Hawkray Mini Trail Camera

I really love these little cameras, I have 3 of them currently and will be ordering 3 or 4 more this week.I have them out on my back property, just to see what's out there since so much of the wildlife is elusive for my photography camera, I've had my 3 for a couple years now and they've proven to be sturdy and reliable and have outperformed the Moultrie and GardePro cams I have as far as not missing things.They're small and easily portable, but at the cost of only having 4 batteries vs 8, and I don't know what their maximum card size is but I've been sticking to the 32gb like they came with. Definitely not the cam to set and forget for months on end, and it can take some trial and error to find a happy spot for one where it won't fill fast with wind clips, but I currently have mine set for 15 second video clips and check them at least twice a week to swap in fresh cards and just carry a handful of batteries in case one is getting low (night videos will be cut short or not taken if the battery level is below 1 bar)Another minor con is that they record in .AVI video format and not MP4, but the free online converter is quick and easy and I just run whatever clips I'm keeping through it while I'm going through each card.Overall I really enjoy these cameras and have recommended them to many as a great economical way to get into trail cams, even if I upgrade to fancy cellular cams I'll still keep these on hand but I enjoy my short hikes to see what's showed up on the cards that week.

I chose this trail cam after weeks of reading reviews. Glad I did! I have had this trail cam for 2 1/2 yrs. I've recorded mice, rats, skunks, groundhogs, birds, cats, etc in my backyard. Its so much fun! I'm still using the original batteries. Works great in all New England weather. Crisp pictures day or night! Video feature is great too! Nothing negative to say about this product. Recommended!!

The media could not be loaded. Camera being used on the East Coast of North Carolina. Between 20 degrees and 95 degrees throughout the time I had the camera(s) in the field. I have had two on these cameras for two seasons in the field, and I just bought two more this year because I was so satisfied.Bottom line up front: solid camera, would recommend to any hunter of any skill level who wants a good camera at a low price.The good:-Easy to use, and ready to stick to a tree right after opening the box (memory card, strap, batteries in box).-Easy to set up, I was impressed by the amount of settings the camera has for such a low price.-Screen on the back and buttons are relatively easy to use, allows you to check really quick for game if you want to look before going into the stand. Easy to identify big game on the small screen on the camera itself.-Camera has good reaction speed when the sensor picks something up. Decent field of view as well.-Camera picks up small movements easily. Got every critter that came across it small and large. Watch out for branches or grass that blows in the wind, it’ll trigger the sensor easily.-Good clean images on still and video modes (when put onto computer or SD card reader). Some other reviews said the images weren't great, I'm confident that they didn't adjust the camera (in settings mode) to a higher image setting (It's easy to change the settings on the camera to higher image quality that you can see on your computer) OR they are only talking about the images on the small screen on the camera. The images are a little hard to see on the screen on the camera but honestly, I think it’s pretty solid for such a small screen on an inexpensive camera. I could still identify big game animals quickly on the small screen.-Great customer service, I had one camera malfunction and take videos that were skipping. They sent me a message telling me how to fix it. After that didn’t work they sent me a brand new camera! They didn’t even make me send the old one back!(don’t be perturbed by the length of the bad comments, it’s just explaining context)The bad:-Temperature read on the camera: if its picturing and videoing critters for a long time (deer hanging out in front of the camera for 10 minutes) the temperature allegedly increases [gradually]10 degrees hotter.-The sensor picks up a wider field of view than the camera can see. I had a lot of videos of nothing, I looked at the left and right sides of the image and I could see a deer leg or an ear poke out really quick half way through the video. It seems like it's triggering the video, and you may get lucky and see a tiny piece of the animal while it's filming.-If a critter is hanging out in front of the camera for a while, it'll intermittently start filming again after the initial video. The bear video I posted cut at 20 seconds (I set the camera to 20 seconds of video). The bear made a big movement left and didn't pick it up for 10 seconds. Because of this I missed the imagery of a full broadside look at the animal (it made a broadside movement perfectly in front of the camera but it wasn't filming). The camera and video turned back on when he was walking out of frame on the other side of the cameras view. But, when filming a deer there was only a 2-3 second gap between the camera starting pictures and video again.-The infrared light on it is a little too bright. I thought so when I was testing it out at home. I had deer and raccoons look strait at the camera when it started filming. I’m pretty sure the light is getting their attention. Luckily for me it didn’t scare anything away. But, it could be an issue for other animals in other regions.For the price it’s perfect though. I love the video and imagine quality. I get a lot of situational awareness on the game in a given area. And I share a lot of the videos with family and friends who run the big expensive cameras who ask me where to get a camera like this.

I recently purchased three of these trail cameras, hoping to monitor activity in different areas of my property. Unfortunately, one of them didn't even turn on out of the box, so I had to return it. The setup seemed straightforward at first and formatting the SD card was easy.However, the instructions were printed in tiny font and didn't align well with the camera's digital menu, making it challenging to configure the settings properly. Despite numerous attempts, I couldn't get the camera to function as desired. I wanted it to capture pictures of animals passing within 15 to 20 feet, but it either failed to activate or started recording too late, missing the target.Furthermore, the night pictures were disappointingly bright, rendering them practically useless for surveillance. Even though the listing claimed a 0.2-second motion activation time, the box and instructions stated otherwise, which added to the confusion. Overall, unless you're monitoring wildlife or subjects lingering in the camera's view for several seconds, I wouldn't recommend this camera.Update; after about a month of use, all three cameras, I ordered have stopped working, no matter what I do they won’t take a picture, and nothing has changed in my use of them, but they will not take a picture anymore, disappointed, the quality of these cameras is not even worth five bucks each. Going to try and get my money back because this is unacceptable.