Side by Side Comparison of: Moultrie vs Primos

Great price for a great scouting camera. We use this in our backyard. It's surprising to see what goes on at night - foxes, coyotes, deer at the bird feeders. Does trigger a bit slow, so a fast moving animal is out of photo. But recovery is fast and the photos are very good. This camera has been outdoors in all sorts of weather and has never failed. Battery life is long - several months. Easy to set up. This is a great gift for that hard-to-buy-for person. The recipient doesn't have to be a sportsman. . . grandparents, parents, everyone would like to see what's up in the yard at night. Good for security purposes too.

We purchased this for our son in 2014 and it still going strong ! We wanted to get him something that would be convienant for him to view his photos when he went out to check it. It is so easy to set up and get to the memory card for easy viewing ! He loves it alot as well as his grandfather. We ended up having to purchase another one for my Dad which, who is by the way not tech savy at all and he was able to understand how to program it as well as retrieve his own photos without any of our assistance, which is a big old WOO HOO for us !!!
It is very durable. It has the moon phase and much more on it and the pictures turn out perfect every time!
I definitely recommend this product.

Simple and easy to work. The night pics are good but not with motion, maybe 30-50 feet, but with blur if the object is running. There's also a short 4-5 second delay before a pic is taken. Also, the 1 minute setting will take more pics then you will ever have time to delete. The 5 minute setting works well. The sensitivity of the camera seems to catch even the movement of trees and plants. However, it has captured pics of deer, dogs, raccoons, and trespassers with good clarity. Good weather proofing too. I have a 32 gig card in it. That's WAY too much! 16 or even an 8 gig will work fine unless you wont check it for a season. I have used it for 3 months and haven't needed to change the batteries. 4 are needed. Very good purchase for the price.

I don't think it is fair to compare this to two hundred dollar plus game cameras. It's like comparing a Toyota to Mercedes. This is an excellent game camera, especially if you catch it on sale. I picked this up around the fifty dollar mark and I have to say, I am very very impressed. We knew there were hogs on the property and could see rooting around, but were trying to figure out where they were coming in and out of the brush was challenging. In one week of using this camera, we were able to clock their activity, pinpoint their most active times and kill one of the pigs.

The infrared flash doesn't startle the animals at all, the time stamp helps immensely and the pictures are very clear, and these opinions are from someone who is using the camera to detect animals at night. Battery life seems to be good, had the same Duracell batteries in it for 3 weeks now and no issues at all. I don't think it seals as tight as I would like, I found a spider web in mine when I went to check it out yesterday, but that isn't a deal breaker for me at all.

This is my first game camera, and I was hoping I wasn't going to be disappointed buying something on the lower end. For me, this is all I needed and produces the results I was looking for. If you just want to know what is lurking around in your yard or are a casual hunter, I think this would be perfect. I'm pleased and am looking at buying another one to put in another spot on the property.

Bought this for security purposes but has taken some really nice wildlife pictures too. I have uploaded a few, the night pics are a little grainy but easy to make out and the day pics are very clear. The videos are very good as well.

I bought this almost two years ago and it has performed flawlessly. I have set it outside and left it alone for a week at a time in the depth of the winter and it produced great videos of wildlife. I shoot mostly video and rarely do individual photos. In daylight the videos are in color, but at night with the infrared lighting, the videos are in black and white with very good detail. Snow, rain or 100 degree heat does not adversely affect the performance of the camera.

It runs weeks to months at a time on plain D batteries and the video is recorded on an SD card. I have no problems playing or saving the videos on my MacBook or iMac. You can't beat this product for the price

After using this camera for several months it has proven its worth. It is a basic motion sensitive trail camera. No frills or fancy settings to worry with. It is very simple and easy to operate. It takes quality and clear pictures even at night. I have not noticed any game being spooked by the camera what so ever. Some times it appears that they do know that it is there but it doesent bother them. The one thing you have to pay close attention to is any weeds or tree limbs that are in close proximity to the front of the camera is to clear and cut them away. As the wind blows the camera will detect them and take pictures of them. This is no flaw to the camera, it only goes to prove that the motion sensor is working quite well. Also keep in mind that it will , or atleast it was a bit of a learning curve with me to learn the proper setting for the sensitivity switch. That's something that just has to be done by trial and error, and each new location you place the camera will require a different setting. The camera seems to have a great weather proofing seal and even the sd card slot has a weather protective flap on it covering the card and protecting it from the elements. Overall I am very happy with this value packed and very reasonably priced camera and would recommend it to anyone who is looking for a great camera that takes great pictures without all the confusing settings a lot of cameras have.

I ordered this Trail Cam on 8/11/14 and received it in less than 48 hours using the free shipping option. When I received it, I noticed that the instruction manual states that Primos made some improvements to the Truth Cam due to customer feedback. They state that they now have a 1 second trigger speed, zero photo capture noise, up to 32GB SD memory card support, and up to 200% longer battery life. However, this Amazon site or the Primos site documentation doesn't reflect these improvements. If I knew about these improvements when trying to decide which inexpensive trail cam to buy, it would have made my decision much easier. I also probably would not have purchased the two 8GB SDHC memory card, if I knew it could now handle the 32GB card. Both companies need update their websites.

I set the camera up in my back yard to test the camera out. It makes zero noise when taking pictures both day or night. During the day, it is hard to tell if it was taking picture or not, very stealth. At night, the LEDs have a low red glow when taking a picture. I have not seen either of the two status lights coming on, but not sure if this is me or the camera. Not sure what the difference is between the power saving state and the ON/RUN Mode mentioned in the instruction manual, but I think they are one and the same.

On the first day of testing my camera in the back yard, I was very satisfied with the results. It captured pictures of my dogs, both day and night. It also captured some night pictures of a unwanted guess, a rat. On the second day I moved the camera, the results were not as good. I had lots of day time pics of nothing and no night time pics were taken. I believe the false triggers during the day were caused by excess sunshine and moving tree branches and leaves. The no pics at night were caused by no activity. Seems like location, location, location is very important for positive results.

