Avoid Cuddeback - pics included in post!

[Chris175]

I bought the Cuddeback F2 camera for $99. I thought they had a good rep but boy was I wrong. I threw the box away before I tested the thing out (ok thats my bad but who knew). The night pics are terrible. It might as well not even take night pics. I emailed Mitch Radke from support and he is useless. He says thats how its supposed to work. I just wanted to warn off other hunters from making the same mistake as me. I know money is tight for a lot of us and I wasted $100 and didn't want some other poor sucker to fall in the same trap.

 

[bowhunter1023]

First, welcome to the forum. Secondly, sorry to hear you wasted money, but $100 cameras are not known for their quality and dependability. I agree Cuddeback has went downhil from their hay day, but you do get what you pay for, regardless of brand.

 

[MK111]

Welcome to the TOO forum. The pictures don't look all that bad for night from a 100.00 camera. Better cameras give a gray image.

 

[Boarhead]

Yea cuddeback has gone downhill.
Of course i always thought they sucked even their higher priced ones.
Didnt work half the time.

these are off a Brwning cam i got on sale for 100 dollars.

 

[reo]

$60 stealth cam

 

[reo]

Oh and thanks for the heads up and welcome to TOO

 

[Big_Holla]

Welcome! Great example of why you need to make sure you fill out your warranty stuff for these cheap cameras. One thing I can say is with all the problems I had with my Coverts over the last 3 years they always were quick to fix the problem and get me a new camera.

 

[brancher147]

It seems to me that all camera brands are becoming less dependable and the quality is going down, as are the prices. I believe the lower prices just means cheaper parts that break quicker. Cheaper prices also make people feel better about having to buy a new camera every year or so. I used to use cameras for scouting a lot and am getting more tired of it every year with the quality and consistency of cameras getting worse. I use a lot of cameras and different brands for work and have yet to find one that is "the best", they all have issues.

 

[Mike]

I'm still using a 5 year old Bushnell trophy cam and a 3 year old Moultrie. The Bushnell was infested with ants one year.

 

[DJK Frank 16]

Tough to find a nice one that has the features and reliability that we all expect unless you step up into the $2-3-400 range. I agree with you though, at first glance from my phone those night pictures are bad.

Welcome to the forum!

 

[OhioHunter88]

Ive said for awhile now that I would never buy cudde's again, have two that don't work and they wanted $100 to fix or $150 to upgrade cameras. I have a good bit of different brand cameras, my favorites are any I can get for around $50 which are typically wildgames. Cheap camera, quality isn't horrible, trigger is slow but place them wisely and you'll be fine, best part is I can afford to run lots of different cams instead of having 2 $400 cams.

 

[NAC1989]

For cams under $100 I wouldn't hesitate a minute to buy the base model covert.

 

[Dustinb80]

Yea cuddeback has gone downhill.
Of course i always thought they sucked even their higher priced ones.
Didnt work half the time.

View attachment 37299View attachment 37300these are off a Brwning cam i got on sale for 100 dollars.

You growing queer deer Brian?

 

[mossbergbryson]

I

I've gotten some decent pictures from my $40 wildgame camera. Took a shot in the dark on it and I'm happy

 

[rsmith]

After having 1 moultrie m80xt for 3 years now that takes about 200 30 second videos or 1500 pics a week and never have it fail I have faith in Moultrie cams. I bought an 550 series and that works flawless too. I only run energizer ultimate lithium batteries though because they last so much longer and also perform much better than the regular batteries imho.

 

[Bigcountry40]

Welcome, I am a cheap camera owner also, mainly because I am not a big camera users (several reasons- theft, risk of pushing deer in small woods, time, idea of not knowing what your hunting also excites me ). I typically research the crap out of cheap camera's by looking at reviews. My camera was $60 it takes night shots okay. If I were you I would just research for a couple of hours and look at internet reveiws, if your going to continue to buy cheap cameras like myself. Mine is currently sitting in my truck as we speak LOL.

 

[Bigcountry40]

IView attachment 37318

I've gotten some decent pictures from my $40 wildgame camera. Took a shot in the dark on it and I'm happy

How far out does it take pics, mine only has about 6-7 yards at the most.

 

[mossbergbryson]

I really couldn't say. I've only put it up in one spot and all my pictures are of deer on my bait pile at about 5 yards

 

[DandaMan]

What kind of batteries are you using? My reconyx 600 takes terrible pictures at night if I don't have high quality batteries in it.

 

[RedCloud]

Sorry to hear about the cam. Looks like some of the IR lights are blocked by leaves or they are not working for some reason.

Camofire had some RX36 stealth cams on sale the other day for $82 you might want to check out.