Customer Reviews

BUSHNELL 5MP Trophy Cam Trail Camera, Brown Case (119435C)

5 star:		(22)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

First, let me start by saying I am a wildlife biologist and I have used at least 10 models of these trail cameras over the last 6 years--having set up literally thousands of setups. these are the best ones I have found. After reading the poor reviews I have decided I need to put my 2 cents worth in.... RTFM people!
These cameras are not going to take perfect pictures every time--no remotely place automatic camera under $500 is going to do a perfect job. Get over it. Don't blame the camera for taking too many pictures, or arriving opened, or taking pictures with nothing in them---change your settings, check the camera more often, get it insured and RTFM.
These cameras take great pictures if you set them up correctly, you set them up in the right areas, you know how to make adjustments to settings and you check back on them a few times over the 1st day or two to make those changes. If you want something more sophisticated, which will cost significantly more, you will have to read the manual on that as well.
I have used these cameras to catch deer, black bear, Everglades mink, badgers, skunks, skinks, birds, poachers, trespassers, coyotes, raccoons, opossums, rodents, rabbits, dogs, cats, panther, bobcats, and about every other bit of wildlife in either SWFL or central IL. These cameras surpass most cameras available, and all of the ones in this price range in quality and reliability. I would highly recommend them, and will be buying even more.

For under $200, the 5MP Trophy Cam Brown Night Vision has a long battery life (I've had it in the field for 1 month using 8 lithium AA batteries and the battery level still is at 100%) and a very fast trigger time (~1 second). The trigger time (the amount of time between when movement is sensed and when the picture is taken) is critical to capturing animals on the move. The camera also features high resolution pictures (5 MP), infrared night vision, and it can capture pictures or video. I've posted some of the daytime and nighttime pictures from the trail camera at [...] if anyone is curious. The pictures in both day and nighttime are clear and well exposed. One small drawback is that pictures during dusk and dawn are often a little over saturated. Most of the time, they can be corrected in an image editing program. A 4 GB SD card stores over 4000 pictures. I have the camera watching a bait pile. With the camera set to normal sensitivity, having it take 1 picture at a time, and a minimum time of 20 seconds between pictures, I am capturing about 500 pictures a week, most of which are raccoons and coyotes, but there are a lot of deer as well.

If you are concerned about it getting stolen, there are custom lock boxes available on EBay. I am using one and a Master Lock 8418KADCAM-TMB Python Adjustable Locking Cable, Braided Steel, Camo Colored, 6-Feet x 5/16-Inch and they work great. The camera is also water proof and very durable. I've dropped it a couple times from about 6 feet and it hasn't skipped a beat. Overall, I highly recommend this camera and would definitely buy it again.

This is my first camera, probably my only camera. First off i am generally a cheapskate and do not liked to be nickled and dimed either.
Best things
1. takes pictures and videos. Since it is my first camera not sure if there are better quality photos or videos or not but all i need to know is if there is something going down the trail and what it is. I don't really care if it s a 9 point buck or 10. I figure i can sort the details later.
2. Battery life. I bought this last Aug and an still using the original 8 duracell batteries.
3. Reliability. again its been in use almost 10 months. No problems or issues.
4.Ease of use. had it running in matter of minutes.
5. Price. lowest price camera with all the above. (and it was made by chinese?)
What is better than that!

Negatives. None for me

If you bought one and are experiencing problems take it back and get a new one. Like all manufactured products there will be ones with problems in some runs but so far mine has been trouble free.

This cam worked great for a couple of months.

Both daytime and night pictures were clear and great quality! Very pleased with it.

After a couple months, all night photos were pitch black. I tried different batteries, then tried plugging it in; All with the same result.

Daytime pics still work fine, but I need something that I can trust to take night pics as well.

I have used this camera for the past month. It takes very good daylight pictures. It is very easy on batteries. The night time flash is okay to about 30 ft. If you buy this camera - set sensitivity to low and time between shots to 30-60 seconds - otherwise you will capture every blowing leaf, stick or bird. Camera is very sensitive even in normal sensing mode. Overall, I am very pleased with this camera.

I have to say this camera works pretty well most of the time. With 12 pics, 2 will come out over exposed. These over exposed pictures are daytime pics so there's not much of an excuse for game being to close etc. Exposure is usually very good. Not a lot of false triggers, but I do catch some tails of deer when mounted over a trail. Night time pictures look pretty good in black and white. I guess I need to send this back for replacement, but with a 2 year warranty, I think I will hold off and see how things go. It is really nice using AA's instead of more expensive C size. Battery life seems to be rather long, I haven't run out batteries yet after about 4 weeks of use. Using 16GB Sandisk card and the image capacity maxes out at 9,999. Image size is around 160K at 5MP so you can get a lot of pictures before a card fills. Max res is 8MP but sensor size is 5MP, so not sure what you would gain except increased disk space by going to a larger image size.

