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Cuddeback
Capture 3.0 MP white flash review 08-04-2008
Camera purchased from:
WildViewWeb Contact:
sales@wildviewweb.com
From years back when the Cudde
folks had a good reputation they had this dry spell when everything went south
and folks had to back off. The residual old hard core lovers of this product
kept the out door forums buzzing with all these rumors about the latest release.
This 2 ½ inch thick by 5 ¼ wide and about 9 ½ inches
tall camera has finally been released. The good folks over at
WildviewWeb got us one and we will now try to kill all those rumors
that have been floating around. This is a very basic bare roots camera and only
does one thing, it takes single day/night color
pictures. There is no movie mode and no multi shot option. It has an internal
memory but that memory is only accessed by inserting a
FAT formatted SD card into the slot
with the camera off and no lights on. Move the switch away from the off position
to any of the other settings and wait for the green light to go out. Once the
green light goes out (may take up to 3 minutes) the images have been transferred
from internal memory to the SD card. Turn the cam off and remove the card and
you then can view the images that were collected in the internal memory on the
cam. The setting of the time date was very easy but not as cool as what we've
seen on the Timber eye camera. Move the switch to the different programming
stops and just use the buttons to set that selection. There is no up and down
buttons so everything is done serially in the up direction only. You must go all
the way around again if you mess up the first time. The case is very much like
the very early cudde cams. There is a plastic hinge
with a slide pin to lock the cam lid up while you have it on the tree. This
slide pin is held in the camera by a small silver E ring clip. With a lock
through the holes provided at the bottom of the case I was able to take a tooth
pick and remove this clip and open the case once the threaded knob was
unscrewed. The back of the case has a single screw that you must remove to
install the supplied tiny strap bracket. This camera is without any security
features that cannot be defeated in seconds. We will work on this for those who
need to protect their investment. The water tightness appears to be very good.
This is pleasing after that sieve for a case that appeared in 06. The front of
the case has the flash at the top and it appears to be very good. Just below
that is the PIR sensor and again they chose that narrow cone style that they
used before. Centered between the flash and PIR lens, the main camera lens is
set back with glass in front of it. One very important thing that folks must do
when they have this camera in the field is to
make sure they tighten the knob up on the case
when deploying this camera. The PIR sensor lens is part of the front
cover and the PIR sensor is part of the main assembly. If the front cover is not
tightened down the focus of this lens would be affected. When the focus is off
then the sensing efficiency would be diminished. OK, lets talk battery holder,
this one is alright. I did not have to lay on my back
to install the retainer and the batteries did not fall out and take out the
programming when bumped. The strap that came with the camera broke the first
time I tried to use it so I wrapped it up in a dollar bill and threw it away so
I could say that I had actually thrown something of value away. A visit to Home
Depot found a good little strap with a plastic clasp that seemed to work better.
I could have used one of my excellent Scoutguard
straps but I was afraid I might get something on it.
We remember all the hype about the legendary trigger times of the
Cudde. Well all that hype went to hell in 06 when
the sieve came out. I grabbed this cam and sneaked out to my table and set up to
do a few unofficial trigger time tests. Out of about twenty tests with flash the
trigger time looked to be one second to one and a quarter second. This is great.
Now lets also look at the degree of sensing that it
took to make those twenty or so triggers. This camera is very weak in sensing. I
had very little luck in using heat to trigger the camera so I went the other way
and went cold. This seemed to work better and I finally managed to do the amount
I needed to make up my mind about the trigger. We are warm here in Georgia but I
have two other cameras that I got in from Canada today and they did not mind the
heat at all. Again, I will say this “if the camera does not see the target
animal then an instant trigger is of no value”. With my hands on to this point,
I will say that small thing like the documentation and hinge thing, this camera
will work well for those who do not need to have the basic features that come on
all the cameras that cost the same or less. We are most definitely going to do
some side by side with a couple other cams once we get the flash range and
sensing tests done. 08-05-2008 update:
I went through the flash range tests this morning which turned out to be an
extreme ordeal. I could get the first trigger then the cam would lock up and
appear to be dead. There would not be any thing recorded to the card. I removed
the batteries which also proved to be another bothersome task. It required a
tool to get the first two cells out of the compartment because of the limited
amount of space. I tested the batteries and found them to be still new and good.
I reinserted the batteries and had to go back through the programming. After
about 5 or 6 repeats of the above sequence I was finally able to get the camera
to function and write to the card. The flash range proved to be good past 40
feet. The sensing distance was 30 feet for this 72 degree morning. The sensing
was by no means fast. It took some effort at thirty feet to get the camera to
finally see me and if I was off center just a few feet forget it, the cam would
not see me. This tells me that if you had deer just off center a few feet at 30
feet the camera would not see them. Aim is super critical with this camera and
it does not have an aim device so you must use the test position on the switch
and do walk tests. This seemed to work well as long as the sensor was picking me
up but also proved that its sensing zone is very limited. This camera does work
but with the lock up issue I experienced and not writing to the card along with
limited sensing leaves me to not trust this camera. You could do a setup and
leave the camera and if the first trigger locked up the cam you could come back
a couple weeks later and not have a single picture.
