Sams Club-Stealth cam

[esaunders63]

I was in Sams Club yesterday and they had a stealth that looked identical to the $60 model at Wally World. This was in a little kit with a mounting bracket and some other things. Anyway it advertised a 90 ft. flash range. Is this possible? It ran on 8 C batteries which I am sure lasted every bit of 2 days with a 90 ft flash.
It was a 35mm model. has anyone else seen it?

 

[KANSASBUCKHUNTER]

Yup, means you can see the flash from 90' away!!!

 

[AZHunterC]

I don't know but I sure have been pleased w/ my stealth cams. The pictures come out great and the cost of the camera is unbeatable.

 

[shufigo]

Yes, a 90 foot flash will let you count the eyeballs in the field of black. Most of the complaints I've heard about the Stealth cam came from the reliability rather than the quality of the pics. I think they probably are a reasonable low cost alternative if you're willing to keep swapping them out until you get one that continues to work right.

 

[tdhunter]

90 feet of flash range is about three times more flash than a game cam could efectively use in my opinion. I can't see any hint of detail in a pic from half that distance in broad daylight. TD

 

[spectr17]

Make sure and buy a crate of batteries with that Stealth.

 

[AZHunterC]

I've had 3 stealths for over 2 yrs and they have never given me any problems. The aa batteries I use typically last about 2 1/2 to 3 weeks before they peter out. I know that a lot of negative feedback has been given on this camera but honestly I have never had any issues w/ any of my 3 stealth cams. They are the standard 69.99 cams too.

 

[Timjackson]

AZHunterC... Consider yourself lucky. Do a search on the stealth cams and see how many posts you find where people are having problems. They far outnumber the people that have had a good experience with them.. I know that my little brother sent the same one back 3 times before getting his money back.. I think you must have gotten a good batch or something...

The 90ft. flash range is

... no way!

 

[Dieselchessy]

I own one stealth. Bought it at Gi Joes for $80. It is the bottom of the barrel model. I has never gave me any problems except one.

It only lets you put the Time or the Date, not both.

Who in there right mind would build a trail cam that dont put the time and the date on the pic?

How you supposed to patern an animal if you dont know when the pic was taken?

Even my Home brew puts them both on the pic.

 

[spectr17]

From what I've seen posted on th hunting forums and heard from emails and talking to people who own Stealths, about 40% just flat don't work. One guy sent his back 4 times. 4 times!! I'd have given up after 2 and his never did work. He finally bought another brand. That failure rate is horrible and I don't see how they stay in business. But then I see comments like, "Well, it's only $69.00, what can I lose?".

Let me count the ways you lose. Your time fussing with it and calling Stealth and returning it, your money, wasted trips trying to recover pics from your hunting area that aren't there. etc. etc.

If you have one and it works just count your lucky stars. I looked at carrying them in the store here but in my opinion there are just too many complaints. I don't need the headaches returning them to Stealth and dealing with pissed off customers. It's a complete mystery why they are so popular to me, I think it just shows you how people can be pound foolish.

Dieselchessy pointed out another huge flaw, the date/time stamp. Reminds me of the event counters. What triggered the event counter? Was it a cow trespasser, dog, etc.? Useless unless it's on a bait pile where you just want the time the animal is coming to the bait.

 

[Mossbrook]

I have 6 stealths running. I initially had problems with false pictures. Now I would say less than 5% of the pictures are blank. It may have something to do with the cooler weather? Also, make sure to set the cams in a northerly direction, and at a 45 degree angle to the trails rather than 90 degrees. Battery life is tolerable, but less than ideal. Film development is the real killer. Digital cameras are the way to go, if not for the huge initial investment. The only time I had a problem with film advancement and winding was when I used Fuji film. Never had a problem with Kodak. Also, I have 3 of the 90' flashes, and 3 of the 30' cheap models, and the cheap ones do just as good a job, and use cheaper batteries. Picture quality is better than I expected.

Just my 3 cents.

 

[AZHunterC]

It is kind of funny because the posts that I have read from people that own stealth cameras are fairly positive while those that don't own them are not. All of you guys "heard from a friend" or "read on another post". From people that actually own and use these cameras I have heard very good feedback and have experienced the good quality myself.

 

[Timjackson]

AZHunterC... I am not going to argue with you about this. I am glad you have not had problems with the stealth, but why do you think it gets all the negative feedback??

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE </div>

All of you guys "heard from a friend" or "read on another post[/b]

I will definitley do some research before I go out and buy something and I have read way too much negative feeback about these cams to even think about purchasing it. The main reason most of us do not own one is because we do know someone who does and all they do is bitch about it. I think most of the stealth owners finally just give in and decide that it is just going to be this way and live with it. My little brother was one of the unfortunate ones to send his back 4 times.....