My review of this trail cam is on a very small sample size, and this is my first trail cam. I just wanted anyone interest in purchasing this camera to know that improvements were made to the Primos Truth Cam 35 that I received and the websites do not reflect these improvements.

Bought this little unit a year ago to find out what was wandering around my suburban garden. Didn't expect too much, figured it would probably be dead in a few months.

Well I was happily wrong - it has lived outside for 11 months (bought it inside when the snow got so deep it buried it). Two sets of batteries in a year (still on the second set).

I mostly use the photo rather than video feature. This is because I keep forgetting to retrieve the info and the videos use a lot of card space, filling it up and corrupting. Photos are clear in daylight and good enough in darkness. My only complaint would be that sometimes the unit is slow to shoot so you only get the rear end of a critter and only in the first shot but hey! I can tell a skunk tail from a raccoon tail.

Sensitivity is set to max all the time and this does occasionally get triggered by shadows or other light changes; it's generally a question of placement.

Got a few surprises - a random dude wandering around our house one afternoon, my son breaking the bird feeder, but also some confirmations of skunk, raccoon and possum routes through the garden as well as a bunch of squirrel, mouse, chipmunk, rabbit and bird pictures

Definitely a lot of fun to have watching visitors of all kinds to our garden

Thanks to others' reviews of this camera, I have multiple TruthCam 35s around my property. Some have been up taking pictures since December (it's July now) and they still show 50% battery life left, after taking hundreds or thousands of pictures.

I've caught the usual skunks, rabbits, etc. along with fox, coyote, and two different bobcats using these cameras. It's such fun to see what's going on when you're not looking - the night shots can be pretty good too, but the daytime shots are excellent almost without fail. My mother who lives in a semi-rural area (many fences, close neighbors but still some land) actually caught a picture of a bear in the back portion of her place.

Can't say enough good about it - easy to set up, rugged construction, waterproof, easy to mount and move, takes video or photos, and again the battery life is amazing.

The one thing they could do to make this even better is add a time-lapse feature, so instead of motion sensor trigger it takes photos at user chosen intervals, but as it stands there's no reason to not get one. They'd be as good for security cams as they are for wildlife I think.

The old cliché “you get what you pay for” applies to this trail camera. I have owned a more expensive Moultrie camera for a couple of years and love it. I wanted to buy 3 more cameras because the information they provide is invaluable (and fun) but didn’t want to spend big money to do it. The A5 was about the best option to do that. This is a very basic camera. There is no multi shot burst, there is no plot scanning, there are no options for video length. You can take single photos or short 15 second videos, you can set quality of photos, and trigger delay. It does seem to range out to the advertised 50’. Once out in the woods it does a pretty decent job. There are quite a few more pictures without anything in them, as others have noted. This happens with my other camera too, just not quite as frequently. With that said, it does get plenty of good quality game pictures. It makes a big difference to position the camera properly. Do not set the camera at a 90 degree angle to the trail (noted in the manual). Set it at more like a 45 degree angle. This increases the potential pic/video capture area significantly. In summary this camera is an affordable and effective way to add cameras to your inventory but don’t expect the same performance or options as the more expensive cameras.

This is my first experience with any game camera, so I was not sure what to buy or expect. I did a fair amount of research on reviews of the lower-cost units available, not wanting to spend a lot of money on something I would regret as I learned more about what was important. Went with this one based on good reviews and low price for a starter - even bought two of them to try and catch the bear activity around the house. First couple of days have been very instructive for me. I bought two new SanDisk 16GB SD cards with these cameras, and so far they have worked flawlessly for me. I find the pictures taken are excellent - even the B/W night pictures show what I would expect to see, although the distance is greatly limited (perhaps 10 yards or so). Update: The limited range of the night pictures can be a real issue in some settings. My new M880 has more than double the range, and the night pictures are awesome in comparison to the A5. I keep one of these in front of my house where I have motion triggered flood lights, so no problem with range there at all, but the other one in the forest often catches things just too far out to identify. That has NOT been a problem with the M880.

There are several big drawbacks to this entry-level camera. The first one is obvious from the specs - the shortest delay setting is 1 minute, so no matter what is going on, you cannot take pictures any faster than 1/min. I knew this before I bought it, but I was not sure just how important I would find that ability. But a LOT can happen between those pictures, and now that I have seen several sequences with deer and elk moving through, I can see I need something with a much shorter delay option. Update: Using video mode makes this limitation much less of a problem - the 10 second clips provide even more information than a multi-shot burst, so the 1 minute delay is acceptable (and may even be too short).

The biggest negative is that this thing takes WAY TOO LONG to wake up and take the first picture, so you miss a lot of first action when something triggers it to wake up. For example, I placed one of these in my driveway facing out from the corner of the garage (mounted right next to the door), angled slightly in so it would catch activity in front of the garage door too. When I left yesterday morning, I backed out at a fairly tentative speed since it was still dark, then I slowly pulled around in front of the camera to head down the drive. The first picture it took just barely caught the rear wheel and tail light as I was passing out of the frame. Apparently the whole time I was backing out and then starting to pull around it was still yawning and rubbing the sleep out of its eyes! (Update: A big part of this problem is that the motion sensor only functions in a relatively narrow band through the center of the frame, so even though my car was fully visible in the frame on the right side while I was backing out, the motion sensor did not trigger the camera to wake up and snap until I actually started pulling around through the center of the frame.) Another series of pictures later in the day showed my wife walking back and forth by the camera getting water from the rain barrels; but just by guessing on the few pictures she was visible in, and the time stamps on the many pictures that showed nothing but empty driveway, she was able to pass totally out of the frame before the camera snapped more often than not.

The next significant drawback is no sensitivity setting for the motion trigger. I put one camera on a dead tree near my stock tank - no leaves or branches hanging down at all, and no other brush or trees anywhere near it except for one big juniper about 15 yards away on the edge of the frame. The last couple of days have been fairly windy, and that one tree triggered the camera constantly! I have two days and nights of great time-laps series of 1 pix every minute for hours and hours. But watching shadows move is not what I was hoping for. So this clearly shows that just clearing brush and leaves "near" the camera is pointless - if you only want to see animals, you need to make sure there is NOTHING moveable in front of the camera within about 20 yards! Update: The extreme sensitivity to false triggers remains a big problem - these cameras are MUCH more sensitive to wind motion of grass or trees than the new M880 I bought, and in my kind of forest it is virtually impossible to find any setting that does not get hundreds of false triggers every day.

