Wildgame innovations. 

  Lightsout Game Camera

 

 Well, I have bad news… I want to first say that I do like wild game innovations products, may be not all of them but I do like them. Some things I find gimmicky but mostly I dig'em. I would like to try the new 360° camera, if that thing works like I hope I’ll be giddy. It’s kind of a pain having to look at several cameras facing different directions to get what’s going on behind the camera. I know there has been at least two, may be three sasquatches walk behind my camera laughing at me.     The Punks…

 

 And back to the bad news… well I had to take the camera back to Cabela's. It was not working right. The video was split and jumpy. The RGB was not aligning up well at all. It was like a really old TV picture with color miss alignment. It mainly happened when in video mode. Sometimes the video would show movement but jump back to where it started and then jumped back several times a second, almost like a loop. It was weird. As for the pictures quality was kind of dark. I put another camera right underneath it to see how it picked up movement compared to one I know worked. …and it wasn’t good.    Many nights it wouldn’t pick up anything at all and the other would.  I do chalk that up to whatever was wrong with the thing. 

 I did manage to get a few photos, one at night, at dusk, and during the day. So you can see how it did. The day time pic is pretty good but the night time was just ok. The pictures I got were not in the woods but out by an old house… Sorry

 

  I had been looking at cameras with a screen on them and thought that it would be cool to see your pictures right there on the camera. Instead of having to take the card out, take back to camp, boot up your computer, which takes forever (thank you windows) and then seeing what you captured.     Well,…I found out something, I don’t like viewing pictures on the camera.... for several reasons.

 

 - 1. You really can see anything. The screen is to small

 - 2. You are spending way too much time at the scene.  If you are hanging around a        lot, It puts unnecessary pressure on the animal.

 - 3. If the camera is at eye level you are ok, but sometimes the camera is in a

       weird spot and can be difficult to view. Not to mention direct sunlight. You              don't check cameras in the morning or late evening. You check them in the heat

       of the day when deer are beded down. A part of the day where viewing in

       direct sunlight is a high possiblity

 - 4. The screen can be broken since it's exposed to the elements.

 - 5. Took me more time going through the menu to set up options. (That’s probably

       more of a personal issue than anything.

 - 6. and finlly... ITS COLD OUT THERE THAT TIME OF YEAR.

 

 So pretty much after I set it up I found myself just retrieving the card and replacing it with a new one. And speaking of the card… This may be also bevdue to it not working properly. After it took the pictures and you delete the pic off if the card. The space the pictures and video took up would not clear off. So if you filled the card up and deleted all the videos and photos, the card would still say full. It would show up as 0 files on both the computer and camera but still no room. I would end up having to use my computer to format the card, every time. So if I were out in the woods without computer, I would have been out of luck and ticked off!

 

As for the screen controls… again this may be because something was wrong with the thing, but the graphics on some screens were skewed. Which I am more than happy to look past, as long as the thing works well.

 

  It did however seem to be built well. When you hold it, it feels sturdy and tough, even had some weight to it without batteries. Be prepaired to spend some money on batteries, that thing holds a whopping 12. My guess is because of the extra power needed for the screen. Unfortunatly I was not able to use it long enough to know for sure on battery life.

 

 It does have a pretty cool test function. Since the LED’s are blacked out you can’t really see if it’s taking a picture or not. There is a red LED on the front that will flash when it picks up movement. At first I was not happy with a LED flashing on the front when it picked up movement. I was like oh great the camera will attract attention and animals will jack with it. But as always… RTM (read the manual *clean version), the LED stops flashing in at about a minute.

 

 

 Now to what I really didn’t like…

 

  I guess where they make these the trees are skinny. It comes with two bungee straps with hooks on the end and they do not extend vary far,

 

        ...AT ALL!

 

 It was a struggle just to use it on a young tree in the yard. If they would’ve given you the option to use ratchet or pull straps I would have been good with that, but you can’t.

 

May be you can find something with tiny hooks or possibly make some, - 

      good luck with that.

 

  Manufactures, think about it. Were hunters, with weapons, in the woods, hopefully far from civilization, do we want to be limited to where we can put a camera? Unless you want to see how your camera holds up to a bullet or an arrow. Maybe a little tenorite? (Ticked off hunters do things like that.) Might want to think about that.

 

 

So all in all it comes down to..

   -Build quality seems to be tough (With some exceptions)

   -Appears to have quality materials  (Didn't have it long enough to know for sure)

   -Broken camera

   -The screen is Ehh

   -The bungee’s suck

   -No strap options

   -A lot of batteries 

   -Latch on the bottom looks weak

 

And as always these are my opinions, you may very well like the camera.  

I may have... if it wasnt broke       

 

   Oh, I forgot to mention. Cabela's took back camera with no problems, even though it was ordered in. I figured I would have to give a big explainationg to why I am returning it and them making me take it up with the manufacture to claim warranty, but they didn't.  

 

      Kudos to Cabela's.... Kudos