Do not even think of fricking with a SPYPOINT camera

Care to explain?
What is the issue so we can all benefit from your experience.

In was even in the SPYPOINT club for a decade. I bought two cameras in a pack a year and a few days ago. One of the mfers never worked no power not shite. I opened a claim on it last year but they ask me to run through a bunch of checks when I got home to good signal area etc. Then I almost died so I forgot about it and thought I would get to it in the Fall. I didn’t hunt this Fall, so finally got around to it today.

After spending two mfer hours with the idiots, dropped call, etc and having to send them a video of it, etc the mfer says I am 3 days out of warranty. Even though they know it never worked. frick THEM. Why not tell me that to begin with.

I have bought probably close to 3 dozen of their cameras and put up with their poor quality really because they were always helpful, and always replaced them if they crapped out even if a year or two old. If it was an obvious manufacturing issue they made it right. So I stayed with them. Even if out of warranty they would replace or give me a new one or rebuilt one really cheap.

Just so you understand my displaced loyalty, I bought the first ones right when they first came out. I still have one of those original cameras. They were beast and I loved them.

Here are the issues with them.

They leak like mfers and if the battery compartment gets wet you are fricked. The seals are garbage. They can’t handle our heat and humidity. I count on losing a few every spring.

The lens also fog up and the pictures are the worst quality of any camera mfer. (I don’t really care that much for quality as long as I can see what it is ok, it’s overkill to me)

Then here is the thing that I actually worked with them that drove me nuts. If you miss an update they don’t work. They typically undated 1-2 times during the Fall hunting season, and once in Spring. It’s always great when all your cameras go out in middle of the rut. They have gotten better with this, but it still happens.

Signal strength. This is the big deal with me. We have a huge cell tower a mile from our property but they still can’t get a signal. They say you have to have 4/5 bars for them to work correctly. I have that on about 15% of my property max, right by the tower. If they can’t get signal they keep searching and will burn through batteries in a few days to a week. I can put another brand right next to them like tactacam and no problem, they are getting 4/5 bars and the SPYPOINT is getting 2. My solution was to put extended antennas on most of them.

So I would typically put out 10-15 cameras and maybe half would work all season. Ridiculously frustrating.

But you get 200 pics free each month so I put out 15 or so and only pay for locations that have activity. It’s 5 bucks a camera with tactacam.

They are really just cheap pieces of shite. When all the other cameras were 3-500 bucks and I was getting them on sale for 50-75 bucks it was worth it to put up with the bullshite. But now there are are lot of other good cameras in that price range. The tactacam reveals I have are significantly better so far.

Basically I put up with them because they never fricked me. That changed today. They aren’t worth putting up with all the problems and getting fricked.

Nevermore says this fricking Raven.

I know they are hated on here but we run 16 micros 4-5 months a year. And 4-5 8 months a year. They take pics, send them to us, and we know what deer and turkeys we got. Some cameras are 5-6 years old. We update the firmware every October then put them out. Run alkaline batteries in them. This year we are investing in hme 12v solar chargers.

I have one out now, it’s been out in the woods since September.

It takes ok pics if the animal is standing still, otherwise it’s a blob of smeared crap.

To update all 16 cameras, I turn them on, call the company and ask them to send the firmware update over the air. Easy peasy.

My stepson put a Spypoint cellular camera on our land last year,been out6-7 months now, the one with the built in solar panel.I’ve been impressed with the pictures.How long it lasts to be determined.

I have 4 Reconyx cellular cameras,are pricy but have been very happy with them.They have 5 year warranty,I did have to send 1 back that was little over a year old.

I own 3 or 4 models rn, if you count the non working ones.

quote:

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I’m on the fence if I prefer the 8 paragraph diatribe or this simple two word declaration as your google review for their services.

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When I was two paragraphs into that (and of course stopped), I said "damn, this guy is on one right now, this is google review length and pissed off"

Have 6 and they work ok. The key I think is to NEVER turn them off when a light is on. Hard to do sometimes when they take a picture as you approach them. Customer service has been hard to get but ok when you reach them. The web support is good. The camera is a value camera and so not top of the line but only problem I have is the ATT service.