Trail Camera showdown 6

[Onin24Eagle]

This time it's the Spypoint G4 vs the Wild Game Innovations S4.

I picked up the S4 earlier this summer.  My mantra is mainly to get as many cameras out as possible as I have a lot of area to cover.  Being that I want a lot of cameras, I've tried to find the "best" one that is reasonably priced.  That's the whole point of this little experiment.  Trying to decide which one is the best.  I'm hoping this helps anyone out there that's looking to buy a camera on a budget.

I moved the Spypoint to the spot where I had the WGI camera set up since that spot seemed to be getting a lot more buck activity than the other cameras recently.  I think it has to do with the fact that the acorn crop is actually pretty good in the little oak grove where I have it.  There's a salt lick there as well and it's the only one that's seen much activity from bucks in the past couple of weeks.

Here are the results:

Night, still:

Spypoint:



A little bright IR flash but good pic.

WGI:



Pretty obvious here that the flash range is not as good as the Spypoint, but at least the details that you can see are fairly clear.  The deer in this pic is a little over 10 yards from the camera, so I'd say the IR flash range is somewhere from 30 - 35 feet.

Another still night photo:

Spypoint:



WGI:



I decided to do a second night photo to show that the IR flash range noted in the first set is not a fluke.  It is much shorter on the WGI camera.  However, at close range it does take very nice pics.

Daytime, moving:

(these pics are here to demonstrate that both cameras do have pretty decent trigger times)

Spypoint:



WGI:



The bird in both pics is quite blurry, which is to be expected considering that songbirds generally do not move slowly through the air.  The big thing to point out here is the background.  The Spypoint lets in more light than the WGI camera.  This makes the details in the background harder to make out.  In my opinion, the WGI camera produces a much superior daytime photo as even trees far in the background are much easier to distinguish whereas the sunlight drowns out much of the far background in the Spypoint photos.

Rather than just pick some random photos of moving deer, I would like to show a sequence of pictures taken by both cameras.  This is to show that the Spypoint has a better detection range and better options for dwell time.  You cannot adjust dwell time on the WGI camera below 1 minute (the time from when it takes a photo until it's ready to take another).  I have the dwell time set to 15 seconds on the Spypoint. 

First two photos are from the WGI S4:





Here are the same two photos (the first and last in the sequence) from the Spypoint, along with everything that happened in between (I'm going by the time stamp as these cameras are fairly closely in sync):















As you can see, there's quite a difference in what one camera catches vs the other. 

Other Pros and Cons:

Pros:

Spypoint:

RealTree camo pattern helps to conceal it.
Strap is easy to use/adjust
Uses 8 AA Batteries
Can use rechargable batteries
Excellent battery life
Can adjust the detection range using small dial on the side (I've neglected to mention this in previous posts).  This is a nice feature that allows you to customize the detection range depending on the environment (open field vs looking across a trail, etc)

Cons:

Same as before.  Photos are a little "fuzzy" which can be improved with a firmware update, but then the tradeoff is that you get much "brighter" deer in your photos as something in the firmware update causes anything white to show up 100x brighter.
Price - this used to be something I'd put under "pros" but the price has gone up substantially since I purchased mine.  Almost doubled.  They currently retail for about $180.

WGI S4:

Pros:

Easy to set up.
Price (got mine for $62 at Menard's)
Easy access to SD card slot.  Might be the easiest of all my cameras.

Cons:

IR flash range is not the best (as noted above)
I don't care for the bunjee cord mounting system.  It's simple but the cords that come with the camera are not very long.  I bought different ones at the local hardware store that worked much better.  It's a simple system but it would be nice if they gave you a couple of different lengths.  The cords that come with the camera will only work on trees that are about 10 inches in diameter or less.
Uses "C" cell batteries.  I prefer cameras that use "AA" or even "D" as they are both cheaper to buy in bulk than the "C" cells.

As far as the winner goes, I'm sticking once more with the Spypoint.  It's not really a fair matchup considering the price points of both cameras but it's still obvious that the Spypoint is much more versatile than the WGI.  That being said, the WGI seems to be a decent little unit.  If not for the dwell time issue and the fact that I cannot set the camera up for any kind of shot burst, this could be one of my favorites.  As it is, it's not bad, but I have others in the same price range that are just as good.  I'll be highlighting those in later matchups.

There's only one more IR camera that I have that has not been featured yet.  I've moved the Spypoint again and put it on the same tree as one of my Stealth Cam Nomad 5.0 cameras.  This really should be another easy win for the Spypoint but we'll see what happens.  After that, I could put it up against the Cuddeback Excite 2.0, but that's a flash camera and I don't think you can find them any more.  I think that we'll start doing matchups based on price point instead (like the WGI vs the Stealth cam). 

I know that there' s a ton more out there for cameras and manufacturers, but I only have 12 to compare, some of which you can't get any more.  I hope these little comparisons help anyone that might be looking to purchase game cameras in the future without having to spend a ton of cash.

[lentz]

U can adjust the time on the wgi to 30 seconds

The one I bought last year at menards and the ones they have this year can


They drop dawn about 30 bucks once hunting over before xmas


I like mine and I got it for 45 50$ and hate the bungees

[stevejedlenski]

thanks for putting these together, its the first thing ive seen that actually compares cameras and really lets you make a decision rather than just some guys opinion of what he likes.

[Onin24Eagle]

On a side note, I've been griping all along about the hike in price on the Spypoint G4, but while browsing for other hunting supplies online yesterday I came across these cameras on the Gander Mountain website and they're on sale right now for $99.  At that price, I'm almost thinking of getting one more as it has easily been my favorite in that price range. 

I'll be pitting it up against one of the Moultrie M-80's soon (which cost around $160) and I expect that it will perform better than the Moultrie.  We'll see.  I did do a firmware update on the M-80's a few weeks ago and it did improve the picture quality somewhat so it will be interesting to see the difference now.

[dakids]

I love my m-80.

[Onin24Eagle]

I have two and they're not horrible cameras.  I love the setup/size/ease of use, but I have not been super impressed with the picture quality with moving subjects (especially IR pics).  The below pic from earlier this year is a good example.  On the flip side, they have probably the longest flash range of any of my cameras and work well in open sites (such as overlooking a field or food plot).  I just don't think they're the best at close range.  However, as stated above, I did do the firmware update to both cameras and I have noticed an improvement in pic quality.  All of my IR cameras give out blurry pics at night, it just seems as if the M-80 was blurrier (if that's even a word) than the rest.  After the firmware update, it might be more comparable to the other cams I have.  That being said, I do believe the Spypoint is a better camera and since it costs 40% less it would be hard to argue for buying the M-80.  We'll find out when these go head to head.  Who knows, maybe I'll get a result I'm not expecting.

here's a pic from the Moultrie (notice the deer on the far left and right of the screen - the one on the left almost looks like a ghost it's so blurry):



One thing to note here:  The 2012 M-80 has an "anti-blur" setting which may drastically improve this situation.  I cannot speak for that since my cameras are both 2011 models and do not have that feature.  If anyone has a 2012 it would be interesting to see a pic of a fast moving deer with this setting turned on just to see if it does make a drastic improvement.

I wouldnt' say I "love" my M-80 cameras.  I do "like" them.  If the price were about half what it is I might get closer to "love" though.