Trail Camera Reviews, Guides, Hints and Tips (2021)

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Rob Johnston

Editor & Article Writer for Outdoor Wilds

Trail Camera Reviews - Guides - Hints & Tips

The aim of this page is to bring together all my current trail camera reviews, guides and tips to help you find the relevant information you’re looking for in regards to trail game cameras.

How to Choose a Trail Camera

There are many variants of trail camera to choose from. Although almost all cameras fall into at least one of the basic categories below.

Cellular trail cameras
Bluetooth trail cameras
Wireless trail cameras
Budget trail cameras
Wildlife trail cameras
Home security game cameras
4k trail cameras
Best trail cameras [1]

Of course there is some overlap between the different categories, for example a cellular trail camera has many uses, from home security, deer scouting to wildlife observation.

There is no perfect trail camera. Some cameras are better suited to certain environments and set ups than others.

I’ll quickly go through and explain what each of the main categories are and their strengths and weaknesses.

Trail Camera Beginners Buying Guide

Now that I’ve broken down the different types of trail cameras into a number of categories. Have a read through and decide roughly the main aim you have for the trail camera.

As mentioned previously, there is going to be some overlap between the types of categories. Click on the blue text links to direct you towards one of my articles that is specifically written to help with choosing a trail camera in that particular category.

Cellular Trail Cameras

As the name in the heading suggests these cameras connect to a cellular network and send pictures to your phone.

If you click on the link directly above, it will take you to an article that has a number of cellular trail cameras reviewed, plus a short guide on what to look for in a quality cellular trail cam.

Cellular cameras are designed to send pictures and in some cases video clips recorded on the cameras SD card to a smartphone using either a 3G or 4G cellular network.

Their main use is for scouting deer prior to the season so as to understand deer movement and behaviour patterns.

The biggest advantage is they provide almost instant feedback of deer activity from the trail camera set remotely in the forest. You can download the pictures onto your phone or laptop while sat at home.

The downside is the cost. They’re not cheep to buy, so you have the initial outlay of the camera, plus a data plan from Verizon or AT&T to pay each month.

Data Plans

Data plans usually start at around $10 per month and go up to $50 for the premium packages.

Home Security

Cellular cameras are also well suited for use as a home security camera.

If you have a large property covertly placing a camera at key locations such as boundaries or entrances can provide evidence of human activity in the area.

Bluetooth and Wireless Trail Cameras

This type of trail cameras can sometimes cause great confusion. First off, These cameras will NOT send pictures to your phone using a cellular network.

The term “Wireless” is a generic term that simply means the sending of pictures recorded by the trail camera to a smartphone without the need to physically touch the trail camera.

They rely on connecting to your phone either via Bluetooth or WiFi. To have a better understanding on the subject, have a read of my “Understanding Different types of wireless trail camera

The advantages of wireless Bluetooth or WiFi connectivity to your phone is that you don’t have to physically touch the trail camera to download pictures and video.

Smartphone Apps

Viewing images recorded by the trail camera is all done through a free downloadable app.

Once you have selected the images you wish to view using the browsing feature inside the app, it’s just a matter of downloading to your phones internal storage and viewing locally on your phone.

Disadvantages to Wireless Trail Cameras

The disadvantage to these types of wireless trail cameras is range. Bluetooth and WiFi range is limited to 60 – 100 feet in most cases.

Check out my post on Bluetooth trail cameras for more information.

The Campark T80 is a great WiFi trail camera which I reviewed after a lengthy “hands on” testing.

Budget Trail Cameras

Trail cameras have come a long way in the last several years. Today, there’s little difference in terms of picture and video quality between a camera that costs $50 compared to a trail cam costing a couple of hundred dollars.

Of course the more expensive camera will use bigger image sensors with more megapixels, but you’d have to look carefully at both images side by side to see the difference.

The point is, don’t be put off by the term “budget”. There’s some great budget trail cameras to choose from in the year 2021.

If you’re starting out in trail cameras then it makes sense to look at a low cost camera.

Campark are one of the leaders in cheap trail cameras, so I’d suggest taking a look at some of their cams.

Deer Scouting

Deer scouting can require the use of a lot of game cameras. Sometimes well over a dozen cameras are used.

In this instance a solid performing budget trail camera bought either in a package deal or multiple single cameras can save a lot of money.

Wildlife Garden Cameras

Wildlife garden cameras is a pretty generic term to be fair when it comes to trail cameras. Any trail camera can be used to record images of wildlife in a garden or backyard.

I would suggest not to break the bank here as a lot of high end features are not required for this type of wildlife recording. Click on the link above to see some of my suggestions for recording wildlife in your backyard.

4K Trail Cameras

4K trail cameras record some of the highest quality still pictures and video compared to HD cameras.

Although they have much higher megapixel images they are still not native 4k video resoultion.

Trail Cameras Guides, Hints & Tips

People tend to ask a lot of the same questions regarding trail cameras. Below is a list of articles that link to posts on each topic which I hope will help solve any problems you have with your camera.