10-05-05 update:

We spent about 30 minutes on the phone with the tech folks at Moultrie this morning and we discussed the system operating versions of the cameras. The Game spy and Game watcher 100 cameras have had three different versions. The 2.32 v is the oldest and this was followed by the 1.2 and now the 1.5 versions. The newer cameras do not have the solar panel terminals on the outside of the case. They recommend that you use the rechargeable batteries and just hook the solar panel alligator clips to the battery springs and close the door. There is no software upgrade available by the factory for the older software versions. The customer service number is 1-800-653-3334 8 to 5 CST M thru F.

2/25/06 - Read This Statement to Moultrie before Continuing!

Model MFH-DGS-200 Game Spy 200

This is Moultrie's latest camera rated at 3.1 MP on its highest setting. The three settings for resolution are 640X480, 1204X768, and 2048X1536 enhanced. The AVI movie setting is 320X240 at 10 seconds. Out of the box, the first thing that struck me is that the manual was just one sheet folded up. This took me back to my first encounter with the Leaf River. First impressions are often wrong because the programming is very straight forward and easy so the instructions were more than adequate. Having just over a 2 second trigger time at 80+ degrees says that this cam should perform very well in the field when the temps are 50 and below. No external solar panel terminals was one of the few things that appear to be a negative. The factory folks say just hook the solar panel clips to the battery springs and close the door. (I personally am going to file a small notch for the wires to exit)  I tried the factory method and the case crimped the wires so I would be sure to take care and see that the panel wires exit the case at the bottom and are not crossed  to prevent the possibility a short and of moisture getting inside the case. There is a little different switch/button arrangement between the 100 series and the 200 series with a big dummy button above the mode button that I seemed to want to push to change modes. We are looking forward to testing this cam and it should be chasin game this weekend (November 12, 2005).

03-20-2006 Update on Moultrie GS-100 and GS-200:

The following is a list of things that we have learned by way of E mails, Outdoor Forums, Phone conversations, word of mouth and from our personal experience. I will say that the cameras that we purchased and tested seemed to perform very good until recently, we have had one of the GS-200s to show some signs of problems. (SD card lock and White out)

• Poor sensing.

• SD card locked indication on LCD but camera functions normally.

• Bad battery life.

• Severe difference in trigger time from day pictures to flash pictures.

• Whiteout pictures randomly.

• Moon phase quits being displayed on pictures.

• Flash pictures have saucer eyes.

• Limited sensing range. (sometimes corrected by the “fix.” (sensor lens replacement)

• Camera just dies and will not boot up with fresh battery. 

Most of these problems were discussed with a Moultrie management person and we were promised an answer by E mail last week. As of yet we have not received any word. Bill

Basically the same camera as the Wally World camera tested earlier. I was curious just what was better about the Game Spy over the Game watcher. This model also does not have the solar terminals and programs the same as the Wally World GW-100. Triggering on this camera is different on this camera. When left dormant for a while with out activity the camera will go to sleep and it takes a 3 second window to wake it up but once awake will trigger within one half second, and after the delay will trigger again under a second if motion is still present. Every time I pick up one of these Moultrie cameras I have a habit of inspecting the seal to see if there is any defects. The reason for this is we had one of our forum members who had a Moultrie in a creek bottom and a flood came and the camera was under water for several days. The camera had no ill effects other than being covered with mud. Try that trick with any of the 06 Cuddebacks and see what happens. The 2.1 MP rating is in order for most tasks in the scouting camera arena. Properly situated this camera will handle most field tasks very well. Knowing the ability and quirks each of these cameras have a person can pretty well situate the camera in such a manner that it will perform well. We have always loved our Moultrie cameras and the way the company has supported its customers. There was a down period in 05 where there seemed to be many things that caused all the outdoor forums to light up with complaints but this company stuck right in there and kept replacing cameras until now days I rarely see any problems mentioned. This camera can sell any where from just over a hundred dollars to around one hundred forty dollars depending on the source. In high risk areas where there is a chance of theft many folks seek out the less expensive cameras and use some of the security measures mentioned on this site. This camera has features like the laser aim, no loss of program during battery change, front viewable status which we wished we could see on some of the other comparative priced cameras. Trigger time is under one second after wakeup and flash looks to be the same as the Walley World 100 but I will re do this test in the morning to confirm. We just have to get a set of field test pictures and see how good they are. Flash range tests show good flash to 40 feet and this 50 degree morning this camera would sense me at 40 feet also. The sensing range and flash range seem to be very well matched on this camera. As with the Wally world cam this camera has the hard to read LCD screen. The new fine print makes it hard to read in low light conditions like early morning under the canopy of trees. Once we get some test pictures the plan is to match this camera with the Wild view 2 and Bushnell 119200 if our Bushnell is returned from repair in time to do this test in a timely manner.

