Thursday, July 31, 2014

Stealth Cam G26NG Review

We purchased a Stealth Cam Model G26NG from Sam's Club on July 31, 2014.  This blog post will serve as a place for the review of this unit.  We will continue adding photos and narrative regarding the unit as the review process evolves.

Sam's sells "game cameras" each summer as a "seasonal item."  The cameras are usually placed on an end cap near other hunting-related items in Sam's pseudo-sporting goods department.  This summer, we noted the cameras shortly after July 4th.  We almost missed out on this camera as the inventory shrunk by about 2/3rds between early and late July.
Originally, the supply of this particular game cameras filled an entire end cap and spanned two pallets!

After getting the unit home, we used an X-acto knife to carefully and surgically cut open the stubborn blister pack material.  By using this technique to extract the camera unit, we keep the packaging looking pristine and "resalable" in case we need to return the unit within the 90-day window.
 Above, the X-acto cuts have already been made but appear almost invisible in this photo.  Below, the camera comes right out and the blister pack remains intact.  Under no circumstances will we use the included batteries, SD card or strap.  By leaving those accessories intact in their packaging, it's easy to make a case that we would be returning the camera unused should the need arise.  Hopefully, we can find the manual online and no have to extract and unfold the included manual.
Below you can see the camera in its first "state-of-inspection."  The first thing we noticed and disliked is there appears to be no protection for the lens.  The LED lights are behind some protection but not the lens, as you can easily see by the second photo below.
Once we find 8 AA batteries and one of our many spare SD cards, this review process will continue.  Stay tuned.

The manual for this model is located here:

http://www.gsmoutdoors.com/downloads/61/stealth-cam-2013-2014-manuals/  It's 5.5 megs and a very fast download in PDF format.  There's 20-something pages of info in the manual.  The rest of the manual appears to be in one or more foreign languages.

1 comment:

  1. We have had our first questions to incorporate into this review process.

    "If you do any experiments with it, I would be very curious about how it does with moving subjects in low-light. Most of my wildlife encounters occur in early morning or late afternoon/early evening, when shadows are long and the light is dusky, especially elk, dear, and some semi-nocturnals. Critters moving around my land or on nearby trails would probably occur during these times too. I am curious as to just how well it really does is probably the next wondering I have. Regardless of that, it would not be a pro quality I'm sure, BUT at least it would help me find patterns in animal movements and positions."

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