If these cost any more than $60, I would not have even given them 4 stars, but at that price, I think the limitations are to be expected. They do take good pictures and they provide significant value in the right situations where you can catch things moving towards and away from the camera instead of across the frame. For a game camera, however, I will happily pay more than twice the price to find one that overcomes the specific limitations I detailed above.

10/25 update: After several weeks of use I remain generally pleased with these cameras. The motion detector sensitivity remains a slight irritant as it triggers for just about anything, including just a few stems of gramma grass in a light breeze. It has helped to weed-eat all the grass in the first 10-20 yards, but I still get a trigger WAY too often all day long. Maybe it's the danged grasshoppers and flies? I have tried to identify exactly what is triggering it and where in the frame it needs to be, but not with any success. Using the IR aiming mode is pretty worthless. Even when I can see it trigger from my miniature dachshund walking through the frame, I cannot get it to trigger by waving a yard stick in the same place! On the plus side, that super sensitivity really gives it some range. I have one camera aimed along the side of my stock tank with the dirt road going up to the neighbor 45 yards away in the background (just paced it off to be sure). The camera triggers on cars at that distance. When they are traveling at a reasonable speed, The video will start with the car about 1/2 way across the frame, and even when they are racing by and the camera cannot wake up in time to catch the car in the frame, I know it was a car by the rolling dust.

Using the video mode does resolve one of my complaints - not having a delay shorter than one minute or a burst mode. Since the videos are 10 seconds long, you can actually see what is really going on. And with all the false triggers I get, I'd hate to see how many would be there if I did have a shorter delay option. The videos do take up a lot more space (and probably eat up batteries faster), but with a 16GB card, the storage is not a problem at all unless you are going to leave it unattended for several weeks. The worst thing is the amount of time it takes to review all the clips! Some days I have gotten more than 250 of them due to wind-related false triggers, so watching all of those takes at least an hour. I have gotten pretty good at quickly glancing at the time stamp on the clip and the still preview frame (generally from about 4 seconds into the clip) to guess that it is a false trigger and just skip it instead of wasting all the time to watch each clip.

Had a decent little rain for a couple of hours this morning, and both cameras were totally dry inside when I checked the memory cards.

One new issue has shown up since I started using the video mode - sometimes the brightness of the video clips is significantly different for no apparent reason. This happens with both cameras, and it does NOT seem to be cloud related, since the shadows visible in the clips are just as distinct in the darker ones. It is really evident when the camera has taken a bunch of false-trigger videos only one minute apart, where one will be extra bright, then the next might be a bit dark. Although I have not had any that were at the extremes where the resulting images were not usable, maybe that is why some folks have complained of total white-outs on some pix? Perhaps this is an inherent flaw in the unit? For me, the brightest seem to be just a bit overexposed, and the darker ones seem just a bit underexposed. Neither would be noticed as a problem by itself, but it becomes obvious when quickly switching between the clips of the identical plot of ground. I did not notice this at all the first few days when only taking still images, or even when I first started using the video setting, but it has been very obvious the last couple of days. I'll let y'all know if it gets worse. Update: I still have no idea what was causing this issue, but it has not gotten worse - some days I do not see it at all. I'm guessing maybe it was related to LIGHT cloud cover, enough to affect the brightness but not change major shadows?

As for the complaint some folks have mentioned about total white-out pictures - I have seen a few of those, but it is NOT an error with the camera. In most cases I have been able to tell it was either an elk or a deer standing right in front of the camera, so close that the flash just washed out everything.

11/10 update: After a month with these cameras (and comparing them to the M880 I recently bought), I have learned a whole lot more. As a consequence, I have made some corrections to the original review above. My complaint about how long they take to wake up is still valid, just not as bad as I originally thought - it is related to the narrow band where the motion detector is triggered - this is totally opposite from my M880, where side activity even out of the frame will trigger it! Battery life has been excellent on both cameras. I am using video mode exclusively now as a way to mitigate the lack of a multiple shot feature and only 1 min delay, and even with that extra drain, one camera is well over 2,000 pix and video clips so far on the original set of batteries.

If I didn't live in North America, I'd have said "a barrel of monkeys," but you get the idea. I bought this camera, not for hunting, but for clandestine surveillance of our yard, since somebody was knocking over and opening a trash can every night. The can never had any edible trash, just bird seed, so we were puzzled about the culprit.

I set the camera up, lashed it to a fence, and left it. The first night, we got our answer: big raccoon, who seems to enjoy tipping the can over, just for the fun of it. Now I plan on moving the camera around to see who else is visiting us in the small hours of the morning.

Technically, I've had no problems at all (one week in). Works as advertised, takes acceptable stills and video (AVIs), and doesn't seem to upset the animals, although it does produce a flash that they can see -- we confirmed that by setting it off ourselves, after we got several shots of the raccoon looking right at the camera. But they don't seem to care.

Summary: if I were going to rely on it for spying on game, I might buy something a bit higher up the line in terms of resolution and range, but if you want a simple camera to answer the question, "Who's out there?", this is a perfectly good one.

You'll also need: C cell batteries (takes 4, not included). A bicycle lock and cable is also a good idea, if you have any concerns about humans messing with it. The lock hasps not only secure the camera but also keep it from being opened, so no one can make off with your SD card or batteries.

I've had this unit for a few years. I bought a new model when I couldn't find this same model at a good price. Decent picture in the day, not as high quality as newer models. Adequate pictures at night- you can tell if an animal or human is in the frame, but maybe not individual features.

It's worked reliably well for 3-4 years, until once when I switched out the card. I received the dreaded 'SD Full' message that has plagued others, even though the card was not full, and worked in the same camera previously. Suddenly no cards would work, and the batteries that were in it were drained way too soon. I noticed that the I pushed the SD card in to where it clicks the release, but held it there instead of allowing it to spring itself out, the SD card would sometimes work. I blew some air into the empty SD slot and that worked well.