Moultrie MFH-DGW-4.0 (D-40) Review 06-09-2007

This is Moultrie's low end camera that appears to be packed with a great deal of high end features. In appearance it looks like the 05 and 06 cameras less the solar panel terminals. The addition of an external battery port is up on the right side of the camera which is covered by a rubber plug. When the case is opened the inside of the camera is removable from the outer case. The bottom rear of this inside camera has a removable slide plate to access the battery compartment (6 D cells) which holds the batteries very secure once the cover is reinstalled. The SD card slot is easily accessed on the front right of the camera. A well designed single switch will move you through the functions while a separate set of buttons gives you the up, down, delete and select options. A pushbutton on off switch is at the top left of the front panel. There should be no problems in the winter, even with gloves on. I did not find any problems with the water seal gasket on this camera, it remained in place through testing. All the previously designed security brackets for the 05-06 cameras will work with this camera. The claim of 60 day battery life is assumed to be what they call “normal conditions” meaning no extreme temperatures and probably using the lower rez settings. This is an area of high interest to most users. Trigger time (unofficial) looks like between 1 to 2 seconds and on the medium setting the color flash pictures were a bit grainy. First impression is that this is going to be a very easy to use and nice camera to have for the price. Using a large capacity 12v SLA external battery and a high capacity card (up to 4 gig) should allow some extended field deployments if desired. The outside pictures taken on the high setting at 0800 in the morning were still a little fuzzy but very true in detail and color. I would have no problem owning one of these as my field scouting camera with its $100 price tag because it will do just about everything that I would need. Flash range and sensing will happen tomorrow morning and trigger times will follow after that.

Trigger time with out flash (1 second)

Trigger time with flash (1 second)

Flash Tests

Sample Pictures

low resolution

High Resolution

Movie

MFH-DGS-I40 IR Flash 4 MP camera review 06-09-2007
Having just gone through its big brother the I-60 this camera possesses many of the same features.  Lacking are the higher MP rating, remote feature, and some of the eye candy that is printed across the bottom of the picture. It has the same amount of IR emitters so the flash is the same and the case is black but maintains the same dimensions. There is three rez settings which are low, medium, and enhanced (interpolated) to reach the 4.0 MP high rating.

Both cameras function the same as far as flash range, trigger time and sensing range.

Coming out of the box this camera had the sticky gasket problem that was mentioned in the 6.0 review. When packed at the factory the front cover wants to stick to the gasket in some areas and when the cover is opened it tends to slightly lift the gasket out of its grove. If this was missed and not slid back in place it could result in a water leak. Once the gasket was put back in place we did not experience it becoming loose again during the many times we opened the case. This appears to only be the case when it is opened fresh out of the box. I did water leak tests as I did with the Cuddeback cameras and found no leaks once the gasket was properly re-installed.

The 7 ½ inch bar described for use with the 6.0 will also work for this camera’s security.

Packing a $100 dollar cheaper price tag than its big brother and me being more in favor of cameras that take very good low MP pictures (smaller file size) makes missing those bells and whistles seem less important. If camo is important to you, just get a roll of that camo cloth tape that is used to make archery equipment look like a tree and use it to hide your camera. Just don’t do to good of a job because this camera does not have that beacon feature and you cant call it up from a distance.

Finally things in the trail camera business have brought the suppliers to the point where all the desirable features are there and the choice gets harder. Moultrie has began to rock the industry for the second time (excluding early 06) with this years new cameras. Having trigger times just over a second and a selection of features that have been talked about here over the past three years. These appear to be very good cameras. With all fingers crossed we are hoping that everyone’s field experience does not uncover some hidden difficulty. The sleep factor that was rumored to affect these cameras, did not surface during our testing but we will be putting one in a situation for a day plus situation without being triggered and see if we can sneak up on it and catch it in a nap. The camera is presently deployed on a very sunny open area with a corn feeder and in about week we will be able to provide some sample pictures. Our private purchase of these same models through normal channels found no differences in function than the ones that came straight from the supplier. This is a test that we must do to prove that by chance we might receive cameras that may have been gone through prior to us receiving them. This would make it unfair to the average buyer. To date we have only on one occasion had this happen with a small company that now seems to feel they are better off dealing with the industrial research folks than the hunting sports folks.

With all the information being put out about good rechargeable batteries and with the new solar panel (available this fall from Moultrie), this camera with a 4 gig card should be able to stay out for a very long time without any maintenance. The next option would be to use the external 12v SLA battery with a 12v panel hooked directly to the battery. Caution: Do not exceed 15 volts when doing this according to the folks at Moultrie. 

