[hunterdan2002]

Cameras been out a few days now. I'm averaging about 50+ pictures a day out of it. The night photos are far better than my stealthcam was, with far better distance. Stealthcam couldn't see beyond 20 yards, the sky was pure black, with no trees or anything visible. With the gardepro, you can make out the tree line in the background and even cloud cover. The image sensor on the gardepro seems much improved. That said, the battery level was hovering around 100% for the past few days, but it dropped to about 77% tonight. I have a solar panel hooked up, and today I believe was cloudy, but it should have had enough battery backup in the panel to run the camera for a few days before drawing off the camera battery. I'll see what happens after it sits in the sun for several hours.

 

[robertyb]

My Tactacam runs all year long with only the solar panel hooked up and stays at 100% even after several cloudy days. It is in a field where it gets plenty of direct sunlight though. No batteries are in it at all.
Try this on yours and see if it will run off the solar panel only.

 

[hunterdan2002]

My Tactacam runs all year long with only the solar panel hooked up and stays at 100% even after several cloudy days. It is in a field where it gets plenty of direct sunlight though. No batteries are in it at all.
Try this on yours and see if it will run off the solar panel only.

The solar panel I have has a battery built in, the one that gardepro uses is just a solar panel that charges the onboard battery. So, I'm not sure if theres some weird stuff going on with battery to battery charging or not, it's also an off brand panel. I ordered the solar panel that they bundle with their kit to see how that works out. I'm concerned now because I went from 100% yesterday to now 62%. At this rate, it'll be dead by tomorrow.

 

[robertyb]

The solar panel I have has a battery built in, the one that gardepro uses is just a solar panel that charges the onboard battery. So, I'm not sure if theres some weird stuff going on with battery to battery charging or not, it's also an off brand panel. I ordered the solar panel that they bundle with their kit to see how that works out. I'm concerned now because I went from 100% yesterday to now 62%. At this rate, it'll be dead by tomorrow.

Yep, unfortunately the complaint mostly on the reviews is bad battery life.

 

[robertyb]

I am using the Wing Home solar panel off Amazon and it does either 6 or 12 volt recharging and has not had a single problem in 3 years usage 365 days a year.

 

[hunterdan2002]

I am using the Wing Home solar panel off Amazon and it does either 6 or 12 volt recharging and has not had a single problem in 3 years usage 365 days a year.

That's the one I have. I'm just not sure if it's compatible with the gardepro. The gardepro uses rechargeable batteries, where my stealthcam relied on either a panel with a battery pack or ran off AA batteries. I'm not sure. I'll see what the battery looks like later if it's charged from the sun at all. I have the gardepro panel on order, will be here Sunday and I'll be up there hunting Monday, so it'll be swapped out then.

 

[hunterdan2002]

I can not, and will not recommend this camera. Picture quality is great, price is great, but the battery life is beyond terrible. Utilizes a rechargeable lithium battery pack, that you can not buy spares of. So, when it dies, you're stuck charging it for 12+hours. Planning on trying to send it back to Amazon and getting a refund.

 

[Bowhunter4life]

Personally, I have zero interest in cellular trail camera, but the Hunting Farmer just released a review on the new GardePro X66 cellular trail camera.

I'm not usually loyal to any brand, but I am currently using all GardePro E5 trail cameras (standard SD card camera) on my property. I used 5 of them to take an inventory of what's on my property. Since switching over to them, they have been the best trail camera I have ever used. I have bought them on sale ($39.99) most of the time, and you can't beat that price for quality "no glow" trail camera.

For those interested in cellular trail cameras, this review may be of interest to you.

Amazon prices for a GardePro X66 can vary from day to day, but the $62.99 price today is not bad for all the features this camera offers.

Cellular cameras are not my thing. I prefer simple, but I'm not exactly the norm either.

I have two - an E5 and an E6 non-cellular trail cams. Wife bought me the E5 a couple years ago for Christmas and I picked up the E6 on Amazon for under $25… Right now I only have the E5 deployed but will set the other out as time permits. For the $’s they are great IMO.

 

[Driftless Hunter]

I have two - an E5 and an E6 non-cellular trail cams. Wife bought me the E5 a couple years ago for Christmas and I picked up the E6 on Amazon for under $25… Right now I only have the E5 deployed but will set the other out as time permits. For the $’s they are great IMO.

Those are some great bucks!

 

[Bowhunter4life]

Those are some great bucks!

Unfortunately we haven’t met in person - yet…

 

[hunterdan2002]

It's a real shame the battery life on this camera is atrocious, because it does take some nice pictures.
Had this guy show up this morning.

