Question about Moultrie Game Spy 200

[bucknugen]

I recently bought a Moultrie Game Spy 200 and put it out by my stand. For the first week or so, I got some good shots. Then I noticed I wasn't getting any. I noticed that it would only take a picture after walking by it two times within a 30 second period. After walking by it the first time a small black box appears on the screen and then after walking by it a second time, it will take the picture. Is this how the camera is supposed to work?

[BuckMaster]

Not sure about the small black box...but I have a Moultrie Game Spy 100 and have had the same prob with it taking a long time to take a pic. I will walk by it a few times and it does NOTHING! I have to stick my face in it for it to go off! I think the sensor might suck....need to do some more research on it

[bucknugen]

For me, I don't think it is a bad sensor. This is because the black box always appears after the first time I walk by it and then the second time I walk by it, it always takes the picture. I called Moultrie and after I fianlly got through, the guy said it was not intended to be a trail cam (even though their website calls it a trail cam) and that it is a heat sensor not motion. I do not believe it is heat sensor because it only takes a picture after walking through the line of sight two times. I think I might return the camera.

[Bartman]

Check your battery. When it gets cold the Moultrie's will eat up a battery quick. If it is below 90% I take the battery out and recharge it. You can get the rechargeables at Wal-mart for about $9 and the charger for about the same.

[mzsport700]

The moultrie gamespy 100 and 200 suck. I had a gamespy 100 I bought at Bass pro in september 2005. I put it in the woods over a cornpile with a 256MB SD card and a fully charged sealed lead acid 5AH rechargeable battery. I left it for 10 days before checking it. I only had 6 pictures from the first 2 days. It did not take my picture when I walked up to it. I left it there with another 256MB SD card and fully charged battery. I got the same results every time I went to check it. No pictures after 2 or 3 days.
I also noticed it would never take a picture until the second time it sensed motion in a short period. When I called Moultrie they said it is designed that way to cut down on false triggers. They said send it back and they will reprogram the code to change that. They said this new code will also help lengthen battery life.
After getting it back I did some testing at home. The fully charged battery never lasted more than 9 days, much less when it was cold out.
The real problem was it would it would just randomly "lock-up". I could walk by it 20 times a few steps from it and never get it to trigger. If I power cycled it it would work normal for another 2 or 3 days and then just "lock-up" again.
I called again and they said send it back again.
I got it back and still had the same "lock-up" problem and short battery life.

Bass pro let me return it for a store credit, which I used toward a Gamespy 200. I figured I already had batteries and cards that would work in it and it was only $70 more.
I never got to put it in the woods. I tested it at home for a few weeks. The trigger sucked. Sometimes I had to walk by it 10 times before it triggered. Sometimes I had to get within 5 feet for it to trigger. The battery was lasting less than a week.
I returned it and got my money back.

I just saw that Bass pro now has the Gamespy 100 on sale for $70. Thats about $69.99 to much. Its worthless if you dont get pictures.

I have a Cuddeback that takes great pictures but is very expensive and hard to work with.
I have 2 Leaf river cameras, a DC2BU and a DC1BU. The DC2BU has been great. The DC1BU has had problems with washed out nighttime pictures and flash card errors. It is back at leafriver for the second time now. I asked them to replace it.

I also have 3 Game cameras I Assembled myself using Pixcontroller boards and actual older Olympus digital cameras. These work great and cost about $100 to build plus the cost of the camera. The cameras go for about $30 to $50 on ebay.
Check out this website for info on the Pixcontroller board:
www.pixcontroller.com/

[mzsport700]

Check out the topic "big boy club" in this forum, the first 2 pics are from the camera I assembled. It is using an olypmus D460Z camera and a pixcontroller universal RS232 board. The third is from the cuddeback.

[THE DEER HUNTER]

Those are Nice PICS!! I have a moultree cam I bought from Wal-Mart for about $90. Not sure the model, but the thing doesn't work very well. It turns off when it wants to, doesn't always go off, and after 1 use, I had to rig the thing to make it accept my SD card- they kept popping out.

[BuckMaster]

Now I can see that it isn't just my cam that sucks....I have had the same problem with having to walk by a few times before it would take a pic. Now I know why those cuddle backs are sooooo expensive.

[ohiohunter]

well i thank i mite try to build one hope it is easy to do


do u have any pics of or cams to see in side?

[mzsport700]

All 7 of my cameras are still in the woods but I think I have some pictures of one I assembled. I will check when I get home and try to post one tomorrow. They are not hard to assemble. You will need to be able to solder and it takes some time to measure and mount the board correctly. All 3 of the ones I assembled are a little different because they are using different model cameras and I learned from mistakes as I went.
The pixcontroller website has very good step by step instructions with pictures. Some model cameras need to be modified with wires soldered to them but some of the older RS232 style cameras you can use the port on the side without modifying the camera.

[JARHEAD]

SO what you are saying is that these dam camrea are crap? I got one last yr as a gift and have neve even take it out of the box. I got a Steath Cam 2.0. So does anybody have good things to say about this one? Or should I just throw the dang thing away. I would like to get the deer around corn pile.

[mzsport700]

I am saying I think the moultrie 100 and 200 are junk. If you have one of them new in the box I say sell it on ebay and put the money toward a different camera or build one.

I have an older stealthcam model DIGXRC that works fine as long as you use an external battery. The internal 6AA's only last about a week. It did quit working (no power) last year but stealthcam sent me a replacement with no questions. The 256MB compactflash card holds hundreds of pictures and the trigger and flash work good. Picture quality is good for a 2 year old model.

I have read good things about the Stealthcam STC-WD2, is that what you have?

[ohiohunter]

my dad had a moultrie 100 it would takes pics at night they are wast of time i use a old moultrie 35 mm film it is about 4 years old

[Bartman]

All 3 of my Moultrie's work fine. You guys are making me nervous though. There was this website that evaluated each of the camera's on the market. I think it was www.chasinggame.com. They had a nice objective evaluation of each camera.

[mzsport700]

Bartman,

I am not trying to be a smartazz, but how do you know they work fine?
The one I had took nice pictures and I got a few nice pics of good bucks. The problem is that they had to be within a few steps of the camera and hang around for awhile. There are many times I watched deer walk right past this camera and it did not trigger. Most of the time it did not even trigger when I walked up to it to get the card.
Even if you are getting pictures, how many are you missing that another camera would have got?
How long do your batteries last? What type are you using?
I used rechargeable lantern style batteries and usually got less than a week.

Maybe you got good ones.