I took the unit apart to see if any other areas were dirty. If you do this, keep track of each screw location, as they are different sizes. Inside it was incredibly can for having been outside in the weather 4 seasons, full winters and many rainstorms. I'm glad I got it working again, I'll post an update if it gives me trouble again soon.

I've owned 6 or 7 of these over the last 5 years and have gotten some great pictures. I've also gotten a lot of windy day pictures with no animals. Battery life is pretty good. I finally invested in some rechargeable D batteries and I found a great deal on brand name batteries by the dozen. Life of the camera has been between a few months to a couple of years. The last Truth Cam I bought was less than $80 and I just got a $30 rebate check from Bushnell. I hope they run that promotion again soon. Of the Truth Cams I bought 2 of them were a cheaper 'refurbished' deal. They did not last long and I will not go that route again. In full daylight the pictures are bright and crisp. I try to have the camera facing north so the sun isn't shining into the lense. Night shots are black and white. For a 3.5 megapixel camera the pics are pretty good. Of course depending on the light you may get blurred shots if the subject is moving. All in all I like these cameras. I have started to think of them as almost 'semi disposable' , expecting no more than a year or two of use from them . Of course they are out there 24/7 strapped to a tree through the wind, rain, snow, heat and whatever else mother nature throws at it. So, if the price stays below $100 I will continue to buy these game cameras and get pictures of deer, bob cats, turkeys, skunks, coyotes, squirrels, birds and moose.

All of these $100.00 to $200.00 cameras are junk. made in China, and last at best 2 to 3 years. IF they work right out of the box.
At eighty bucks this camera has most options available in all the makes and models.
Its wake up time is about 2 seconds and its woken shutter speed is less than one second.
I have a serious squirell problem on my feeders and I am impressed with the three shot or 5 shot burst that catches the critter at its statring point, catches a blurred in flight, and landing of the varmint. its a handy tool that advises me where to place critter deterents.
I have bought or used most makes brands and models of these less than stellar products. in my hummble opinion just be happy it works out of the box. but this primos 35 has been the best of the bunch.
Its a shame with the tech available with the digital camera market today that the best trail cams are so far behind the curve. it almost seems intentional. the next best choice is the bushnell or the stealth cam. still i must say you will be lucky if it turns on out of the box. try it out at home the day you get it. run the camera through its paces with your kids, dogs, wife, whatever. just dont walk to the woods strap it up and expect it to work.

Very simple to use (no real need of the little manual), reasonable shots day/night time (think lower end of a standard mid order 2010 smartphone, with daytime shots being in colour and better, and night time shots being b&w and lower quality). Easy to view photos via the SD slot of my iMac. You can easily distinguish between animals even at the lower night time photo quality and for this price, it seems good. The motion detection on photos and video is good. Two D cell batteries seem to last weeks on casual use. We use it at home for capturing nocturnal animals...for fun, not for hunting.

My only gripe at $77 is that the SD card is placed outside and at the bottom of the camera face where water can drip into it, protected only by a flimsy little rubber stopper. It should have obviously been contained inside the protected control panel area (and anyone can pop it out even if the camera is well secured against loss)!

I purchased the $23 mount which is abit fiddly and has a narrow tree hugging footprint. It does offer a bit more swivel for awkward branches etc. and, well, at this price one can't grumble. The Python cable sold as an accessory is a useful anti-theft tool.

Note the original cam comes with a green strap-on belt, as does the mount.

I have tried several inexpensive game cameras, kept this one. I like the easy setup using dedicated switches instead of software function programing. Specs calls for trigger at 30 feet max range. The night photos are not well illuminated beyond 10 feet from camera. The daylight shots are fantastic. I was happy with this unit and needed another camera, so I upgraded to the Primos Truth cam 46. It cost more money and performance was not as good as Truth cam 35. Sent the Truth cam 46 back and ordered another Truth Cam 35. Happy with both Truth Cams 35. The video mode does eat up SD card space so I switched over to the 5 shot photo feature with 1 second delay between shots. uses a lot less card space and sharp photos. By the way the specs say 8 GB (SD HC MAX SIZE) My two Truth cams 35 accepted 16 GB SDHC and seems to work fine. I would have given the camera 5 stars, but the distance of the night photos beyond 10 feet were a little disapointing.

I purchased four of the Moultrie A-5 low glow cams to help me keep an eye on my dad's place (who recently passed). They were all doing well until just about a month ago. I have one camera in particular that does not take night pictures anymore unless there is a noticeable difference. This is frustrating, because I ordered them online, I no longer have the email of confirmation, so I guess no proof of purchase. It is also frustrating because now I have to sit and wonder if it is catching all the action that happens around it. I am not satisfied with the delay between wake up and picture to picture either. There have been several instances where I should have had at least 4-5 pictures of a person within it's viewing area and it did not even pick them up. There have also been times where it is broad daylight and the pictures are black. I cannot afford to ship them back or pay for new ones every year. The purchase of these cameras were based on the current reviews at that time and the high hopes that things would stop mysteriously happening with no explanation as to why. Well, for the last month or so especially, I am now wondering if it is all a lost cause. I am not sure what to think really. I gave them 3 stars because SO FAR only one camera is giving me problems. I am very disappointed though that I cannot find anyplace that says what to check or how to fix it. Sincerely..... heartbroken and frustrated.

This camera has a, fairly, quick trigger time on the shutter. I set it on a hummingbird feeder and was able to catch many hummers. Some of the pictures were very clear. The motion detection envelope seems quite large and extends maybe 30 yards. Daytime pictures have good clarity, but I cannot testify to quality of nighttime pictures. I haven't had an image on any of the pictures taken after dark.In addition, It seems to stand well against the rigors of mother nature. It's been through several storms with no ill effects.

