After two weeks out at one of my local hunting spots I finally got back to check on the status of my new Cuddeback Capture. I was a little bit let down to see there was only about 10 photos on the camera over that period of time. For some reason this particular area of the farm has been relatively void of deer traffic most of the summer. I'm sure there's a variety of reasons for this including the current crop rotation, but I'm hoping it picks up once October comes. There is usually a really good scrape line that opens up nearby where I plan on really putting this camera through it's paces
In any case, the photos turned out pretty much how I expected them to. The quality is okay, but nothing great. Night time photos are still a little bit grainy and some of the daytime photos are a bit washed out but there's nothing that drastically wrong with them. They're definitely a little better than the photos from my Cuddeback Excite, but not quite as crisp and clear as photos from my Moultrie I40.
Trigger speed and sensitivity appear to be on par with the other Cuddeback units I've tested - which is very good. I had several photos of deer that were a good distance off, some to the point where they could barely been seen, and the camera triggered without a hitch. On some of the closer shots the Capture was able to snap a photo of the entire deer before it got out of the viewing window so I didn't have any cutoff heads or butts either.
Flash Range on the Capture seems to be good as well. The forest still has a thick canopy of leaves and there's not much light reaching the camera so most of the photos were taken with flash even during the middle of the day. Although these deer weren't too far away, you certainly don't have a problem seeing them! The photos that didn't use flash were taken during mid-day when the sun was at it's highest point.
All in all, the Cuddeback Capture is shaping up to be a good camera. I will have to get a bunch more photos on it before I can see how the batteries are going to hold up but so far so good. For a $200 trail camera it takes good enough photos and the ease of use is a huge benefit to this unit. I don't think it took me more than a minute to open it up, replace the memory card, reactivate it, and be on my way. When the Capture IR comes out it will be interesting to see how it fairs against the Moultrie I-40. So far the I-40 has been rock solid and for virtually the same price it could be a toss-up between the two. The Capture certainly wins in ease of use and size, but the I-40 takes much better photos and has a really good IR flash range.
