I don't use trail cams, I am going to start next year. But I would never pay more than $250 for a trail cam. I could get a very nice bow for that,or gun ,or plenty of tree stands and other gear. So far I've been successful in taking deer with out a trail cam .
Good luck and have a great season everybody.

$650.00?
It's unreasonable especially in todays economy!

I would rather spend $89.00, and get several trail-cams, and have the knowledge of what the deer are doing on other parts of the property.

A pretty picture is just that ... a pretty picture. I'll sacrifice pretty, for multiple pictures of deer, taken in multiple locations, that gives me multiple tid-bits of knowledge,that forms the bigger picture.

One camera, equals only one part of the puzzle,think about what you may be missing on other parts of your farm,or perhaps on a different farm that you could be using a second camera.

Another difference is,if it gets stolen, a $650.00 camera,that will probably make me cry,when my wife decides to clobber me over my dense head, in making such an outlandish purchase.

Multiple cameras equals more knowledge.

Knowledge is King!

Hey Evan....Nice to see a fellow West Virginian on here as well...Same Outsider as you know from other Message Boards, lol

I guess if I was a guide and made my living hunting game animals the $650 would be a good investment.

I use my current trail camera more as a hobby then a scouting device. As I have stated on here before. A good pair of boots and a good pair of binos is what I use for scouting. For me the $650 is better spent elsewhere.

While I understand the efficacy of trail cameras, I find spending hundreds of dollars to be ridiculous. Even more disturbing is our increasing and seemingly inexhaustible trend toward utilizing technology as a replacement of woodsmanship. While its a commentary on our society's affinity for the latest and greatest gadget, its and even greater indictment of our fast paced lifestyles that deter us from actually spending time in the woods/sagebrush/river bottoms/etc.

/my two cent rant

We use a variety of different cameras on our central Kentucky farm. I think it depends on what your usage of the camera will be as to how much you spend on it. The vast majority of our cameras are the $88.00 Remington 6 megapixel w/ micro sd cards. They are cheap and work very well for our bi-annual census. And in order to do a census correctly you need 1 camera per 100 acres, so for our farm it takes 12 cameras. I would hate to spend $7800 to get it done with that brand of camera.
We do have a cuddeback that we will use to get fine details of animals that are frequenting certain areas. While the cameras are a great scouting tool,I, like others prefer to use my feet and my zeiss 10 x50 's.

I would not even consider spending $650 on a cam, but I did spend $175 on a Cuddeback this spring and I had a hard time spending that much.

I agree with everyone else, $650 is outrageous for a camera your gonna strap to a tree/post and leave in the weather. I don't understand why they even try to push ones that expensive? How many people actually buy them at that cost? Sad thing is I've seen some cost alot more than that! Don't know about everyone else but I don't have $650 to toss at a trail cam, even if I did I WOULDN'T!

If you are going to scent up the area you might as well have confidence in your equipment. And Reconyx work better than any other hands down!

I think a hunter really needs to decide if he wants to use the trail camera or not. A lot of people buy them and don't end up using them. There is a lot more time involved setting them up and taking care of pictures than most people realize.

I think I would look for a used RECONYX for a little less of that price. That is a lot of money to be spending on a trail camera. Especially just one trail camera.