I'm going to rate this a "3" for several reasons: One, I bought two cameras and have them out on my food plots for 2 seasons now. One camera just shoots randomly - like a plot watcher - taking 1450 pictures in a week (sometimes) all pictures showing the shadows crossing the ground. The other camera, although sensative, takes pictures mostly when triggered by something. I do get some "scanning" pics on the 2nd one as well. Two, the day pictures of deer (sunny or cloudy day, doesn't matter) are grainy for 6mP. I have three 4mP Wildviews that take much more impressive daytime pictures. Three, the night pictures are generally very grey (black and white night photos) and extremely hard to distinguish the deer unless it is within 10 feet of the camera. Although I'll keep using these cameras, I no longer put them in "key spots" for fear of either not getting a picture or getting a thousand sun-across-the-ground photos. Lastly, one camera keeps reverting back to 2099 (default) year when we set the cameras up for the first time. That's frustrating. One final minor note, the batteries are very difficult to get in, as someone else has stated.

I have had this camera since July 21, 2014 and it has worked fine until last week, 10-12-14. At that time the nighttime low glow flash has stopped working. All the night pictures are black except for distant lights. I changed the batteries, but it still does not take night pictures. Works great during the day. I will call Moultrie on Monday to see if they will honor the warranty. I will update as needed.10-20-14 - I called Moultrie customer service and after a long question and answer session they finally agreed to replace the camera. I was going to ship it back this weekend, but the night flash started working again last night. I will see how it goes.10-28-14 - It stopped working again last night. It took many pictures, but only their eyes and distant lights were visible. All daylight picture were fine. Not a very reliable product. I will be sending it back this weekend.

This unit does take decent pictures in the daylight, nighttime is OK considering the price. Mine arrived without the battery light indicator functioning so I contacted Moultrie, still waiting to hear back from them. The settings are basic, if one picture every minute, five or ten works for you, you will be satisfied. I wrongly assumed this could be programmed to snap pictures in a series but I don't find a setting for that. The infrared light is very noticeable by the way.

Takes good pictures in both daylight and night time with the IR flash.The only thing is it way to sensitive I have lots of "Nothing pictures" those are were doves have flow through the field.I'd also like to remove the name time and date off the pictures there is no way to remove it, couple of pictures I couldn'ttell what was in the corner Name date and time.I have it set for video, I'm worried I'll have 30 or 40 10 second videos of doves and that will be it.it takes a little longer to "wake up" then trigger as long as 3-4 seconds.I'll wait to see how the videos turn out

Camera worked at first now just under 2 years old and getting sd full error message. I see others have had this problem. I will contact primos and hope for the best. But you may want to think twice about buying a product that only last a few years.

update..
contacted Primos customer service. very nice listened to my problem and offered a 50% discount if i bought a new camera from there website.I was a little reluctant to purchase another Primos if product isn't going to last, but i did and will hope i get more years out of the newer designed cameras..

We have two of these, they work great. Only reason it gets a 4 is because the rubber cover for the memory card comes off pretty easy, and is really hard to put back on! If lost they are good about replacing the cover though.

October 21, 2016 Update: This still works & takes good pictures! However it sure eats up the D Batteries. We are lucky if they last a month, worse in cold weather!! Dropping review to a 3 star, as batteries are expensive!!

I bought this because someone was vandalizing my porch (nothing crazy). I rent an apartment, so I cannot drill holes to route wires, nor does it seem feasible to have a WiFi based system that clogs up my bandwidth, all at an affordable rate (no monthly fees). So why not use a hunting camera? Seems simple enough.

This thing uses 4 giant D batteries. D batteries are expensive. So you hook it up (has screw holes for a universal mount) and you set it to photo or video and then you set the delay time. The minimum delay time is 5 seconds. Therefore, depending upon where you mount this, it will wait 5 seconds before snapping a picture(s) of the subject. In my case someone could run up and get out of range before being caught.The infrared lights illuminate very brightly when it snaps pictures or records video. I understand that this is for hunting and infrared lights work this way. I used this over winter, and in temperatures below 20°F, the camera didn't work consistently. The pictures are clear enough, nothing special. I had this under an overhang on my porch (not that dark) and it almost always used infrared, which was kind of annoying.

The thing is hardy though, and the plastic case is well made. The display clearly shows the battery life (although this can fluctuate). On two occasions, I put new batteries in and they died within a week. This could have been due to the extremely cold temperatures (below 15°F). Sometimes it would just continuously take pictures and die really quickly, as if the firmware had an issue. I had it mounted up high, but anyone could easily come and disable, destroy, or steal it if they wanted to.

It would capture every movement of a squirrel on my porch (I have hundreds of squirrel photos), but not people walking up and ringing the doorbell. Overall, I was underwhelmed for the purposes I was using it for. After never catching the perpetrators, I sold it and moved on. Thankfully the vandalism stopped.

This camera has some very positive attributes, but is let down by it's performance somewhat.

Pro's:
Very sturdy case
easy to mount with a quality strap
Easy to get pointing to the right place
Great battery life
Really easy to use

Con's:
Takes to long to fire
Low light picture quality is very poor
Ton's of false positives (pictures of nothing) on high sensitivity, but misses what it should capture on low.

I bought it to get pictures of the deer that have been pillaging our garden, it was up in various (hot spot) locations for several weeks before taking good pictures.

I don't have a plethora of different trail cams to compare it against, but I do feel it needs more technology in it. For example, it should pre-focus when setup (it's a static camera, so shouldn't need to focus for each shot). That would improve fire time.
The sensitivity should be either adjustable on a dial (rather than just 3 settings), or automatic. Generally if the environment is monitored for a few minutes, it's not difficult to adjust sensitivity to a little over the environment (branches swaying in the wind etc).

It's ok, but I'll try a different one next time.

I bought this camera, with security can and cable lock. I've used it about a year. I liked that one, so I bought two more of the same configuration. One of those two was defective, and wouldn't trigger but rarely, so I lost a lot of actually important shots (these aren't all used as game cameras). Amazon did accept a return but for a restocking fee. When I told them I found this disappointing, they refunded that charge. Kudos Amazon! They continue to impress me. My opinion? Products like this should fail very, very rarely. What's inside is not that complex. Ask anyone who's worked on military electronics in the field. We need to hold vendors to higher standards to compete on the world stage. Battery usage is good, although buy Tenergy rechargeable D Cells and a good charger, it will save you quickly because wow, D cells are expensive. Two of the Transcend SD memory cards I bought failed in these cameras in just a few months. So far, Kingston and Sandisk SD cards have been working fine for me. This camera has given some really nice shots, although, of course, I have never seen a picture as nice as what they advertise in their package. It's not very different from a cheeseburger commercial in that regard.

