Intro: I tried a fairly inexpensive game camera, and found the camera would only activate at distances of 6 feet or less. In checking reviews of many cameras, I found other hunters to have this same problem. So I took the camera back. And, even if the camera worked properly, I did not like was the fact that the camera only took photos fairly close by and you really did not know, for sure, what direction the deer approached from. Then I heard about "day cameras". These are cameras that take photos all day long at preset intervals. There were two such cameras that seemed to be fairly affordable and reliable: The PlotWatcher at about $135 and the DPS Truth Cam by Primos at about $85. Also, the PlotWatcher PRO, at $220 has the most features and offers the best battery features, but I was was not ready to spend that kind of money. Since the DPS Truth Camera was a bit less expensive, I went with the DPS unit. Man, I am glad I bought this camera!
The Primos DPS Truth Camera is everything it claims to be, and the price did not leave too big a dent in my wallet. Here are my observations:
When set to 20 seconds between photos, and entire days worth of photos can be viewed in a few minutes. It is like watching a movie. You watch it until you see a deer or other animal show up. Then you can stop and advance frame by frame. See video below.
You can zoom in very easily. Granted, the photo is not crystal clear if the animal is a ways off, but you can tell if it is a doe or a buck. See the zoom in video below.
You can quickly advance to the end of the day by advancing the slider in the playback. A video below shows this process.
At close range, the photo quality is pretty decent. See a photo of a bird near the camera at the bottom of this page.
The camera starts taking photos at about sunrise and stops taking photos at about 1/2 hour after sunset if it is set up in an un shaded open area.
There is a "midday skip" option that allows you to skip hours from 10AM to 2PM. This saves your battery and reduces the file size.
Battery life is fairly good if the temps are not too low - 2 weeks or more using the 20 second setting in warm weather. After 1 week and 4 days with several nights in the 20's my camera was still working fine but the battery indicator stated they were low. I replaced batteries and then checked them with a tester - all checked out as "good" so I could have probablty gotten 2 weeks or more. Update: On the second set of batteries, I did not replace them right awy when the indicator showed low battery and my camera kept working for another week until I decided to change them out just to make sure! I think you could get close to a month of use in non-winter temps with the 30 second setting. A drawback is you are not supposed to use rechargeable's or lithium's. but if you can get a month of use, that is not a big issue.
Your photos are stored on a memory card (not included).I found an 8GB card will hold over a week's worth of photos using the 20 second setting without the midday skip.
I use 2 PNY Premium 8GB memory disks (about $18 each). I take one out of the camera and put the other in when I visit the location. Then take the one memory stick back to your computer and review the photos. You could get by with one stick if you want to haul a laptop computer out in the woods (which I did a few times), but that can be an expensive proposition if the weather or transport wrecks your laptop!
I very much like the simplicity of this camera's controls. Set the date, time, and seconds between photos and it is ready to shoot. Very easy. I found the software very easy to use too.
I can readily see where my deer are going and coming from, even with the 20 second setting and I can see pretty much my whole major shooting lane from my gun stand - this makes this camera and invaluable hunting tool.
