Trailcams

[Mustelid]

Hi all,

I've read through a number of posts on trailcams.

I'm about to buy a couple and the choice is extensive.

Zeiss Secacam 5 are now at £179 at bushwear, so not much more than the Spypoint or Hikmicro M15.

Does anyone use the zeiss? Are they the best in that price bracket?

Thanks in advance.

 

[20ppc]

Hi all,

I've read through a number of posts on trailcams.

I'm about to buy a couple and the choice is extensive.

Zeiss Secacam 5 are now at £179 at bushwear, so not much more than the Spypoint or Hikmicro M15.

Does anyone use the zeiss? Are they the best in that price bracket?

Thanks in advance.

Hi, I have used all 3.
SPYPOINT are a complete waste of time and money, don’t go there.
The HIK are ok although the App is absolutely useless and I’m just in the process of returning a camera as it’s eating through batteries, a known fault.
I have 2 Zeiss Secams and they are without doubt the best. The App is great and easy to use. You can have more than one camera on a payment plan. The cameras are very good and easy to set up and use and Zeiss customer service is great.
Get the Zeiss

 

[Mustelid]

Hi, I have used all 3.
SPYPOINT are a complete waste of time and money, don’t go there.
The HIK are ok although the App is absolutely useless and I’m just in the process of returning a camera as it’s eating through batteries, a known fault.
I have 2 Zeiss Secams and they are without doubt the best. The App is great and easy to use. You can have more than one camera on a payment plan. The cameras are very good and easy to set up and use and Zeiss customer service is great.
Get the Zeiss

Thank you very much for the information

 

[RTreble]

I must admit ive got 2 spypoints with the only fault being the cattle snapped off the aerial. Iam on the free payment plan which gives me 100 photos / month per camera. Ive set mine to only work during darkenss so I don't have corvids & buzzards eating fox bait.

 

[Tim.243]

Hi all,

I've read through a number of posts on trailcams.

I'm about to buy a couple and the choice is extensive.

Zeiss Secacam 5 are now at £179 at bushwear, so not much more than the Spypoint or Hikmicro M15.

Does anyone use the zeiss? Are they the best in that price bracket?

Thanks in advance.

Have the M15 (not long set it up) One SD member has 6 of them and see the results he sends. Not a fan of App's on my phone but it picked up a fallow last night where I could see a trail, it is getting a few foliage pictures but that was my fault but it means the thing is working ok.
All of these designs think people live their lives on their phone (well I don't) but had to bend a bit. Where it will be going is a small farm with a fallow corridor so seeing them pass through as they do a couple of night running will save me time and fuel so I thought I would give it a go..

 

[Jimbob39]

Had several SPYPOINT. All failed within 2 years. Got zeis secacam7 now and it’s amazing. Image quality, app control and battery life is great. The batteries have been in a month and are half used, remote control is great and I can request a photo whenever to just check in. Highly recommended. Once you’ve set the service plan up it’s great. My advice is set the plan up then set the camera up onto the plan.

 

[Antikka]

Zeiss Secacam 5 is great, easy to use and battery life is not bad.

 

[Mustelid]

Thank you all

 

[k80ush]

I’ve got two Spypoints and they are a waste of time. Had the same decision to make as you and went for two Hik M15. I think they are faultless, HD pictures are crystal clear, great range and seamless with the app. Had them 6 weeks now and done 1000+ images each and still reading 100% battery. Would highly recommend.

 

[nightcrow]

I’ve got two Spypoints and they are a waste of time. Had the same decision to make as you and went for two Hik M15. I think they are faultless, HD pictures are crystal clear, great range and seamless with the app. Had them 6 weeks now and done 1000+ images each and still reading 100% battery. Would highly recommend.

. My Hik will consume 12 batteries in just over a fortnight, not being triggered that often.

 

[75]

. My Hik will consume 12 batteries in just over a fortnight, not being triggered that often.

How was it set up? The app is awful and they always send you images instantly. You need Delay Control set to 24hrs. I initially thought this setting was for frequency of sending images (in the same way you setup spypoint) but it’s nothing to do with that and only impacts when changes in settings are communicated with the camera. If you set it on instant for example, it’ll prob do a set of batteries in 24-48hrs!

 

[k80ush]

How was it set up? The app is awful and they always send you images instantly. You need Delay Control set to 24hrs. I initially thought this setting was for frequency of sending images (in the same way you setup spypoint) but it’s nothing to do with that and only impacts when changes in settings are communicated with the camera. If you set it on instant for example, it’ll prob do a set of batteries in 24-48hrs!

Mine is set to instant and synchronizes straight away. I find the App much more useful than the spypoint one, you can change everything remotely apart from frequency of images being sent.
I have two people who recommended them to me and haven’t changed a battery in 4 months, sounds like you had faulty units?

 

[75]

Mine is set to instant and synchronizes straight away. I find the App much more useful than the spypoint one, you can change everything remotely apart from frequency of images being sent.
I have two people who recommended them to me and haven’t changed a battery in 4 months, sounds like you had faulty units?

I agree the app has more functionality than spypoint but mine keeps losing the camera. I get a notification on my phone that an image has been taken, open the app and “No Devices” message. I pull down to refresh and my camera appears. Every time

my unit isn’t faulty but if you change this setting to instant it will eat batteries - there’s a warning in the info about it. This has nothing to do with frequency images are communicated to your phone - always instant on HIK:

 

[BRYAN]

M15 users.
How are you getting on with the instant capture?

 

[Tom Buidhe]

I opted for a Secacam 7 which has been up and running for just about a month now.
It was purchased on sale from Viking.
I changed the factory supplied batteries yesterday as they were reporting low.
I have set the camera on its least power friendly settings partly to see worst case battery consumption and partly to give me full remote control and visibility for the first month.
The setup and app have worked faultlessly. Intuitive, straightforward and bug free.
Camera performance day and night is excellent. Good clear still images and same for video.
Sensitivity is good and it has reliably detected subjects in a crowded woodland environment out to 30 - 50 yards.
Data transmission is good even in my poor signal area.
The monthly fee is fair for the service level and reliability. There has been one server outage in the last 4 weeks which lasted a handful of hours overnight. The images were saved to the on-board SD card so no information was lost.
I have no experience of other trail cameras but would not hesitate in recommending the Secacam 7.

 

[75]

M15 users.
How are you getting on with the instant capture?

Great for foxing out the bedroom window but otherwise I’m indifferent. I generally use trailcams on ground which is an hour away to know what’s about. If I get a bunch of images every few hours then it serves the same purpose as instantly arriving on my phone. I tend to not be in a position to react immediately except foxing from home.

 

[BRYAN]

I should not have said "instant capture". It is actually one-tap capture.
tap phone screen on one-tap capture and on next screen tap capture button.
I believe it should take a photo and instantly send to phone. Nothing coming through though.

 

[Mustelid]

Well... I went ahead and ordered a Zeiss Secacam 5. Found one online for £165.

 

[C&K Suffolk]

I have the zeiss secam 5 and SPYPOINT lm2.
The zeiss if better in quality of picture and you can control it using the app.
I definetly get another zeiss over a SPYPOINT next time

 

[nightcrow]

How was it set up? The app is awful and they always send you images instantly. You need Delay Control set to 24hrs. I initially thought this setting was for frequency of sending images (in the same way you setup spypoint) but it’s nothing to do with that and only impacts when changes in settings are communicated with the camera. If you set it on instant for example, it’ll prob do a set of batteries in 24-48hrs!

Ok,thanks, I've just reset mine to 24h and it is on a set of fully recharged Energisers so I wait with excited anticipation.