This seems to be a situation where a couple guys come up with good idea, find some local talent to get the ball rolling, then take their idea to China get it made for pennies, then reap the rewards. (God bless America?) Some of you may say this is simply fair trade. I'm beginning to wonder, frankly. If we don't start producing products domestically for the world market soon, I fear we're in deep trouble. As far as I know, there is no American equivalent of the game cam. Please let me know if I'm wrong on this. I know we can make quality products.

They claim in their package that I have to return the registration card to receive the warranty, but I believe this is incorrect. Please read [...]before you "fall for that". I find this to be subterfuge - a bit shady on their part.

Aside from misgivings related to foreign trade and some not-necessarily-true statements, the camera has indeed worked in general, and has produced some important and enjoyable images. The rest are easy to delete.

While this camera may deliver 2560 x 1920 (5Mp) pictures they are compressed so much you are only getting 1/4-1/2 the resolution. This ok if all you want to do is verify the location of a large animal in a particular area. Night photos are even worse.I purchased this camera to keep an eye on smaller animals like cats and foxes in my area, but it fails to trigger on anything smaller than a human. For a deer you should be ok.Bottom line if you want to capture local deer in your area this camera should be fine, but for smaller animals look elsewhere.

RETURNED -Worked for the first 2 days. After 2 days, the infrared light wouldn't come on at night. Motion would activated the camera, but we couldn't see anything. Every once in a while, it would work properly and we could clearly see the animal responsible for activating the camera. However, the Moultrie A5 only works when it wants to. Very inconsistent and unreliable. As many other reviewers have said.... "you get what you pay for."

I've returned 2 of the 3 cameras that I purchased for replacement, the first one didn't take night puictures at all, the 2nd quit taking night pictures after 2 weeks, the third one is still working at this juncture. The day pictures are sharp and clear with all cameras, but the night ones are cloudy and somewhat hard to distinguish whether it's a buck or a doe, maybe this is what is referred to as low glow?? I've purchased 4 other Moultrie cameras for my husband over the years and these last 3 are my least favorite ones. HIs too!update 11/12/15 all 3 cameras out of warranty now and are no longer working. Definitely not my best purchase

I ordered two of these. They were very inexpensive. The problem is that they work almost like a plot-watcher camera. They are so sensitive that virtually anything will cause them to take a picture. I suspect that clouds moving across the sky in the field of view triggers the camera as well because I have strung together cloud sequences into a movie that runs like an old-timey movie, a bit jumpy, but nifty time lapse of the day...only that isn't what I wanted. I wanted to see game.Yes, it catches game in the images, which is great. However, 1000 pictures a week when there are only 6 of deer is rather bothersome.If you want a camera that will work like a plot-watcher camera (almost), but will shoot thousands and thousands of images on a single set of batteries, then this is an inexpensive version that will work for you. If you want a game camera, don't waste your money.

I have several other Moultrie cameras. Older models and have been very pleased with them. This rascal will take 100 pics of nothing in one day. I have discussed with Moultrie as it is still under warranty. They described a procedure which is supposed to correct this issue which I will try later this week, otherwise if that does not work they asked I ship it back for repairs or replacement. I was advised not to mix SD cards between this camera and other cameras as that may be the source of some confusing software which caused the camera to take a pic every 1 or 2 minutes regardless of motion. I personally think it is a light issue as it happens at certain sun positions. Regardless, it is a little extra pain to keep the SD cards separate for this camera as I have 6 other moultrie cameras which work fine. They also steer me away from PNY SD cards. Say use only ScanDisk. This camera should not be so picky. Makes it a pain.

Cameras worked great for first night of pitcures, then used Moultrie Photo Viwer to look and delete, replaced SD card and camera reads FULL. Called Moultrie customer service, they did not make these cameras compatible with THEIR own viewers from last year. Their solution buy a new viewer for $100. This is not listed anywhere on camera. Returning and going with WildGame Innovations game camera. Have 5 other Moultrie cameras that work with viewer,for $100 can get almost two cameras. Make your products work together. Camera great, moultrie not.

The camera worked great for a year and after that it kept sending message errors. I changed batteries as Primos suggested, changed SD cards as Primos suggested, left the batteries out for two days as they suggested. ZERO CUSTOMER SERVICE HELP!!! Very poor customer service with a nasty ATTITUDE never would I buy anything Primos ever again. The camera functioned ok at first but the pictures gradually got worse. It seemed to have moisture inside the unit from the beginning.

Customer service goes a long way, they offer me a new one at $20 off retail which is still higher than Amazon, Really?

Primos you have lost a very loyal customer, I had eight of your cameras and many other hunting products. It is painfully clear customer service holds no importance to your company.

I purchased this camera in September of 2013. It is now January 2015. These units are 4 months out of warranty.

Initially I really liked this camera, especially for the price. I purchased two of these cameras, and used them for hunting and around the property to spot the wildlife that came around at night. The batteries lasted through a couple thousand pictures initially. Video did not last nearly as long, as expected. However, the quality of the photos and videos during the daytime was quite good. The nighttime photos and videos were adequate.

After a year, I noticed the quality of the photos began to degrade. I thought it might be the batteries, so I switched to Duracells. This did not make a difference, nor did cleaning the lens and sensors.

In October of 2014, the unit stopped taking pictures at night (black screen pics, no video). Knowing that the warranty had just expired, I tried to determine whether or not this was due to cold weather or just happened to get a couple of bad batches of batteries. After trying various things over the last few months, I finally started doing some research on Google and discovered this is a known issue with this camera. Both cameras I purchased started having this issue at the same time. Primos knows about this issue, and has known about it for a considerable amount of time.