 

Trigger time with out flash (1.5 seconds)

Trigger time with flash (2 seconds)

Flash Tests

Sample Pictures

Low resolution

High Resolution IR Photos

Color Photos

Movie Samples

5-26-2007:   First look at the new Moultrie I 60 IR flash 6.0 MP with on board viewer. This is a very impressive looking camera and new for this year they have chosen to do a all new case design. The massive IR array appears to be of single focus compared to the Leaf River array which uses different focus IR emitters in their arrays. This 72 count array should do a good job in the illumination area and is advertised as being good to 50 feet. Our tests will take a close look at this. This camera can be set up in any one of 4 resolutions from VGA up to 6.0. New for this year Moultrie has included a built in viewer for those folks who wish to see the results of the cameras performance in the field. I want to take a close look at the color day and IR night functions of this camera because it appears it is being done through one lens. This may incorporate a mechanical filter to accomplish this task. It will be interesting to put it to task in the field. Pictures will be stamped with the standard time and date along with temperature, moon phase and barometric pressure. External power port is also incorporated which is a big plus and this can also be used with the not yet available solar panel which is suppose to maintain six rechargeable D cells if you chose to go that route. Moultrie advertises this camera as being able to perform up to 150 days on 6 good alkaline batteries which is some very good news. Grape vine has it that this is accomplished by having the camera to go into a sleep mode with a 1 to 2 second wakeup time then the camera will go into the instant trigger time mode. This is one of the areas that seems to be of great interest to a lot of folks so we will be paying close attention to this detail. 

With all the information being put out about good rechargeable batteries and with the new solar panel (available this fall), this camera with a 4 gig card should be able to stay out for a very long time without any maintenance. The next option would be to use the external 12v SLA battery with a 12v panel hooked directly to the battery. Caution: Do not exceed 15 volts when doing this according to the folks at Moultrie. 

The built in security feature and remote beacon feature is also a plus for this camera. I am going to be doing a lot of work to come up with some type of extra security for this fine camera to insure that it doesn’t get legs and wander off with one of the occasional uninvited visitors to our properties. Being this cam is so very new and has a lot of features this review will probably be very long and intense, unless we have some type of an unanticipated failure.

06-09-2007 Update:  The OD green case measures about 11 inches tall and is 6 ½  wide with a depth of about 4 inches. A single thumb screw will open the case that is hinged in the top. This front cover has some sort of detent built into the hinge to hold it in the open position for programming. The right side of the case has a removable cover 5 ½  by 2 ½  inches that is held on by two more thumb screws. Under this cover is the battery compartment which has a hinged retainer for the batteries which also has another thumb screw.

Just in front of the battery compartment is the USB, SD card, and TV out slots. Once the batteries are installed there is only a small recessed area (see picture) to access the SD card slot. Winter time installation of the card would be impossible with gloves on. I can see that folks will probably do the same with the card with the tape trick or tweezers as we saw on other cameras which had card access issues.

Mounting the camera is done by a narrow strap (provided ) through two slots in the back of the cam. There is an adjustable thumb screw at the top of the back of the cam which has a point to hit the tree and allow for angle adjustment for aiming. Bad news when we opened all of our cameras up and found that the small rubber seal that is suppose to be the water seal, has a tendency to stick to the front cover when the door is opened it gets pulled out of its small track which it is suppose to be seated in. We had to very carefully reinstall this seal on each camera. Once put back in place, it appeared to stay in the track. We will have to see what happens when the camera has a prolonged stay in the field and is opened up for the card and battery change. Folks should with new cameras should inspect this seal and make sure it is in place and not twisted in order to insure water tightness. 

As we suspected the color day and IR night pictures is accomplished with a mechanical filter that worked very well with no hang-ups like we experienced in the 07 Bushnell recently tested.

Programming is very much like all the older models and is easy and straight forward. Playing around in the yard with my wife’s flowers in the background proved that this cameras daytime pictures on the low setting produced very sharp and clear pictures. When we did a quick check of the trigger time in a dark hallway we concluded that this camera is pretty fast. This was judged buy seeing how quick the IR array came on and not by the clock. We found on a previously tested camera that just because the IR array was on that did not mean the picture was being taken during the first micro seconds of the flash. This will be done in front of our testing clock soon. Because of this narrow access to the SD card I had on two occasions failed to have the card fully seated and after extensive testing I had to access the internal memory in order to view the results. Care must be taken when putting the card in and insure it is seated all the way in.

The view screen is inside the front cover and is very small and we found it lacking when trying to see detail in the field.