I spent less than $100 building my 35mm cams and will put them up against the stealth ANY DAY as far as false pics and picture quality are concerned. And if something happens, I have this forum to help me troubleshoot it and can usually figure it out because I put it together from beginning to finish.. Again, glad you are having luck with yours but I will never believe that they are a good and reputable company because of all the problems...

Go to the search engine and type in Stealth and hit search.. You will find all the posts in this forum about them. Some positive and some negative. But, the negatives WAY outnumber the postives from people that have used them....

 

[DavidS]

I'll throw my tw cents in here, since I own a Stealth MC2-G. It is junk !!!! I have tried both Kodak and Fuji film in it, and neither one will rewind. It doesn't even rewind when you push the manual rewind button. It takes me about 15 minutes worth of turning it off then back on then pushing the button to get it to rewind. I think out of about 50 rolls of film, it has automatically rewound twice. The flash.... no where near 30 feet. Mine is doing good to reach about 15 feet. Low battery indicator has never worked. Event counter ..... it is on the front, so that when you check it, if it hasn't used up all of the film, you get your picture taken which sucks about midnight on a dark night and your face is about a foot from the camera. False pics .....how many do you want me to send ya ? I have them running out my ears. As far as the pics with something in them....they are ok. Date - time stamp... one or the other but not both. Battery life .....on the average, about 14 days for 8 AA's. We have 3 homebres on our lease and they average one small 9 volt about every 2 months. I am waiting on it to come back, cause I sent it in to see if they can fix this stuff. If I get it back and everything is still the same, I will gut it and put my own stuff in it. I have been building Homebrews for the same money that I spent on the Stealth, and as far as I am concerned, they are much more reliable and if they break, I can fix them.

 

[spectr17]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE </div>

All of you guys "heard from a friend" or "read on another post". From people that actually own and use these cameras I have heard very good feedback and have experienced the good quality myself.[/b]

Do a search on ANY hunting forum and here in this forum on Stealth and you'll get it from the horse's mouth. Hunters who have them and are not happy with them. Not 2nd or third hand but from the person who owns the cam.

I know it's like calling your kid ugly but it's reality. There have been several others that sucked, Buckshot was one. I got daily emails about them being broke or not working right. Maybe that's why Buckshot isn't around anymore, I'm not really sure.
THere was one game cam that wasn't sealed off from the rain and they failed the firts time it rained naturally. Remember? the one with the huge gaping hole in front of the camera? Everyone here saw that coming without even touching one. THe company later fixed the gaping hole.

 

[Mossbrook]

I have never once had a problem with the film not rewinding after the final exposure. The problem I had with the Fuji film was the film not advancing. If you want to rewind the film manually before the roll is used, you have to switch the camera from "on" to "standby". It will not rewind while "on".

The 30' flash is a bit weak compared to the 90' models. But it is not like you have a telephoto lens on the camera. Anything beyond about 20' is not going to show up very nice regardless. It is best to have some sort of brushy backing so game beyond that distance does not set off the cam.

I believe most of the problems with false pics can be taken care of by careful setting of the cameras.

I do agree that it would be nice to run a camera for 2 months on 1- 9volt battery. I have kept the folks at Energizer happy. I wonder why the Stealth's use so many?

In summary, I feel the Stealth is not a bad camera for the money. An economical way to get started in this for someone who doesn't want to or doesn't have the time to build a homebrew. Don't get me wrong, I am sure the homebrews you fellas are putting together are much better cameras.

P.S. David S. : What are you doing checking your cameras at midnight???

 

[DavidS]

Originally posted by Mossbrook@Nov 12 2004, 07:24 PM
I have never once had a problem with the film not rewinding after the final exposure. The problem I had with the Fuji film was the film not advancing. If you want to rewind the film manually before the roll is used, you have to switch the camera from "on" to "standby". It will not rewind while "on".

Mine would advance perfectly, but would not ever rewind, manually or automatically, no matter where the switch was .... on, off, test, or standby! The only way that I found to get it to rewind is to turn it off then back on and then back to standby and then push the rewind button and after about 10 to 15 minutes of this it will finally rewind. I have faced the thing all directions and everywhere in between. Have even went so far as to stack my Stealth, a Moultrie Game Cam II, and a Homebrew all three on top of each other. The Stealth had nothing but blanks, the Moultrie was about half blanks, and the Homebrew was nothing but deer. All 3 in the same exact spot, facing the exact same direction, all there at the same time. I have also tried it with nothing in front of it but the feeder, and tried it with grass and a tree in front of it. Still, over half of the pics, no matter where or how it has been set, were blanks.

As far as checking the cams at midnight .....lease is 2 hours away from here....I work sometimes until 8:00 p.m., and it takes about an hour and a half to check and reload the 5 cams that are on the place. So .....it is either check them when you get there, or check them during the hunting hours. I would rather spook the deer during the night rather than spook them during the day.