Technology plays a bigger role in our lives than ever before, and that is not excluding the hunting & outdoor industry. For years now, and ever since trail cameras have been affordable, my dad an I have run Wildgame Innovations Trail Cameras on our hunting leases and properties. Not because we thought they were the best brand or because we had a sponsorship, but because they were a reasonable camera for the price. We’re blue collar outdoorsmen, and price does play a factor.

This year, we were very fortunate to acquire a piece of property in North Texas, totaling just over 800 acres in untouched whitetail country. If you would like to learn more about what we have done to prepare the property for hunting, I encourage you to check out our YouTube series, “Texas Dirt”. All this is to say, with it being 2 hours away from my house, I wanted to get more real-time updates as a part of our recon and scouting efforts.

Several of our own staffers and other contacts I’ve made through the industry encouraged me to look at SpyPoint Cameras. I was familiar with the brand, and we pulled the trigger on 4 new Link-Micro Cellular Cameras. These cameras are super lightweight, compact, and easy to setup. I’ve had these cameras in the woods for over 6 weeks now, giving me a solid opinion of the product.

SETUP

Several hunters told me to ensure my camera’s firmware was up to date, and my memory cards had been formatted before leaving the house. This is a must. Even better, SpyPoint has instructional videos over how to do this to your camera and cards whether you are an Apple or Windows user. Ensuring the firmware is up to date, and the cards formatted was much easier than I anticipated.

Activating the cameras in incredibly easy. You can do it from the SpyPoint website in your browser. They also have a very user-friendly app you can utilize to manage your cameras and look at photos. For activating your cameras, simply follow the directions provided to you in the package.

INSTALLATION

The cameras went up very easy. The strap that is included with each camera is very easy to use, and allows you to tighten it down much tighter than most of the little bungie cords I’ve used previously. Between 4 cameras, Ive secured the strap around anything from a 14-inch diameter tree, to a 2-in diameter tree (see photo). A lot of folks might say a trail cam shouldn’t be on a tree that small. Understand, that tree was the only option for camera placement for that spot, and that was a concern of mine, yet I did it anyway. I was worried about getting too many pictures from the tree blowing in the wind. I was surprised when that was not the case.

When you turn on the device, a light will indicate when you camera is ready to go, and has detected cell service. The color of the light indicates how strong the service is. You can also look at each camera’s signal strength through the app. We are fortunate and have good cell service through most of the property, and signal strength has yet to be an issue. I know several individuals who have had issues with cell service, and they simply purchased an after-market booster off on amazon for a few dollars, and their problem was solved.

The camera will send you an initial photo as soon as it is activated. After that, you can control how often you receive photos from your online app.

PHOTO QUALITY

The Link-Micro does not have the best trail cam photo quality you will find. You can upgrade your plan through the app to receive some HD photos, but I have not done that. Some photos may appear grainy, but I have yet to receive a photo that wouldn’t at least tell me what kind of animal it was, how big they were, and what time they are coming in. In the end, that’s all you need, right?

SETTINGS

SpyPoint offers a lot of different settings for each individual camera, such as how often it transmits photos, how many photos to transmit per month, how frequently it takes photos, etc. Currently I have all my cameras set up to transmit to me once a day at noon. You can set it up to transmit multiple times per day, or even every time it takes a photo. The reason I haven’t done that is because it drains the battery faster. If you have a solar camera, this shouldn’t be a concern.

I left mine on the 10 second photo incriminate setting. Yes, I do receive a lot of photos, but my concern with upping to 30 seconds or 1 minute was that I might miss something passing through.

Currently all my cameras are on the unlimited plan when it comes to photo transmission. This is a service you pay for monthly, or annually. I chose monthly, this way I can downgrade during the offseason when I don’t need as many photos. During the season, I am happy to pay the few dollars to ensure I know what is happening in the woods. It is very easy to upgrade or change plans from month to month. If you join their insider’s club, the plans are cheaper.

SAVE MONEY

If you enter a referral code when you activate your camera, SpyPoint will give you your choice of future purchase credits, or “SPYDOLLARS” which you can use for your photo transmission plans. If you are interested in saving money, you can put in sam@fallobsession.com as your referral code upon activation.

CONCLUSION

Overall, I have been very pleased with these cameras for the price. They are some of the most inexpensive cell cameras you will find on the market, and worth the money in my opinion. I plan on buying more of them in future seasons, and gradually phasing out my card pull cameras.

I hope you found this review useful! If you have any additional questions, please feel free to reach out on any of our Fall Obsession social media platforms.

Happy Hunting!

-Sam Thrash, Fall Obsession CEO