The flash range tests showed that this large array lit up the world out to 60 feet easily. The sensing range on this 72 degree morning was 40 feet and during the day, which was 96 degrees it consistently would catch me walking across at 20 feet and pretty well center me in the picture. The burst mode (3 pictures) were 10 to 13 seconds apart.

Providing security for this camera is greatly on my mind and presently looks like a 1 inch wide bar through the strap slots with holes in the end to accept a python cable is going to be our approach. I will work on this today and try to get some pictures out. The normal security code can also be programmed in for those who still have enough memory to use it. Me I would forget the code and loose my note telling me what is was supposed to be. Some folks call this as having a senior moment.

The documentation (10 pages) is well written and easy to follow. We were able to do all the programming and changes without having to refer to the booklet. I will say that so far I am extremely impressed with Moultrie's new cameras. They are fixing to put a hurtin on a lot of competition if the trigger times prove to be as fast as we think they are and because the picture quality and functionality of this camera is definitely there. It is hang it on the tree time.
 

06-17-2007 update:  Before and after tests using this cover showed that the IR light was noticeably decreased on the Moultrie but was not as noticeable on the Leaf river. Flash was still good past 30 feet but the background foliage was very dark. It would still be a good idea to use this when a higher degree of camera concealment is needed.  (see comparison photos below)

07-13-2007 I-60 remote feature:  To test the remote function of the I-60 I went into the program and selected handheld and remote. I set the cam on a stand watching a small fountain on my back deck just outside the sliding glass doors. During the hot afternoon sun the finches really like to come and take a bath. As they would arrive I would hit the capture button and the picture would be taken. I then selected 15 second movie and put it back on PIR just to see if the camera would see the birds and trigger a movie. Well, it worked great. I was assuming that the movement of the water would also trigger the cam but it did not. This widens the use of this great camera. You bird watchers need to go to the local sporting goods store and ask for a Moultrie I-60 and get yourself set up for some great fun

Use the I60 and the remote to capture stills and movies of birds at your bird feeder or bird bath:


Some cool movies I captured of the birds playing in my birdbath:

07-22-2007 update:  We have had both of our cams out for a good period of time and  they just seem to keep on pleasing us. The first set of batteries, have produced a total of 1440 operations, 200 of that were movies. The battery still reads 53% and is still going. We see that this cam definitely likes to be put out in the open areas with the north south orientation being of great importance. When placed in the shade we are getting a few of those dreaded whiteout pictures that plague a lot of today’s cameras. Both of the cameras have been exposed to weather and we were careful not to tighten the strap too tight to prevent any battery compartment leaks. With all seals reinstalled we have had no further issues with them coming loose and did not have any water leaks. To put it bluntly we really like this cam and hope that Moultrie follows through with the mentioned downloadable software update to ease the whiteout issue.

08-05-2007 update:  This camera has continued to run and take pictures on its original batteries now and the count is over 2000 pictures plus 200 movies and the battery reads in the 50% area. Even with what some folks are complaining about the whiteout thing this cam continues to amaze us. The noticeable clunk when the cam decides to execute a picture is somewhat bothering. We have had many of the pictures taken by this cam where the animals are really wondering what is going on and are looking directly at the cam. In a situation where the prize ol buck is sneaking through this might cause him to take notice. Even with our feeder/cam wise crowd, they take notice and do look at where the noise is coming from. The noticeable challenge by stealth with the I-450 and its performance has been noticed even though the 450 is not IR it is still in the running because of its excellent performance. Another cam that has risen in popularity on some of the outdoor forums is the Bushnell 11-9302. We really like the fact that when products hit the market and folks find it hard to choose we feel that the manufactures have taken notice. Soon the new Recon 5.0 will be with us and it will probably also be opening some eyes as all of its predecessors did. Right now this cam rules.   

08-13-2007 update:  I just pulled another 557 photos off this camera.  It is still on its original set of Duracell batteries and has taken a total of over 2500 pics and 250+ movies.  I compared the rate of pics from cooler times to that of the last 6 days.  Keep in mind we've had 100+ degree days.  I see only a fall off of around 10% and this could be due to deer movement.  This is excellent sensing for a camera still reading 43% on battery level.

08-14-2007 update:  More than two months have passed and the batteries are showing mighty low but this camera just keeps on taking pictures. Very good pictures at that. The whiteout issue is barely noticeable now when we place the cam where it gets more of the light away from the heavy canopy of the trees. Moultrie has done an exceptional job on this camera this year. The view screen on this cam has become a bother and my extensive attempts to try to utilize this feature is becoming pretty frustrating. It will tell you that you have a picture but very little else because the detail is so small that my attempts to use a magnifying glass failed. The other feature that needs to be discussed is the remote. My investigation on this showed that very few folks use this feature. I tested it and it did work great but for a scouting camera it would probably be of little use. If you could do without the very high MP (6.0) rating and the view screen and remote, this would make this cameras little sister (the I 40) look pretty good. Same case, same battery life, great pictures, and a cheaper cost. I forgot, you would also have to put up with that black case. What I am really saying is that both cameras are great performers and when cost is an issue a look at the lower priced I-40.