 

[robertyb]

I can not, and will not recommend this camera. Picture quality is great, price is great, but the battery life is beyond terrible. Utilizes a rechargeable lithium battery pack, that you can not buy spares of. So, when it dies, you're stuck charging it for 12+hours. Planning on trying to send it back to Amazon and getting a refund.

So after reading this I have to guess that the solar panels would not keep it charged. Is that correct?

 

[hunterdan2002]

So after reading this I have to guess that the solar panels would not keep it charged. Is that correct?

Not if you keep it live. Meaning, uploading photos or videos as they are taken and keeping the on demand/live function. When you switch it to a scheduled upload, you lose the live streaming and on demand function. Which, in my mind makes the camera worthless. I liked using the on demand feature to see if there was anything at my spot before walking in and potentially spooking them.
Now, I've been in contact with gardepro for a few days trying to get a spare battery, and after telling them I've left negative reviews on both Amazon and this forum, they're emailing me and have since reached out for my address, so I don't know what is going to come from that.

 

[One eyed archer]

We put one of these at the farm this past weekend with the solar panel. When the camera was put out it had 54% battery life. Its taken a hundred or so pics and the battery life today is at 93%. Pics look great day and night. I'm impressed so far but time will tell. I've been using the same Tactacam at my house for the last 4 years. It's been out 24/7 365 and hasn't missed a beat even after being ripped off a tree and slammed on the ground by a bear. 😤 The Gardepro has a long ways to go till it reaches that level of reliability.

 

[hunterdan2002]

We put one of these at the farm this past weekend with the solar panel. When the camera was put out it had 54% battery life. Its taken a hundred or so pics and the battery life today is at 93%. Pics look great day and night. I'm impressed so far but time will tell. I've been using the same Tactacam at my house for the last 4 years. It's been out 24/7 365 and hasn't missed a beat even after being ripped off a tree and slammed on the ground by a bear. 😤 The Gardepro has a long ways to go till it reaches that level of reliability.

I had it charged up to 100% at home before putting it out. It sat at 100% for several days before it suddenly started dropping, and dropping fast. The initial solar panel I used had a 2000mah battery pack built in. My thoughts were that the rechargeable battery in the gardepro wasn't playing nice with the panel battery. So, that's when I ordered the recommended gardepro panel. The camera sits in an open field, exposed to full sun at least 6 hours, if not more per day. The battery in the camera charges at something like .5a, which is incredibly slow. Like I said, it sucks because it takes incredible pictures, but the battery life for me has been extremely poor. I thought with the solar panel I'd get more than a week out of it, but if it's this bad now, it won't make it long in the winter.

 

[One eyed archer]

I had it charged up to 100% at home before putting it out. It sat at 100% for several days before it suddenly started dropping, and dropping fast. The initial solar panel I used had a 2000mah battery pack built in. My thoughts were that the rechargeable battery in the gardepro wasn't playing nice with the panel battery. So, that's when I ordered the recommended gardepro panel. The camera sits in an open field, exposed to full sun at least 6 hours, if not more per day. The battery in the camera charges at something like .5a, which is incredibly slow. Like I said, it sucks because it takes incredible pictures, but the battery life for me has been extremely poor. I thought with the solar panel I'd get more than a week out of it, but if it's this bad now, it won't make it long in the winter.

Something definitely does not sound right. Bad battery pack maybe? Hopefully Gardepro sends you at least a new battery pack to try. I would be pissed if I was you for sure.

 

[robertyb]

OEA, do you have yours transmitting every picture or on a schedule? Please keep us informed if anything changes.
I was giving this camera some serious though to go in my back field with a solar panel installed.

 

[One eyed archer]

OEA, do you have yours transmitting every picture or on a schedule? Please keep us informed if anything changes.
I was giving this camera some serious though to go in my back field with a solar panel installed.

Every picture.

 

[hunterdan2002]

We put one of these at the farm this past weekend with the solar panel. When the camera was put out it had 54% battery life. Its taken a hundred or so pics and the battery life today is at 93%. Pics look great day and night. I'm impressed so far but time will tell. I've been using the same Tactacam at my house for the last 4 years. It's been out 24/7 365 and hasn't missed a beat even after being ripped off a tree and slammed on the ground by a bear. 😤 The Gardepro has a long ways to go till it reaches that level of reliability.

Was the one you guys put up the x66 or the x60? I was watching the video and it looked like it was the x60

 

[One eyed archer]

Was the one you guys put up the x66 or the x60? I was watching the video and it looked like it was the x60

I'll ask Rich. I thought it was the x66 but I didnt set it up.