Tactacam

I find it hard to believe that you can't change the timer from the app. That would be a big step backwards for them. I have a buddy that owns an archery shop and is a Tactacam dealer. I'll ask him about it. I do recall when I got a couple 2.0s I didn't think the battery life was as good as the gen 1s. Probably due to the higher resolution and more bells and whistles. Anyway, I've gone to the lithium battery packs and solar panels. Battery life is no longer a concern for me.
 
wolverines said:
I find it hard to believe that you can't change the timer from the app. That would be a big step backwards for them. I have a buddy that owns an archery shop and is a Tactacam dealer. I'll ask him about it. I do recall when I got a couple 2.0s I didn't think the battery life was as good as the gen 1s. Probably due to the higher resolution and more bells and whistles. Anyway, I've gone to the lithium battery packs and solar panels. Battery life is no longer a concern for me.
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I said that exact same thing. I haven't been able to confirm it yet so let us know.

I use the solar packs for all of mine except one. That one I use the rechargeable pack. Overall, I am not pleased with the rechargeable pack at all. It doesn't last nearly as long as a set of lithium AA's. The solar packs work great.
 
DoubleLungRage said:
I said that exact same thing. I haven't been able to confirm it yet so let us know.

I use the solar packs for all of mine except one. That one I use the rechargeable pack. Overall, I am not pleased with the rechargeable pack at all. It doesn't last nearly as long as a set of lithium AA's. The solar packs work great.
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Same.

Lithium pack is not worth it without the solar panel. My only reason for switching to the lithium pack is because I can charge 2 of them at the same time and they're ready to go in 12 hours or so. With my rechargeable double As, I have 2 separate chargers that do 4 at a time, and I have to do those 3 times for 2 cams. Best case is 2 days to charge for 2 cams, so the lithiums save me a day's hassle minimum in getting the batteries changed. Purely an efficiency thing for me......

Sidenote: I did get a full season last year out of my 2 Gen 1s with my AA rechargeables. That's my only option with those cams as they don't take the lithium pack. Less expensive than buying lithium AAs every year. Both cams still read 100% battery when I took them down in mid-January.
 
I talked to my buddy at the shop. He hasn't had any negative feedback on them, but also doesn't have any firsthand knowledge about the claims due to still running the 2.0s. One of his shop guys is running 4 of the 3,0s so I sent him a message about it. These are his first Reveals so he really can't say much about the battery life compared to the legacy models, but he did say with certainty that you can change the delay time on the app. He also sent me a screen shot of that option on his end of the app to confirm.

I think I will likely move forward with purchasing one soon. I'll let you know what I think if/when I do.
 
wolverines said:
I talked to my buddy at the shop. He hasn't had any negative feedback on them, but also doesn't have any firsthand knowledge about the claims due to still running the 2.0s. One of his shop guys is running 4 of the 3,0s so I sent him a message about it. These are his first Reveals so he really can't say much about the battery life compared to the legacy models, but he did say with certainty that you can change the delay time on the app. He also sent me a screen shot of that option on his end of the app to confirm.

I think I will likely move forward with purchasing one soon. I'll let you know what I think if/when I do.
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10/4

I think I will stick with the 2.0 for now.
 
Ordered one in a bundle with a solar panel from Amazon, $170 yesterday, seems like a fair deal. Should arrive early/mid next week.

I have no beef with the 2.0, but with the 3.0 having built in memory (no SD card required) it seems like a wash cost wise. I'll give it a try and keep you posted.
 
@DoubleLungRage

I got my 3.0 on the 16th. It also came with the 2.0 solar panel. It's only been several days, but I think they are both upgrades.

The solar panel is ready out of the box (no putting the bracket on yourself), The bracket has a screw hole to mount (I don't think the old style has this), power cable is angled out of the panel, claims to be 73% more capacity and faster charging. It also came with a little plastic piece that screws into the camera's battery pack, so the cord stays plugged in. I've never had issues with the cord being pulled out, but a buddy of mine has. Unfortunately, the lithium packs don't have the screw port yet, so it doesn't work on those. Wouldn't surprise me if the next round of lithium battery packs has this on the next shipment (if there's not already some out there).

The 3.0 has a clip to hold the antenna in storage. I don't think that's a big deal but is an upgrade. The pics I've gotten so far are as good or better quality and come immediately. I can't remember everything you posted about the negative reviews, but the app hasn't really changed. Everything is there and more. I was actually able to update the firmware with the camera out in the field. I feel like I had to download the new firmware on a SD card before. The battery indicator on my 3.0 reads "External" which is different. I'm assuming if the solar panel was dead or not being used it would give me a battery percentage like the older versions do. As I'm looking at the app now, I do see when you click on a specific camera, it does show the internal batteries as a percentage too.

It's still early so something could change, but I can't find anything bad to say about it right now. If there was a specific question you had about it that I left out, let me know.
 
wolverines said:
@DoubleLungRage

I got my 3.0 on the 16th. It also came with the 2.0 solar panel. It's only been several days, but I think they are both upgrades.

The solar panel is ready out of the box (no putting the bracket on yourself), The bracket has a screw hole to mount (I don't think the old style has this), power cable is angled out of the panel, claims to be 73% more capacity and faster charging. It also came with a little plastic piece that screws into the camera's battery pack, so the cord stays plugged in. I've never had issues with the cord being pulled out, but a buddy of mine has. Unfortunately, the lithium packs don't have the screw port yet, so it doesn't work on those. Wouldn't surprise me if the next round of lithium battery packs has this on the next shipment (if there's not already some out there).