09-22-2007 Moultrie Firmware (whiteout update) internet download review:  On one of the outdoor forums there was a comment about this new download to correct the whiteout issue. This fellow said “I hate to admit this but Moultrie did a good job putting this together”. Well, We do not hate but are glad and happy that this has finally been accomplished. It is obvious that these folks did their homework and put together a download that does work.

There was only a couple of minor issues worth mentioning about the whole process:  At one point, the instructions tell you to connect the USB cable and then copy files onto camera SD card. At this time they make no mention of the number of screens that must be clicked through in Windows XP to accomplish this while XP recognizes the new hardware.  These instructions are very precise and must be followed exactly to the letter. One small glitch occurred twice while we followed the instruction correctly.  This was when we activated the firmware level 1 update, we got the message "FILE NOT READY".  We got this message 2 to 3 times but just kept trying and it finally loaded the level 1 firmware correctly.

The overall process is 5 steps for the I series and 4 steps for M series. Step 3 has you download the firmware files from the Moultrie website onto your computer.  Steps 4 and 5 walk you through loading the firmware onto the camera and activating the "firmware update" process.  We found the process easy but make sure you follow the instructions exactly.

09-29-2007 update Moultrie whiteout upgrade M and I series:  This past year we have seen where companies have outsourced their production overseas are starting to see problems arise. The pre production units seem to work just fine but when the post production units start to hit the market there seems to be a margin of difficulties in function that the users are finding. We do not know that this is the case with the new I and M series Moultrie’s but it is suspected. When these cameras hit the market they seemed to be exactly what many folks were wanting. We really liked all models and still do but now that we have gotten deep into the testing we see that the original problems dealing with the whiteout issue has mushroomed into a new set of difficulties with these cameras. Most folks felt that it was more of a hardware issue dealing with the light sensor than a software issue. This may be true but Moultrie has attempted to correct this through a firmware upgrade. We have seen a degree of improvement with the I series but no change with the M series.  We cannot exactly duplicate the light conditions of the pre download, but we can get close. With the I series we see a definite improvement in amount of whiteout, but in this process this firmware update has created another problem. This problem is the lack of color pictures during good light conditions. It takes some pretty strong sunlight before this camera will switch to color. On an average we are seeing color pictures between 11 AM and 4 PM. During this period we see that the cameras will sometimes switch back and forth between monochrome and color. We have seen some reports that some folks feel that the picture quality has also been degraded somewhat. With our cameras we cannot state this because of the varying light conditions on the pre and post pictures. Moultrie engineers have done lots of work creating this download but we feel that it is still lacking and still has to be tweaked. The M series is a total disappointment and just has not been fixed. We are still getting more than 50% whiteout pictures. On one of our M-40’s it seemed to get worse after the download. What it has come down to is that both the I and M series cameras must be taken out from under the forest canopy and put in the bright sun in order to work properly. Reports that the trigger time was also affected has not been proven in our tests. We hope that Moultrie takes notice and does a little more work on these great cameras.

**The reviews on the 2007 Moultrie cams will be on hold pending further feedback from Moultrie concerning issues with the recent firmware upgrades.

03-16-2008 update:  This review was put on hold waiting for some data from Moultrie so we could complete the review. They have failed to answer our requests so we will close this review.

Without Smoked IR Cover With Smoked IR Cover

Note: On the trigger tests below, don't be confused by a second hand shadow off to the right.  Trigger time with out flash 1.5 seconds

Trigger time with flash 1.5 Seconds

Flash Tests

Sample Pictures

Low resolution

High Resolution

Note: during the transition hours, morning and evening, we got several washouts.  This is due to the low light under the forest canopy and the flash going off during these periods.

Movie (The following clips are originals in original size and highest quality setting.  Daytime clips are 15 seconds and night clips are 5 seconds)

(The following is a video I made that consists of around 200 movie clips I got off the camera and placed end to end, then time compressed by a factor of 7 and set to a Joe Satriani sound track.  This is not the original quality.  It is around 3 minutes long) Make sure you check out the videos of the birds in a birdbath above too!

