Field Trial of the Cuddeback Expert IR Digital Scouting Camera

I have tested some of the Cuddeback products in thehave to give credit to Cuddeback for maintaining great
past and I have had mixed success with them. For thetrigger speed on its cameras.
most part they have been decent cameras but theBatteries
image quality was fair and I had some problems withThe Cuddeback Expert takes four D size batteries.
the mounting system that they used. I was anxious toThe battery life is about four weeks on this model. The
see if they had made improvements on some ofmanual tells me that when the battery level indicator
these issues.gets to one then the batteries should be replaced.
The Image QualityWhen it was at one, it seemed like it was out of juice.
The images taken by this camera are a little betterIt did take a fair amount of pictures but the life of the
than the previous 3.0 model. They are not the qualitybatteries could be improved upon. If you are planning
that I get from my Sony Cybershot but that is not theon using rechargeable batteries then you will see the
use that they are intended for. I would rate the imagebattery life cut in half so it is probably not advisable
quality somewhere between fair and good. It isunless you plan to be checking on your camera very
sufficient for using as a field camera to research theoften.
deer I want to track. You might have some troubleOther Features
blowing up or cropping images but overall it is not bad.One thing that has been a contention for me is the
The Trigger Speedequipment that comes with many field cameras for
In my opinion maybe the most important feature of asetting them up on the tree. Cuddeback has been no
field camera is its ability to capture images quickly. Iexception to this rule, although the current set up is an
have been using field cameras for some time, and theimprovement on the former. You can padlock the
early generation cameras were painfully slow. Somecase closed which is good, but they could improve the
of them were even over five or six seconds. This isstrap system even more if they wanted to really
one area where the Cuddeback Expert absolutelymake this an easy to use unit.
excels. This is actually the faster camera I have everOverall the picture quality is ok with this camera, the
used in terms of its trigger speed and that is a big plus.functions are actually pretty good and the trigger
Those early generation cameras took plenty ofspeed is outstanding. The cost of these cameras
pictures of the forest by itself, and often I could not tellremains low, so if you are getting into the field
if the sensor was just picking up movement ofphotography I would suggest that this one is worth a
branches or if the camera was trying to capture alook.
buck moving quickly through the focus of the camera. I