08-06-2008 update: I went and retrieved the
broken strap and parts but left the dollar out there. I spent about an hour
trying to re assemble this little short piece of ____ and gave up, the dollar
has its company back. The strap was only long enough to go around small trees
anyway. One of my Scoutguard straps fit just fine and upgraded the capture a
little. Next I spent a number of hours putting together security brackets to see
how I could secure this camera but most all attempts were weak. The raised rib
down the back of the camera and only one screw hole to secure the bracket made
it a loosing battle. We had some folks on the forum that had some ideas but they
did not figure on the hinge pin as being a weak point. The cudde bear box they
had for the older cameras could probably be copied to fit this camera. The
problem being that the cost of building that kind of security box would nearly
equal the price of the camera. I had set up on a bird feeder yesterday in good
sun to get an idea of picture quality. I pulled the card and XP said there were
images on the card. A short time later they popped up and I began to survey the
images. Gone is the false hue of cuddies past and now these cameras have a more
natural color that is actually pretty good. Not anywhere near the Scoutguard
quality but pretty good. There is a slight milky haze effect to the pictures.
The colors are good and have a moderate degree of definition. If you manage to
get a good one of these cameras and figure out how to secure it, you would
probably enjoy it. I have turned it over to Anthony to try to fit it in on the
hill. Right now we have about 8 reviews underway and space and corn are limited.
Anyway in the $200 range I feel that Scoutguard has not a thing to worry about
while looking down from its lofty feature rich perch.
08-08-2008 update: Well folks I got this cam
out to Anthony to do the trigger time tests and get some sample pictures. He
found out in short order that this task would be monumental. The cam still locks
up after the first flash and the flash will not work again until you reset the
camera by pulling the batteries. Just getting the batteries out enough to reset
the cam is a job in its self. As of now this review is pulled as a bad idea and
this cam is headed for the 100 yard target mound for this afternoons practice
plinking. The Academy Ghost does not have the picture quality but this last one
we received does flash when triggered without having to pull the batteries. Not
to bad for a cam that cost $80 less than the capture.
08-08-2008 amended update: Now that we have had
a little first hand dealings with this camera I spent some precious time trying
to see if there has been any kind of history to date dealing with this cam. The
short time that it has been out I have seen an increase in problems dealing with
this camera on the outdoor forums. Cudde has not managed to clear this cam of
all issues prior to shipping. Two areas seem to stick out and they are flash
problems and not writing to the card. Several folks complained about the
difficulty they are having removing the batteries. Lets hope that the factory
gets on top of this because we need this camera to operate as advertised and
give folks the opportunity to choose between different manufacturers.
10-02-2008 update: We were able to borrow a
camera that has a proven history on function, so we can continue to finish
getting all the data needed for this review. Since the last update and all the
time we have spent waiting on finding a usable camera, I have been monitoring
the forums for some good news but have not found any yet. It seems that these
cameras are something like some Moultrie cams we seen some time back. If you get
hold of a good one, keep it. The folks that have been happy are extremely happy
and those who have had problems are very perplexed over customer service. Most
have chosen the route of just returning it to the place of purchase rather than
fighting the customer service system. Well it is again headed to the hill to get
some testing done and we are pretty sure it will hold together long enough to
get this done. We definitely need a good white flash camera in this price range.
10-06-2008 update: This cam only has one
function and that is to take pictures with or without flash. For a short period
of time we stuck this cam side by side with the Predator cam Xtinction because
we were limited on space it the testing area. We noticed that this cam took a
good percentage more pictures that the Predator in the same time. We can take
this in two different ways. Either we have two sorry cams on our hands but one
is a degree worse that the other or we can say we have two good cams on or hands
and one is just better than the other. Both of these cams have yet to prove
themselves in the field so we will have to put both up against a known good
performer to see just where they fall as far as performance. This cam has
performed well so far while being out there by its self.
10-09-2008 update: There is just not a lot of
tests we can do with this cam because all it does is take pictures at one
resolution. We have been waiting for a break so we could set up another side by
side with several cams so we can get some idea of what it does up against a
known performer. We had a serious rain last night and we pulled the card and it
was dry inside so that means that it is far better that its latest predecessors
which leaked like a sieve. This cam is still working which makes us think we may
have one of those “good ones” that I have been hearing about on the forums.
Things go right we will have the big test set up this evening.
10-18-2008 update: In our four camera side by
side this cam came in third in sensing. The top scoring camera got 419 pictures
and this cam got 189. Most all Cudde cams we have tested have that very narrow
sensing cone and they do not do very good in the sensing department. After
pushing this cam pretty hard it has still held together and not failed. This is
a very basic cam and when it works it seemed to work well except for the
sensing. This concludes this review.
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