 

DGS-M60 Moultrie review 07-11-2007

This cam comes with the same OD green case as the I 60 model we just finished reviewing. In place of the IR array this cam has an impressive looking flash which has diffuser bars built into the glass which will probably spread the flash out nicely. The front cover is detent controlled so it will stay open when it is hung on the tree. Every thing including the programming is the same as the I 60. The rez settings are VGA, 1.3, 3.0, and Enhanced (interpolated) to 6.0 MP. The movie mode resolution settings are 320X240 on low and 640X480 on high. As with the I 60 this cam also will take up to a 4 gig SD card. Programming is easy and strait forward and was accomplished without having to use the pamphlet. The PIR sensing is 45 degrees and the optical field of view is out to about 50 degrees. I installed 6 (pre tested) duracells and am going to do my first impression tests then in the morning I will get the flash and sensing range testing done. Presently it is being held for the “sleep” test to see in Moultrie tried to sneak that past us. I pulled my I60 out of the field this morning after an extended stay and the batteries still read 99%. Lets hope this M series has the same appetite. Equipped with a built in viewer, this cam will allow the user to view the card contents in the field. This is a very small viewer and I found with my bi focal glasses that details are hard to pick out in even the best conditions. Bright sunlight makes the use of the viewer very hard to see. We still just swap the cards and due the viewing on the laptop or home computer. The same caution must be taken with this cam when mounting to insure that the strap is not over tightened. If the strap is over tightened the loop on the back of the cam will make the battery compartment shift a small amount which could result in a water leak. We have a small wood block fix which prevents this. I was told today that Moultrie also has a fix for this but I have yet to be able to confirm this. Security for this cam uses password protection and our security bar with Python cable will help prevent theft. The need to extend the SD card with tape also applies this cam. My stubby old fingers just do not want to fit down in that crevice to remove it. We have been extremely pleased with the function of the I series cams and feel that this white flash M series will be just as good. The raising of the rubber weather seal we experienced on the I series did not happen with this cam so maybe it was just a fluke that it happened on the IR I series cams we opened for the first time. With the I series we had to install the small card for the remote but this cam came with it in place and ready to use. The beacon (cam locater) can be used for those who loose track of just where they put their cam. I had fun with the remote feature by putting the cam on a bird bath and setting back with one of my favorite beverages and when the birds would jump in for a bath I would just hit the button and capture the action. With the I series cams we found that there was a tendency for the water drops to dry on the lens and cause a water mark which showed up in the pictures. These cameras are plagued with that dreaded whiteout thing where they are confused at day light and dusk, so our old practice of putting a roof over the cam cannot be done because it would further limit the amount of light going to the light sensor to control the flash. I am in the process of designing a clear plastic hood that would let the light through but keep the rain off. I have not figured out the angle to do this so that we do not get the flash coming back on the cam reflecting off the hood. I will try to get this done this coming week. The folks at Moultrie are working over time to insure that any thing that comes up with the 07 I and M series cams is taken care of in a timely manner. We hope to have a downloadable fix coming very soon for that minor whiteout issue. Well it is off to the fun stuff now.

Well the fun stuff came to a halt when the battery cover gasket came out of its groove and then it was a 2 hour ordeal putting it back in the groove with the help of my table magnifier and a half box of toothpicks. It appears that the design is for it to be held in place by pressure fit. As did with the I 60 (front cover gasket) this gasket stuck to the battery compartment lid and when I removed it the first time I was unaware that it had stuck to the cover. It is back in place now and I have pulled the lid several times and it appears to stay in place. My first sleep mode test came at two hours and the cam triggered in what was about two seconds. I am going to do an over night test on it to double check the sleep mode. During one of my indoor tests the flash caught me dead in the eyes though it was bright it did not blind me like the Stealth I 450 did. We will find out in the morning when we do the flash test.

07-12-2007 update:  This cam spent the night fired up and this morning I triggered it to see if it had gone to sleep and could not see any difference in trigger time which appears to be around 2 seconds. The flash range test showed good coverage past 40 feet and the sensing on this cam was very lacking. I performed this test several times. The temperature this morning at 4 AM was 70 (camera showed 75 degrees) degrees and this cam would only catch me at about 20 feet. Not believing the results I pulled my I-60 out and put it side by side with this cam and the I-60 would get me past 40 feet every time but the M-60 would only see me at about 20 to 25 feet. I feel there must be a problem with this cam and I will return it to Moultrie later to have them look at it. The battery door gasket appears to want to stay in place now that it has been re installed.