In speaking with Primos customer service, they offered me a 30%-50% discount on my next purchase. I can't see myself ever buying another Primos product given that these units fail consistently, that it's been a known issue since long before the warranty expired, and Primos is unwilling to make it right. This is not the first time I have had quality issues with Primos products, but it will be the last.

What I do wonder is why there isn't a class action against Primos for this camera. They are still selling old stock of this camera, full well knowing it is defective.

I bought this in Nov 2011, used under a big oak tree for 6 months, camera was in a lock-box and secured with a Master Python cable lock. I used the photo mode. No problems there, pics came out good.

Then..I moved the camera and lock-box to a palm tree in front of a house, kinda close to the side of the house...I left it there for 4 months, when I opened it up the batteries(Duracell) were corroded. The SD card was a bit corroded and wouldn't work when plugged into another sd card reader, so it died. There was a white crusty film inside the camera. I tried to clean off the battery terminals in the camera but it did no good. The camera doesn't work anymore. I tried with new fresh batteries, the camera IR lights came on and there was a faint glow in the green and red lights by the lens. The LCD panel did not work..

I thought the camera was more exposed on the oak tree than the palm..I don't know why the camera box seal failed..but water evidently got in. By the time I discovered the damage the warranty was expired..I don't know if I can send it back to AMAZON for a replacement..

I think the lesson here is check the camera /lock-box more often..

When my TruthCam arrived, I was ready to try it out but it would not read the SD card that I bought with it. I tried a different SD card that I use on my other camera and that wouldn't work either. The screen just kept flashing "-SD-" no matter what I did. I tried formatting the cards on my computer, then formatting them in the camera they still would not work

So I went on Google and searched for solutions and discovered that this is a known issue with this model. Primo does not offer any type of technical support for this product either unless you purchase it directly from them, in which case they will mail you a replacement camera. Thankfully Amazon shipped me a new one but I am still very disappointed and concerned that you will not get any help from the manufacturer if your TruthCam happens to malfunction.

That all said when it works it does just as advertised. The night vision cabality is superior for the price. But take great care with the SD card slot and be sure to avoid getting dirt inside of it or you will end up with a door stop.

I bought this camera here on Amazon in late August, and deployed it as per the instructions. Three weeks later, I went back to find it completely dead and unresponsive even to new batteries. Checking the memory card, I found that it took 30 pictures over the first two weeks. After that, not another. The pictures do at least look good, and it captured all kinds of critters.

UPDATE:

I called Primos, as the manual says clearly "do not return to retailer". After 11 minutes on hold I was able to speak with a friendly, English-speaking customer service representative who was very cooperative in issuing me a return authorization number, and assured me that Primos will send me a new camera upon receipt of the defective one.

Two weeks after sending the defective camera back, I received a warranty replacement from Primos. They have handled this pretty well, BUT it's still unfortunate that I missed some prime weeks of having the camera in the field, and I am perturbed by having had to pay to ship the defective camera to them, effectively increasing the price by $8.23 (USPS Priority Mail shipping price).

Manufacturing defects happen from time to time, and are to be expected. I am still willing to believe that Primos makes good products: on the whole, this seems like a great trail camera, and the customer service experience has been good. They only fell short by not paying the shipping on the defective return.

NEW UPDATE AFTER 2 and a half years:

Well, now the warranty replacement has died, and so has the warranty. For the two and a half years that it worked, it saw light-to-moderate use. It has not been subjected to winter, or even sub-freezing temperatures. Over time I saw the loads of 4 fresh D batteries lasting less and less, too.

I was very happy with the performance while it worked. But I am very DISSATISFIED by the lifespan of the thing. MADE IN CHINA strikes again.

First camera I received lasted 2 months then would only perform a countdown but not take pictures. I returned it and received a Generation II model as a replacement. It required 8 AA batteries rather than the 4 C cell batteries as in Generation I. (One of the reasons I purchased this camera was that it used 4 C cell batteries as do all my other game cameras) The replacement camera took 26 pictures then "died." It would not turn on again. I replaced the batteries but it would still not work. Customer service tried to blame Duracell batteries as being the cause even though I did not use Duracell. They gave me the option of either purchasing Everready batteries and trying to see if it work work with those batteries or returning the camera. I opted for returning the camera. I have now paid for 2 cameras to be returned and am disappointed with Moultrie products. Having to pay for 2 returns and still not having a functioning camera takes Moultrie out of the category of affordable trail cameras. I can only hope that the 3rd camera functions in an acceptable manner.

We have had a lot of coyotes in our area lately, so my wife and I decided that we would get a camera to see what went on in our area. We chose this one because it had decent reviews and was inexpensive. We put it up in the back yard to test it out before setting up a pole by the house to watch the perimeter. The camera was mounted according to the directions and set up to record images as quickly as it could (1 minute delay). We kept it in place for about a week in the back yard. We let our dog out in the yard many times a day for a week, and we have tons of rabbits in the yard, as well as squirrels, raccoons, etc. We checked the card and the camera only caught ONE image during the time we had it in place, and that one was caught when I installed the camera.We could have gotten a defective unit and you could have better luck, but I returned the camera for a refund, as I didn't feel like going through the hassle of trying again and having poor results.On a positive note, the build quality seems to be pretty good and the camera seems pretty sturdy. The case is water tight and it can be left out without worrying about water entering the housing. We had snow and ice during the time we had the camera up and nothing got inside the unit, as it was still frozen when we removed the camera and it was clean inside with no liquid.Your mileage may vary, but we had absolutely no luck with this camera.