The 3.0 has a clip to hold the antenna in storage. I don't think that's a big deal but is an upgrade. The pics I've gotten so far are as good or better quality and come immediately. I can't remember everything you posted about the negative reviews, but the app hasn't really changed. Everything is there and more. I was actually able to update the firmware with the camera out in the field. I feel like I had to download the new firmware on a SD card before. The battery indicator on my 3.0 reads "External" which is different. I'm assuming if the solar panel was dead or not being used it would give me a battery percentage like the older versions do. As I'm looking at the app now, I do see when you click on a specific camera, it does show the internal batteries as a percentage too.

It's still early so something could change, but I can't find anything bad to say about it right now. If there was a specific question you had about it that I left out, let me know.
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Here are the "cons" from trailcampro.com. They are usually pretty accurate with their reviews. Most of these issues were also ones that I was seeing in other reviews. Hopefully they were just bugs with the first batch or so. I'd hate to see such a good/reasonably priced camera go to trash like the SpyPoints did. I've never had to use it, but I've always heard that Tactacam has really good CS. Thanks for replying. I still have a few more 1.0's that are starting to show their age so I will keep up with the reviews and such.




Cons

  • Cellular transmission is sporadic
  • 16-32 GB U3 card only
  • When sending in batches, the camera won't continue taking bursts of photos (the camera will transmit the photo to cloud before taking another)
  • Camera settings can not be changed from the web portal
  • Only way to get a video is pic + video
  • Battery Life
  • Antenna is about impossible to replace
 
We tried Tactacam and had an order in for 30. Thankfully they were back ordered at the time, because we hated the couple we had!
They are a great camera for monitoring something, but for some reason that IR flash was running off our mature deer. We thought it was just one particular buck that kept moving locations on us until after the second time of changing locations and finding him again, we put a Spartan up and 2 weeks later my son killed that buck.
We saw it in numerous older age bucks. Didn’t seem to bother the does or younger bucks much, but those mature deer wanted no part of it.
We put a lot of time into locating deer and definitely don’t need a camera running them off. We use all Spartans now. A little more expensive, but well worth it. The only complaint with Spartan is we can’t take a pic from the app anymore. They used to have the option of immediately taking a pic. Other than that, I have no issues. I keep my cams for hogs on 5min intervals. When pigs show up I move it to 0 seconds for my stalks into the sites. I get almost real time images.
 
DoubleLungRage said:
Here are the "cons" from trailcampro.com. They are usually pretty accurate with their reviews.
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In my experience with trailcampro reviews and other pages like them, these guys are never happy with anything. Here are my own personal thought on the Cons;

DoubleLungRage said:
  • Cellular transmission is sporadic--I didn't understand this. It works on both Version and AT&T networks. Mine connected very quickly and I'm getting pics immediately. I wish they'd elaborate on this to get a better understanding of what the beef is with this.
  • 16-32 GB U3 card only--This is not a con for me. What drew me to the 3.0 was the fact that it doesn't need a SD card at all. It's a cell cam, I want the pics delivered to my phone so I don't have to make trips to my camera. I will never pull the SD card anyway, and they can loop so your service is never interrupted. I think the fact that it doesn't need a SD card should be a Pro that drastically outweighs this the card size that it can handle.
  • When sending in batches, the camera won't continue taking bursts of photos (the camera will transmit the photo to cloud before taking another) --I've honestly never used this feature, so really don't care. My experience with other cams using burst is it's the quickest way to deplete your battery life (other than video).
  • Camera settings cannot be changed from the web portal--originally, I thought you said from the app. Everything can be done from the app. If that's what they are referring to web portal, then it's completely false. If it's something else, then who cares? I would never opt to get on a computer to change settings over my cell anyway.
  • Only way to get a video is pic + video--I don't see this as a con. I think this is pretty common. I haven't used the video settings yet, but after seeing a buddy's videos the other day, I plan to. Especially once I get some coyote bait out this winter.
  • Battery Life--I won't be able to comment on this due to using the solar panel. I think when you start using a lot of the features such as burst, video, etc. your battery life will suffer on any cam.
  • Antenna is about impossible to replace--fair, but I think they've improved the antenna over the 3 generations to the point that it shouldn't be an issue. I haven't looked into replacing the antenna on the 3.0 but it does come with a rubber collar to hold it in place when not in use, which is when I'd assume they are getting broken. The new antenna is definitely sturdier than the previous ones IMO.
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LoL

It's funny because your thoughts mirror mine pretty much 100%. Here are the things I want from a camera.

1. Take good pics.
2. Send those pics to me.
3. Have good battery life.
4. Be able to change the settings on the fly (app). this is because most of the time I keep my delay on one minute. It sucks when a limb or something falls in front of the camera or on a very windy day and the camera is set for one minute. It's nice to be able to just get on the app and for that time change the delay.

As long as the camera does those things, I'm good.

So far the only "problem" I've had with the gen 1's are the antennas. Every gen 1 that I have the little pin holding the antenna on has broken. I just put a tooth pic in there. I have no complaints about the gen 1's. The only reason I'm looking to replace them is they are starting to show their age from being out so long. Things like door latch getting harder to open, antennas, and it also seems like they are slowing down on detection. With all that said, I am not complaining one bit because they are what, 3, maybe 4 years old? And it gets from the 20's to 115 here in SC. I think that's pretty damn good for a $100 camera.
 
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