07-20-2007 update:  This cam was being readied for its trip to the woods and the battery door gasket wanted to come loose again. We had to reinstall it several times during the trigger time tests. We think we now have it in place and hope it stays there for its trip to the outdoors. The sample pictures show sharp and clear and the suspected sensing issue did not hinder the performance. In 80 plus degrees it was sensing a rabbit at 20 feet so maybe my early morning tests were not valid. The white out issue is still there and we got a few during the morning and afternoon testing. One of our previous tests on a 06 Cudde cam we found that the camera lens looked off to one side. Well, it happened again with this cam. With the camera properly set to watch the target area, its lens looked very low and we had to raise the bottom of the camera in order to keep the animals in the center of the picture. This was a minor adjustment but it shows that test pictures should be done prior to hanging it on a tree in order to know how to aim your camera. We are favorably impressed with this cams over all performance.

08-14-2007 update:  With a half a dozen cams in the mill this fellow got shelved and nearly forgotten. I was reviewing some of the reports and found that we needed to get on with this review so we pulled out another new M-60 from the box to put along side of this cam to maybe validate whether or not we had a problem on this cam. I need to also state that this last M-60 to come out of the box did not have any difficulties with any of the gaskets. This is on going and we should see the results on the comparison in a couple days. We are also in process of testing the M-40 at this time and feel that we may find that we will find the same comparison between these two cams as we did with the I-40 and I-60. We discovered a battery issue with the first M-60 and assume that is what was causing our difficulties. We will know more about this in the coming weeks.

08-22-2007 update:  With a new set of batteries and placed side by side with other I and M series cameras this camera still failed to sense the way the other cameras did. Most of the cameras were getting over 300 pictures and this cam only took 60 so we are very sure that this cam does have a sensing issue. I pulled it and got it off to its origin for a replacement. As soon as it comes in we will continue the test. We still have the other M-60 in the field and it seems to be doing very good.

09-22-2007 Moultrie Firmware (whiteout update) internet download review:  On one of the outdoor forums there was a comment about this new download to correct the whiteout issue. This fellow said “I hate to admit this but Moultrie did a good job putting this together”. Well, We do not hate but are glad and happy that this has finally been accomplished. It is obvious that these folks did their homework and put together a download that does work.

There was only a couple of minor issues worth mentioning about the whole process:  At one point, the instructions tell you to connect the USB cable and then copy files onto camera SD card. At this time they make no mention of the number of screens that must be clicked through in Windows XP to accomplish this while XP recognizes the new hardware.  These instructions are very precise and must be followed exactly to the letter. One small glitch occurred twice while we followed the instruction correctly.  This was when we activated the firmware level 1 update, we got the message "FILE NOT READY".  We got this message 2 to 3 times but just kept trying and it finally loaded the level 1 firmware correctly.

The overall process is 5 steps for the I series and 4 steps for M series. Step 3 has you download the firmware files from the Moultrie website onto your computer.  Steps 4 and 5 walk you through loading the firmware onto the camera and activating the "firmware update" process.  We found the process easy but make sure you follow the instructions exactly.

09-29-2007 update Moultrie whiteout upgrade M and I series:  This past year we have seen where companies have outsourced their production overseas are starting to see problems arise. The pre production units seem to work just fine but when the post production units start to hit the market there seems to be a margin of difficulties in function that the users are finding. We do not know that this is the case with the new I and M series Moultrie’s but it is suspected. When these cameras hit the market they seemed to be exactly what many folks were wanting. We really liked all models and still do but now that we have gotten deep into the testing we see that the original problems dealing with the whiteout issue has mushroomed into a new set of difficulties with these cameras. Most folks felt that it was more of a hardware issue dealing with the light sensor than a software issue. This may be true but Moultrie has attempted to correct this through a firmware upgrade. We have seen a degree of improvement with the I series but no change with the M series.  We cannot exactly duplicate the light conditions of the pre download, but we can get close. With the I series we see a definite improvement in amount of whiteout, but in this process this firmware update has created another problem. This problem is the lack of color pictures during good light conditions. It takes some pretty strong sunlight before this camera will switch to color. On an average we are seeing color pictures between 11 AM and 4 PM. During this period we see that the cameras will sometimes switch back and forth between monochrome and color. We have seen some reports that some folks feel that the picture quality has also been degraded somewhat. With our cameras we cannot state this because of the varying light conditions on the pre and post pictures. Moultrie engineers have done lots of work creating this download but we feel that it is still lacking and still has to be tweaked. The M series is a total disappointment and just has not been fixed. We are still getting more than 50% whiteout pictures. On one of our M-40’s it seemed to get worse after the download. What it has come down to is that both the I and M series cameras must be taken out from under the forest canopy and put in the bright sun in order to work properly. Reports that the trigger time was also affected has not been proven in our tests. We hope that Moultrie takes notice and does a little more work on these great cameras.