I purchased the Moultrie A5 Low Glow Game Camera primarily to catch a fuel thief, who is stealing diesel fuel (paid for by School Board) from my school bus on the weekends. The only game cameras I have experience with are this one and the Simmons Whitetail, so this is more of a comparison than a review. The photo quality is more clear than the grainy photos taken by the Simmons Whitetail camera. The IR flash range is about the same as the Simmons. It has a decent trigger speed at 1.2 seconds, same as the Simmons. On the other hand, the recovery time (listed as "picture delay" on this website and "delay" on the camera) is 62 seconds, which is completely unacceptable. A fuel thief could trigger the camera, siphon out a few gallons of fuel, and be gone before the camera can take another picture. For comparison, the Simmons has a 5 second recovery time, FAR quicker. Another thing is that this camera only takes one picture per triggering, whereas the Simmons has a three-shot burst.This camera is advertised as low-glow, which it most certainly is not. The IR flash is just as bright (to the human eye) as the one on the Simmons camera. As well, the Simmons is much smaller. The Moultrie uses 4 C batteries installed vertically at the bottom of the camera, the Simmons uses 4 AAs installed in the same location. That's not really vital, but it could mean the difference between catching a thief or getting the camera stolen or damaged.If you're looking for a decent game camera on a budget, I don't recommend buying this camera. I instead recommend the Simmons Whitetail camera (Simmons Whitetail Trail Camera with Night Vision (4MP)). The images may be somewhat grainy, but at least it doesn't wait one full minute before taking another picture.

I saw plenty of good reviews on this item before I bought it - but look closely and you'll see that those are mostly within a short period of time of purchase. Those of us unlucky enough to have this item for several months have left all those negative reviews! Simply put, the A5 quits working after one go-round and no amount of battery changes, changes in memory cards, or anything else I've tried will bring this "hunk of junk" back to life. It gets one star for the original set of 200 photos, which included about 20 great photos of deer in our snowy backyard shortly after Christmas. Since then, nada. I get one photo of myself or my husband aiming the beam, then the camera apparently shuts down. A complete waste of money and really disappointing for my kids.

It worked well for three months and then the IR lights stopped working. Apparently there is no return or exchange for this item after a month and a half according to Amazon. Maybe they knew it was only good for a few months ! It was a gift for my Father and he enjoyed using it in his yard to see all the critters that visit at night.I am starting to rethink my relationship with Amazon after this and the upcoming rate hike.

these d444 I sent back, neither would take good pic and movies either, tried them for 3 weeks then sent back.Now these a5's I bought on amazon for $49.00 each have since went up to $54.00 ,11-9-14well after using them for a while about one year, just fall and winter, now the 2 cameras I bought decided they want to take photos when they want to, approx. 180 photos of the background in front of them, no weeds or limbs to set them off, grass mowed and 3 inchs high, so I set both to video, same blank movies, and one is near a wild view about 50 feet away over a clover patch, the wild view set on video had 20 vids of a small doe, the Moultrie had nothing but blank vids, I could see the doe was moving into the direction of the Moultrie but nothing but blank vids.ready to put them in the trash , always bought Moultrie but no more, had those 444 and they were junk and sent back, now these A5 junk to the wild view was the first I had bought, its works perfect day or night.not a happy camper

When it works, these cameras are great. When they don't, and its often, they are worthless. I bought one to test earlier this year. Based upon the quality of the pictures I ordered two more to cover some areas I hunt. After about 6 months the over exposed/under exposed pictures started showing up. two months later, about 30-40% of the pictures on two of the cameras were worthless. after 2 weeks of back and forth emails with customer service they finally confirmed that I had registered the cameras for the warranty. not impressive. I mailed off one camera today, and will be retrieving another camera shortly that is now not taking pictures at all, yet eating through batteries at a alarming rate. the final camera, that was working for most of this period, is now starting to produce unusable pictures. I'm waiting to see how customer service handles the warranty process (its through a third party). I am not impressed with these cameras which are more like disposables than reusable trail cameras. they are on the lower end of the cost scale, so be aware that you get what you pay for. Its a mistake I won't make again with a trail camera.

I tried so hard to get along with this camera. It worked fine out of the package, but after a couple weeks the night pictures were just black, with the only thing showing up were glowing eyes. Primos has decent customer service and replaced my camera with a new one. The 2nd one had a bad card reader, which malfunctioned after 1 week of use. I sent that one back too, to get a 3rd replacement. The 3rd worked great for about a month, then night pictures came back black. I am now on camera #4 of this model, all replaced by Primos, and camera #4 has just failed after 4 months - will no longer read the memory card. I am done, just throwing it in the trash and going back to Moultrie. I appreciate that Primos replaced my cameras each time they broke, but it is clearly not a quality camera and I wish I could have gotten a refund instead.

I purchased two of these as a xmas gift because of all the good reviews....one worked and one took endless pictures of nothing and everything was so "foggy" it was nearly all white, even though the weather was clear. We thought the second one might have the settings screwed up so we kept messing with them, but it never improved. Meanwhile the one that worked, suddenly wouldn't turn on anymore, so they were both useless. Given that I also purchased holders, memory cards, batteries and a field reader for them....it was a huge waste of money. With so many good reviews, I can only assume they have some serious quality control issues and we just happened to get two duds. That doesn't really help.

The camera lasted for about (8) months until it stopped working. Standard use hanging on a few different trees doing what trail cams are supposed to do. Took great pictures and my son and I were very happy with it.

So, as I had mentioned, the camera stopped working about (2) weeks ago and I wen through the process of changing out batteries, buying a new memory card, making sure things were formatted the way that Primo's says on their website. Still a no-go.

I emailed Primo's support via email on Sept 8th and have yet to receive a reply back from these people.

After doing more research on this product as well as Primo's support, I have found that [a] not too many people are happy with the product, and [b] their support staff is much less than "primo".

Should they happen to address my issues with this camera and help my 10-year old son and I out, I may revise this review. However, until that happens, 1-star it is. Spend a few more dollars with a different company.

Bought this summer of 2012, it seemed to work great when i first set her up. the sensitivity was on high of medium would end up taking a ton of pictures no matter where i put it up at. I got some really good pics for the most part and was pretty satisified with it. then it seemed like my battery life would only last about half (2-4 weeks)of what my friends (2 months)was. This year i put it up early spring and after 2 days the batteries were dead. call primos and they said my SD card needed to be reformatted from my laptop and they gave me instructions on how to do that. but the camera isn't even taking pictures anymore and is disfunctional. So i'll be getting back ahold of them hoping for a replacement or something. dunno if mine is just a earlier model and a flake or what. my friends is still running strong and working worth the price- unfortunately mine is not. I'm wanting to pick up another 2 or 3 cameras but doubt i will go this route again.