been taking a lot of photos. For that reason, I've yet to learn if it stores anything above 100 photos on the memory card so they can be downloaded manually.