12-24-2007 update:  We have had a period of time waiting on the folks at Moultrie to formulate the level 2 update so we can proceed with this review. We have taken two M-60’s and upgraded both to level one update and then this week we took one of the cams and upgraded it to level 2 upgrade. They both have new batteries and are now side by side with identical settings to see if we can evaluate just how much better the level 2 upgrade performs over the one without the new level 2 upgrade. Should this work then we can say that we have our hands on a pretty fantastic cam. It will probably take a week to get the results but we feel that the long delay by Moultrie in getting this out means that they took their time and did it right.
 

01-05-2008 update:  With perfect sensing weather and a good chance to see just where we are at with the upgrade. The side by side test did show that the level 2 upgrade made a difference in the amount of whiteouts. We did still get a couple of those dreaded pictures, but only two compared to the unmodified camera which had many more. During this test we also stuck one of our M-40 alongside. This is an unmodified cam and the 40 series had a bunch of whiteouts also. The big difference was that the M-40 took more that twice as many pictures. We had corn piles at 5 ft. spaces and hoped to see just where each of these cameras lost its sensing. With the amount of tree rats and doves visiting the piles along with a pretty good herd of deer, we did not have a pile that did not have a critter on it. So our sensing test did not work. Once the piles are gone we will start out at 30 feet with a single pile and move in until the cameras start tp pick up the deer. This time of year I would think most cameras would be seeing the deer at 60 to 70 feet easily with these cold temperatures. Our gut feeling is that the upgrade firm ware does not affect the cameras sensing ability. We still want to prove this with more tests.

 

02-09-2008 update:  This has been a long drawn out test and after many days of side by side testing, we have concluded that the upgrade to the M series cameras have transformed these cameras into some real performers. Folks have to also realize that all this testing has been done during the cold months and we had no forest canopy to limit light to the cameras. We feel that once the trees begin to fill out in the spring the whiteout situation will slowly start to happen again but what we have seen so far this should be only on occasion and on gray days. On occasion we see some bad press on some forums about Moultrie, but this is mostly limited to customer service, which has slid down hill a little. This will pretty well conclude the review until we receive the new battery/panel configuration for testing. Then we feel that this camera with its already great battery life will be improved once again.    

03-16-2008 update:  This is the closure of this review. As with all its predecessors this camera still remains one of our favorites. We have basically punished this cam to the limit and it just stays out there and delivers. We are now waiting on the 08 cams to start a new year.

 

Trigger time with out flash (3 seconds)

Trigger time with flash (3 seconds)

Flash Tests

Sample Pictures

Low resolution

High Resolution

We noticed the occasional white out photo in the mornings and evenings:

Movie

Sample 1

 

Moultrie M-40 review 08-14-2007

We have been up to our necks with Moultrie cameras this past month. We first started with all the I series and then the M series. The higher end 60 cams were looked at and found to be some seriously fine cameras. Then we started to shift to the cheaper 40 cams and discovered that we were getting the same great performance just less some higher rez settings, view screen, and remote. All this with a much cheaper price. We compared the black case to the green case and feel that both will fit in the woods with the same amount of attention needed to conceal it from unwanted eyes. Just having a lower rez setting does not make this camera a weaker performer. It just means that you will have to deal with much smaller file sizes and have no problems Emailing a couple to your friends. The pictures are very good, both day and night. The color hue is more to the natural looking and does not have that orange look seen on some of the Cuddeback pictures. The I and M series all have the same method of programming and I laughed when I was reviewing one of the outdoor forums and seen where someone has said that “Moultries are so easy even a caveman could do it”. Please also remember not to tighten the strap to much when mounting this camera to the tree. This can result in the edge of the battery compartment being pulled open a little where water could enter the camera. We have a fix for this  by just using a small piece of wood cut from a 2X4. The down side of this is if you use this fix it prevents you from using the locking bar to secure your camera. The documentation is the same as the others and is understood easily and useful. My old v 232 GS 100 is still poking around and giving us some pretty great shots. When I first stuck that cam in the woods I thought that things could not get much better. Well time has stirred the production pot and it seems like everyone is hooked on this high MP cameras that pump out mega pictures. This camera can be turned down to 1.3 and believe me that is plenty and the pictures are just about anyone needs for scouting. In some cases where a picture is taken at a bad angle or light conditions cause a problem someone might find the need to do a zoom to try to figure out dome detail. These cases are normally rare and unless you are working for the national magazine and need that detail it not needed. We have the whole series of test to do to this camera so this is just the page one in a series of many.

Trigger time with out flash (2 seconds)

Trigger time with flash (3 seconds)

Flash Tests

Sample Pictures

Low resolution

High Resolution

Movie