This is a great little camera (if you get one that works). I had to return the first one as it continuously took pictures (1200 in 8 hour period in an empty house). Don't be afraid to buy though. Amazon's return and replacement was easy. If you do buy one, make sure the first thing you do is turn it on and put it in an empty room, facing the wall or ceiling, and check it in about a half hour. If it has taken twenty or thirty pics, you have a bad one. No firmware or settings changes are going to fix it. Bushnell is aware of this issue and you can document it through any trail cam forum. So just send it back and try a diffent one, you will be pleased. Day time pictures are excellent and nighttime pics are the clearest I've seen. I've tried Cuddeback (ghost deer) and Wildgame Inovations X6C (everything blurry-shutter too slow). My recommendations so you don't get a thousand pictures of squirrels, turkeys and rabbits,(every day- it is very sensitive) is to change the default time out to at least 5 minutes (from 10 seconds). I also change picture settings to capture 2 pics every trigger. My only complaint is that it is advertised as a 8MP camera. In reality it has a 5MP sensor. They probably claim through interpolation or some such nonsense that it can replicate a 8MP image. They are not the only ones though, StealthCam has for years claimed that it's 1.3MP sensor could take 2.0MP images. It's just not possible. That being said, MegaPixels are not that important (unless you are printing posters- who does that?) Lens quality is a bigger factor in image quality. I have a Lumix 2MP with a Leica Lens and it blows away any 10+MP point and shoot that I've seen. And isn't what really matters is how it looks to your eyes, not how large the file size is? But now I'm rambling and that's not really relevant. All in all this is a nice (very small) camera and I would recommend based on my trials.

February 15, 2011
Had to send the second one back. After a couple weeks, it started taking pictures at night continuously until the batteries were dead. Interestly, after the sun was up, it would stop, only to start again after it was completely dark. Maybe something to do with the temperature (it had been very cold) or something, doesn't really matter, it doesn't work right. What a shame. I really liked this camera. Bushnell needs to recall all these cameras. Maybe the next generation will be better, but by then they will have lost a lot of customers. DO NOT BUY!

This is my third trail camera. My first was a Stealth that I got as a gift several years ago, and it still works, but is out of date in many ways: It's big and clunky, photos are grainy, it is slow to react and misses animals that left footprints in front of it, and it does night flash photos instead of infrared night photos. The flash scares some animals away, though not deer. The last straw for this one was when I watched a bear feeding 10 feet in front of it for 10 minutes, then stand up and walk right in front of the camera which never went off. For some reason the Stealth couldn't sense a black animal at night. My second camera was a Scoutguard which is fast, and takes nice quality photos, but the infrared photos turned out black whenever the temperature got below 55F. Below 40F. it won't function at all. I live in Wisconsin, so it is useless about six months of the year. Both cameras eat batteries fast.

So I got the Bushnell Trophy Camera to replace the other two, and I couldn't be happier with it. I decided to try it because the advertisements claim it functions to 5 below zero. Because I am interested in seeing what winter wildlife is active at our cabin in Northern Wisconsin, I definitely need a camera that will function in cold weather. I'm a biologist and want to document the small animals as well, and I'm getting photos of opossums, rabbits, and squirrels which the other cameras did not capture. For comparison's sake, one day I put my new Bushnell Trophy Cam just below the Scoutguard on the same tree-trunk, pointed them at the same spot, and checked the next day after a frosty night to see what they captured. The Bushnell got a 'possum, six excellent photos of two deer, six photos of a feral cat and three photos of one cottontail rabbit. The Scoutguard got one photo of a deer's butt: nothing more. This comparison convinced me that the Bushnell Trophy Camera is the best camera for the money.

Now the temperatures are down in the teens at night, and it is still snapping photos of deer. I put lithium AA batteries in it because of the cold weather. I'd recommend it to anybody. I'm using it at the 5 megapixel size photo and the quality is so excellent, I have no need to use the 8 mg size, but it's available if I have a future need for more definition. I've never used the video yet, so I cannot comment on that.

There is a known problem with these cameras, where they will record images all night and fill up the memory until the batteries drain. I tried mine in several different spots and burned through a lot of batteries before figuring this out. As one of the other reviewers wrote, check the first FAQ on the Bushnell page, where it details this issue. When I called Customer Service, I was advised to wait until summer to get a replacement, because the problem has been fixed in the 2011 model. If you get a 2010 model, there's a good chance that you will get a camera with this defect. It is made worse by cold temps, so if you buy a camera in summer, you might not figure out there's anything wrong with it until you try to use it in winter.

I'm giving this 2 stars because Customer Service is being honest in admitting the problem, and they are working with me to get a replacement camera that actually works. There is a 2 year warranty on the camera, so if you get one with this problem you can send it to Bushnell for a replacement. I've had a very frustrating experience with this camera, I've spent money on batteries and now shipping, but the worst thing is that I set this camera up in a spot on my property where I've had vandalism, and if the camera had actually worked, there's a very good chance that I would have caught the vandal (I know who it is, but need video evidence in order to press charges). Hopefully my replacement camera will work, but I'm skeptical about Bushnell now, and am going to buy another brand as well.

This was my first trail camera purchase. I have been very happy with the quality of the photos taken for both day and night. The only problem I see is the camera has a tendency to under expose at first daylight. It seems to be stuck between full night shots and a real washed out daytime shot. The picture is still very good for a grey, white, black photo though. The daytime photo's are excellent and the night shots are as good as I have seen on other cameras as well. The price has already dropped from what I paid so I consider it now an even better deal. I purchased the metal security case to attach to a tree (made specifically for the Bushnell)and the python cable lock as well. The whole system works real well for security. The AA batteries work great and allow for this camera to be much smaller than others. So far it has been active for 4 weeks and has worked very well, no problems. I will be purchasing more of this camera for it's quality, size, price, and use of AA batteries.