Trail Cam

I'll give you general info. Many if not all trail cam brands offer cellular cameras nowadays. I've been using stealth fusions for several years. They're about $100. Check out bass pro, cabelas, midway usa etc and see what you like.

It doesn't matter who your phone service with. The plan you'll use for the camera is through the trail cam company and has no ties to your phone service. I have ATT phone service, but chose Verizon for my trail cams because Verizon seems to have better reception in the woods where I hunt. The camera modem is specific to the carrier. So whatever service provide you choose at purchase, that's what you'll be stuck with.

There are a variety of plans starting at about $5-$10/month, depending on how much data/pics you expect/want. Pics are uploaded to a server that you access with an app.

Some have an SD card that stores pics in addition to those stored on a remote server, and some do not and what's uploaded to the server is all you have. You can change camera settings remotely and even clear your SD card through the app, if the camera uses one.

If I think of any other general details, I'll add.

I’ve got 3 generations of tactacams that are just fabulous, but will add, It’s the only thing I use. I have T-mobile, but that doesn’t matter, as they use AT@T and Verizon, and I have zero issues. My lease is rural AR and 3 hours away, and I get picture within the minute they trigger. I know this, because I’ve call members who happened to wander in my area and I’ve called them standing there after the camera was triggered, now they all have them, lol…I have the pro version from this year, and really don’t see much difference in pics from the last 2 generations. I would recommend getting last years model at 119.99 at Walmart, or wherever, get their solar panel, which will save you a bundle in batteries, as I didn’t have to change mine at all since I started using them($60), but well worth it. The App is free and easy to nav and delete and share pics. Plan is unlimited at 12.99 a month for first camera, and about a dollar less for each additional camera…everything on app is interactive and can change all setting remotely from your phone…

I'll comment on my experience with batteries/solar panels, etc. You'll get to choose how often your camera uploads the pics taken. Set to instant, the onboard modem will have to power up every time a pic is taken. If you're getting a lot of pics, that can really take a toll on battery life. Choosing hourly, twice/day or daily uploads will stretch battery life, if you're not really wanting every pic as soon as it's taken. If you're monitoring feed, between squirrels, coons, ducks, hogs, and who knows what else, you may get a ton of pics. I get hundreds of pics everyday, mostly squirrels. Uploading hundreds of times a day burns up batteries quick. I keep mine on hourly unless I have reason to want to see things instantly. It's easy to go back and forth changing upload frequency. With that qty of pics, and hourly uploads, 8 AAs last a few weeks.

Solar panels - I've only used stealth's solar panels. But having used three of them, I've found that they don't hold up season after season. I've left camera and solar panel out all summer and the camera survives, but the solar panels have not. Once the tree canopy closes in, in the spring, I don't think they get enough sun. If you take the solar panel home, then you have to deal with a battery that's super dead from being in dark storage all summer, and may not recharge. Maybe bringing them home in the offseason and mounting them in an always sunny spot would work better. So while solar panels work well when new, and save you on buying AA batteries, I've quit using them. What I have done instead, is cut the cord off of the dead solar panel, and connected it to a riding lawnmower battery. The lesser ones are about $35, last a long time, and can be swapped out with a recharged one. I just started doing that a month and a half ago, and haven't had to swap yet

Lithium batteries - work well, last longer. However, having used them in both moultrie and stealth cameras, the cameras seem to struggle with giving you an accurate battery level indication. I'm noticing the same with the lawn mower batteries too. I think alkaline batteries decrease in voltage more proportionally to the ampacity left, than the others do. In other words, measured voltage on a lithium or lawnmower battery may stay high enough to fool the camera into thinking it still has a lot left, but in reality, it's ampacity is lower than indicated. So you may see it go from full power indication, to zero very quickly, even instantly, even though the batteries have actually been steadily degrading over time. I've seen the indication show a bar or two of battery left, but the camera will stop working because when it demands the power, it just doesn't have enough to power up the modem. In those instances, if you could see the battery indicator live under demand, it would probably be zero. Another way of saying all of this, is an alkaline battery with 1.4V on a meter may have 50% capacity left. A lithium battery with 50% capacity left may still read 1.5v-1.6v on a meter. I suspect the camera only recognizes voltage. So by the time that lithium battery reaches 1.4V threshold that the camera thinks is 50% left, it's actual capacity may only be 25% or less-voltage stays high despite decreased ampacity. These are just hypothetical numbers to make the point that the cameras seem to be set up to accurately measure standard alkaline AA batteries (strictly by voltage), and everything else may be a little off, and die unexpectedly.

Another point worth mentioning is, when the changes you make remotely take effect. When you change a camera or cellular setting in the app, that change does not take effect until the next upload/occurrence that your modem connects to the server. So, if you're currently set to upload instantly, any change you make to the settings will sit in the buffer until the next pic/upload/connection with the server occurs. If you're set to upload hourly, your change will occur at the next hourly interval, provided you have some pics in the buffer to upload too. If you don't have pics in the buffer, you'll have to wait at least another hour and hope it took pics by then. If not, you're at the mercy of the next hour that does have pics in the buffer, whenever that may be. So if you're on once a day uploads, you'll have to wait a whole day before any changes you make take effect. That's how both moultrie and stealth work, I assume that's the case with others as well, as you don't maintain an always-open connection with the server.

Moultrie Edge

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I ran 4 Moultrie Edges cell cams this season with no issues. They are the easiest trail cam's I have ever used. You can get them for as low as $80 a piece. The subscription fee isn't bad either.

Also, people are less likely to steal cell cameras.

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Like the price point on these. Is there a range the cellular service works best? Any degradation in quality of images or refresh with greater ranges?

Cost of plan? Length of battery life?

Thanks again! Good stuff.

Stealthcam.com is having a sale buy one get one free.

This is the answer. Love mine. That sucker is sensitive though, so expect dozens of photos when there’s activity. I’ve got a fox that keeps hanging around which is cool to see.